Author Archives: futurilla

Digital Tolkien

by futurilla

There’s a large new digital commission… “inspired by Tolkien, Birmingham & fantasy, to be located in Birmingham city-centre. Open to “all artists” but the outcome must be digital and they anticipate some sort of… “gateway between our fantastic city and the fantasy worlds it opened up”. The aim is to attract tourists from across the region, presumably on the back of the new politically-correct Amazon TV series. The commission is an open call in the first instance. Deadline: 16th February 2022.

At the lower end of a budget I guess a well-produced audio walking-tour, with some VR for the kids, might fit the bill. The key city-centre locations would then be: 37 New St. (site of Cornish’s Bookshop); the site of Barrow’s Tea-Rooms; and the Burne-Jones collection at the Museum. The site of his school was (in his words) desecrated in a “ghastly” manner and is not now somewhere to send people. The Oratory and the Catholic Cathedral are sites, but outside the city-centre and too far to walk. Also too politically incorrect for arts managers to approve.

At the higher end of an overall budget, one might tap into the window-dressing expertise of the big dept. stores, the costumes expertise of the theatres, and the city’s digital expertise, to create a range of (somehow digitally) interactive Tolkien-themed window displays in the big show-windows.

Sweet Staffs

by futurilla

Who knew? Longton in Stoke-on-Trent pumps out 1.25 million toffees a day. I’d imagine if you added together this, the region’s biscuit makers at Uttoxeter, various sweet makers, and all the powdered sweet mixes made by the giant Knighton Foods at Eccleshall (Angel Delight mix, etc), we’d have quite the little ‘cluster’ between Stafford and Congleton. And the Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe chain was founded in Leek apparently, and now has its HQ in Stafford. Possibly there are more to be discovered.

Maurice Wade: Silent Landscapes

by futurilla

Trent Art‘s new book Maurice Wade: Silent Landscapes – The Andy McCluskey Collection is due to ship 22nd February 2022. The paintings can also be seen via their opening show of 2022, which is to feature 21 works by Wade.

I’ve covered Wade here previously here when I identified a couple of his previously unknown locations for the paintings.

Radio series – ‘On the Cut’

by futurilla

New on Archive.org is “On the Cut”. This documentary radio series was recorded in the early 1980s, and recalls life and work on the English canal system. Interviews collected and presented by Arthur Wood for BBC Radio Stoke. It had been placed online back in 2008 for free, but the BBC has long-since let the links die. So it’s good to see the series accessible again.

Picture: On the canal at Meaford, Stone.

The Folk-lore of North Staffordshire, version 1.7 (2022)

by futurilla

My “The Folk-lore of North Staffordshire” has had its annual update, with new or expanded entries. It’s a free comprehensive annotated bibliography in PDF. Currently in version 1.7 (December 2021, for 2022). At 40 pages it should be printable as a 10-sheet booklet, around which you can put card covers. Please update any local copies you may be keeping.

Download: staffordshire_folklore-17.pdf

Merry Christmas to my readers

by futurilla

Merry Christmas to readers of this blog.

Chromatrope card

Not quite a card, but feeling festive all the same. It’s a slot-in ‘Chromatrope’ from a Victorian ‘magic lantern’ show, an early form of slide projector. The wheel was turned by the lanternist and a big kaleidoscope pattern was projected.

Three more on Tolkien

by futurilla

I found a few more recent Tolkien papers / chapters which seemed of interest to me, two in open access:

* “Tolkien: sobre la trascendencia desde el corazon artistico”. Part of a 2021 Spanish-language volume of essays whose title translates as The Absent Presence: God in Contemporary Literature, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. (Gives the initial appearance of being about the discovery of earendel, but this is quickly skipped over and the text is actually a survey-study of the creation elements in The Silmarillion).

* “Finnic tetrameter in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Story of Kullervo in comparison to W.F. Kirby’s English translation of the Kalevala“. (A close line-by-line study, comparing the “chunks of poetry” in Tolkien’s Story with Kirby’s 1907 translation).

* Tolkien and Auden, a study in Russian with an English abstract available… “… examines the main stages of the relationship: Auden’s studies at Oxford University, where Tolkien was one of the lecturers and examiners of the poet, and the friendship that arose several decades later on the basis of a common interest of the former student and the professor in Old English poetry, as well as Auden’s deep interest in the epic novel The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s works in general. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of Tolkien’s letters to Auden, which are characterised by a confidential, friendly tone. It is noted that these letters are an important source of information about the reasons, history and ways of writing of Tolkien’s works. The situations behind specific letters are revealed through engagement with additional sources.”

Magic in London (1925)

by futurilla

New on Hathi, Magic in modern London (1925). A serious Folk-lore Society study of enduring superstitions and related lore in London.

Such a pity no-one ever did the same for Stoke. Though here you can see a variety of items suggesting at least relic folk-beliefs circa 1900. The two carved owls atop on the side-posts, the green-man like faces on the wrought iron flanking the door, the four mirrors in the window, and the spread eagle (or possibly a mythic bird, as it seems to have a peacock’s head) above all. Actually it might even be a large duck.

New book: Tolkien and the Lizard: J.R.R. Tolkien in Cornwall, 1914

by futurilla

My new book Tolkien and the Lizard: J.R.R. Tolkien in Cornwall, 1914 was sold in ebook as a time-limited fundraiser for my larger book on Tolkien.

Update: My thanks to the nine people who purchased copies of the Cornwall ebook. As of Sept 2022 the much larger book is now published, and it includes ‘Tolkien in Cornwall’. The new book is available to buy now, from this page.

A new comic-book adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

by futurilla

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a new comic-book, November 2021.

A glowing review indicates that the unpromising cover does not reflect the fine interior artwork.

It’s not on Amazon but elsewhere I found out that it’s 44 pages in total and, with the above review mentioning the long footnoted essay at the end… it’s not actually the graphic novel I initially thought it was. Still it looks excellent, if you can get past that cover, and is just £5 direct from the author. I assume it’s a paper booklet-comic, but it might be digital at that price.

Castle Rocks near Ludchurch

by futurilla

A new ‘Gawain Country’ picture, not seen before. The ‘Castle Rocks’ near Ludchurch, seen here before overgrowth and perhaps circa 1920 judging by the girl’s attire.

A natural formation. Though perhaps slightly ‘enhanced’ with antiquarian stone-repositioning for visual impact, and denuded by stone-cutting for local walls (see the long groove on the right). It’s relevant to Ralph W. V. Elliott’s 1980s claims for the location of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at and around the nearby Swithamley (see maps below). Actually that claim is not inconsistent with my recent detailed investigation of the medieval Alton Castle and its family. Because it may have been that the young Gawain poet was educated by boarding a little away from home and in a lower-ranking but worthy house, as was then often the custom. Thus Swithamley — some 14 miles north along the Earlsway from Alton Castle, and on the direct route to the family’s Irish holdings — would seem a possibility for that, and could give the writer a lengthy and formative immersion in the required dialect micro-region. This does, however, of course assume that a substantial house of some kind was at Swithamley before the dissolution of the monasteries.