Tolkien Gleanings #419
* The forthcoming new Miriam Ellis artbook A Shire Walking-party now has a front cover and a Web page.
* Tolkien: Medieval and Modern on “Worship and the Crossing of Thresholds” in The Lord of the Rings.
* Talking of crossing thresholds (tax thresholds, in this instance), Gleanings on “Tolkien and the taxman”.
* Wardrobe Door re-visits the review by C.S. Lewis of his friend’s then-new book The Lord of the Rings.
* Teaching the Arthurian Tradition (2026) is a new academic anthology from many different authors. The ebook is available now, and the paper versions will arrive in July 2026. Includes the chapter “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Arthurian Inspirations”…
“The first section of this essay explores how Tolkien acquired his knowledge of Arthuriana and how that knowledge inspired his own mythology. The second section explains one model for teaching a Tolkien author course, with special attention to Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and to his short story “Farmer Giles of Ham”. The third section considers Tolkien’s original contribution to Arthuriana — his incomplete narrative poem, “The Fall of Arthur” — and suggests how it could be taught as a concluding text in an Arthurian literature course.”
* A new practical McFarland book, now available, Worldbuilder’s Guide to Religion: Essentials for Writers, Game Developers and Dungeon Masters (2026).
* From Florida, a new Masters dissertation, “Saltfish and Seedcake: Examining Fantasy Through Food Studies” (2026). Preview PDF only.
“I consider the foods of Earthsea, Narnia, and Middle-earth to offer various perspectives on the worldbuilding and examine the implications of different foods in these well-known settings.”
* A new Map of the Northern Wastes in the late Third Age of Middle-earth. Keep on clicking though and you’ll get to large 5Mb .JPG files. The map with a few settlements reflects the additions found in the RPG gamebook/guidebook from Iron Crown, The Northern Wastes (1997). The plainer version reflects Tolkien’s own maps.
* New at the NLS old maps site, the free Ordnance Survey, City of Oxford from the ‘Six-Inch Towns’ map series, surveyed in 1919. In a very high resolution and zoom-able online map, which historians may find useful for orientation.
* An Oxfordshire rare bookseller is listing what are said to be items originally from the library Of J.R.R. Tolkien. Four have already sold, one is still available…
* And finally, from eBay, some details of a 1906 Birmingham used bookshop. The shop was at 14-16 John Bright Street, a short walk around the corner from what was then the main entrance to Birmingham New St. station, in the heart of the city centre.
Apparently this long-standing shop carried some 50,000 rare and scarce books, plus poetry and artbooks. It was run by an expert bookfinder. Were inky-fingered schoolboys allowed in? If not then the young Tolkien and his friends may not have known it circa 1909-1911. Still, a little research shows it was evidently a city fixture from around the 1890s to the 1920s.