{"id":17933,"date":"2025-08-26T20:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potbanks.wordpress.com\/?p=17933"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:58:28","slug":"tolkien-gleanings-327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/2025\/08\/26\/tolkien-gleanings-327\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien Gleanings #327"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings<\/a> #327<\/p>\n

* The latest edition of the UK’s History Today<\/em> news-stand magazine (September 2025) has an opening print-only article on “This Middle Earth”…<\/p>\n

“The article explores the historical and cultural significance of the term “middle earth,” tracing its origins from the Anglo-Saxon word middangeard, which referred to the human realm distinct from divine and monstrous realms. Initially associated with a cosmological understanding, the term evolved through medieval and early modern literature …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* Details about what’s in the new French book Tolkien et la memoire de l’antiquite<\/a><\/em> (‘Tolkien and the Memory of Antiquity’, published August 2025).<\/p>\n

The first part<\/strong> appears to make a biographical survey of Tolkien’s schooling and training in relation to the Classics…<\/p>\n

Chapter I. Antiquity in Tolkien’s literary and linguistic culture – A classic education – ancient readings and predilection for late antiquity – from ancient readings to literary creation – the taste of ancient languages \u200b\u200b- from Latin to Quenya – ancient ludic etymologies.<\/p>\n

Chapter II. Traces of ancient philosophy in the culture of Tolkien – an expensive investigation – a meeting of many ways – traces and testimonies in the work.<\/p>\n

Chapter III. Antiquity in Tolkien’s historical vision – a broad vision of history – between Homer and classic historians: the basics of training – the medievalist and his historical sources – from knowledge to historical vision.<\/p>\n

The second part<\/strong> appears to explore the “presence of the ancient world in the land” in the context of Middle-earth’s own antiquity. This includes a section intriguingly titled “Middle-earth as listening: limits, climates and landscapes”. Which is presumably on the sonic topography?<\/p>\n

The third part<\/strong> appears to seek the usual classical sources in Orpheus, Plato (ring of Gyges), the Trojan wars, The Odyssey, mythic descents into the underworld, etc.<\/p>\n

* New to me, a prize-winning undergraduate final dissertation from Brandeis University, “Invisible Enemy, Visible Harm: Unearthing Traces of the 1918 Flu Pandemic in Tolkien’s Middle-earth”<\/a> (2020). Now freely available online.<\/p>\n

* New at Pastor Theologians<\/em>, “Twice-Told Tales: Tolkien’s Numenor, America, and the Church”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* At Bandcamp Daily<\/em>, a new long article and survey “Exploring the Mystical Realms of Fantasy Synth”<\/a>, meaning ‘synthesizer-based electronic music’…<\/p>\n

“The resurgence of dungeon synth over the past decade or so has been something to behold. From a sparse scene of solo creators toiling away in hermetic isolation to a global community of thriving [record] labels, sold-out festivals and international tours \u2014 truly, we are living in renaissance times. […] Survey the wider scene, though, and you\u2019ll encounter dizzying variety [beyond the doomy gloominess of dungeon synth]. Think of a fantasy setting or a specific corner of mythology, and there\u2019s almost certainly a one-person synth project out there taking its lore and turning it into music.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* Some 50 years before The Clangers<\/em> arrived on British TV, Tolkien was creating a wide range of strange flora and fauna<\/a> on the Moon.<\/p>\n

* And finally, in October 2025 the French are set to read a translation of Le Hobbit, illustre par Tove Jansson<\/em>. Oddly listed on Amazon UK under “Paranormal & Urban”. But perhaps the publisher knows that’s where the young readers \/ moms are, those who are most likely to purchase?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings #327 * The latest edition of the UK’s History Today news-stand magazine (September 2025) has an opening print-only article on “This Middle Earth”… “The article explores the historical and cultural significance of the term “middle earth,” tracing its origins from the Anglo-Saxon word middangeard, which referred to the human realm distinct from divine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tolkien-gleanings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17955,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions\/17955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}