Parma-kenta

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Tolkien Transactions XXVI

June 2012

Given the huge amount of Tolkien-related stuff that is going on on the internet every month, these Transactions are inevitably going to reflect my personal tastes and prejudices — there is no way that I would be able to even read, much less comment upon, every single Tolkien-related item that I come across.

Much is sorted away based merely on headline and preview, while other things are quickly closed. This e.g. happens to reviews of other authors whose work is compared to Tolkien as well as to most of the rumours concerning the Hobbit films that are being made in New Zealand. I am not much interested in films in any case and so I am utterly indifferent to any discussion of which actor gets to play which part and similar rumours.

Inevitably I will miss something — it would be naïve to think otherwise, and I often discover things soon after posting that ought to have been included, which is why you will occasionally find items listed with dates that lie before the start of the month of the issue in question. I am grateful for any suggestions and pointers that you can come up with, so please post them! As usual I make no claims about newness, exhaustiveness and relevance, but contrary to earlier statements, I actually am proud enough of this to take full responsibility for what I am doing here ;-)

The items have been sorted into the following sections:
1: Obituary
2: News
3: Essays and Scholarship
4: Reviews and Book News
5: Other Stuff
6: Interviews
7: Rewarding Discussions
8: In Print
9: Web Sites
10: Sources

= = = = Obituary = = = =

Another of the most respected on-line experts on Tolkien lore has died.
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=244161
I never knew David M. Gransby by other name than his user-name, halfir, but i quickly learned to respect his knowledge both on Tolkien and on related matters (halfir was very well read indeed), and his judgement. One rarely learns and grows only by speaking with those who agree with you, and I learned a lot from the few discussions where I happened to not agree fully with halfir — learning for which I will always be grateful.

I am sure that halfir now is perfectly capable of holding his own, as Kristine Larsen suggests, ‘in a lively discussion with the Good Professor in whatever version of the Eagle and Child awaits the Second Born beyond the Walls of the World.’ (‘Sea Birds and Morning Stars’ in Tolkien and the Study of his Sources p. 82). Whether we knew him as halfir or David, his wisdom and his wit will be sorely missed by us who remain within the Circles of Arda.

Namarië!

= = = = News = = = =

Erik Kain, Forbes, Friday, 1 June 2012, ‘On The Jackson-ification Of 'The Lord of the Rings'’
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/06/01/on-the-jackson-ification-of-the-lord-of-the-rings/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/87ek53l
Erik Kain admits to getting ‘a little tired of the Peter Jackson/Warner Bros. version’ of Tolkien's stories — not, I suppose, because they are bad, but rather because it is a ‘shame’ that they are ‘quickly becoming the only way we experience Tolkien’s work.’ I suppose Kain would find himself agreeing with many of the points that Ruth Lacon makes in her essay on the Tolkien Library website (see the Transactions for January 2012 — no. XXI). In this case the immediate cause for this concern is the Lego imagery which is clearly copying the visualization from the Jackson / New Line Cinema films.

Josh Vogt, Examiner.com, Thursday, 7 June 2012, ‘Warner Bros. reveals extent of ‘The Hobbit’ licensing deals’
http://www.examiner.com/article/warner-bros-reveals-extent-of-the-hobbit-licensing-deals
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bl8drzs
Well — what it says, basically ;-) A reminder to those of us who labour out of our love for Tolkien's work that this is not what makes the world go round. At some level I am also reminded of Doug Anderson's announcement in April that he has left the editorship of Tolkien Studies — the Mordor business style is not limited to publishing.

Josh Vogt, Examiner.com, Friday, 8 June 2012, ‘LEGO designer videos highlight LEGO: Lord of the Rings sets’
http://www.examiner.com/article/lego-designer-videos-highlight-lego-lord-of-the-rings-sets
http://preview.tinyurl.com/85hg6zo
A reference to the new videos that Lego have put on-line about their ‘Lord of the Rings’ series.

Geeks of Doom, Monday, 11 June 2012, ‘Check Out These Beautiful ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Illustrations By Frank Frazetta’
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/06/11/check-out-these-beautiful-lord-of-the-rings-illustrations-by-frank-frazetta/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d8unebr
A gallery of illustrations by Frank Frazetta inspired by The Lord of the Rings. I don't think the mail that Éowyn wears in Frazetta's version is very practical, nor that it would have served to hide her gender . . ..

Lynn Maudlin, Mythcon, Sunday, 17 June 2012, ‘Mythcon 43 (Aug 2012): Progress Report 2 Available’
http://www.mythsoc.org/news/mythcon-43-progress-report-2/
People will, as usual, be gathering for the annual Mythcon, and those planning to attend (and even some of those not) will be pleased to know more about the progress.

Sohmer and Lar, Sunday, 17 June 2012, ‘Least I Could Do’
http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comic/20120617
Just for laughs: on the child-rearing effects of the all-seeing eye . . . :-)

John Kovalic, Dork Tower, Monday, 18 June 2012, ‘Novel Game’
http://www.dorktower.com/2012/06/18/novel-game/
John Kovalic has created a series of comics that portray the evolution of The Lord of the Rings as the result of the Inklings playing a table-top role-playing game. The idea is, I think, amusing enough to warrant mention here, but I can't help but believe that it would have been more funny if the author knew (considerably) more about the history of the writing of the book (‘Blimey, Ronald, old man! You can't have us roll up that same group again — I simply won't play that silly Hobbit ranger, ‘Trotter’ , any more!’ "Well, Jack, in that case . . . we do need a ranger, but why don't you try to roll up a Man . . . we can call him ‘Strider’ instead . . .'). Of course, in that case the humour might be lost on the majority of the audience (on the other hand — who reads a comic called ‘Dork Tower’ if not people who know about Trotter, the Hobbit ranger?). And do read the following posts to ‘Dork Tower’ since these are also about the Inklings role-playing game.

Kirsten Acuna, Business Insider, Friday, 22 June 2012, ‘Um, An IMDB User Actually Thought ‘Lord of the Rings’ Ripped Off 'Harry Potter'’
http://www.businessinsider.com/imdb-user-believed-lord-of-the-rings-ripped-off-harry-potter-2012-6
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d9357px
I am sure that most of you have seen this story in one variant or another. Surely this must be a troll — and one that is just on the edge between clever and too stupid, but I can't imagine anyone actually being that . . . uninformed while still having the urge to communicate on the subject.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

JDR, Friday, 1 June 1 2012, ‘Final Thoughts re. Wilson’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/06/final-thoughts-re-wilson.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ccg7p9d
I am just a little wary of my own reaction to these posts by John Rateliff as I suspect that there might be just a bit of spite involved in my amusement, but I can't help being both interested and amused . . . ;-)

JM, Friday, 1 June 2012, ‘Tolkien's Metaphysics of Evil’
Part 41, ‘Hegel, Marx, and Sauron's Ring’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/hegel-marx-and-saurons-ring/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cs8vmdc
In his series on Tolkien's Metaphysics of Evil, Jonathan McIntosh this month takes us futher along the road of his thoughts on Tolkien's ponerology. In the first posts McIntosh is still dwelling on the idea of the desire for domination (as the fourth sage in Tolkien's ‘lowerarchy of evil’), discussing the dependency of the master upon the slave — or upon his Machine: a theme that is easily extended to a discussion of Sauron's dependency upon the Master Ring and further to the concept of Morgoth's Ring. From there he moves on to what he consideres the fifth and final stage of evil which is the will to annihilation. From Melkor's nihilism (see e.g. Morgoth's Ring) this moves on to claim that only God (Eru) can truly annihilate anything, and to discuss suicide as an expression of this nihilistic desire — by committing suicide you do annihilate the whole world from your own perspective. The last posts in the ‘Metaphysics of Faërie’ section this month are not marked as being part of this series, but I suspect this is a mere oversight — they certainly follow on nicely from the discussions. The final posts that I suspect belong to the ‘Metaphysics of Evil’ series deal with Ungoliant and her ‘unlight’ which, in particular with the general (albeit not universal) identification of darkness with evil, would seem to imply a Manichaean kind of evil force — hopefully McIntosh will discuss this subject further in July.
Category ‘Metaphysics of Faërie’:
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/category/j-r-r-tolkien/metaphysics-of-faerie/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cgv9ptc

BC, Saturday, 2 June 2012, "Charles Williams - ‘phenomenally religious"’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/06/charles-williams-phenomenally-religious.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d4baw8g
This month Bruce Charlton writes mostly about Charles Williams, whose vision he seems to attach much import to. Personally my only interest in Williams is in his relation to Tolkien (who, despite their being very good friends, apparently didn't like William's work very much), and so I am unable to comment much on the contents of these posts, though I found them interesting to read.

