Tolkien Gleanings #156.

* The Brazilian journal TeoLiteraria: Revista de Literaturas e Teologias has a new issue themed as Anti-nihilistic literature and its use of variations on the divine in music, romance, poetry, and fiction. One article on Tolkien, with the title translating as “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fairyland: faerie as the ‘Middle-earth’ between the world of senses and the world of ideas”.

* Over Christmas the Amon Sul podcast had podcasts about or related to Earendel: 1. These Are the Voyages [of Tolkien’s Earendel]; 2. The Star-Ship Vingilot [the ship of Tolkien’s Earendel]; followed by Brightest of Angels, with the latter being on the Old English poem in which Tolkien discovered the mysterious and beautiful word earendel. This starts at six minutes in, then gets bogged down in fifteen minutes of tiptoeing around some modern scholarly and Christian sensitivities, re: Eastern and Western Christianity. But persevere, as it is otherwise a good and learned explication of the larger text in which earendel was discovered, even if some of the public-domain translations used are iffy. They get to the earendel section at about 43:00 minutes.

* The latest Unreliable Narrators podcast discusses the book Meditations on Middle-earth (2001), in which a number of fantasy writers wrote about Tolkien and his influence.

* Freely available online and possibly useful for those interested in the wider context of the initial reception of The Lord of the Rings, a new academic article in Romanian Journal of English Studies, on “Pacifist Literature During WWII: T.H. White’s Once and Future King”, a major fantasy work which appeared in 1958. The author sees the work as another reaction by a fantasy writer to the experiences of modern warfare, with White further using his fiction to explore solutions which would forestall strife and war.

* Tables are not unknown in the worlds of Tolkien scholarship, especially among the linguistic material. Thus readers may be interested to know of two table-extracting utilities. One works in your Web browser to extract any HTML table on a Web page to a .CSV file. The other can OCR any purely visual table, i.e. one presented as a fixed graphic, retaining the table form as it saves to a .CSV file.

* Freely available in the new edition of the journal Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, “In Faery Lands Forlorn: The Fantastic Narrative Poetry Of Queen’s Early Lyrics”. Queen here being the famous British 1970s rock band, and with the article focusing on…

“early narrative songs by the band Queen, which all feature fantastic characters and seem to share the same setting. They can be interpreted as parts of the same story that takes place in Freddie Mercury’s imaginary land of Rhye. This paper argues that the songs in question can be understood and analysed as narrative poetry”.

The bibliography doesn’t reference a book-length survey-study of the poetic ‘faery rock’ of the period and its bards (Marc Bolan et al). I don’t know of one. Perhaps it still needs to be written?

* And finally, another kind of mist-enchanted rock. An ‘as-if by Tolkien’ map of The Isle of Man, a real place in the sea between Northern Ireland and northern England.

Tolkien Gleanings #155.

* Leeds Library Service’s The Secret Library blog has a new article, “Tolkien in Leeds: Back again”…

“on locating our copy of Gordon’s book, we were delighted to find, on page 28, the very illustration Atherton described, and which so very clearly inspired Tolkien’s own drawing [of Beorn’s hall]”

And a pleasing drawing it is. Part of the Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition in the northern English city of Leeds… “taking place at the Central Library until January 2024”.

* The latest Law & Liberty magazine on “Tolkien Among the Greeks”, this being a lengthy review of the book J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics (March 2023).

* Amazon UK now suggests that the book Tolkien et l’antiquita: passe et antiquites en terre du milieu is due in mid February 2024. Probably the proceedings of a conference at the Sorbonne, of the same name. The title translates as ‘Tolkien and Antiquity: the past and antiquities in Middle-earth’.

* I find that the forthcoming Morrow graphic novel of The Hobbit, mentioned in a recent Gleanings, is merely a reprint. It already exists, though the news had passed me by. Possibly because it was first published way back in 1989 by Eclipse Comics, as a mini-series of three spinner-rack floppies. Then in 1990 as a collected trade paperback with an unappealing cover. Contains Moderate Peril found it a quite pleasing and faithful adaptation, which is encouraging.

* Publisher Morrow also looks forward in late 2024 to… “a new standard hardcover edition of Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (previously only available in a slipcased edition)”.

