Tolkien Gleanings #345

* A new issue of Mythlore, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2025) is now available. Includes, among others… “Tolkien on Kennings and the River-(woman’s) Daughter” and “Fathoming the Mathom-house: Museums and Material Heritage in Tolkien’s Legendarium”, plus book reviews including a review of Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium. Freely available online.

* The contents are now known for Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth, due out later this week as an expensive academic book. Non-videogame chapter titles include, among others… “Ruins of Past Tongues: Tolkien’s Timeless Philology”; “‘What do you Elf eyes see?’ Perceiving Ruin in Middle-earth”; and “The Blade of the King: Tolkien, Arthur, and the Remnants of Kingship”.

* In the latest edition of the Spanish journal Scripta Theologica, a short review of the Spanish translation of Holly Ordway’s Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography. Freely available online.

* The Tolkien Collector’s Guide reviews The Bovadium Fragments. One aspect of the book I wasn’t aware of is that… “there are excerpts from and mentions of various letters”, presumably letters of relevance to Tolkien’s theme.

* In Italian, a new one-hour and very echo-ey recording of a live event featuring the President of the Italian Association of Tolkien Studies in conversation with Paolo Nardi.

* The young Tolkien in “Battle”, a new picture by Gnome-the-artist on DeviantArt.

* The 45th Lustrumfeest, to be held in the Netherlands in June 2026. The guest of honour is to be the founder of the German Tolkien Society.

* And finally, an American-style cartographic map of Western Middle Earth in the Fourth Age. A larger version is freely available online, but sadly it’s still not large enough to read the smaller labels.