{"id":18675,"date":"2025-12-18T15:34:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/?p=18675"},"modified":"2025-12-22T18:34:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:34:54","slug":"tolkien-gleanings-367","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/2025\/12\/18\/tolkien-gleanings-367\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien Gleanings #367"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings<\/a> #367<\/p>\n

* David Bratman has announced his retirement as co-editor of the journal Tolkien Studies<\/em>. The new co-editor is Kristine Larsen, who many will know via her excellent articles on aspects of astronomy in Tolkien’s work. Tolkien Studies<\/em> No. 22 is set for release in the spring of 2026.<\/p>\n

* A new Journal of Tolkien Research<\/a><\/em> issue has begun, with reviews of Tolkien among the Theologians<\/em> (2025) and The High Hallow: Tolkien\u2019s Liturgical Imagination<\/em> (2025). Also, arriving at the last minute in the previous issue, you may have missed Kristine Larsen’s article “Tracing the Caves of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien\u2019s Legendarium (and Beyond)”<\/a>. Freely available online. <\/p>\n

* Miriam Ellis muses on “The Three Remarkable Daughters of the Old Took”<\/a>. One might add that Tolkien was the son of one of the ‘three remarkable daughters’ of John Suffield.<\/p>\n

* The latest Oxford Centre for Fantasy podcast considers the audiobook biographies currently available<\/a> for Tolkien, Lewis, and the Inklings.<\/p>\n

* Matej Cadil takes his readers on an unusually-mapped journey from Bree<\/a> to the Lonely Mountain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* The short book Tolkien and the Kalevala<\/em> (2024) is set for release as a paperback edition<\/a> at the end of January 2026.<\/p>\n

* The contents-list and cover for the new Icons of the Fantastic<\/em> exhibition catalogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Scheduled for January\/February\/March 2026 at at the Marion E. Wade Center, three talks on ‘Otherworldly Wisdom on Rights and Wrongs, with the third being “The Ring of Righteousness: Justice in J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Middle-earth”<\/a>. The talks will be recorded and freely available on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Grognadria<\/em> reconsiders<\/a> the much-debated 1985 article “The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D<\/em> and AD&D<\/em> Games”<\/a>. Why did Gygax constantly disavow Tolkien’s influence? I suspect part of the answer may be: ‘The Tolkien Estate would have sued him, while the other fellows he mentioned as influences were either dead or were fannish enough that they wouldn’t have sued’.<\/p>\n

* The Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em> reviews The Bovadium Fragments<\/em><\/a> at length. Freely available online, at least when using a U.S. node in a VPN…<\/p>\n

“much of this is rather funny \u2014 who else has ever referred to gasoline as a \u201ccostly essence\u201d? But that humor masks a genuine seriousness. Indeed, it was for that reason Kilby deemed the work \u201cunpublishable\u201d: he believed that \u201ca reader\u2019s eye would focus on its playfulness rather than its serious implications.\u201d For example, in one passage, Tolkien writes that \u201con the days formerly set aside for prayers and rites in the temples many would now wheel their Motores out upon a platform before their houses and there tend them and worship them, prostrate upon the ground.\u201d It\u2019s an amusing way of describing the Sunday car wash, but it also reveals a change in culture that would have aggrieved Tolkien, a devout Catholic: the search for spiritual salvation replaced by the worship of material possessions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* And finally, a Lord of the Rings<\/em> Marathon Screening<\/a> of the ‘extended cut’ movies, at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 4k, all on 7th February 2026, and with sustaining meals fit for hobbitses to eat. Booking now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings #367 * David Bratman has announced his retirement as co-editor of the journal Tolkien Studies. The new co-editor is Kristine Larsen, who many will know via her excellent articles on aspects of astronomy in Tolkien’s work. Tolkien Studies No. 22 is set for release in the spring of 2026. * A new Journal […]<\/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-18675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tolkien-gleanings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675","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=18675"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18686,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675\/revisions\/18686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}