JM, Monday, 11 June 2012, ‘Saruman the Gollum’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/saruman-the-gollum/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d6c3h56
A series of three posts (so far) dealing with Saruman and his fall from grace — his ‘Gollumification’. I can see the point, but I am not ultimately convinced of McIntosh's initial claim, which can be summarized in the final sentence of the first post: ‘Saruman is sounding like a learned Gollum.’ The idea that is developed in the third post, however, seems far more convincing. The basic idea is to see a number of the interactions with Saruman as ‘an encounter or conflict between a hierarchically lower yet more virtuous being and a higher yet morally compromised being’, which compares very well to a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost.

JM, Wednesday, 13 June 2012, "Sub-creation and Augustine's ‘seminal reasons"’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/sub-creation-and-augustines-seminal-reasons/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d66vxas
Expanding on John Houghton's work in the article ‘Augustine in the Cottage of Lost Play’ in Tolkien the Medievalist (edited by Jane Chance), this post looks into the parallels between what Augustine calls ‘seminal reasons’ and Tolkien calls ‘sub-creation’.

JM, Tuesday, 18 June 2012, ‘One greater than Beowulf: Aragorn and Tolkien's marginalization of the monstrous’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/one-greater-than-beowulf-aragorn-and-tolkiens-marginalization-of-the-monstrous/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/col4yp7
Some thoughts on Aragorn and Beowulf as rulers and as fighters of monsters.

MM, Thursday, 21 June 2012, ‘Did Pauline Baynes Choose the Location of Dorwinion?’
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2012/06/21/did-pauline-baynes-choose-the-location-of-dorwinion/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ctkmm3z
On the placement of Dorwinion on the 1969 Pauline Baynes map, which ‘it must be presumed’ was ‘communicated to her by’ J.R.R. Tolkien along with other places and names.

= = = = Reviews and Book News = = = =

JDR, Tuesday, 5 June 2012, ‘The New Arrivals’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/06/new-arrivals.html
This time we are told about a string of new Tolkien-related arrivals at the Rateliff residence: a second edition copy of Drout's Beowulf and the Critics, Amon Hen no. 235 along with Mallorn no. 53 and an unnamed book (presumably the advance copy of Corey Olsen's book on The Hobbit which Rateliff discusses in a later post).

PC, Thursday, 8 June 2012, ‘The Hobbit is coming as are the film tie-in publications’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1040_The_Hobbit_Film_Tie_in_publications.php?466
http://preview.tinyurl.com/828zl23
Some news from the Tolkien Library about the planned publication of film tie-in products from Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin.

Mark T. Hooker, Mythprint, Tuesday, 12 June 2012, ‘Hobbit Place-names’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/hobbit-place-names/
A review of Hobbit Place-names: A Linguistic Excursion through the Shire by Rainer Nagel (originally appearing in Mythprint 49:3 (#356) in March 2012). Mark Hooker is quite pleased with Nagel's book, which investigates the place-names of The Shire in both the English original and the German translations.

PC, Friday, 15 June 2012, ‘What Would Bilbo Do? The Unofficial Hobbit Handbook’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1042_What_Would_Bildo_Do.php?467
http://preview.tinyurl.com/dxzed22
About an upcoming handbook written by ‘The Shire Collective’, who proudly proclaim on the front cover of the book that ‘Everything I Need to Know about Life I learned from Tolkien’.

David Oberhelm, Mythlore, Friday, 15 June 2012, ‘Good Dragons are Rare’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/good-dragons-are-rare/
The fact that this book, edited by Fanfan Chen and Thomas Honegger, collects essays in English, and German as well as in French does seem rather daunting, and Oberhelm also observes a ‘lack of a cohesive structure’ which certainly will not help someone likely to get lost in the several languages. Still, it would seem that there are some gems in this volume for the selective (or dedicated) reader.

JDR, Sunday, 24 June 2012, ‘Advance Reading Copy’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/06/advance-reading-copy.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d7j84nk
Rateliff has, probably not really surprisingly, been sent an advance reading copy of Corey Olsen's forthcoming book, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and speaks highly of it, though he doesn't reveal much about the actual contents (except with regards to the chapter on the riddle game, which has been read out earlier this year).

= = = = Interviews = = = =

MM, Friday, 15 June 2012, ‘An Interview With John Garth’
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2012/06/15/an-interview-with-john-garth/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c8runm4
Michael Martinez' interviews with Tolkien scholars are usually highly interesting, and his interview with John Garth is no exception to that. The focus is, very naturally given the focus of Garth's own Tolkien research, on Tolkien's experiences in the First World-war and other very early experiences.

Colin Duriez, Saturday, 30 June 2012, ‘A lifetime’s study of J. R. R. Tolkien: An interview with Jane Chance’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=244165
A lengthy interview with Tolkien scholar Jane Chance conducted by another Tolkien scholar, Colin Duriez. There are many interesting points to ponder in this interview (and indeed several of them are taken up in the associated comments thread)

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

H&S, Saturday, 2 June 2012, ‘Well, We're Back’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/well-were-back/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/borlcm9
After a trip to England, Christina and Wayne are blogging again. Among the news this time is the information that their Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien has been nominated for the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies (see also the announcement last month from the Mythopoeic Society, and their appearing at Tolkien-related events this autumn. Among the other items from June are accounts of various trips, including the trip to England in May, that are quite charming.

JDR, Wednesday, 13 June 2012, ‘In Praise of (Other People's) Basements’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/06/in-praise-of-other-peoples-basements.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/83rtkgn
An old friend has gifted John Rateliff a number of calendars including a number of old Tolkien calendars . . . three cheers for that kind of old friends!

LS, Thursday, 14 June 2012, ‘Kalamazoo 2012’
http://theruminate.blogspot.dk/2012/06/kalamazoo-2012.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7d2omk6
Larry Swain's report from Kalamazoo — officially known as the ‘International Congress on Medieval Studies’. Larry went to his first-ever Tolkien session (insert appropriate comment here) and then only sort-of half-reports on it (please, we want to _know_!), but Merlin DeTardo was reading a source-study paper on Sigurd and Gudrún. Otherwise it seems an enjoyable affair as, it is my impression, usual.

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

LotR Plaza: ‘Tom B: Peeling the Onion (Collegium 1)’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=193589
To commemorate halfir, here is a link to a very thorough investigation of Tom Bombadil that is mainly carried out by halfir, but in discourse with other posters.

‘Tragic figures’
news:4fcd81c1$0$10749$c3e8da3$dbd57e7@news.astraweb.com
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/ALH2JC7ARW0/discussion
http://preview.tinyurl.com/dxzrzg2
An interesting discussion of tragic figures in Tolkien. Somewhat marked by a lack of common understanding of what constitutes a ‘tragic figure’, but that just makes for some equally interesting side-discussions.

‘Tolkien's 'chief hero'’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=244017
Inspired by a blog-post in May, this thread includes Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull's explanation of why they were so sure that Tolkien's use of ‘chief hero’ refers to Sam.

‘The Narrator's Voice’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=244013
A discussion of the narrator's voice in The Hobbit — probably the one narrative element in all his published works that Tolkien expressed the greatest regret for. What is good about it, and what is bad? Does it make a difference whether something is meant to be ironic?

= = = = In Print = = = =

Beyond Bree June 2012
The June issue of Beyond Bree features a long article by Anne Marie Gazzola titled ‘One Lucky Hobbit: The Spiritual Journey of Bilbo Baggins’ dealing with Bilbo's great luck in The Hobbit. Other notable articles include the seventh (and last — at least for now) part of Dale Nelson's series ‘Days of the Craze’, this time dealing with the reaction of one Bill Meyers to Tolkien's work. Mark T. Hooker has a very interesting comment to the change in editorship of Tolkien Studies in which he looks at alternatives to the traditional academic publishing. On top of these there are the usual collection of smaller articles, letters, comments, news and reviews. Really, if you have not yet taken out a subscription, you should do so soon.

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

Tolkien Letter
http://www.flavinscorner.com/tolkienletter.htm
Now there is one lucky man ;-)
On how he received (part of) a letter by J.R.R. Tolkien and what is in it.

