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 readers of this blog.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Popping up on eBay, the programme for the Arthur Berry play Dr. Fergo’s Last Passion (aka Doctor Fergo’s Last Passion) from 1979, later followed by Dr. Fergo Rides Again in 1982. New to me. Described as “a rude ballad opera” with comedic songs, by a snippet from one old paywalled newspaper review. It has a local Potteries setting.
Regrettably there never seems to have been a recording or a radio version. Presumably the scripts and staging directions are still available. Might it then be revived? Possibly it would be too bawdy and ‘incorrect’ for our censorious times, but perhaps it could be done as a full-cast audio-only recording?
Another round up of interesting new Tolkien items, mostly free:
The Journal of Tolkien Research has a new issue. Three new papers from the prolific Kristine Larsen, all of interest.
* Who Maketh Morwinyon, and Menelmacar, and Remmirath, and the Inner Parts of the South (Where the Stars are Strange): Tolkien’s Astronomical Choices and the Books of Job and Amos.
* Smaug’s Hoard, Durin’s Bane, and Agricola’s De Re Metallica: Cautionary Tales Against Mining in Tolkien’s Legendarium and the Classical Tradition.
* “Ore-ganisms”: The Myth and Meaning of ‘Living Rock’ in Middle-earth.
Also three indexes, all apparently new, to key Tolkien journals.
Another bumper Mythlore issue, including…
* All Worthy Things: The Personhood of Nature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium.
* The Shape of Water in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. (water symbolism)
* The Enigmatic Loss of Proto-Hobbitic. (the languages of early hobbits)
The latest Fafnir has…
* Book Review: Music in Tolkien’s Work and Beyond.
* Book Review: Utopian and Dystopian Themes in Tolkien’s Legendarium.
Unexpected has…
* Pius Samwise: Roman Heroism in The Lord of the Rings.
A paywalled book chapter, but of mild interest…
* Medieval Animals in Middle-earth. Update: May also be open access (temporary?) here.
Also an event, The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy’s Dark Corners – Online Winter Seminar 2022.
A major new book on Potteries poet and artist Arthur Berry is to be released in time for Christmas. Arthur Berry: A Ragged Richness is by art historian Peter Davies. The book launch will be followed by a large exhibition of Berry’s work in Newcastle-under-Lyme, during Jan 2022.
Tolkien Studies 2021 has landed on Project Muse. Including, of interest to me…
* Speculative Mythology: Tolkien’s Adaptation of Winter and the Devil in Old English Poetry.
* A review of Garth’s fine new book The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth.
* The Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies 2018.
* Bibliography (in English) for 2019.
A full listing including abstracts is at Tolkienists.
New on Hathi and possibly of interest to Tolkien researchers, hundreds of newly Google-scanned items from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Including many books and documents on and from the Library itself.
“Our release has over 250 collection guides, catalogues, exhibition books, and histories to which the Bodleian Libraries are rights holders.”
From The Bodleian Library in photographs.