Tolkien Gleanings #356
* From Germany and mostly in German, the $ paywall book Eine Kleine Geschichte der Orks: Der monstrose feind im wandel der zeit (2024) (‘A Little History of the Orcs: the monstrous enemy through the ages’). Eleven chapters including, in English, Thomas Honegger’s “From Old English orcneas to George MacDonald’s Goblins with Soft Feet: Sources of Inspiration and Models for Tolkien’s Orcs from English Literature”. A key example of the “Old English” of the title is found in Beowulf (c. 710 A.D), which talks of… “eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas” (‘thence awoke all evil offspring, ettins and elf and orcs, also giants’).
* In Portuguese, the book J.R.R. Tolkien: construtor de mundos. Personagens, lugares e adaptacoes. Vol 1. (2023). This is officially freely available online. Chapter titles in English translation…
– Tolkien and the ring myth.
– Sauron and his many names.
– Beorn.
– Boromir, an imperfect hero.
– Aragorn and Anduril: The representation of the hero and the medieval sword.
– Orcs and evil.
– Dwarves and Elves: Between stones and Norse gods.
– Through Rivers and Forests: Norse mythological geography.
– The Mountains and Kingdoms Beneath Them.
– Adaptations: recreating Tolkien for the cinema.
* A student paper from Marquette University, “Faramir’s Quality: how Faramir is influenced by and embodies the theme of hope in The Lord of the Rings” (2025). Freely available online.
* A new open Reddit attempt to track down all Silmarillion references and allusions in LoTR. Offhand I don’t recall any other attempt to do this. I’ve checked the Reader’s Companion book (i.e. the annotated LoTR) just now, but that only has the general index, offering about 30 page numbers under the heading of Silmarillion (book).
* The Angmar Archives podcast has a long interview with the maker of the new artbook Doomed To Die: An A-Z of Death in Tolkien. Freely available on YouTube.
* New to me, Tolkien’s hobbit poem “Oliphaunt” was issued as a standalone children’s picturebook in 1989, of the “stiff boards, for small kids who might tear normal paper” type of picturebook.
* And finally, talking of near-mythical animals… news of rare big-screen outings for the extended Director’s Cut of the LoTR movies. The “special one-night-only event will feature the remastered extended edition” of Fellowship, then Two Towers and Return of the King. All in early 2026.