Tolkien manuscript page
http://medievalromance.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/J_R_R_Tolkien_The_Lord_of_the_Rings
Manuscript page from the chapter ‘The Stairs of Cirith Ungol’ with a picture of Cirith Ungol showing the entrance to Shelob's lair and the the pass and tower beyond.

= = = = Sources = = = =

John D. Rateliff (JDR) — ‘Sacnoth's Scriptorium’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com

Jason Fisher (JF) — ‘Lingwë — Musings of a Fish’
http://lingwe.blogspot.com

Michael Drout (MD) — ‘Wormtalk and Slugspeak’
http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/

Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull (H&S) — ‘Too Many Books and Never Enough’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/

Pieter Collier (PC) — ‘The Tolkien Library’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA) et Al. — ‘Wormwoodiana’
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com

Corey Olsen (CO), ‘The Tolkien Professor’
http://www.tolkienprofessor.com

David Bratman (DB), ‘Kalimac’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/
and the old home:
http://calimac.livejournal.com/

Larry Swain (LS), ‘The Ruminate’
http://theruminate.blogspot.com

Andrew Wells (AW), ‘Musings of an Aging Fan’
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com

Various, ‘The Northeast Tolkien Society’ (NETS), ‘Heren Istarion’
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com

Bruce Charlton (BC), ‘Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/

Andrew Higgins (AH), ‘Wotan's Musings’
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com

Various, The Mythopoeic Society
http://www.mythsoc.org

Henry Gee (HG) ‘cromercrox’, ‘The End of the Pier Show’
http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/

Jonathan S. McIntosh (JM), ‘The Flame Imperishable’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/

Morgan Thomsen (MT), ‘Mythoi’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net

John Howe (JH)
http://www.john-howe.com

David Simmons (DS), ‘Aiya Ilúvatar’
http://www.aiyailuvatar.org/

Michael Martinez (MM), ‘Tolkien Studies Blog’
http://blog.tolkien-studies.com/

Michael Martinez (MM), ‘Middle-earth’
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/

Troels Forchhammer (TF), ‘Parmar-kenta’
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com

Mythprint — ‘The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society’
http://www.mythsoc.org

Amon Hen — the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/

Beyond Bree — the newsletter of the Tolkien Special Interest Group of the Americal Mensa
http://www.cep.unt.edu/bree.html

- and others

Monday, 4 June 2012

Tolkien Transactions XXV

Tolkien Transactions XXV
May 2012

May has been a good month, but also a very busy month (between a very demanding course at work, family and scouting, there has been next to no time for Tolkien in May). This hopefully also explains the lateness of this issue. But here it is: all that I have found of sufficient interest and relation to Tolkien for me to share it with others from the month of May.

You will find the contents sorted into these groups:
1: News
2: Essays and Scholarship
3: Book News
4: Interviews
5: Other Stuff
6: Rewarding Discussions
7: In Print
8: Web Sites
9: Sources

= = = = News = = = =

Josh Vogt, Examiner, Monday, 7 May 2012, ‘Michael Tolkien confirmed to appear at the Return of the Ring conference’
http://www.examiner.com/article/michael-tolkien-confirmed-to-appear-at-the-return-of-the-ring-conference
http://preview.tinyurl.com/box6jbf
So, Michael Tolkien will appear at the Return of the Ring conference, speaking, presumably, about his own work, but hopefully also about his grandfather, the celebration of whose work is cause of the conference.

JDR, Monday, 7 May 2012, ‘THE HOBBIT and QWERTY’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/hobbit-and-qwerty.html
So, one of the stories that have been surfacing about the upcoming Hobbit films has been the objections of a test audience to a test screening — not because of the acting, directing, CGI or anything like that, but because the felt that the resolution (in both time and pixels) was too good: actors didn't look like characters, but like actors wearing make-up and costumes. Here John Rateliff comments on this criticism (like most of us, he hasn't seen the screening, so he cannot know how he'd react to it). Sometimes I think a bit of emotional detachment from the continued Jackson story is a good thing ;-)

JDR, Wednesday, 9 May 2012, ‘Valparaiso Tolkien Conference’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/valparaiso-tolkien-conference.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d3e9jg4
News on a March 2013 Tolkien conference in Valparaiso.

Dawn McCarty and Phil Milford, Bloomberg News, Monday, 21 May 2012, ‘Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Files For Bankruptcy’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-21/houghton-mifflin-harcourt-publishing-files-for-bankruptcy-1-.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/75togkh
Tolkien's US publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. (or just Houghton Mifflin) is filing for bancruptcy following a decline in the purchase of the school books that make up 90% of their business. This has apparently no influence on the planned Tolkien titles (including a number of titles in relation to the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit and the upcoming Hobbit films).
See also
Hannah Benjamin, Bloomberg News, Saturday, 12 May 2012, ‘Houghton Mifflin Plans $3.1 Billion Debt Reduction, FT Reports’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-12/houghton-mifflin-plans-3-1-billion-debt-reduction-ft-reports.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bsz9n6f
and
Mary Childs, Bloomberg News, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, ‘Houghton Mifflin Debt Valued At 55.5 Cents In Swaps Auction’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/houghton-debt-initially-valued-at-55-625-cents-in-swaps-auction.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c5pghel
and also John Rateliff's comments from Monday, 21 May 2012, ‘Houghton Mifflin hits a bump’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/houghton-mifflin-hits-bump.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7rp4eo9

David Oberhelman, The Mythopoeic Society, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, ‘Mythopoeic Awards: 2012 Finalists Announced’
http://www.mythsoc.org/news/awards-finalists-2012/
What it says, really . . .. I am particularly interested in the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, and I can see that of the five finalists, Tolkien is the focus of four (Sanford Schwartz' book, C.S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy being the fifth). Having read three of the four Tolkien-related finalists (Tolkien and the Study of His Sources, The Art of the Hobbit and Tolkien and Wales) I fully support their inclusion, and I will push the fourth book, Steve Walker's The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-earth’s Magical Style, forward on my to-buy list.

JDR, Thursday, 24 May 2012, ‘Another Upcoming Tolkien Conference’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/another-upcoming-tolkien-conference.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7g4pso6
About the plans to create a new ‘Conference on Middle Earth’ [sic] in Massachusetts in 2014.

JDR, Saturday, 26 May 2012, ‘Tolkien in Vermont’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/tolkien-in-vermont.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/73mlup2
John Rateliff (probably?) going to next year's annual Tolkien conference at the University of Vermont.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

JM, ‘Tolkien's metaphysics of evil’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/category/j-r-r-tolkien/metaphysics-of-faerie/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cgv9ptc
This month's articles (nos. 27 through 40) start with a discussion of the Elvish weaknesses of preservationism — leading to an arrest of change — as an example of possessiveness, which is described as ‘In a remote, yet real, Melkorian manner, it is to make the power and light of the Flame Imperishable coextensive with the light of one's own intellect.’ From here the discussion moves on to Sauron's will for domination, and from there to the One Ring, where the metaphysics of invisibility is touched on before moving on to the Manichaeism in Tolkien, which McIntosh sees as the philosophical position propounded by Sauron (and Melkor), but ultimately as rejected by Tolkien. Highly interesting stuff! Notice that part forty is not actually noted as part of the series, but it must be ‘Heidegger and Tolkien on Technology’.
I here link only to the first of the articles:
Part 27, 1 May, ‘Elves: Nostalgic Progressives or “Bad Conservatives”?’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/elves-nostalgic-progressives-or-bad-conservatives/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c6hya7h

BC, Thursday, 3 May 2012, ‘The unrepentant orcs’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2012/05/unrepentant-orcs.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d8wkh4o
Charlton here comes from Shippeys comments about Orcs as an image of evil to the idea that what seems to distinguish the Orcs from the other Children of Ilúavatar is the ability for repentance which the Orcs appear to lack. The ensuing discussion is also quite interesting though it is at times not entirely clear which concept of Orcs is being discussed.

JM, Saturday, 5 May 2012, ‘A Theology of the Possible’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/a-theology-of-the-possible-2/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cmxxylu
The first of another series of posts on Jonathan McIntosh' ‘The Flame Imperishable’ blog. In this case the aim is not so much a discussion of Tolkien, but rather a discussion with the express aim of trying to ‘formulate a more expressly sub-creative and Trinitarian theology of divine power (omnipotence)’ and the link is that Tolkien's writings on art and sub-creation informs the discussion. The six parts published this month lays the ground, including summarizing some important points in McIntosh' sources (or referring to earlier blog posts that summarize aspects of the discussion), mainly James Ross, God, Creator of Kinds and Possibilities, the summary and discussion of whom take up most of the posts.

