Tolkien Gleanings #339
* The latest Eric Metaxas Show ad-filled podcast is “Could England Fall?”, being an interview with Joseph Loconte about his forthcoming book on Tolkien, Lewis, and the Second World War. Which reassures that the much-delayed book does actually exist. Or will do soon — Amazon UK currently pegs the release-date at 18th November 2025.
* Now available to Tolkien Society members, the October 2025 issue of Amon Hen. Issue 315 has, among other contents: a short article on the sea-longing, Legolas and the Old English poem “The Seafarer”, paired with a fine full-page artwork; three pages on the new Tolkien carvings in Roos; an article on Ungoliant the spider; and a book review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Women of Middle-earth. There is also a production note that the forthcoming 2025 issue of Mallorn… “looks to be in a good place for publication this Christmas”.
Cover art: detail from “Barad-dur” by Miruna Lavinia.
* The Oxford Tolkien Network has details of two new public talks in Oxford. “Tolkien’s Heterotextuality” in mid October, and “Eden, Fall, Exile and Beyond in the History of Middle-earth” in early December 2025.
* From St. Petersburg in English, an abstract for a Masters dissertation “Transformation of Plots and Images from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works in Russian-Language Music of the 1970s–2010s” (2025). Discusses fan-songs and also musical interpretations of Tolkien’s words in Russia. Not available online in full-text.
* From Sweden in English, an undergraduate’s final dissertation for a Secondary School Teaching Programme, “Using the Literature of J.R.R. Tolkien to Teach about Death in the Upper Secondary English Classroom”. Freely available online.
* Newly uploaded at Archive.org, Tolkien and Gordon’s first edition of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (1925). This one is usefully downloadable, when Archive.org’s other scans are not. Bear in mind there was also a 1930 “corrected” reprint, which over the decades is said to have become… “the most widely used text of the poem for forty years” in classrooms and among scholars. That version is not on Archive.org.
Note the curious leap in the book’s “Notes” (by Gordon) regarding the journey. These leap from the Wirral to the castle, and a curious reader interested in the text’s detailing of the final parts of the journey must be satisfied with… “it is clear that a journey of some distance is here described, after Gawain has landed in Wirral.” Indeed, since there was surely much to be said about it. One wonders if Tolkien was supposed to provide notes for that part, but didn’t manage it?
* Also new on Archive.org, a run of the ‘zine Other Hands 1993-2001, devoted to fantasy role-playing set in Middle-earth. Even if one doesn’t care for RPGs, there are articles and maps of interest. For instance, a 1993 article on Umbar with maps, from someone who spent six years studying and developing an RPG for the region. The earlier RPG handbook referred to in the article is Umbar: Haven of the Corsairs (1982).
Other Hands is today continued by the free Other Minds magazine, which also maintains an archive of the old Other Hands. However, their archive is not keyword searchable as the new Archive.org run now is. One can also now download all the PDFs from Archive.org via a single time-saving .torrent file, and then index locally with freeware such as AnyTXT Searcher.
* Also new at Archive.org, a saved backup copy of Tuckborough.net, which was a large books-only Tolkien wiki…
“This was a Tolkien wiki from between 2003-2011. It got hit with a trojan [virus], then it it was revived as The Thain’s Book, and I decided to save a copy of it in 2016 … before it went back offline. I believe this is the latest copy of the site.”
* And finally, The Magic of Middle-earth touring exhibition has its first confirmed 2026 date. In the new year it will move to the Museum in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Set to then run in Banbury from 31st January – 28th June 2026, with an entrance fee. No details yet of any extra activities around the show. Though, since the location is Oxfordshire, one might expect accompanying fringe talks on ‘Tolkien in rural Oxfordshire’ or suchlike.
Unknown artist: Ethel Go[…?]. Possibly the South Downs (Sussex), but equally the hills look very like the landscape seen in wide views of Rollright village, near the Rollright Stones.