Tolkien Gleanings #405
* The call for papers for Omentielva Minquea, the 11th International Conference on Tolkien’s Invented Languages. Set for 30th July – 2nd August 2026 at Marquette University in the USA…
“The proceedings of the conference will be published in the eleventh volume of Arda Philology, meant to appear in 2027 (although the publication still has a backlog).”
* Italy’s Fantasy Magazine has a brief review of Tolkien e l’Irlanda: Un viaggio tra miti e influenze (summer 2025) (‘Tolkien and Ireland: a journey through myths and influences’). Evidently a short book of 112 pages, which begins with inner-city Digbeth in 1900 where we find the newly-Catholic Tolkien family among the recent Irish immigrants who attended the Catholic church of St. Anne, Birmingham. Then on through his discovery of the Gaelic language and the ancient myths of Ireland. Finally, accounts of his visits to Ireland, and the publication of his fine 1955 poem on the life of Saint Brendan. I guess it’ll also mention things like Leaf by Niggle being published in The Dublin Review in 1945, but the blurb/review doesn’t mention that.
* Talking of St. Anne’s, I recently found this good scan of a Birmingham postcard of a humble church hall. The eBay seller specified no location other than Birmingham. I realised that the half-hidden map of Ireland on the wall (see the upper right) probably meant this was the hall of a Catholic church serving recent arrivals from rural Ireland. St. Anne’s had a low church hall of the same sort immediately adjacent (it’s still there today), but this is probably not the same. There would have been many halls like this in Digbeth. Still, the photograph is a rare interior photograph and it seems highly evocative of the Catholic Birmingham encountered by the Tolkien family in the spring/summer/autumn of 1900.
Here the photograph is also restored by Nano Banana v2 which, for once, faithfully copied almost all details from the source. Though it has added the mirror at the back, which one might whimsically imagine to have been for the priest, standing at the back, to keep an eye on the back benches.
* The Tolkien-friendly Word on Fire has a new imprint… “Word on Fire Luminor, a new publishing imprint dedicated to renewing the rich tradition of Catholic literature for today’s readers.” Only a few titles as yet, but they’re obviously open to non-fiction as well as fiction…
There’s an interview with the new imprint’s editor here with a pitch email.
* At the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham city-centre, “The Music of The Lord of The Rings”, a tribute to Howard Shore. Set for 16th May 2026, and booking now. Children age 6+ are welcome. The Conservatoire is the main music-teaching centre for the West Midlands, located a short walk from Birmingham New St. train station.
* And finally, due for publication on 12th May 2026, The Franchise is a dystopian sci-fi novel which appears to offer a determined poke at the Tolkien franchise. Possibly the book is just a rehash of a rather tired old sci-fi idea, and is only playing on the Tolkien connection for book-boosting publicity? But we’ll know soon enough. The book’s idea is that in the 1940s the famous book The Malicarn re-defined fantasy with its land “filled with magic and dragons and wizards and warriors”. Then the author died after a lifetime of assiduously nurturing his creation, only for his commercially-minded son to quickly turn it into a money-spinner. The resulting franchise spawned dozens of lesser newly-written books, and a series of big-screen blockbusters. Now AI, theme-park and fan-fever have all converged to make a never-ending content-mill for the avid fans, a content-mill which is also a built physical place. There the cast are made up of actors and fans who believe themselves to be living in The Malicarn. But one of them begins to doubt…