SH, Sunday, 6 May 2012, ‘Orthodox Christianity and fantasy literature’
http://khanya.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/orthodox-christianity-and-fantasy-literature/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ccct3rn
Steve Hayes refers to Orthodox Christian bloggers discussing whether Orthodox Christians ought to read fantasy. I am reminded of Strider's comment in /LotR/: ‘If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so.’ This represents a position that I cannot agree with: if the only way to keep people ‘in place’ is to keep them ignorant, then you are using your authority to censor their knowledge as a means of dominating them, and this, in my eyes, can /never/ be good. I would instead teach them to recognize the temptation of evil: sometimes it is a difficult lesson to learn (as Boromir would come to realize), but it is to me far preferable to any kind of domination through censorship.

H&S, Sunday, 6 May 2012, ‘May 2012 Addenda and Corrigenda’
https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/may-2012-addenda-and-corrigenda/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ck4b3aq
Announcing publication of further addenda and corrigenda on their website.

BC, Saturday, 12 May 2012, ‘Tolkien, philology and theology’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/tolkien-philology-and-theology.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/72lpjco
Some perspectives on some of Tolkien's aims with his legendarium, claiming that Tolkien strove to achieve a unity of the West Midlands, England and Christianity. I am not sure that I can go the full nine yards with Bruce Charlton in this: I certainly think that he would need to look into the evolution of the legendarium as I am not sure that the unity that he lists is not an articificial construction bringing together aspects from various times of Tolkien's work. Still, it is an interesting perspective, and I think the basic idea of Tolkien striving to achieve a united whole of apparently unconnected ideas is correct — I just suspect that the set of ideas changed as his mythology evolved.

JM, Thursday, 24 May 2012, ‘'Day Shall Come Again!': The Book of Samuel in 'The Silmarillion'’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/day-shall-come-again-the-book-of-samuel-in-the-silmarillion/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7rypkdh
A comparative study of passages from The Silmarillion with the biblical Book of Samuel. It has been many years since I read any of the Book of Samuel, so I have only McIntosh' explanations to go by, but while some of the links seem rather tenuous, there is, I think, enough substance to the idea to warrant also a more detailed study. McIntosh avoids implying that the biblical book was a source for the investigated passages of Tolkien's Silmarillion (it is, I think, part of the nature of the comparative study that the language inevitably will hint at a causal connection even where this is not the intention of the author), which I think is wise: with Tolkien there is so often numerous possible sources even to a little detail, and choosing among them becomes too often a matter of what the critic wants to be true rather than what actually influenced Tolkien the strongest (if any).

JDR, Monday, 28 May 2012, ‘Edmund Wilson: wrong about everything’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/edmund-wilson-wrong-about-everything.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ujo8nx
I admit that there is something deeply satisfying about taking Edmund ‘Oo, Those Awful Orcs!’ Wilson to task for his insistence on reviewing fantastic fiction despite his inability to sympathise with it. Rateliff shows that a number of other authors of fantastic fiction received scathing comments by Wilson: Dunsany, Mencken, Lovecraft and others, with Cabell as the only possible exception.

JDR, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, ‘Tolkien and Cabell’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/tolkien-and-cabell.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7gpa6ex
Following the previous item listing Cabell as a possible exception to Edmund Wilson's apparently universal dislike of anything fantastic, Rateliff here discusses what is know about Tolkien's opinion of Cabell.

BC, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, ‘Which Inklings are the Notion Club Principals? And who is missing?’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/which-inklings-are-notion-club.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/8ywdg62
Once again Bruce Charlton speculates about the character-to-person correspondances of the members of the Notion Club and the Inklings. The speculative identifications are not in all cases identical to the the identifications in Glyer and Long's contribution in Jason Fisher's Tolkien and the Study of his Sources, ‘Biography as Source: Niggles and Notions’, but that only makes things more interesting :-)

JDR, Thursday, 31 May 2012, ‘Well, This is a Weird Twist’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/well-this-is-weird-twist.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7qvuqac
Another follow-up on the matter of Edmund Wilson — this time in relation to Tolkien. And yes, this is indeed a weird twist: Wilson apparently links a liking of, in his opinion juvenile trash, The Lord of the Rings with homosexuality. Weird indeed.

= = = = Reviews and Book News = = = =

PC, Tuesday, 1 May 2012, ‘Fairy Tales, Children's Stories and Tolkien's Legacy’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1032_Fairy_Tales_Children_Stories_Tolkien_Legacy.php?457
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d5as2yb
A Tolkien writing fairy-stories, even if they are addressed specifically towards children, is, I think, interesting, though one is tempted to paraphrase Boromir: ‘if the hand that wields [the pen] has inherited not [a name] only . . .’

Kieran O'Mahony, Cork Independent, Thursday, 3 May 2012, ‘The Hobbit as Gaeilge’
http://corkindependent.com/stories/item/9020/2012-18/The-Hobbit-as-Gaeilge
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d7cnsap
The Hobbit being published ‘fully translated into Irish’ for the first time. In this case ‘fully translated’ apparently also means translating (or perhaps just transliterating?) some of the names of the characters — I do wonder what would be in the ‘spirit’ of Tolkien's guide to translators of _The Lord of the Rings_?

JDR, Saturday, 5 May 2012, ‘The One-Man LORD OF THE RINGS’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/05/one-man-lord-of-rings.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ceo7h84
A review of Charlie Ross' one-man performance based on the New Line Cinema The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. I have to say that I agree whole-heartedly with David Bratman's comment: there is no way that including Tom Bombadil would have improved the films.

Harley J. Sims, Mythprint, Tuesday, 8 May 2012, ‘Snowblind Studios' _‘The Lord of the Rings’: War in the North_’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/war-in-north-snowblind/
An interesting and clear-minded review of a game based on Tolkien's world. I am particularly intrigued by the implications of comments relating to viewing games more seriously as an interpretative art form.

Benjamin Peters, BLOGCRITICS.ORG, Wednesday, 9 May 2012, ‘Book Review: The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer’
http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-The-Company-They-Keep-C-S-Lewis-3546780.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/brweyg9
A fairly positive review of Diana Glyer's 2007 book (which won the 2008 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies).

PC, Sunday, 13 May 2012, ‘A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings is a 2012 Locus Award Finalist’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1035_Cor_Blok_Tolkien_Tapestry_Locus_Award_Finalist.php?460
http://preview.tinyurl.com/84vd8ew
The book A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings by Cor Blok (edited by Pieter Collier) is one of five finalists for the 2012 Locus Award in the Art Books category. Congratulations to Blok and Collier!

BC, Thursday, 17 May 2012, ‘The audio-book Lord of the Rings, read by Rob Inglis’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/audio-book-lord-of-rings-read-by-rob.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/86wjboa
The first of two audio-book reviews this month by Bruce Charlton who gives Rob Inglis' performance 8 out of 10.

Emily E. Auger, Mythlore, Tuesday, 22 May 2012, ‘Picturing Tolkien’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/picturing-tolkien/
The Mytholore (issue 117/118) review of Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy edited by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny. The overall tone seems positive, while the review is also remarkably uncommitted — the most direct opinion given is that it is a ‘worthwhile study’ for those ‘most dedicated to Tolkien in the original’ (making me wonder about those only committed to Tolkien in the original . . .?)

PC, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, "Tolkien Calendar 2013 will be illustrated by John Howe and Alan Lee "
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1038_Tolkien_Calendar_2013_John_Howe_Alan_Lee_Hobbit.php?463
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7uqx6ds
After two years with Cor Blok, I am sure that many collectors will be relieved to see that the official 2013 Tolkien Calendar (issued by HarperCollins) will feature artwork by John Howe and Alan Lee. Personally I would advocate diversity, and I think a Hobbit-themed calendar would have benefitted from featuring artwork that was by people not in any way involved with the upcoming films — to provide a much-needed counter-point to the inevitable pervasiveness of the films' imagery. In some ways I'd have preferred to see a Hobbit-themed calendar by Cor Blok, but even more one by other artists — Lacon, Murray, Nasmith, Eißmann and others who could have offered new imagery that would be different from both the films and Blok (not that there is necessarily anything wrong with Blok's art, but because I agree with Lacon that it's important to offer different visual perspectives).

