Tolkien Gleanings #318

* A new Prancing Pony podcast has a long interview with illustrator Ted Nasmith on YouTube. Apparently this is… “his first full-length interview”.

* Next year’s issue (summer 2026) of Forgotten Ground Regained: A Quarterly Journal of Alliterative Verse is to be a Tolkien special, apparently set to feature alliterative verse set in Middle-earth. The Journal appears to be free online, and has articles as well as poetry.

* I came across a 2013 auction page for a Tolkien letter of June 1957, on the speaking aloud (or not) of Sir Gawain and the lost rules of alliterative verse. Fascinating stuff. Surprisingly it’s not in the latest edition of the letters, judging by several searches for distinctive phrases and a look at the relevant 1957 dates…

“In dealing with a dead metrical practice, that has not left a record or tradition of ‘the rules,’ I think that most enquiries, and notably those dealing with the ‘alliterative’ tradition, become confused. They seem to me, to make an allegory, like the work of man attempting to analyse the callisthenics and physical rhythms of two tennis-players, including the differences between them, without bothering to enquire what is the function of the artificial white lines on the grass, or observing the wholly preposterous net. They may, or may not, succeed in saying something interesting about the motions of a man hitting a bouncing object with a racket, or about bodily motions in general, but they will say very little about lawn-tennis, in which human physique and artificial rules are in constant interaction.”

* Miriam Ellis considers the likely architectural and gardening dynamics of “The High Garden and Architecture of Tolkien’s Rivendell”.

* The Fintry Trust is set to host a talk on “Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox”. Which is 22nd September in 2025, and the same date as Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday.

* At the Virginia Military Institute, the campus news service offers an article on “Ongoing Researches Into Tolkien’s Contribution to Biblical Translation”. Specifically, the Book of Jonah…

“Adams plans to present his paper at the VMI Undergraduate Research Symposium during spring [2026] semester, and hopes to get it published in one of several possible academic journals”

The undergraduate is reportedly puzzled as to why Tolkien chose Jonah. Possibly because the Gawain-poet tackled Jonah in his Patience, and for the connections with the German earendel cognate Orendel.

* Can a ‘zine obtain some recognition from the academic system? Perhaps not such a problem in a more fannish world, where fans and scholars and academics all productively mingle. But in more elitist forms of academia, it’s not so easy. Outside the Lines details her attempts at “Publishing a Zine Through Scholarly Channels”, and the details and her routes may be useful for some readers of Gleanings.

* And finally, “Paws on Parchment – New Exhibition Highlights Cats in Medieval Manuscripts”. ‘Paws on Parchment’ is an exhibition open now at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, running there until 22nd February 2026. Part of a series of themed animal exhibitions, ‘Paws’ is to be accompanied by ‘Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt’ opening on 27th September 2025 at the same venue.