{"id":18822,"date":"2026-02-10T19:02:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/?p=18822"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:32:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:32:58","slug":"tolkien-gleanings-381","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/2026\/02\/10\/tolkien-gleanings-381\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien Gleanings #381"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings<\/a> #381<\/p>\n

* At the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society tonight<\/a>, Holly Ordway speaking on “Tolkien and the Development of Tradition: The Lord of the Rings<\/em> as a Modern Book”. And last week their talk was on “Tolkien and the Midlands: Place, People, and Past in the Making of Middle-earth”. Still to come is a talk on “A Long Defeat: Tolkien’s Vision of History in The Lord of the Rings”<\/em>. Hopefully there will be recordings online in due course.<\/p>\n

* Ned Lunn’s blog reviews Ordway’s Tolkien’s Faith<\/em><\/a>…<\/p>\n

“It enlivened a deep, perhaps slightly romantic, longing for a form of academic life where theology is not an optional add on but is unapologetically a governing discipline. It was the people and saints that Tolkien lauded and was inspired by, however, that really touched a nerve. Figures such as John Henry Newman, in particular, whose theology and spirituality have long resonated with me. These were not simply historical influences for Tolkien; they were living interlocutors that shaped his moral imagination and intellectual posture.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* Public Discourse<\/em> magazine discovers “J.R.R. Tolkien Against the Leftists”<\/a> in the new expanded Letters<\/em>. Freely available online.<\/p>\n

* Aphuulishfellow’<\/em>s blog reviews The Bovadium Fragments<\/em><\/a> and remarks that…<\/p>\n

“Tolkien\u2019s story is at heart an independently-written version of The Great God Awto<\/a> (1940), by Clark Ashton Smith”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I took a look at the dates and publication history. CAS’s “Awto” first appeared in the U.S. pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories<\/em> (Feb 1940), and then was anthologised by Derleth’s Arkham House in Tales of Science and Sorcery<\/em> (1964). The Bovadium Fragments<\/em> were however written 1957-1960, so Tolkien cannot have seen the tale in the 1964 anthology. It seems rather unlikely he had earlier seen a copy of Thrilling Wonder<\/em> on publication, due to both the war restricting imports and the incredibly severe winter in Britain (the worst for 50 years) at the time the magazine could have been on the news-stands. On the other hand, it’s not impossible that someone could have sent him a couple of tear-sheets in the post at some point, knowing it was the sort of witty squit that would appeal. But we’ll likely never know now.<\/p>\n

* The Germans will have the Fragments<\/em>, translated as Die Bovadium Fragmente<\/em>, on 14th February 2026.<\/p>\n

* Book collecting blog Elder Days<\/em> considers the question “Why Collect The Silmarillion<\/em>?”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* A couple of concept illustrations and a render of a 3D block-out have surfaced, from Eidos-Montreal’s recently abandoned Middle-earth game. They show the ruined port of Umbar, which at the time of LoTR<\/em> was infested with the fearsome corsairs. <\/p>\n

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

* And finally, talking of a big clean-up, The Great British Spring Clean is set for 13th to 29th March 2026. The nation’s annual volunteer litter-pick, a ‘must-do’ for Shire-scouring hobbits everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
From Tolkien’s Middle English Vocabulary<\/em> (1922).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings #381 * At the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society tonight, Holly Ordway speaking on “Tolkien and the Development of Tradition: The Lord of the Rings as a Modern Book”. And last week their talk was on “Tolkien and the Midlands: Place, People, and Past in the Making of Middle-earth”. Still to come is a […]<\/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-18822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tolkien-gleanings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18822","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=18822"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18829,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18822\/revisions\/18829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}