Zenestex, Geeks of Doom, Tuesday, 29 May 2012, ‘Comic Review: Orbit #8: JRR Tolkien: The True Lord of the Rings’
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/05/29/comic-review-jrr-tolkien-the-true-lord-of-the-rings-1/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/73r6fd7
A review of the comic-book biography of Tolkien that has been mentioned previously (issue XXIV for April 2012). The comic gets an almost enthusiastic review by someone who describes himself as ‘not at all a fan of Tolkien's writing’ while still respecting Tolkien's contributions to literature.

PC, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, ‘HarperCollins Releases Hobbit Movie Cover Edition’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1039_HarperCollins_Releases_Hobbit_Movie_Cover_Edition.php?464
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6nehofb
As Pieter notes, ‘it had to happen’ — there is simply too much money to be made on tie-in products for HarperCollins to ignore it. Fortunately I have all the copies of The Hobbit that I need: The Annotated Hobbit, The History of the Hobbit and Art of the Hobbit so I won't have any need for this product.

= = = = Interviews = = = =

PC, Monday, 28 May 2012, ‘Interview with Devin Brown on his book The Christian World of The Hobbit’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1037_Interview_Devin_Brown_Christian_World_Hobbit.php?462
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6nvr7fy
Devin Brown claims to balance the two extreme positions of Tolkien scholarship on Tolkien's Christian influences: neither ignoring them nor seeing Christian influences everywhere. Brown says that Tolkien's works are ‘in their essence, at their core, Christian works, but only at their core, not on the surface.’ Brown also thinks that his own Christian faith is part of his qualifications for writing this book, while I have occasionally wondered if being Christian did not disqualify a scholar from writing on the Christian elements of Tolkien's work. This interview is, however, quite encouraging as Devin Brown seems to have been very much aware of the danger of turning Tolkien's works into a sermon, which neither the author nor most readers would enjoy.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

Kate Shellnutt, Tuesday, 1 May 2012, ‘Hogwarts, Narnia, Neverland: What does your faith say about fantasy?’
http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot/2012/05/hogwarts-narnia-neverland-what-does-your-faith-say-about-fantasy/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cxv9va9
So, the idea is that a research team has asked a lot of Americans the question ‘Which of these fantasy worlds would you most like to visit?’ and given them the options of Hogwarts, Alice's Wonderland, Neverland, Narnia, Middle-earth or ‘None, Don't Know’. The age and religious affiliation of the respondents has been registered, and in the research blog of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate you can see the more detailed results. I think it is interesting that those with no religious affiliation are the most likely to answer Middle-earth, followed by Catholics and evangelicals the least likely to choose Tolkien's sub-created Secondary World. It is perhaps also interesting that Catholics are the least likely to answer ‘None, Don't Know’. The research blog can be found below.
http://nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com/2012/04/literary-aside-tolkien-lewis-rowling.html

BC, Tuesday, 8 May 2012, ‘The centrality of co-inherence to salvation - Charles Williams as prophet’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/centrality-of-co-inherence-to-salvation.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7cfdneq
This is the first of a couple of postings that Bruce Charlton has made this month about Charles Williams and co-inherence. As I haven't read any Williams myself, I cannot comment on the quality of the interpretative / critical approach, but I did find them interesting (albeit not enough to push Williams forward on my to-read list). Irrespective of anything else (including religious affiliations), I like the basic idea being propounded here.
The other post about the issue is
BC, TUESDAY, 15 MAY 2012, ‘Charles Williams regrettable tendency to regard co-inherence as therapeutic 'magic'’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/charles-williams-regrettable-tendency.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/78znf8v

Roger Colby, Tuesday, 8 May 2012, ‘Tolkien's 10 Tips for Creating Epic Heroes’
http://writingishardwork.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/tolkiens-10-tips-for-creating-epic-heroes/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7y9gqb8
Tolkien's writings — particularly his letters — are extracted for ten pieces of advice on the creation of epic heroes. The most surprising bit is in the first piece of advice, where Colby reads Tolkien's use of ‘the chief hero’ (in letter #131 to Milton Waldman) as refence to Aragorn rather than to Sam as is usually assumed (the reference to ‘chief hero’ is found in Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull's extended index to the letters under their listing of references to Sam Gamgee and they repeat this interpretation in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion). I can even see how this might be the case, but I am hesitant to suggest that Wayne and Christina got it all wrong. See also the earlier ‘Tolkien's Ten Tips for Writers’ (linked at the top of the post).

MT, Thursday, 17 May 2012, ‘Vinyar Tengwar 39 Index’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net/#post6
Announcing the addition to the Tolkien Index of Vinyar Tengwar #39 which includes ‘_Ósanwe-kenta_’ and ‘From Quendi and Eldar, Appendix D’.

BC, Friday, 18 May 2012, ‘Corruption in Tolkien's Legendarium’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2012/05/corruption-in-tolkiens-legendarium.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7njx8sp
Bruce Charlton remarks on the fact that in Tolkien's writings the greatest are almost always corrupt, making Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel and Elrond even more special.

JDR, Sunday, 20 May 2012, ‘Tolkien Unbound’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2012/05/tolkien-unbound.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7nmxlmf
A nice report from the lighter side of Kalamazoo — including links to videos from a performance from Friday evening's ‘Tolkien Unbound’ event.

John Howe, Monday, 21 May 2012, ‘Pipe-smoking Dwarf’
http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/details.php?image_id=5920
http://preview.tinyurl.com/73dyku4
A somewhat more traditional rendering of a Dwarf than what we saw in the trailer for the Hobbit film. Except for the spoon, that is — nice detail though! :-)

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

For the better part of May I have been keeping very busy with a course at work, and so I have not been following the discussions closely enough to pick out a few to stand out.

= = = = In Print = = = =

This has been a good month!

Beyond Bree, May 2012
This issue of BB includes a favourable review of The Art of the Hobbit by Nancy Martsch followed by an article on ‘Tolkien's Art’ by the same hand in which she discusses Tolkien's skills and education in drawing and painting, summarising by describing Tolkien as ‘an amateur artist with talent and some technical skill, though his skills were mostly in design and landscape drawing. He certainly had some informal training. He repeated ideas in his writing and his drawing. He was very fond of patterns and designs.’ Nancy Martsch also provides an article on the wearing of armour, and Dale Nelson continues his tale of the ‘Days of the Craze’ with some notes on the Ace Books affair. Mark Hooker writes on sesquipedalia in two rounds (and a warm ‘thank you’ to Mark for teaching me that wonderful word!). As usual BB is rounded off with various news, letters and announcements — oh, and two poems by Matthew Anish.

Mythprint 357/358
This issue of Mythprint contains a number of reviews of various works of fantastic fiction, none of which is directly related to the topic of this listing.

Amon Hen 235
The bulletin of the Tolkien Society is, as always, filled with many bits and pieces about the life of the society, including the inevitable calls for volunteers (if you have aspirations to become the editor of a Tolkien-related journal, the TS is seeking for a new editor for Mallorn), and in this issue the report from the Annual Grand Meeting, at which was, among other things, decided to go back to only one issue of Mallorn per year. It would seem that one will have to produce even better stuff to get published in Mallorn, then.
Of the more generally interesting bits we find a letter from David Doerr in which he defends his position in his AH 233 article, ‘The Brightest Stars of George Allen & Unwin Ltd.’ which has been questioned by Allan Turner in a letter in AH 234. Becky Hitchin reviews Jason Fisher's (ed) Tolkien and the Study of His Sources (since the sorry excuse for a review in AH 233 it is good to see a proper review), Michael Cunningham gives a good (and long) review of Michael Saler's book As If: Mordern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality, and Lynn Forest-Hill writes about ‘The Hobbit and Bevois Valley’.

Mythlore 117/118
Having been sent in April, my copy of Mythlore 117/118 turned up in a pile of unaddressed mail (local papers, shop catalogues etc.) near the end of May. Unfortunately I haven't yet had time to dive into the articles, but I particularly look forward to Michael Livingston's linguistic survey of the origins of the words hobbit and Baggins.

