Tolkien Gleanings #245
* A new French book, Les Mondes de Christopher Tolkien (‘The Worlds of Christopher Tolkien’), due to be published 21st November 2024.
“This book contains testimonies from loved ones and studies on the man who not only edited thousands of pages of J.R.R. Tolkien, and mapped his universe, but who appears here as a writer and artist in his own right.”
* The artist Greg Hildebrandt has passed away. With his brother, he became one of the first major artists (‘The Brothers Hildebrandt’) to illustrate Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
* A new edition of the journal Mythlore (Fall/Winter 2024). Including ‘The Inconsistencies of Galadriel: The Influence of Earlier Legendarium in The Lord of the Rings’, among many other articles and reviews. Freely available online.
* The Troubadour reports on a recent J.R.R. Tolkien and the Oratorians discussion…
The Tolkien Society and Jesters of YHWH (JOY) household hosted a discussion about J.R.R. Tolkien and the Oratorians on Tuesday 8th October, focusing on Tolkien’s history, his encounter with the Oratory of Birmingham and his connection to St. Phillip Neri.
* Another delve into the deep topic of ‘Tolkien and War’, in the form of the University of Vermont’s 2025 Tolkien conference. This is their 21st annual conference, and will be both in person and online. The call-for-papers deadline is 2nd February 2025.
* A free webinar “From Myth to Manuscript: Exploring Inklings Archival Collections”. Booking now, for 13th November 2024.
* A new Bedlam Book Club podcast on Madness in the World of Tolkien, with Janet Croft. Discussing with reference to… “how Tolkien’s work intersects with his early life and experiences” during the First World War. Freely available online.
* New on YouTube, Prof. Paul Gondreau offers a 45-minute overview of “The Catholic Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings“.
* The feature-film Fellowship: Tolkien & Lewis appears to have been delayed and is now billed on its official site as “Coming Winter 2025”. It was, if I recall the UK filming and VFX-ing correctly, once billed as a Web series.
* Slipping into the U.S. public domain in January 2025, Joseph Gaer’s Burning Bush (1929). A thick collection of Jewish fairy-tales and “folklore legends” translated and adapted to English, published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Gaer went on to become a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1930-35.
* Archive.org has restored user log-ins, following the hack. Scholars can also once again search across the full-text of all the scanned books and magazines. Uploading is still unavailable though, with the last upload being dated 9th October 2024.
* And finally, a new Treasure Hoard style plug-in, which guides Stable Diffusion 1.5 toward generating AI images of fantasy-style treasure-hoards. Just add dragons.