Another batch of new writing on Tolkien and around-about. Not quite compiling to form a ‘mega-Tolk’ PDF this time, but still substantial…
* “Subtle Speech and Pronouns in Tolkien and Old English”… “in Old English poetry … dialectal ability is as important as valour, where “the hero has to prove he is a talented speaker in order to be acknowledged”.
Related is the new undergraduate dissertation “The comparative impact of Old English and Classical language on the poetics of modern fantasy”. There are thoughtful and well-sourced central sections on Tolkien… “as a lens through which to view the dissemination of the [poetic] structures of antiquity and to justify” [their re-use in fantasy literature].
* A book review of The Gallant Edith Bratt. This Journal of Tolkien Research review is a different and rather more barbed review than the Inkings journal one already mentioned here a few posts ago. Incidentally, for the sake of American readers, I note that the Inklings journal’s review has Warwick as a “city”. It’s a town, albeit with a substantial castle. As for the new JoTR review, it raises what would appear to be pertinent questions about the young Edith’s supposed status as a wealthy heiress. Her mother’s… “probate document records a healthy value for her estate, [but] we do not know if there were liabilities to set against it, or what fees were charged by its trustees, or what level of income Edith’s investments produced, or what became of them over time.”
* A book review of Switzerland in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
* A book review of A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger. See previous reviews linked here. The new review refers several times to Smith of Wootton Manor, which should of course be Major.
* “Cirdan the Shipwright: Tolkien’s Bodhisattva Who Brings Us to the Other Shore”. Whatever you may think about the Buddhist comparisons used here, a central section has a useful scholarly survey of what can be known about Cirdan.
Also noted is a call for papers (deadline now passed) for the workshop event Tolkien and Antiquity: Antiquities of Middle-earth on 3rd June 2022 in Paris. This seems to want to discover “several Tolkienian antiquities” buried in-world in Middle-earth, periods that are presumably un-named in the texts but which are assumed in-world and have broad formations akin to our ‘antiquity’ and ‘medieval’ periods, since… “We detect in [Tolkien’s fiction] an in-depth knowledge of ancient authors, Virgil … Plutarch … Tacitus … The list is not exhaustive, and Homeric inspiration, in particular, is found”.