Tolkien Gleanings #411
* In the latest Words Do Things ‘Elvish English’ series podcast, Statler & Waldorf Talk Tolkien…
“Tom Hillman & Joe Hoffman take Sorina Higgins through how myth and language are co-causational, what Tolkien believed about the Logos and creation (and subcreation), and what makes languages beautiful.”
* Ramblings On My Bookshelves surveys J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in Puffin. Puffin being the main children’s paperback imprint in the Britain of the 1960s and 70s.
* In Spanish, a new PhD thesis in Education Studies, Mas alla de los hobbits: dialogo fe-cultura a traves de la literatura de fantasoia. Estudio de caso: Cartas de Papa Noel (2026). On using Tolkien’s Father Christmas letters in Catholic classrooms (ages 11-14). Freely available online.
* Spanish readers will soon have Cartas de J.R.R. Tolkien, this being the latest expanded Letters in Spanish translation. Set for a 10th June 2026 release.
* In Italy, a three-day Sentieri Tolkieniani 2026 festival. At Castle Macello, roughly 100 miles south-west of Milan, from 12th-14th June 2026. Linkups with the Oxford Tolkien Network and the UK’s Tolkien Society suggest some scholarly talks, as well as festival performances by folk/metal bands, craft stalls, costumed displays and children’s activities.
* The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts will close submissions soon…
“2026 general article submission window will be open until the beginning of June 2026. Book review queries and submissions remain open throughout the year.”
* The latest Amon Hen is available to members of the Tolkien Society, and this issue of the magazine has an interview with the artist Miriam Ellis.
* This week John Garth muses on the afterlife of his book Tolkien and the Great War (2003).
* Here in the UK, The Free Speech Union can now accept PayPal for the annual membership fee, at long last. Just in time for me not to be able to afford subscriptions any more. Oh well, the Web link may benefit others. The Union has funded, and won, many free-speech legal and tribunal cases on behalf of its members.
* And finally, The Nerd Daily has a free extract from the forthcoming novel The Inklings Detective Agency.