* I somehow missed “A Typeface for Tolkien” which appeared in February 2023, though it was in the 2022 Vol. 2 issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research. Inserted late, perhaps? Takes an in-depth illustrated look at the uses of “Victor Hammer’s typefaces” for texts by Tolkien. I find that The Hammer Society has a long Hammer biography online.

* And finally, want to generate your own 2024 Tolkien calendar? November 2023 saw the release of a new free AI ‘plug-in’ that’s able to generate a close emulation of the style of the Brothers Hildebrandt, the well-known 1970s Tolkien illustrators and arguably still the best. The maker recommends using it as a ‘style plug-in’ with the Stable Diffusion 1.5 checkpoint model Illustro v1. Note that SD 1.5 struggles with generating coherent images of quadruped animals, especially ones that don’t exist in the primary world. So dragons, wargs and oliphaunts may be a bit mangled.

Tolkien Gleanings #154.

* The Brazilian open-access journal Revista Primeira Escrita has a new issue themed as Fantastico tradicional x fantastico moderno (‘The traditional fantastic vs. the modern fantastic’). This has one Tolkien essay, in Portuguese, whose title translates as ‘J.R.R. Tolkien’s Theory Against the Classic Fairy Tale’.

* The Brazilian open-access journal Histiria em Curso also has a new issue on fantasy, themed as Nada mais inverossimil do que a realidade: dialogos entre Historia e Literatura Fantastica no alvorecer do seculo XX (‘Nothing more unlikely than reality: dialogues between history and fantasy literature at the dawn of the 20th century’). There are three articles on Tolkien, whose titles translate as: ‘A Possible World: Tolkien’s dialogues with historiography in fantasy’; “Between the Ashes of Isengard and the Green of Fangorn: an eco-critical analysis of The Lord of the Rings”; and “Death in Middle-earth: Tolkienian views on evil”.

* Freely available, a short summary-review in a French educational journal of the 520-page multi-author book Tolkien et les sciences (‘Tolkien and the Sciences’). After summarising the book in broad outline, the reviewer concludes by briefly chafing at its popular tone and an apparently unwelcome use of humour…

“Reading the volume does not remain pleasant, because the work presents a popular bias (both when it comes to Tolkien’s work and scientific content) and a certain humor.”

* A new Masters dissertation, “The Shadow King of Fantasy: Robert E. Howard” (Texas A&M, 2023), with a PDF preview freely available. The author argues that “Howard brought barbarism back to fantasy” and thus was able to appeal to young pulp magazine audiences and working class readers. “Howard’s inclusion into fantasy scholarship” is overdue, and would expand the possibilities of discussing “themes of the working class” in fantasy and fantasy readerships. Part of one chapter surveys “Tolkien on Low Fantasy”, though this is not part of the free PDF.

* A new simple list of the ‘Father to Son’ letters sent by Tolkien.

* In Italian on YouTube, the video proceedings of a recent Italian conference on “Cosmology and Tolkien”. Six lectures appear to be freely available.

* And finally, The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy has been shown for what is said to be the first time in cinemas in Cambodia, during November-December 2023. I assume it’s a dubbed version (since Cambodia’s school teaching of English is still poor), and the press release doesn’t say if the screenings are of the original or the extended “director’s cut” version. But it does state…

“All three films will be available in selected cinemas nationwide in 2D and IMAX. This special release event will span the course of four weeks, culminating in a marathon showing of the entire trilogy at select locations.”

Tolkien Gleanings #153.

* The Tolkien Collector’s Guide takes a seasonal look at collecting Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters, on YouTube. Not the original letters, but rather the many book editions which have collected the letters for children.

* New on John Garth’s website, a long essay on “Goblin caves, ancient scripts and Tolkien’s gift for invention”. We get the opening of the article, and then it’s “Continue reading for free via my Steady crowdfunding project…”. But I see no clickable link through to the little-known Steady. It turns out that his full article is freely available here.

* The National Review on “J.R.R. Tolkien and His Catholic Faith” ($ probable paywall), reviewing Holly Ordway’s new book.

