{"id":19385,"date":"2026-06-06T12:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/?p=19385"},"modified":"2026-06-06T13:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:31:00","slug":"tolkien-gleanings-421","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/2026\/06\/06\/tolkien-gleanings-421\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien Gleanings #421"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings<\/a> #421<\/p>\n

* A new Middle English translation by Tolkien is to be published in a few days. According to the Telegraph<\/em> ($ paywall), a ten-page heavily-annotated typescript was found at the Bodleian and realised to be a long-lost and unknown translation. It had been lost due to mis-sorting into a box of Sir Orfeo<\/em> papers. His translation of the homily Sawles Warde <\/em>will now be published for free on 8th June 2026 in an edition of the journal The Review of English Studies<\/em>, as “J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Soul\u2019s Ward<\/em>: A Critical Edition of His Unpublished Translation of the Early Middle English Homily Sawles Warde”<\/em>. <\/p>\n

A little research shows that the West Midlands alliterative dialect homily was written c. 1210 (sources differ, some say 1240), most likely in Herefordshire in the far south-west of the West Midlands. The homily was itself a partial translation and popular local adaptation\/expansion of part of Hugh of St. Victor’s De Anima<\/em>. Tom Shippey called it a “little allegory” of the guarding of the purity of the soul with a protective structure. The recent book Tolkien on Chaucer<\/em> quotes a passing mention of it by Tolkien, found in a 1920s review by Tolkien of an edition of the Hali Meidenhad<\/em>. Tolkien said there of Sawles Warde<\/em> that it… “approaches the liveliness and picturesqueness, if not the humanity” of the Hali Meidenhad<\/em>. A 1984 essay by Anne Eggebroten remarks… “the Sawles Warde<\/em> author copies [Hugh’s] passages on heaven and hell more or less ver\u00adbatim, [but] he expands and strengthens the castle metaphor, dramatizing it with a fuller cast of characters.”<\/p>\n

* The Tolkien Guide<\/em> has a review<\/a> of the new book J.R.R. Tolkien and G.B. Smith, With Wind in our Ears<\/em>, and also an interview with Giuseppe Pezzini. The recording of the interview is also on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* A new special-issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research<\/em> on Asexuality in Tolkien’s Legendarium<\/a>. The usually ‘rolling issue’ format is this time forgone and we have a complete-in-one-go edition. As usual, freely available online. Includes amongst others…<\/p>\n

   – Introduction: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Works.
\n   – “Motions of Love and Friendship”: Elven (A)sexuality.
\n   – “As Bachelors Very Exceptional”: An Asexual Reading of Frodo Baggins.<\/p>\n

* Lawyers, Guns and Money<\/em> has a new long post on The Art of Cor Blok<\/a> in relation to his illustrating Tolkien. Freely available and heavily illustrated. The author notes that the artbook A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings<\/em> can still be had on Amazon, and I’d also note that it’s a reasonable \u00a320 in hardback.<\/p>\n

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

* Elfenomeno<\/em> has a blog post on a newly revised and expanded edition of the Tolkien FAQ book<\/a> in Spanish. Apparently “fully up to date”, and the full title is J.R.R. Tolkien: Frequently Asked Questions (and a Few Odd Ones)<\/em>. The handsome new hardback book can be had from Legendaria Ediciones.<\/p>\n

* And finally, new to me is a series of four French-language France Culture podcasts on Tolkien<\/a> from the national broadcaster Radio France. From 2018, but still freely available in the UK and without captchas or region-blocking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolkien Gleanings #421 * A new Middle English translation by Tolkien is to be published in a few days. According to the Telegraph ($ paywall), a ten-page heavily-annotated typescript was found at the Bodleian and realised to be a long-lost and unknown translation. It had been lost due to mis-sorting into a box of Sir […]<\/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-19385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tolkien-gleanings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385","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=19385"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19397,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385\/revisions\/19397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}