Tolkien Gleanings #78.

* More details are emerging about the forthcoming “expanded” book of Tolkien’s letters. Turns out it really is being expanded with a substantial amount of letters from Tolkien, and not just three or four. To be… “revised and expanded, with ~150 new letters and additional material restored to existing letters”. Sounds good, and hopefully they won’t all be about how to pay the bills or his work on academic committees. The new expanded edition is due in November 2023. The Tolkien Guide is also making an online discovery tool to aid researchers.

* The new blog post “Introduction to Tolkien’s Metaphysics” has thoughts on the book The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faerie.

* Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Syllabus 2023. I wasn’t aware of this online course and see that it has just completed classes. The detailed course schedule and outline is still online, and it looks like 2023’s final student essays are now being posted on the blog. Such as “Invocation and Worship: Reverence for Elbereth”.

* In Spanish, with English abstract, ““The chanting becomes loud and clear”: J.R.R. Tolkien’s poetry, Anglo-Saxon epics and medieval liturgy on those who have fallen in battle” (2023). In open access.

* And finally, new on Archive.org, Christopher Isherwood’s diaries…

[May 1967] “Wystan [Auden] was wearing a sweater with the word GIMLI on it. [… He] remarked that the book on Tolkien which he has been writing has been held up, or maybe abandoned, because Tolkien didn’t like having the sources of some of his material revealed.”

The editor’s footnote suggests Auden later destroyed the entire text, after objections by Tolkien. Auden had apparently also been rather catty about the humdrum appearance of Tolkien’s house, which didn’t help matters.

Tolkien Gleanings #77.

* New and free in Hektoen: Journal of the Medical Humanities, “The Medical Inkling: R.E. Havard, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien”. On Tolkien’s doctor, who was also an Inkling….

“Lewis quickly introduced Havard to Tolkien, who also became one of Havard’s closest friends — and patients. In praising his medical acumen, Tolkien contrasted Havard with physicians who were “mere ‘doctors’ [and] tinkerers with machinery””.

* The Legendarium Podcast hits #400 (congratulations). The episode is a new 50-minute interview with the author of the book Tolkien Dogmatics (2022), discussing “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Theology”. This is a different interview to the one I linked in Gleanings #72.

* In The Stanford Review, “Decline Without Fall: Tolkien and the Long Defeat”.

* In The Imaginative Conservative, “Faith & Fantasy: Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling & Other Tellers of Tall Tales”.

* Open access in the latest ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, a short note on “The Relevance of Rivendell’s Growing Cultural Value from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings”. Don’t overlook the additional comments in the Notes.

* And finally, help fund John Garth’s work on Tolkien. He’s using a crowdfunder service that’s new to me, Steady HQ.

Tolkien Gleanings #76.

* Signum University’s Mythmoot X conference, themed as “Homeward Bound”. 22nd-25th June 2023, in Virginia USA. $75 for an online ticket, booking now.

* Coming in August 2023, the new book Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination. An edited collection, for which Amazon UK doesn’t yet have the TOCs. But I tracked them down and the book has only one Tolkien chapter, titled “Between Tolkien and the Philosophers: Greek and Scholastic Theories of Phantasia“.

* An older article that some may have overlooked, to be found in the British open access journal Writing in Practice. This is “The Grounds of Tolkien: unmappable, unbookable” (2018)… “setting Tolkien in the context of other creative writers of his time and the present day, draws on documentation of his creative practices”. Interesting, and especially in the substantial section on maps and mapping. But it’s perhaps equally interesting for demonstrating what is lost, when the academy’s ‘theory’ is unable to even mention religion.

* A short but perceptive review of the book Tolkien Dogmatics (2022) in March 2023, for the English Churchman newspaper… “One of the most interesting excurses in the book is on the topic of whether Tolkien considered himself to be writing inspired [i.e. ‘by God’] literature. Alarming though this proposition may sound, the reality of what he actually meant by it is benign.”

