Tolkien Gleanings #420
* The latest Amon Hen magazine is available, for members of the Tolkien Society. Issue 319 (June 2026) has, among other items, articles on…
— “The Nostalgic Lothlorien: Spiritual Nostalgia in Lord of the Rings”.
— “The Sacred and the Mythic in Middle-earth”. (theology and myth)
— “J.R.R. Tolkien during WWI”. (unknown focus)
* Birmingham’s King Edward VI Foundation had display-boards “Celebrating Tolkien’s School Days”, at The Sarehole Festival in Birmingham. Image No.2 on their site shows their boards.
“Among the highlights was a dedicated section crafted by the Foundation Archive, that focused on Tolkien’s formative years at King Edward’s School, where his passion for language and literature began to flourish.”
Also, here are images of two of the local information banners from the Tolkien Society…
There was plenty more to see and do, as Bensonblues summed up…
“A gorgeous mix of cosplay, great food, swordsmiths, talks, fights, books, and art — all to celebrate the legacy, messages, meaning, and world of J.R.R. Tolkien, Brummie!”
* The Birmingham Mail local newspaper has a short report on the Sarehole Festival in Birmingham. Online access may vary.
* The latest issue of the open-access Journal of Markets & Morality is a C.S. Lewis special issue.
* The latest Religion & Liberty magazine uses the opportunity of Tolkien’s Bovadium Fragments for an article on “Tolkien and Tech”. Freely available online.
* Tolkien: Medieval and Modern on “Locating Tolkien’s Sacred Worldview”.
* And finally, House for sale in Darnley Road, Leeds… “This spacious property, once the residence of renowned author J.R.R. Tolkien, has been converted into three apartments”. The house at 2 Darnley Road was the family’s first house-purchase, an ownership enabled by Tolkien being promoted to Professor at Leeds. The family lived there from 1924-26, and it was the birthplace of Christopher Tolkien. A ‘Blue Plaque’ was added in 2012.
Leeds Archives has three images of No.2 from 1945, with the house in b&w and looking a bit war-weary. Prints are available from them. Above I give one of their online images a quick colourising and a time-of-day makeover, and also fix the broken gate, to make it appear more of a ‘homely house’. In reality, the mid 1920s probably would have seen net-curtains on the lower windows, and a house in chilly northern England would also have had heavy curtains hanging at the sides. The mid 1920s lacked central-heating!