Tolkien Gleanings #136.
* Freely available in the latest newly-started issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research, “The Hen that Laid the Eggs: Tolkien and the Officer Training Corps”. Discusses how the young Tolkien’s OTC… “experience underlies the importance of military preparedness and the consequences of lack of preparedness among the free peoples of Middle-earth”. Expands on the author’s… “2011 paper in Tolkien Studies“.
* Freely available and new in English in the Hungarian journal Orpheus Noster, “Tolkien, the Practicing Catholic: The Early Letters”. May complement Holly Ordway’s recent book, since the author finds that Tolkien’s…
“actual religious practices of his everyday life have [not yet been] uncovered. This paper attempts to provide a brief glance into these by examining Tolkien’s early Letters”.
* The new long blog post “Space travel in The Notion Club Papers by “Incarnation. By being born” – What does Tolkien mean?.
* In the re-titled open access journal Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies (now Cultural Heritage and Modern Technologies), the new journal article “The symbol of the crescent moon with a star on ancient and medieval coins” (2023)…
“In ancient times, the symbol of the crescent moon with a star may refer to a female divinity. […] Probably on medieval coins the crescent moon with the star was initially coined as a symbol of the Virgin Mary”.
Newly “coined”, or appropriated?
“In ancient times Venus took care of mariners, because she was supposed to be born of the sea; because she has ceased to take Care, the Virgin Mother is [now, as Mary] substituted to this Mother.” — Erasmus.
* Now apparently under Creative Commons on Archive.org, the PhD thesis Asgard Revisited: Old Norse mythology and national culture in Iceland, 1820-1918 (2017).
* And finally, a set of Jim Kirkwood re-releases sounds rather enticing…
“Announcement of these reissues has generated no small degree of excitement among fans of synthesizer music, especially those in the dungeon synth scene. […] Although held in high esteem by the dungeon synth scene, Kirkwood’s own output feels more in line with the British progressive rock and [1970s and early 80s] Berlin-school style of synth music that inspired him.”
Remastered re-issues of Kirkwood’s rare “Tolkien-focused” LP’s are set for release on 1st December 2023. For those interested there’s also a 1992 LoTR inspired sampler LP, and a higher-quality version which can be purchased to help support South Essex Animal Hospital.