Tolkien Gleanings #301
* The Art of Mercy in Middle-earth: Paintings Inspired by Tolkien’s Legendarium is a new Tolkien-inspired artbook from Miriam Ellis. Available now in paperback or hardback.
* Newly added to the current rolling issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research, “Slavic influences in the Soviet adaptation of Fellowship”. This relates to the Leningrad TV 1991 attempt at a TV adaptation…. “This paper aims to explore how what the Western viewers may find ridiculous about the depiction of the characters actually stems from the film-makers being inspired by traditional Slavic imagery and folklore.”
* In the new ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, “Inkling ‘Hint, Intimation, Suggestion’” ($ paywall, but first page free as a page-image). This examines the history of the word ‘inkling’ from its earliest surviving use in a tale of Alexander.
* “Fantasy and Faith: Lewis and Tolkien on Magic in Fantastical Literature” (2025), a final-year undergraduate dissertation for Liberty University. Freely available for download.
* A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry blog has a long essay on Magic in Middle-earth and the various forms it takes (or might take, since some of it is only hinted at).
* The book The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945 is now seemingly set for publication on 17th July 2025, at least according to Amazon UK which is taking pre-orders for it.
* Tickets are now available for the 2025 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture in Fantasy Literature in Oxford, on 19th May 2025. Also, a new series of Oxford University Tolkien lectures will start in Oxford in May 2025 and will include “Tolkien and Arthurian Romance: The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings”, among others.
* The Christian History Institute on “The Oxford Lewis Knew”, a new review of the sumptuous book C.S. Lewis’s Oxford (2024). The review is freely available online.
* And finally… new on Archive.org is a sampling of Wizards And Demons: Music Inspired By The Writings Of J.R.R. Tolkien, plus scans of the cover and booklet with its musicological essay. A highly curated collection of rare 1960s and 70s ‘progressive rock’ tracks inspired by Tolkien, the full CD is still available. ‘Prog rock’ is very much an acquired taste these days, so listen to the samples before ordering.