Mallorn 53
In the current issue of Mallorn we find a good article by Colin Duriez on ‘What made Tolkien tick and why was he called 'Reuel'? The importance of Tolkien biography’ in which he does discuss the questions he poses, including defending the importance of doing Tolkien biography despite Tolkien's outspoken distate for the use of biography in literary criticism. Kristine Larsen, who also provides the editorial, writes on ‘disembodied time travel in Tolkien, Stapledon and _Lost_’ while Virginia Luling compares ‘time travel in Tolkien and E. Nesbit’. I provide an overview of the business with Tolkien and the 1961 Nobel Prize, and I have also reviewed the eigth volume of Tolkien Studies. Other reviews include Janet Brennan Croft's positive review of Jason Fisher's book, Tolkien and the Study of His Sources, a review of the book of Cor Blok's art (A Tolkien Tapestry) by Daniel Howick who praises the book itself while being more mixed in his reaction to the art. Then there's a review by Becky Hitchin of Robert S. Blackham's Tolkien and the Peril of War which seems to offer more in terms of visualising the scenes of the first world war (e.g. by using old postcards) than it has to offer in terms of new information about Tolkien and his role in the Great War.

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

Do you know Forodrim, the Tolkien Society in Stockholm, Sweden?
http://www.forodrim.org/index_en.html
Their web-site contains a wealth of fine information. Here I will merely list a few of the pages that I find myself referring to again and again.
First there's their listing of the contents of the History of Middle-earth series:
http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_hm.html
Notice that while this lists the contents by volume, there are other lists that give the contents chronologically (by year of writing) and by content type.
Åke Bertenstam's chronological bibliography of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien is another gem that can be found on Forodrim's site:
http://www.forodrim.org/bibliography/tbchron.html
The list stops at 2003, leaving out any material published since then in The Children of Húrin, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, Tolkien Studies, Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldelamberon (and probably elsewhere as well).
Finally a nice page on ‘Astronomical objects above Middle-earth’:
http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_astro.html

= = = = Sources = = = =

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Tolkien Transactions XXIV

April 2012

Another month has passed, and it is yet again time to list all the things that have caught my attention in relation to Tolkien, and which I have found interesting enough to include in this summary. You may disagree with my priorities, or find that the limits of your sympathies are different than mine (probably the limits of your sympathies are much wider than mine), so feel free to add anything in comment that you think ought to have been included (but don't expect the limits of my sympathies to change as a result).

This month it has suited my purposes to sort the contents under the following headlines:
1: News
2: Essays and Scholarship
3: Book News
4: Other Stuff
5: Rewarding Discussions
6: In Print
7: Web Sites
8: Sources

= = = = News = = = =

Alexander Dowd, Intellectual Property Brief, Sunday, 1 April 2012, ‘Hobbit Pub Gains Support from Actors’
http://www.ipbrief.net/2012/04/01/hobbit-pub-gains-support-from-actors/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7bdtj6l
Following up on last month's story about English pubs being contacted by the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) over alleged copyright and trademark infringements, this piece agrees that the settlement is also an implicit agreement that the pub (possibly with more to come) have been infringing on the rights of the SZC. I would have liked to see that claim tested, but with the support the pub has seen, I presume that they have at least been able to consult with a good lawyer before they decided to take the offered license fee of $100.- pro annum.

Ledbury Reporter, Thursday, 12 April 2012, ‘Choir brought Tolkien to life’
http://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/9640454.Choir_brought_Tolkien_to_life/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c7f3xq7
Reporting from the ‘West of the Moon’ show by the choir at Somer Park school, which contained a performance of songs by Tolkien, set to music by the school's co-ordinator, David Cowell. The performance reportedly ‘wowed crowds’.

Michael Noer and David M. Ewalt, Forbes, Monday, 23 April 2012, ‘The Forbes Fictional 15’
http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/fictional-15-12/fictional-15.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6tsp9af
The richest fictional character according to Forbes? Smaug the dragon!

Eric Lochridge, Rapid City Journal, Friday, 13 April 2012, "Youth troupe gets to the heart of ‘The Hobbit"’
http://rapidcityjournal.com/entertainment/youth-troupe-gets-to-the-heart-of-the-hobbit/article_be1f5676-8579-11e1-8c90-001a4bcf887a.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d2mhdcn
A theatrical production based on The Hobbit and played by the Cherry Street Players, children aged 9 to 17. The journalist has spoken with the director who has read The Hobbit in preparation for putting on the play (I should bloody well think so!) as well as various criticism of Tolkien (which is, of course, less obvious and thus also more interesting).

John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier, Saturday, 14 April 2012, ‘Tolkien epic inspires Rivendell garden centre name’
http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/News/Tolkien-epic-inspires-Rivendell-garden-centre-name-13042012.htm
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bu3epor
The story of a new garden centre named Rivendell that has opened in Caithness (far northern Scotland) — one wonders whether the esteemed Saul Zaentz Company will be on their backs.

Altaira, Saturday, 14 April 2012, ‘One Man LOTR coming to The Return of the Ring event this Summer’
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/04/14/55055-one-man-lotr-coming-to-the-return-of-the-ring-event-this-summer/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bs29bsy
What the headline says, basically . . .. Charlie Ross will be performing his One Man LotR at the Return of the Ring conference in Loughborough this August.

Unknown, Failblog, Wednesday, 18 April 2012, ‘WIN!: Sauron Cake WIN’
http://failblog.org/2012/04/18/epic-win-photos-win-sauron-cake-win/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/79bkqgy
Now, I am most definitely not a fan of the fallacious misrepresentation of Sauron in the New Line Cinema films (the great flaming . . . eye), but this cake, on the other hand, deserves a round of applause: whatever the source (and faults) of the imagery, turning it into a cake is a clear win :-)

James Ward, Thursday, 19 April 2012, ‘'The Hobbit' brought to life on College of the Sequoias stage’
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20120419/ENTERTAINMENT05/120419014
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7yps4cd
One should probably not be surprised that The Hobbit is being set up in theatres all over the place by school or student troupes that are appearing on stage. Here is one more company who has made their own choices and thus creating their own vision and version of Tolkien's story. This article also has a video attached which allows the reader to get a better impression of what they are trying to achieve with the play.

Deutsches Tolkien Gesellschaft, Monday, 23 April 2012, ‘Tolkien Seminar 2012 — Tolkien's Influence on Fantasy’
http://www.openpr.com/news/218760/Tolkien-Seminar-2012-Tolkien-s-Influence-on-Fantasy.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/csr2cqr
Writing this on the thirtieth of April, the DTG seminar will have been held this past weekend, and so the announcement of the seminar is probably irrelevant now, but I hope that some kind of report will be forthcoming, so that we can get an idea of what is going on in this particular branch of Tolkien scholarship.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

E.L. Risden, Thursday, 16 February 2012, ‘Aragorn and the Twentieth-Century Arthur’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243419
Another excellent contribution to the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza's (LotR-Plaza) ‘Scholars Forum’ in which Risden argues that the myths about King Arthur in some ways informed Aragorn's character. I admit that I approached this essay with a great deal of scepticism towards its central claim, but reading it, I have to acknowledge not only that it is well-written (which has nothing to with whether the hypothesis is believable or not), but also that there is probably something to it.

Tom Holland, Friday, 30 March 2012, ‘The fall of the Roman empire and the rise of Islam’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/30/fall-roman-empire-rise-islam
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6uxm295
Seeing the effects of the fall of the Roman empire in subsequent history (e.g. the rise of Islam) and in art, and so coming, in the penultimate paragraph, to Tolkien. If you want to read only the parts that relate to Tolkien, you should read the last four paragraphs, but the whole piece is well worth a read (being largely ignorant of the subject matter, I can offer no opinion on the quality of the historical scholarship displayed in the article).

JM, Sunday, 1 April 2012, ‘Under Grace that Will Do Good’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/under-grace-that-will-do-good/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d8ou96x
Part 2 of a series of posts with the common sub-title of ‘Tolkien’s theology of forgiveness’. Jonathan McIntosh continues his investigation into Tolkien's ideas on offence vs. pain based on Tolkien's letter to C.S. Lewis.

BC, Sunday, 1 April 2012, ‘Why doesn't Eru just eradicate the evil of Middle Earth?’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2012/04/why-doesnt-eru-just-eradicate-evil-of.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cblo25f
Bruce Charlton here asserts that the answer to the titular question is that such an eradication would destroy all of Arda due to the marring by Melkor. However, as I understand Tolkien it is rather the other way around: the marring is possible because Eru will not merely eradicate the evil.

