Tolkien Gleanings #433
* The latest edition of the German open-access journal Das Mittelalter: Perspektiven Mediavistischer Forschung (‘The Middle Ages: Perspectives In Mediaevalist Research’) is a special issue on ‘Medieval Patterns in Modern Fantasy’. Includes, among others (titles approximately translated)…
— The neo-medieval grammar of fantasy worlds.
— Color semantics and color symbolism in the Middle Ages.
— Praise the art (how videogame players engage with religious art in games)
— Runes on screen in The Last Kingdom and The Green Knight.
— Audiovisual aesthetics of the medieval.
— Druid? Magician? Teacher? Bard? On the reception of Merlin in analog games.
— Elves and Fairies (short review by Thomas Honegger of Elfen und Feen, 2024).
* In the latest edition of the paywall journal Marvels & Tales, partially-free reviews of (among many others)…
— ‘The Magical Forest’ exhibition at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre.
— The Exeter Companion to Fairies, Nereids, Trolls, and Other Social Supernatural Beings: European Traditions.
— Giants and Dwarfs in European Art and Culture, ca. 1350–1750.
* Walking Tree Press have now published Tolkien: History Meets Legend (2026). The book aims to show some of the ways in which… “Tolkien excavated the mother lode of his own [biographical] history to create legends.”
* The Notion Club Papers argues that “The Sea Bell” is not autobiographical for J.R.R. Tolkien; but for Frodo. And that Tolkien’s “The Death of St Brendan” is autobiographical for himself.
* From the UK, the PhD thesis The Tale We’ve Fallen Into: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and the post-Christian quest for meaning (2026). Explores the LoTR’s reception among a sample of twenty contemporary non-religious readers. Suggest that a truly enchanting fantasy can perform a ‘secondary’ religious function for some readers. Freely available online.
* New Renaissance Mindset reviews Tolkien’s translations of Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Sir Orfeo.
* The University Bookman reviews the book The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (2025).
* Dimitra Fimi’s blog reveals a new book in the making. It will be..
“a new, deep and meticulous exploration of The Lord of the Rings, that will allow me to share fresh thoughts and ideas on this great book since my big monograph on Tolkien nearly 20 years ago. ‘The Slow LotR Re-read’ you’ve been following [on the blog] was not just an impromptu idea: it is the scaffolding of a second book, on Tolkien.”
Also of note…
“I have officially opened my entire historical [SubStack, usually part-paywalled] archive to everyone [for the summer, until 7th September]”
* And finally… new at the Sothebys auction house, a Lord of the Rings, 1961 edition with a taped-in note on the creation of the dwarves. Signed in biro. Tolkien liked biro pens as soon as they first appeared for the public (September 1946, ninepence each at Woolworths).