* And finally, “J.R.R. Tolkien and Imre Makovecz: Those Who Wage War Against the Death of God”. A new article in English, comparing Tolkien and an architect well-known in Hungary… “Both figures knew that they could not resurrect the dead, or bring the long-lost past back to life, but they could reimagine it in a way particular to them and the unique talents they possessed”.

Tolkien Gleanings #75.

* In the latest VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center (June 2022)…

   – Tolkien as Allegory: A Study in “Smith of Wooton Major” ($)

   – Tolkien, and the Power of Allusion in “Leaf by Niggle” ($)

   – Review of Tolkien & The Classical World (open access)

   – Review of Law, Government, and Society in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works (open access)

* A PhD thesis for Oxford Brookes University, Making Worlds Collide: Using Tolkien’s Fantasy Literature to Create a New Leadership Development Framework (2020). Includes sections on “The Biographical Context of Tolkien’s Leadership Writing”, and “Tolkien’s Possible Implicit Leadership Beliefs”. Freely available online.

* In Spanish, Vision ambiental del hogar en la obra Britanica La Comunidad del Anillo de J.R.R. Tolkien (2023, short trans. ‘Visions of a natural home in The Fellowship of the Ring‘). Suggests that The Shire as depicted in Fellowship offers a… “concept of home, in which … nature is not placed in a separate and artificial space, but on the same level as the protagonists of the stories.”

* In the city of York, at the annual Ridings of Yorkshire Society Conference 2023 in June, “a talk by Tolkien & the East Riding expert Michael Flowers”. Elsewhere, this is clarified as “speaking on Tolkien and the East Riding”.

* David Bratman takes a look at the remarkable family history of R. W. Reynolds. Reynolds was one of Tolkien’s most influential school teachers in the city of Birmingham (“Mr. R. W. Reynolds, King Edward’s School, Birmingham”), and someone whose opinion on literary matters Tolkien continued to value more than a decade later. It was for Reynolds that Tolkien wrote the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’ (1926-30).

* And finally, a new Visual Collecting Guide to “non-Tolkien Books with Tolkien Content”. The most impressive cover is the Winter’s Tales for Children 1 (1965), the start of a four-book series, to which Tolkien kindly contributed the previously unpublished “The Dragon’s Visit”. Not on Archive.org.

Tolkien Gleanings #74.

* A new oliphaunt-sized YouTube playlist which collects John Garth interviews and talks. 22 hours in total!

* The Italian Tolkien Association tours the new Images/Imaginaires exhibition, with interior photographs. In Italian, but easily translated via Google.

* Call for papers: “Research and meeting days on Tolkien” in Paris, France on 6th-7th October 2023. This forthcoming academic colloquium, which appears to be annual, will be…

“in line with previous generalist colloquiums which have provided the French-speaking public with new insights into Tolkien and his work. Translation and reception issues may be highlighted [and also appreciated will be] clarifications of aspects of the life of the author. Young researchers are especially welcomed. Communications may be in French or English”.

Proposals should be sent to the email address colloquium2023@tolkiendil.com before 31st May 2023.

* A new podcast interview with “the man behind The Tolkien Collector’s Guide“.

* And finally, Aziff Azuddin’s new Tolkien Malaysia Map (2020-23), Malaysia and Indonesia finely done in the Tolkien mapping style.

Tolkien Gleanings #73.

* Tolkien, Christianity, and Art… “The Lumen Christi Institute has designed this two-day seminar to introduce major themes and debates from the Catholic Church’s history to a wide online audience” and in the context of Tolkien and his work. 18th-22nd July 2023, led by faculty lecturers. $95 with “a limited number of scholarships available”. Though it appears not be an actual online seminar? Probably face-to-face in Chicago, recorded and then to be placed online as a recording? Anyway, wherever it is… booking now.

* New to me, Not The Fellowship: Dragons Welcome! (2022), a Luna Press book intended… “to foreground Middle-earth characters, across ages and races, who may not be as familiar as the Fellowship.” Includes, among others, articles on “The Last Prince of Cardolan: memory and mediation in the mortuary archaeology of Middle-earth”, and “The Gaffer: between cabbages and potatoes”.

