Tolkien Gleanings #382

* The new edition of Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature is a ‘Mythlore At 50: A Celebration (2026)’ special, including a history of this long-running journal of fantasy literature studies and reviews. Freely available online.

* The Tolkniety blog offers Tom Bombadil in unpublished letters, one letter from Tolkien himself in 1964 and another from Christopher Tolkien in 1984.

“… I left Tom Bombadil in and did not ‘tinker’ with him though much tempted to do so in the ‘Council of Elrond’, to bring him into the historical pattern. I have received a number of queries (puzzled or actually querulous) about him. The truth is that, as far as I was concerned, he just walked in, at the necessary point, and behaved as he would.”

* Hammond & Scull have today posted their “Tolkien Notes 23”. Freely available online. Among other items they clarify the dates and uses of Tolkien’s ‘Merton desk’, recently sold at auction.

* New at Word on Fire, the article “‘Dover Beach’ and Tolkien Offer Distinct Looks at Hope”. Freely available online.

* On Substack Father Roderick had a long new article for Valentine’s Day “The Kind of Love We Rarely Talk About”. Focusing on Aragorn and Arwen, but with a fine 1966 picture of Tolkien and Edith that I’ve never seen before. The quality of the picture suggests it was made by a magazine photographer. The new article, freely online, trails Father Roderick’s new booklet Love and Little Folk: Reflections on Love in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

* In the new academic book Herman Charles Bosman and the Depth of Humorous Storytelling (2025), the chapter “A Note on the Charmed World of Fiction and the World of Faery”. This discusses fairy stories in relation to humorous fiction, and the… “chapter draws primarily on Tolkien’s work on fairy stories”.

* In Italian on YouTube, Paulo Nardi asks how Tolkien reconciled Faith and Fairies. Note that YouTube can auto-dub into English.

* Faerie Magazine has a long free extract from their new article “Professor Tolkien and the Fairies”. Actually the article’s footer banner showing it as Faerie Magazine leads to an apparently different magazine called Enchanted Living, that seems as much witchy as faerie. So which title has the full Tolkien article? I’m not sure.

* And finally, those planning a visit to what’s left of Tolkien’s Birmingham this coming summer may like to know that there are new train stations opening very soon in the south of the city. At Moseley, Kings Heath and Stirchley. Visitors will no longer have to grind through grot on the bus. The train from the city centre is set to take around 11 minutes. Services should start in Spring 2026.

Tolkien Gleanings #381

* At the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society tonight, Holly Ordway speaking on “Tolkien and the Development of Tradition: The Lord of the Rings as a Modern Book”. And last week their talk was on “Tolkien and the Midlands: Place, People, and Past in the Making of Middle-earth”. Still to come is a talk on “A Long Defeat: Tolkien’s Vision of History in The Lord of the Rings”. Hopefully there will be recordings online in due course.

* Ned Lunn’s blog reviews Ordway’s Tolkien’s Faith…

“It enlivened a deep, perhaps slightly romantic, longing for a form of academic life where theology is not an optional add on but is unapologetically a governing discipline. It was the people and saints that Tolkien lauded and was inspired by, however, that really touched a nerve. Figures such as John Henry Newman, in particular, whose theology and spirituality have long resonated with me. These were not simply historical influences for Tolkien; they were living interlocutors that shaped his moral imagination and intellectual posture.”

* Public Discourse magazine discovers “J.R.R. Tolkien Against the Leftists” in the new expanded Letters. Freely available online.

* Aphuulishfellow’s blog reviews The Bovadium Fragments and remarks that…

“Tolkien’s story is at heart an independently-written version of The Great God Awto (1940), by Clark Ashton Smith”.

I took a look at the dates and publication history. CAS’s “Awto” first appeared in the U.S. pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories (Feb 1940), and then was anthologised by Derleth’s Arkham House in Tales of Science and Sorcery (1964). The Bovadium Fragments were however written 1957-1960, so Tolkien cannot have seen the tale in the 1964 anthology. It seems rather unlikely he had earlier seen a copy of Thrilling Wonder on publication, due to both the war restricting imports and the incredibly severe winter in Britain (the worst for 50 years) at the time the magazine could have been on the news-stands. On the other hand, it’s not impossible that someone could have sent him a couple of tear-sheets in the post at some point, knowing it was the sort of witty squit that would appeal. But we’ll likely never know now.

* The Germans will have the Fragments, translated as Die Bovadium Fragmente, on 14th February 2026.

* Book collecting blog Elder Days considers the question “Why Collect The Silmarillion?”.

* A couple of concept illustrations and a render of a 3D block-out have surfaced, from Eidos-Montreal’s recently abandoned Middle-earth game. They show the ruined port of Umbar, which at the time of LoTR was infested with the fearsome corsairs.

* And finally, talking of a big clean-up, The Great British Spring Clean is set for 13th to 29th March 2026. The nation’s annual volunteer litter-pick, a ‘must-do’ for Shire-scouring hobbits everywhere.

