Tolkien Gleanings #86.
* I was very pleased to find the book Loremasters and Libraries in Fantasy and Science Fiction: A Gedenkschrift for David Oberhelman (2022). Who knew? I hadn’t heard even a whisper of it. This chunky 400-page book contains, among other things, a reprint of “A Brief History of Libraries in Middle-earth: Manuscript and Book Repositories in Tolkien’s Legendarium” (otherwise trapped in the out-of-print Inklings hardcover Truths Breathed Through Silver). It has several others relating to Middle-earth, and also the Tolkien scholar Kristine Larsen on “‘Books! Best Weapons in the World’: How Libraries Save the World in Popular Culture”. Looks fun, and doesn’t appear to drift off too far into TV and film. It even has a somewhat affordable Kindle ebook edition at £7.39 ($10).
* The Music of Paul Corfield Godfrey website anticipates his upcoming recording of the final part of his grand Silmarillion opera set. This final part, plus a full boxed collection-set with a 128-page booklet, are both set for release on 23rd June 2023.
* The Imaginative Conservative has a new essay which asks “Tolkien’s Traditionalism: Conveniently Forgotten?”
* Rather too late now, but YouTube has a recording of Professor Nick Megoran, Newcastle University, on “What’s the point of university during a pandemic?” (Summer 2020)… “This talk draws on the wartime writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, professors of English Literature, who grappled with similar questions during the Second World War.”
* New to me is Tolkien & illustration – Artists in Middle-Earth: from text to image… “This academic blog is dedicated to the illustrations for Tolkien’s texts in English editions.” Appears to have begun in 2020, part of the writing of a PhD thesis. The researcher will be presenting at the forthcoming Oxonmoot.
* And finally, some advance notice from the eminent scholar of the weird and fantastic S.T. Joshi. He has joined with the Nightlands festival team, which recently delivered an excellent festival, and…
We are now planning a much larger event in two years’ time, with panel discussions, perhaps an art show, and much else. In all frankness, we will consciously plan this event as an antidote to the increasingly narrow and hyper-political conventions that now dominate the realms of science fiction and fantasy. We shall have freewheeling discussions (without any attempt to censor unpopular views) and avoid political ranting in its entirety. Let’s see what happens!
This is more at the spooky end-of-the-lane footpath signposted to ‘the weird’ / ‘literary horror’, but some Gleanings readers may be interested in making contact to find out more.