* Free this week in Omnes magazine, an interview with Holly Ordway.

* Want to read Gothic like Tolkien? Starting at Signum University in early January 2024, the online course “Introduction to the Gothic Language”. Booking now. I see that their course “Tolkien & Science”, with Kristine Larsen, is still in development for a possible 2024 slot.

* And finally, a winter postcard from the ‘fairy glen’, which was near to Tolkien’s Brocton army training camp on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. The card was probably made near to the time of the First World War, if not during, and is here newly colourised. One can almost image a Black Rider coming past on the track, and two hobbits hiding behind the fallen tree.

Tolkien Gleanings #152.

* “Tolkien and Lewis Manuscripts Donated to Public Domain” through the Bodleian Library…

“A treasure trove of invaluable manuscripts and letters penned by famed authors J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis has been generously donated to the Public Domain by the family of a private collector. This significant move was orchestrated as part of an agreement with the government to evade inheritance tax liabilities. The donated items feature drafts of renowned works by both authors, personal correspondence, and other documents that provide a unique insight into their creative process and friendship.”

* The Wall Street Journal reviews the new expanded edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien ($ paywall).

* Tea with Tolkien reviews the nine-lecture online course ‘The Liturgical Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien’.

* New in the Journal of the Association of Young Researchers on Anglophone Studies, a survey of “The Celtic Elements in The Lord of the Rings”.

* A useful transcript of the newly-available “The Man Who Invented Hobbits” (1974/75) radio documentary…

“I gather, though I wasn’t there at the time, that Professor Tolkien submitted [to the potential publisher Unwin] the entire incohate manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, in one huge packing case” (Rayner Unwin).

* The UK’s Plymouth University put up a What’s On page for a 2024 event, then 404-d it. But evidently there’s to be a public talk by Joel Merriner on Tolkien illustrations from the old Soviet empire, set for spring 2024.

* And finally, an article in Hungarian on Gyenvar Adam and his Tolkien dioramas. Gyenvar’s portfolio is at Helm Hammerhand. His resin dioramas are auctioned for charity.

Tolkien Gleanings #151.

* A new keynote conference lecture on YouTube, “The ‘Modern’ Tolkien: The Keys to the Enduring Appeal of Middle-earth”. Start at 28:00 minutes in, to skip the very general ‘introduction to the impact of modernity and rural nostalgia in England’, and get to Tolkien. The lecture concluded the Seventh International Conference on Myth in the Arts (November 2023), held at The University of the Basque Country in the north of Spain. Tracking this event down led me to find the entire conference in video form. Includes, among others…

   – Glaurung, Heir of Fafnir: Tolkien’s Reading of Old Norse Dragon Myth (UBC website);
   – Faerie is a Dangerous Land: J.R.R. Tolkien and Fairy Tales (YouTube);
   – Gandalf: One of the Maiar in Tolkien’s Middle-earth (YouTube);
   – The Mythopoetic Value of the Tree of Gernika and its Impact in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (YouTube);
   – In the Beginning there was Music: The Interrelation between Music and Philology in Tolkien’s Work (YouTube);
   – The Sea as a Threshold in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium and Modern Media (YouTube).

* In the late summer I see that the Sarehole Mill pizzas were reviewed in the article “A Margherita in Tolkien’s Middle-earth”. The food reviewer also remarked that for food…

“Tolkien would normally visit the Eastgate Hotel on Merton Street, Oxford, a gloomy inn next to the college where he taught philology while writing The Lord of the Rings. There is [today] something insatiably unhappy about the Eastgate, as if the Boer War[s] were still ongoing. Even so, Tolkien liked it, and he ate there when he lived next door at No. 21.”

The Eastgate was also the site of a seminal debate that one would love to have had recorded on tape…

“[The] clash of ideas culminated in 1954, when Arthur C. Clarke met with [C.S.] Lewis at the Eastgate hotel in Oxford; the former brought with him fellow [British Interplanetary Society] member [and leading British rocket engineer] Val Cleaver, the latter was accompanied by another distinguished Oxford don and fellow writer, none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, and there the interplanetary debate was thrashed out over several hours”. (The British Interplanetary Society and Cultures of Outer Space, 1930-1970, citing From Imagination to Reality – An Audio History of the British Interplanetary Society, 2008).