JM, Monday, 2 April 2012, ‘Rational vs. Radical Evil’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/evil-to-rationalize-or-to-reify/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bvkullk
The twelfth of McIntosh' series on ‘Tolkien's Metaphysics of Evil’ in which McIntosh further discusses Tolkien's works in relation to Augustine, Kierkegaard and others.
Part 13: 4th of April, ‘“That will settle the Manichees!”: Thomas’s doctrine of evil in context’ (more about St. Thomas' position)
Part 14: 6th of April, ‘“Every Creature Must Have Some Weakness”: Tolkien’s Hierarchy of Evil’ (beginning the more specific analysis of Tolkien as writing in a Thomistic tradition)
Part 15: 8th of April, ‘From Creation to Annihilation: the beginning and end of evil’ (expanding on the previous post, McIntosh here discusses some details of particularly Morgoth's evil nature)
Part 16: 10th of April, ‘“To Bring into Being Things of His Own”: The Primal Sin of Satan and Melkor’ (a further investigation into the nature of Morgoth's evil)
Part 17: 11th of April, ‘“Thoughts of his own unlike those of his brethren”: Melkor’s Second Fall’ (this discusses Melkor's sub-creative Fall in the Music of the Ainur and generally ‘the “evil” of defective sub-creation’)
Part 18: 13th of April, ‘Tolkien and the problem of God’s causality with respect to evil’ (raising the question of why Eru / God allows evil, and promising us an investigation of St. Thomas' answer, which McIntosh believes also to be Tolkien's)
Part 19: 15th of April, ‘Divine “unshatterable” action and human “shatterable” activations’ (investigating how evil can be caused without God being in any way a cause)
Part 20: 17th of April, ‘Evil and a greater good’ (arguing that St Thomas believed that evil exists that greater good may come in the end)
Part 21: 19th of April, ‘Could God have willed that there be no evil while still leaving the human will to be free?’ (dealing with a scholar contending the claim of the previous post)
Part 22: 21th of April, ‘“Evil labours with vast powers and perpetual success—in vain”’ (Tolkien's version of ‘evil exists for the greater good’)
Part 23: 23th of April, ‘Evil and “Preservation”: The Fainéance of the Valar’ (discussing the faults of possessiveness and preservation in the Valar)
Part 24: 25th of April, ‘Elvish Preservationism: The Correspondence of Sub-creative Intellect and Will’ (discussing the particular weakness of the Elves, ‘preservationism’, and how it arises from their ‘greater correspondence between will and intellect’ — the greater strength of their fëar over their hröar)
Part 25: 27th of April, ‘Material Elves Living in a Material World’ (on the effect of being incarnate in a hröa of matter of Arda Marred who is using as the medium for your artistic sub-creation the matter of Arda Marred)
Part 26: 29th of April, ‘Elvish Escapism’ (the Elves as a mirror of the reader's possible desire to ‘escape’ into the story, or other, similar, stories)
The fifteen posts in the series this month have taken us far into Jonathan McIntosh' own, Thomistic, analysis of the nature of evil in Tolkien's sub-created Secondary World, investigating aspects such as Tolkien's (postulated) hierarchical model of Evil, various layers of this hierarchy, and the causes of Evil. The posts in this series are nearly all to be found in the category ‘Metaphysics of Faërie’:
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/category/j-r-r-tolkien/metaphysics-of-faerie/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cgv9ptc

acrackedmoon, Tuesday, 3 April 2012, ‘Lord of Neckbeards — Tolkien rape/suicide/pedestal watch’
https://requireshate.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/lord-of-neckbeards-tolkien-rapesuicidepedestal-watch/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bmvf2rq
This reading of Tolkien's presentation of women is so biased that I find it impossible to call it scholarship, but on the other hand it is also good to sometimes have a bit of provocation. While I agree to a large extent with the neutral reading of Tolkien's texts, I also find some of the conclusions drasn here from that reading to be, frankly, ludicrous. This, however, doesn't change the fact that Tolkien's view of women was, even for his own time, not just old-fashioned, but archaic (with a healthy dose of romanticism added to the archaism). There are reasons for this in Tolkien's personal history, I agree, but that still doesn't change the facts. For a more balanced take on Tolkien's rape narratives, I heartily recommend Lynn Whitaker's paper in Mythlore 111/112, ‘Corrupting beauty: rape narrative in _The Silmarillion_’:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Corrupting+beauty%3A+rape+narrative+in+The+Silmarillion.-a0242509658
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c46ga2k

JM, Tuesday, 3 April 2012, ‘"You Read Too Much’: Tolkien to Lewis on the Critic vs. the Writer"
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/you-read-too-much-tolkien-to-lewis-on-the-critic-vs-the-writer/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/dyqrhqo
The third part of McIntosh' analysis of Tolkien's theology of forgiveness looks into Tolkien's views on literary criticism (and the critic) vs. writing (and the author), which Tolkien, according to this letter, saw as working against each other in a man.

Miryam Librán-Moreno, Saturday, 14 April 2012, ‘The Father's Star. Some echoes from Virgil's _Aeneid_ in _The Lord of the Rings_’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243743
A very well-written and well-argued essay in the Scholars Forum series at the LotR-Plaza by Tolkien scholar Miryam Librán-Moreno, who sees some echoes from Virgil in particular in the image of the Elendilmir and generally in the character of Aragorn. Ultimately I cannot walk the full nine yards with her, but I still recommend this essay warmly: it is well-written and presents the evidence in a clear way that gives the reader a good overview and, I feel, a good basis for evaluating the strength of the evidence and thus agreeing or disagreeing with Librán-Moreno.

JDR, Wednesday, 18 April 2012, ‘T. H. White, Inkling’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/t-h-white-inkling.html
John Rateliff has found a letter from C.S. Lewis to T.H. White in which Lewis, among other things, invited White to attend a meeting of the Inklings. Rateliff speculates a bit about the possibilities in such a meeting (which probably never took place), ending with the idea that White and Tolkien ‘wd have had plenty to talk about.’

JM, Sunday, 22 April 2012, ‘Feänor, Tolkien's (Dantean) Ulysses’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/feanor-tolkiens-dantean-ulysses/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cq3x2vs
A comparison of Feänor with Ulysses (Odysseus) as he is portrayed in Dante's Divina Commedia that seems based mainly on a comparison of Feänor's speech to the Noldor in Tirion in which he urges them to leave for Middle-earth with Ulysses' speech to his crew in which he convinced them to sail on west and south. I have never read Dante, so I might be completely wrong, but based on McIntosh' presentation, it seems to me that one important difference is that Feänor believed strongly in his own words, whereas Dante's Ulysses (to me) appears not to have been entirely sincere with his men.

Michael Noer, Forbes, Monday, 23 April 2012, ‘How Much is a Dragon Worth, Revisited’
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/04/23/how-much-is-a-dragon-worth-revisited/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/blzkaph
Perhaps a more fun that actual scholarship, but the explanation of how Michael Noer of Forbes reached the staggering figure of $62 billion for Smaug's riches is both fun and actually interesting.

JDR, Monday, 23 April 2012, ‘The Impossibility of Writing Fantasy in 1937’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/impossibility-of-writing-fantasy-in.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cc47yld
By a twisting road, John Rateliff reaches a statement from 1937 about the impossibility of writing fantasy at that time — the year when Tolkien had The Hobbit published and when he sat down to start out on The Lord of the Rings. Make sure also to read David Bratman's comment.

JM, Thursday, 26 April 2012, "Tolkien's "Divine Comedy": Purgatory as Faërie-land"
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/tolkiens-divine-comedy-purgatory-hell-and-heaven-in-his-early-writing/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6rebwqz
I suppose that it is quite common for those of us who study Tolkien's work to see resonances with that work in other works that we read: it is natural in later fantasy fiction because Tolkien has so strongly influenced that genre, and it is also natural in earlier works because Tolkien's work, even despite a large extent of original invention, did not arise in a vacuum, but draws from the great Pot of Tales. McIntosh is re-reading Dante's Divine Comedy and is commenting on some of these resonances, though he keeps it as a comparitive comment rather than claim a source (that may, of course, follow, but will require a much stronger apparatus of evidence than is normal in a blog post). In this post he compares the purgatory of the Divine Comedy to the set-up in Tolkien's earliest legendarium writings.

