Tolkien Gleanings #252
* A review of the recent Christopher Tolkien conference…
“Two papers, by Sara Brown and Kristine Larsen, discussed the Athrabeth, a key text in the legendarium [1959, in HoME 10: Morgoth’s Ring, pages 301-366], analyzing all of the layers of writing and the choices involved in editing it, and they and Verlyn Flieger emphasized even [Christopher’s] courage in publishing this thing, which cut down to the bedrock of the fictional universe and touched the author’s own deepest religious beliefs. I got the impression, listening to Sara and Kris speak and reading the chat function, that the mere existence of the Athrabeth was news to a lot of the attendees.”
* There’s a Tolkien chapter in the new McFarland book From Soldier to Storyteller: Essays on World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children’s Authors (2024), titled “J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973): War, Fatherhood and Writing for Children”.
* A probable Tolkien article in the latest edition of the Biblical scholarship journal The Expository Times, “Reign of Christ” ($ paywall). There is no abstract, but judging by the title and introduction, it seems likely to relate events in LoTR to six Biblical passages.
* A well-reviewed new book from Oxford University Press, The Victorians and English Dialect: Philology, Fiction, and Folklore (2024). A review in The Critic says the book is accessible to the general reader of British history, and as such it may appeal to readers of Gleanings. Especially since it tells the story of a significant aspect of Tolkien’s scholarly field, as it developed prior to 1905. The “fiction” of the title is of the earthy Thomas Hardy sort, not fantasy.
* On YouTube, a coming-shortly fan reading of “The Death of Saint Brendan” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Though I’m not sure which version, as there are evidently several…
“[1945-46, Tolkien] writes the poem The Death of Saint Brendan (*Imram), producing much initial working, four finished manuscripts, and a typescript. He includes the alliterative verse retelling of the legend of King Sheave, previously associated with The Lost Road, but writes it out as if it were prose. At some later time, he will develop the poem (as Imram) in three further type-scripts.” — from the ‘Companion & Guide: Chronology’.
* This week The European Conservative has a long and timely essay on “Mordor in England”, responding to a first-time reading of LoTR and especially to ‘The Scouring of the Shire’.
* And finally, news that The Hungry Hobbit cafe in Moseley has finally closed. Moseley being a small district that long served as the city of Birmingham’s redoubt for the ‘muesli and Marx’ brigade. But I imagine that some Tolkien tourists may also have sought out the cafe over the years. The local newspaper reports that The Hungry Hobbit, forced to become ‘The Hungry Hob’ after legal threats, has now been replaced by an American-style fried chicken shop. Hopefully this is not named The Lord of the Wings.