Tolkien Gleanings #381
* At the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society tonight, Holly Ordway speaking on “Tolkien and the Development of Tradition: The Lord of the Rings as a Modern Book”. And last week their talk was on “Tolkien and the Midlands: Place, People, and Past in the Making of Middle-earth”. Still to come is a talk on “A Long Defeat: Tolkien’s Vision of History in The Lord of the Rings”. Hopefully there will be recordings online in due course.
* Ned Lunn’s blog reviews Ordway’s Tolkien’s Faith…
“It enlivened a deep, perhaps slightly romantic, longing for a form of academic life where theology is not an optional add on but is unapologetically a governing discipline. It was the people and saints that Tolkien lauded and was inspired by, however, that really touched a nerve. Figures such as John Henry Newman, in particular, whose theology and spirituality have long resonated with me. These were not simply historical influences for Tolkien; they were living interlocutors that shaped his moral imagination and intellectual posture.”
* Public Discourse magazine discovers “J.R.R. Tolkien Against the Leftists” in the new expanded Letters. Freely available online.
* Aphuulishfellow’s blog reviews The Bovadium Fragments and remarks that…
“Tolkien’s story is at heart an independently-written version of The Great God Awto (1940), by Clark Ashton Smith”.
I took a look at the dates and publication history. CAS’s “Awto” first appeared in the U.S. pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories (Feb 1940), and then was anthologised by Derleth’s Arkham House in Tales of Science and Sorcery (1964). The Bovadium Fragments were however written 1957-1960, so Tolkien cannot have seen the tale in the 1964 anthology. It seems rather unlikely he had earlier seen a copy of Thrilling Wonder on publication, due to both the war restricting imports and the incredibly severe winter in Britain (the worst for 50 years) at the time the magazine could have been on the news-stands. On the other hand, it’s not impossible that someone could have sent him a couple of tear-sheets in the post at some point, knowing it was the sort of witty squit that would appeal. But we’ll likely never know now.
* The Germans will have the Fragments, translated as Die Bovadium Fragmente, on 14th February 2026.
* Book collecting blog Elder Days considers the question “Why Collect The Silmarillion?”.
* A couple of concept illustrations and a render of a 3D block-out have surfaced, from Eidos-Montreal’s recently abandoned Middle-earth game. They show the ruined port of Umbar, which at the time of LoTR was infested with the fearsome corsairs.
* And finally, talking of a big clean-up, The Great British Spring Clean is set for 13th to 29th March 2026. The nation’s annual volunteer litter-pick, a ‘must-do’ for hobbits everywhere.
From Tolkien’s Middle English Vocabulary (1922).