* Feeling peckish after reading some heavy Tolkien scholarship? Both of these are in open access, “‘What’s Taters, Precious?’: Food in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings“ (2010) and “Simple Pleasures in Tolkien’s Poetry: Eating and Drinking and the Depth of Things” (2011). The latter crunchable PDF can be had without an Academia.edu sign-up, by searching for the start of the title in Google Scholar. Academia.edu has a special arrangement with Scholar, to give direct PDF access from its search results.

* The book Environmental Humanities and Theologies (2018) reviewed…

“One of the strongest chapters, chapter 2, shows a clear lineage from scripture to literature, weaving together a critical reading of [the Bible’s] Genesis with the disparaging view of wetlands depicted by Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings.”

Of course it could be that the “disparaging” is simply due to swamps being nasty smelly things full of dangerous mires and biting insects.

* Publications of the annual FantaelX event in Spain. Including four free annual volumes of scholarly work on the fantastic, in PDF and in English. A keynote at the 2022 event was “Vampires and Werewolves in Middle-earth” which is not online and has no abstract, but one can be found elsewhere. In the changing landscape of Middle-earth the reader’s journey sometimes encounters…

“a liminal space within the text, blur[ring] the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural, inviting the reader to confront the uncanny in an otherwise familiar-seeming subcreation. This includes those icons of the horror/fantasy genre and popular culture: werewolves and vampires.”

* And finally, fountains play a very subtle part in LoTR. Such as the contrasts that the attentive reader can find between those in Lorien, the overgrown ones in Ithilien (“land of many fountains”), and the top-most Court of the Fountain in Minas Tirith. One interesting point I hadn’t known — re: ‘the science of LoTR’ — is that in operation fountains are too fast for shadows.

Tolkien Gleanings #72.

* Apply — Inklings Project… “The Inklings Project requests fellowship applications from faculty at universities and colleges to encourage the teaching of the works of the Inklings, especially C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.” Deadline: 1st July 2023. Note also their set of past “Inklings-Related Course Syllabi”.

* My pick of Tolkien material in the newly open-access journal Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal…

    – The Lore of Wood and Stone: Magic in the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings (article)

    – Review of Tolkien (the cinema movie)

    – Review of The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien

    – Review of Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

    – Review of High Towers and Strong Places: A Political History of Middle

    – Review of An Encouraging Thought: The Christian Worldview in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien

* Upstream Podcast – “J.R.R. Tolkien the theologian?” (April 2023) in which… “Dr. Austin Freeman discusses his book, Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology through Mythology with the Maker of Middle-earth”. Also a later Upstream Podcast – Further Upstream reflection on that interview. The .MP3 download at Listen Notes is found under the “More…” button.

* Newly on Archive.org, Tree of Tales: Tolkien, literature, and theology (Baylor University Press, 2007). Including a chapter titled, with admirable optimism for a dismal academy, “Tolkien and the Future of Literary Studies”.

* And finally, The Sheldon Tapestry Map: Oxfordshire. Currently restored and on display in Oxford.

Tolkien Gleanings #71.

* J.R.R. Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories” (unabridged), as an audiobook reading of over two hours, from Catholic Culture Audiobooks. Currently free on YouTube, with a date of March 2023. Hat-tip for the news to Bruce Charlton who comments… “The superb performance is by [American] voice-actor James W. Majewski; who really seems to understand what he is reading, so that it is expounded with great clarity.” The voice is relatively neutral and soft, and at a guess is perhaps a New England accent?

* A May 2023 YouTube interview with Peter Grybauskas about The Battle of Maldon by J.R.R. Tolkien. Starts at 3:23.

* The March issue of the University Bookman had a scholarly and critical review of the new book The Fall of Numenor.

* This month’s Essential C.S. Lewis round-up brings news that Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal is now open access and has a new university repository URL. This long-running scholarly journal has a pony-load of Tolkien content, as you might expect, mostly to be found in the reviews.

* And finally, a two-hour stage version of The Hobbit, at the Oxford Playhouse at the end of June 2023. It seems to be a local youth production, judging by the rehearsal pictures. Booking now.