2024 will be the 70th anniversary of that debate. One wonders if it might be recreated in 2024, patched together from the writings of the four men and presented in a promenade performance at the Eastgate?

* The latest Art of Manliness podcast discusses “The Hobbit Virtues” with the author of Hobbit Virtues: Rediscovering J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ethics from The Lord of the Rings (2020). The show-notes include a link to the interesting article “Against the Cult of Travel: or What Everyone Gets Wrong About The Hobbit” (2021).

* And finally, booking now is an expensive 2024 summer school at the University of Oxford, “An Introduction to Tolkien’s Mythology”.

Tolkien Gleanings #150.

* The Past Daily digs up “The Man Who Invented Hobbits”. A one-hour NPR radio show (the U.S. government-funded broadcaster, via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting). Apparently broadcast on 1st January 1975. I can find no reference to a radio documentary on Tolkien under that exact name, in Tolkien material, but it was reviewed in the SFRA Newsletter #70, April 1979, when it was issued on cassette by the U.S. Center for Cassette Studies. Which is perhaps how it’s survived. The .MP3 download link is here. It’s a remarkably good documentary. Now it’s been released at last someone will no doubt put Ken Burns-style images to it and make it into a video. [Update: Zionus suggests it’s the same as a BBC Radio Oxford local-radio documentary of 1974].

* The Catholic Theology podcast has a new episode titled “On Tolkien and Myth”…

“Can myths and fairy stories help us to better understand reality? Today, Dr. Michael Dauphinais and Catholic academic Joseph Pearce discuss J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay ‘On Fairy Stories’.”

* Popping up on eBay, a rare and very Shire-like view of Etching Hill, two miles from Tolkien’s Great Haywood in Staffordshire and near the road to the town of Rugeley three miles from Great Haywood.

* A new article in The Dublin Review of Books, on “Dunsany’s Careless Abundance”. Dauntingly so, as it’s very difficult to know where to start on reading him. Interesting to learn in the article that this other, and far more prolific, fantasy writer also served on the Somme…

“When [the book] Fifty-one Tales appeared, Dunsany had just served as an Army captain ‘in the deserts of the Somme'”.

* “Lezant artists’ illustrations part of Tolkien exhibit in Rome”…

“The beautiful illustrations, which are currently on display in La Galleria Nationale, Rome, were created by the late Roger Garland and his wife Linda, who have a permanent Tolkien exhibition at Lakeside Gallery, Lezant. Lakeside Gallery was established in 1989 by Linda and Roger primarily to exhibit their own work, but also to promote book illustration as a serious art form.”

And the Lakeside Gallery website reveals their own gallery has on show… “over seventy paintings and drawings commissioned by the original publishers for many J.R.R Tolkien’s books”. It turns out that “Lezant” is not in Italy, but is about 25 miles west of Exeter and in the middle of Cornwall, England. Sounds like a suitable site for a biennial ‘Tolkien Art & Artists’ convention, I’d suggest?

* And finally, a large exhibition on Fairy Tales at the Gallery of Modern Art in Queensland, Australia.

New on eBay, an evocative ‘shire’ postcard of a site near to Tolkien’s Great Haywood. Located about two miles south-east.

The Google Maps search result is deceptive, unable to locate the hill it sends you instead to a road and a school, making it look like the hill has been built up as a housing estate. It hasn’t. Since a little searching finds that the hill is still there. With the help of the local M.P., in 2018 the Friends Of Etching Hill fought off an unwanted Forestry Commission plantation proposal and…

“established that the Hill is classed as common land / village green and that the management as such, should be left in the hands of the Charitable Trustees, who are supported by volunteers from the Friends Of Etching Hill.”

Other basic information…

“the hill itself rises steeply to 454 feet above sea level and is 100 feet above the houses of the village”.

“a well-known viewpoint on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase, with a distinctive, flat sandstone top”.

I’ve no idea if Tolkien knew it, but it would have made a pleasant stop on a three-mile road walk from Great Haywood – Little Haywood – Rugeley.