From Tolkien’s Middle English Vocabulary (1922).

Tolkien Gleanings #380

* The new 2025 issue of the Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, which Google Search and JSTOR suggest was released in January 2026. Freely available online. Book reviews of…

    – C.S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness and Beauty (3rd Edition)
    – The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
    – C.S. Lewis’s Oxford.

* Details of the Tolkien Society’s Oxonmoot 2026. Set for Oxford, 3rd – 6th September 2026.

* The Notion Club Papers blog suggests that “The ‘Anxiety of Influence’ can be powerful and harmful – Alan Garner and J.R.R. Tolkien”.

* The Christian Scholar’s Review reviews The Theological Imagination: Perception and Interpretation in Life, Art, and Faith (2025)…

“This rich and concise account of the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the imagination will be of great interest to all scholars and laypeople interested in the intersection between art and faith.”

* Bevis expert Lynn Forest-Hill discovers a local historian also working on the history of Sir Bevis in its localities. Related is the December 2025 edition of the open-access journal Queeste, in which Ad Putter reviews in English the Dutch book Die historie van Buevijn van Austoen (2023)…

“Writing as someone who only knew the insular versions of Bevis, I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to read this Dutch version, which is much more interesting and artful than the Middle English and Anglo-Norman versions. One of the things that makes the Dutch romance so special is its form. Die historie van Buevijn van Austoen is neither a verse romance nor a prose romance but is both: it is a prosimetrum. Verse passages (which are numerous) are used very effectively for moments of heightened emotion and for direct speech, including at one point a story within a story.”

* In English from the Philology Dept. at the University of Seville, the undergraduate final dissertation “The Survival of Romance: A Comparative Study of Sir Bevis of Hampton and the Film Adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia” (2025). Freely available online.

* Newly and freely released in open-access, the book Beacons and Military Communication from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (2026). The new book may interest some readers of Gleanings, since The Lord of the Rings depicts a long chain of fire beacons, plus line-of-sight, various forms of far-seeing (Gandalf and Legolas), high towers, palantiri, visionary views of military activity from high peaks, etc.

* Miriam Ellis envisions Sitting with Sam beneath the Shire Mallorn.

* And finally, talking of sitting with a book… Rochester’s ‘Baggins Book Bazaar’. A local newspaper reports England’s largest rare and secondhand bookshop celebrates 40 years of trading. The current owner… “estimates there are now around 100,000 books across the shop, a labyrinth of shelves with about 10,000 in the front room alone.”

Tolkien Gleanings #379

* The Catholic Truth Society has a new book in its series of short biographies, A Light from the Shadows: The Spiritual Heart of J.R.R. Tolkien (2026). Listed on Amazon UK and probably other Amazon sites, but oddly there’s no description given there. Tracking the book down to the Society’s website, one reads… “This is not a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien”. Ah. The description continues…

Although it contains many biographical details, A Light from the Shadows is primarily a commentary on the distinctly Catholic framework of Tolkien’s writings – shaped by his experiences as a scholar, army officer, husband, and father. Each of these aspects of his life helps to unlock his unique perspective on his own work.

* The German Tolkien Society is planning a conference on ‘Environment, the World Around Us, and the Connatural World in Tolkien’s Works’, and they are calling for papers. The word “connatural” originates in the German anti-capitalism book Revolution for Nature (1990), and is a clunky neologism which appears to simply indicate ‘wild nature’ outside of human influence. The conference is set for 16th-18th October 2026, and the deadline for papers is 31st May 2026. Note also the attendance scholarship on offer to one “early career researcher in the field of Tolkien studies”.

* The open-access Scandia: Journal of Medieval Norse Studies is calling for papers for a forthcoming issue on the uses of Vikings and Norse Myths in Post-Medieval Reception. Deadline: 15th September 2026. Note also their announcement/call for a forthcoming Scandia monograph series.

* In the current 2025 issue of Scandia: Journal of Medieval Norse Studies, the new translation “Entre o legendario de Tolkien e as lendas do Norte: King Sheave (Rei Sheave), de J.R.R. Tolkien, 1936-1937” (‘Between Tolkien’s Legendarium and the Legends of the North: King Sheave, by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1936-1937’).

* Christianity Today suggests that part of a Holly Ordway book could be used in a church sermon, in “Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Received Brutal Criticisms” ($ paywall)…

One early reviewer dismissed it as “an allegorical adventure story for very leisured boys.” This critic sarcastically said that we should all take to the streets proclaiming “Adults of all ages! Unite against the infantalist invasion.” Another critic declared it “juvenile trash.” In 1961, a third critic called it “ill-written” and “childish” and declared, not a little prematurely that it had already “passed into a merciful oblivion.”

Twenty years later, another critic, was hopeful that Tolkien’s “cult status is diminishing.” This critic also argued that Tolkien’s popularity is due to class distinctions. The intelligent “bookish class” doesn’t read Lord of the Rings. Instead, only lower-class people read it — those “to whom a long read does not come altogether easily.”

