Tolkien Gleanings #429
* Newly online, the German Inklings Yearbook, as Inklings Jahrbuch fur Literatur und Athetik 42 (2026). This has the proceedings of the ‘Fantasy for Children / Children in Fantasy Symposium’ of 2024, plus book reviews. Freely available online and under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. Includes the paper “Fairy Lands Forlorn: (Re-)Enchantment in Fantastic Children’s Literature”, plus book reviews for…
— Tolkien Studies Vol. XX.
— The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
— Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
* I’d overlooked two talks at the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society this term, now given and gone. But I’m noting the titles here, and hopefully search will (in due course) reveal recordings or papers placed online…
— 5th May: “J.R.R. Tolkien and the Patriotism of G.K. Chesterton: Little England, The Shire, and Notting Hill”.
— 19th May: “Cordial Dislike or Careful Distinctions? Exploring Tolkien’s Complicated Use of Allegory”.
* From the USA, a new Masters dissertation “Creation as Calling: The Intersection of Faith and Craft” (2026). Freely available online..
“analyzes the literary strategies used by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Brandon Sanderson to embed faith into their narratives. It compares Lewis’s use of allegory, Tolkien’s concept of ‘applicability’ and sub-creation, and Sanderson’s complex worldbuilding as three distinct but complementary models for presenting spiritual truths without overt religious instruction.”
* The Fantasy Hive blog takes a trip to the lovely island of Corfu, and visits the Spiros Gelekas gallery devoted to the art of Middle-earth.
* A casting call for a forthcoming film…
* And finally, a timely discovery as three days of 90-degree dragon-breath weather (and consequent media hysteria) sweeps across England. Who knew that 2023 saw the release of a full labour-of-love restoration, SFX upgrade, and 4k Blu-ray of the major fantasy movie Dragonslayer (1981)? Not me. The news passed me by completely, until now.
