Tolkien Gleanings #226
* Newly added to the latest Journal of Tolkien Research, the first of the issue’s articles. “A Speculative Ethnomusicology of Gondor” is freely available online.
* Just published, a new issue of the open-access SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature. Includes a review of Tolkien’s The Battle of Maldon Together with the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth (2023). Freely available online.
* The August 2024 issue of Amon Hen, is now available to members ($ paywall). It’s a poetry special, but also has the substantial bio-article “Aragorn: The Early Years”, and a review of Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival, A Critical Anthology (2023).
* The latest issue of Canada’s Catholic Insight magazine, on “Tolkien, Discernment, and Vocation in The Lord of the Rings”. Freely available online.
* On YouTube, the Tolkien Collector’s Guide interviews Australian “Peter Kenny — Tolkien fan, collector, and educator”.
* The delayed OUP book Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959 now has a 17th October 2024 release date, according to Amazon UK. Pre-orders are now being taken. “Bowers and Steffensen reveal how the Reeve’s Tale was a source for Tolkien’s description of Merry and Pippin’s battle with Saruman”, according to the blurb.
* And finally, Cate Blanchett has claimed that “no one got paid anything” for Lord of the Rings movies. Looking briefly at this… I noticed the actor who played Legolas also had “nothing”, according to an interview he did. But it appears that when an actor says “nothing”, they actually mean “$175,000”. Which is what he then admitted to the interviewer that he was paid, as an almost-unknown actor at that time. In today’s money, 1999’s $175k is equivalent to a hefty $330,000. Not bad, for an unknown actor. One would imagine that Blanchett (Galadriel), with more star power but less screen-time and physical work than Legolas, should have had something similar to that. Unless, perhaps, she deliberately worked for free? The total budget for making all three films was reported to be $270m (Variety), which would be about $500m today.