* A new £85 academic book on the vexed topic of Reading Length in Fantasy Fiction, set for release in mid March 2026.

* On Landscape, the magazine for landscape photographers, this week goes “Walking with Tolkien” in Switzerland. Freely available online.

* New on YouTube, Malcolm Guite (former Chaplain at and now Life Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge) reads from “The Grey Havens”.

* The Spanish Tolkien Society brings news of A Light in the Darkness, a “music based” biographical documentary that quietly premiered in Wales in 2025. Apparently it…

“examines the impact of the Battle of the Somme on the young Tolkien’s life and how this period influenced his personal and creative development. The musical also dedicates a significant part to his friendship with C.S. Lewis and the influence that Tolkien had on his intellectual journey, an element that the musical employs as one of its narrative pivots”.

Nothing more can be found about the under that title or ‘Una Luz en la Oscuridad’. Could be a film, could be stage musical, or a film of a stage musical?

* And finally, a new cover-preview of Stonefoot, which promises to be an upcoming graphic-novel telling of the tale of Durin.

Tolkien Gleanings #378

* Hammond & Scull have released their Lord of the Rings Comparison 5, this being their latest attempt to authoritatively answer the question “Which edition of The Lord of the Rings has the most accurate text?”

* The Hillsdale Collegian magazine has an article which gives details of a new documentary feature on Tolkien. “New documentary follows Lewis and Tolkien’s friendship”. Freely available online.

“A guy in our [film] crew said, ‘Oh, you need trenches? I know a guy who’s got trenches in his backyard,’” Manton said. “We get on the phone, and he says, ‘Yes, I have a full trench system in the backyard. Do you need soldiers?’ A whole troop of reenactment guys came, and we filmed it all the same day.”

* The Tolkien Society’s magazine Amon Hen No. 317 (February 2026) is now available for download.

Among other items, the issue includes…

    – Over several pages a lead essay summarizing the core Christian values of The Lord of the Rings, and then showing how these are distorted or ignored in the movies and also in what the author calls “the digital ecosystem”. The authors regret the move from a 1990s and 2000s Internet culture of open sharing and collaboration, to one in which attention-grabbing antagonism seems to dominate. But their article also notes that often the latter’s practice… “reveals that they do not read — or do not want to read in depth — what the books they claim to love truly contain”.

    – A review of the book Into the Heart of Middle-earth: Exploring Faith and Fellowship in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (forthcoming, 20th February 2026).

    – A look at what can be known about Elanor Gamgee, Sam’s first-born child. Who is also the cover-star.

* John Garth reviews his 2025 with Tolkien. Freely available online.

* From Italy, Paolo Nardi interviews… “Stefano Giorgianni, president of the AIST – Italian Association of Tolkien Studies”. The long discussion focused around… “the meaning and role of war in Tolkien, its fascination, and how it forever changes those involved.” In Italian, on YouTube.

* Also from Italy, in English, “Receiver of a Tolkien letter discovered” The unpublished 1955 letter, to a “Mrs Frost”, was up for auction last year. The receiver is tracked down to Italy.

* Talking of letters, here in the UK we should watch out for the Royal Mail’s Lord of the Rings picture postage-stamps 2026. Due in Post Offices on 20th March 2026. No previews of the artwork / designs, at present. There’s no special Tolkien “100th” event to mark in 1926, unless they’re planning to celebrate Tolkien’s translations (Beowulf and Pearl in 1926, and his other later translations). But no… the flag for the release definitely says “The Lord of the Rings” — so it’s probably the movies anniversary.

* J.P.S. Nagi on The Pen of Middle-earth, Part III, examining Tolkien’s hand-penned script… ” His worlds were born not in prose, but in script and the script itself was born from the mechanics of the pen.” Freely available online.

* New to me, David Bratman’s online “A Handlist of Books by the Inklings” (last updated January 2026). Freely available online.

* Merton College has a page on various memories of Lectures by J.R.R. Tolkien. One of these suggests that part of the reason for his partly-audible lecturing voice was the hall itself. In a smaller room at Merton in 1958… “he spoke clearly, audibly and rivetingly” to a dozen students across nearly a term of lectures. One also has to wonder if the term’s initial lecture in the big hall usefully served to ‘winnow out the chaff’, leaving him with only a dozen or so of the most dedicated students to enjoy for the rest of the term?

* In the open-access Spanish journal Revista de Filologia (December 2025), “Wonder and Its Vocabulary in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. In English and freely available online.

* At Penn State university in March 2026, “Tolkien’s Middle-earth”, a campus talk in which the editors will discuss their… “collection of essays, Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth, and the collection’s path to publication.”

* The 11th International Conference on Tolkien’s Invented Languages, 30th July – 2nd August 2026 at Marquette University, USA. Booking now.

* And finally, The Wikimedia Commons has a big folklore and folk-life recording contest for 2026 which asks people to… “photograph or record traditions, rituals, stories, food, dance, music, clothing, crafts, or community heritage” and upload it under Creative Commons for all to peruse and re-use.