* In France… “The Tolkien association is organising a symposium in the Paris region on 6th & 7th October 2023, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the translation of The Lord of the Rings into French”. I see the French also have online a fine illustrated timeline of “Tolkien on the Somme”. It’s all in HTML as a single page, and thus can be run through Google Translate.
* In Italy, a national conference on Tolkien. This event is reported to be the culmination of a long period in which advanced students at “lower secondary schools from eight Italian regions” studied Tolkien’s texts with their teachers…
“The 17th edition of Le Vie d’Europa is dedicated to Tolkien. This interdisciplinary student conference was conceived and organised by the professional association of teachers Diesse Firenze and Toscana (Didactics and Scholastic Innovation). It will be held on Friday 31st March 2023. […] in collaboration with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan (Department of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literature). It has the patronage of the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Municipality of Florence, INDIRE, and the British Institute of Florence.”
* In the USA, a “Colloquium on developing a digital critical edition of Tolkien fanzines”. Note… “There will also be a [Microsoft] Teams option for those who prefer to attend virtually.” 29th March 2023 is the date.
* I’ve made a few notes on the new second edition of Tolkien’s Library (2023).
* In The Medieval Review, a glowing and informative book review of Meanings of Water in Early Medieval England (2021)…
“the work of eleven scholars working on the cultures of medieval water. […] an exemplary collection, highlighting the vibrancy of the medieval world, revealing a multi-sensory, complex water landscape full of swimmers, sailors, sea monsters, scholars, and saints. […] one of the most cohesive and consistently engaging [edited collections] that I have reviewed”.
* And finally, from Madrid comes a new Spanish-language open-access study of “A Hobbit Hole: on the habitability of fantastic architecture” (2022). This ably…
“focuses on performing bio-climatic simulations that allow measuring the hygrothermal comfort level of buried architecture. As a case-study, ‘Bag End’ has been selected. How deep can natural light penetrate? What is each room’s average radiant temperature? Does it need mechanic ventilation?”
Lots of pictures and floor-plans, and entertaining even if you don’t read Spanish.