JDR, Thursday, 26 April 2012, ‘Tolkien and Waugh’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/tolkien-and-waugh.html
On the contentious subject of English authors' reactions to the totalitarian regimes arising in Europe in the 1930s. In this case the most interesting to a Tolkien enthusiast is the comparison to (and comments upon) Tolkien's views on Hitler and Franco respectively.

MT, Monday, 30 April 2012, ‘Prof. Tolkien's Whimsical Talk’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net/#post5
The ‘Whimsical Talk’ is one that Tolkien gave at the opening of the Deddington Library on 14 December 1956. Morgan Thomsen recaps the general circumstances, and has transcribed the parts pertaining to Tolkien from the original report in the Banbury Advertiser.

= = = = Book News = = = =

H&S, Wednesday, 4 April 2012, ‘_Art of The Hobbit_ American Edition’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/art-of-the-hobbit-american-edition/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/codzo9m
Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond announce that their book, The Art of the Hobbit will be released in an American edition by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt this coming 18 September.

Josh Vogt, Examiner, Friday, 6 April 2012, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien biography released through limited-edition comic’
http://www.examiner.com/article/j-r-r-tolkien-biography-released-through-limited-edition-comic
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bonja69
On the issue, exclusively in brick-and-mortar comic book stores, of a comic-book biography of J.R.R. Tolkien. On one hand, I admit to being very intrigued by the idea, but I am doubtful whether this is going to reveal any new information though it may, of course, present some clever new perspectives.
See also
David Bentley, Sunday, 15 April 2012, ‘Special edition comic book for JRR Tolkien, plus Middle-earth weekend at Birmingham's Sarehole Mill’
http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2012/04/special-edition-comic-book-for.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7kcx9ac
Where you will also find announcement of a Middle-earth weekend at Sarehole Mill on 19-20 May.

AW, Sunday, 8 April 2012, ‘Hand-bound Silmarillion’
http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1832&forum=9
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cvgkql8
Andrew Wells has posted some links to a story of an exceptionally beautiful binding of The Silmarillion . . . deep sigh!

Janet Brennan-Croft, Tuesday, 10 April 2012, ‘Mythlore 117/118 Table of Contents’
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/117-118/
The table of contents are announced for issue 117/118 of Mythlore. Based on the table of contents alone there are at least three Tolkien-related contributions to this issue (in addition to some reviews): Steven Brett Carter writes about ‘Faramir and the Heroic Ideal of the Twentieth Century: Or, How Aragorn Died at the Somme’, while Alexander M. Bruce takes a look at ‘The Fall of Gondor and the Fall of Troy: Tolkien and Book II of The Aeneid’, and another medievalist topic, ‘The Myths of the Author: Tolkien and the Medieval Origins of the Word Hobbit’ is covered by Michael Livingston.

Laura Mell, HarperFiction, Friday, 13 April 2012, ‘HarperCollinsPublishers To Publish Official Tie-ins To The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey And The Hobbit: There And Back Again Films’
http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/40111
‘HarperCollinsPublishers has acquired exclusive worldwide publishing rights from Warner Bros. Consumer Products for tie-in books to the two highly anticipated films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, directed by Peter Jackson and productions of New Line Cinema and MGM.’
I suppose this relates to the ‘the making of the films’ kind of books, as HarperCollins are already the publishers of Tolkien's books, and don't need to agree with other than the JRR Tolkien Estate to continue that (I suppose they'll need to agree with the films' copyright holders to produce an edition of The Hobbit that has images from the films as their illustrations, but that's another issue).

DAA, Sunday, 22 April 2012, ‘Publishing Mordor-style’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/04/publishing-mordor-style.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c79pll7
The sad news that Douglas Anderson is leaving the Tolkien Studies journal due to a financial disagreement with the publisher. Not that he wanted to get paid for his work — he merely had the audacity to ask for reimbursement of his expenses as review-editor for purchasing review copies and mailing them to reviewers . . ..
See also
JDR, Tuesday, 24 April 2012, ‘A Parting of the Ways’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/parting-of-ways.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ch2xfss
In which John Rateliff comments on these news.

David Bratman, Mythprint, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, ‘Screwtape On Stage’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/screwtape-on-stage/
‘[This review originally appeared in Mythprint 49:2 (#355) in February 2012.]’
From Bratman's review, this sounds like a very interesting take on how Lewis' book can be translated — or adapted — to the stage.

Yorkshire Post, Monday, 30 April 2012, ‘Tolkien Tour proves East Yorkshire can be Hobbit forming’
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/tolkien-tour-proves-east-yorkshire-can-be-hobbit-forming-1-4499022
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cevybs5
Phil Mathison has written a book, Tolkien in East Yorkshire 1917 - 1918: An Illustrated Tour, which ‘guides fans round “The Tolkien Triangle” of East Yorkshire’.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

Pauline Gagnon, Quantum Diaries, Sunday, 1 April 2012, ‘New particle spotted on Tristan da Cuhna island’
http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2012/04/01/new-particle-spotted-on-tristan-da-cuhna-island/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7hazlhg
A report by experimental physicist working on the ATLAS collaboration, Pauline Gagnon, on the discovery on ‘the remotest place on Earth’ of the new particle, the foolion. Surely this is the particle that gives wings to fools, allowing them to obey Gandalf's order to fly . . .

JDR, Friday, 6 April 2012, ‘LeoCon (TOLKIEN IN TEXAS)’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/leocon-tolkien-in-texas.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/75nyqhb
The story (also related last month by Jason Fisher) that Rateliff appeared, together with Jason Fisher and Doug Anderson, at the LeoCon in Texas on the 14th of April.

H&S, Saturday, 7 April 2012, ‘Farewell to Borders’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/farewell-to-borders/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cqqkgq8
A kind of obituary for Borders — perhaps not quite a eulogy, but still mostly fond memories. My own Houghton-Mifflin hardcover LotR (with the large fold-out maps) was bought in a Borders bookshop along with about as many other books as my flight weight-allowance would allow the first time I was sent abroad on a business trip.

Scott S Smith, Investor's Business Daily, Friday, 13 April 2012, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord Of The Novels’
http://news.investors.com/article/607681/201204131417/tolkien-refused-to-compromise-while-writing-novels.htm
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d2nkbje
A combined biography of Tolkien and history of The Lord of the Rings. The author does get many details wrong (despite quoting both Carpenter's biography and Shippey's Author of the Century), but starting on the second page, it turns more into a list of comments by various scholars about the reception of Tolkien's work, and there are some interesting comments in that part.

Thomas Morwinsky, Tuesday, 10 April 2012, ‘Other Minds, Issue 13 published’
http://www.othermindsmagazine.com/news/other-minds-issue-13-published1
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bnzatjo
Though the focus of the Other Minds magazine is specifically role-playing in Tolkien's sub-created Secondary World, the various issues often contain interesting story-internal analyses and discussions of various points. This issue also contains an overview of all the articles in the thirteen issues so far.

John DiBartolo, The Examiner, Tuesday, 17 April 2012, ‘Chi Rho in LOTRO: Tolkien's Foundation of Faith’
http://www.examiner.com/article/chi-rho-lotro-tolkien-s-foundation-of-faith
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cekrlx8
The artist and designers behind the massively multi-player on-line role-playing game (MMORPG) The Lord of the Rings On-line (LOTRO) have included the ancient Christian symbol ‘Chi-rho’ in the game. This is, I think, quite appropriate and an example of how Tolkien's statement about ‘the religious element’ being ‘absorbed into the story and the symbolism’ can be interpreted in a visual manner appropriate to a computer game. This works when pointed out discreetly, but it is, for me, destroyed when turned (as, I am sorry to say, here) into precisely the kind of preaching that Tolkien wanted to avoid.

DB, Thursday, 19 April 2012, ‘who are we?’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/2012/04/who-are-we.html
An introduction, such as it is, to the Mythopoeic Society and Mythcon, and why it is OK that the appeal of either may not be within the range of sympathies for all fantasy fans.

JDR, Sunday, 22 April 2012, ‘Illustrating the Hobbit’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2012/04/illustrating-hobbit.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bpz58jg
Taking his outset in having seen Doug Anderson's presentation of Hobbit art, Rateliff speculates on which artists would make great illustrations for The Hobbit.

JM, Tuesday, 24 April 2012, ‘Minas Tirith and Dante's Mnt. Purgatory’
http://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/minas-tirith-and-dantes-mnt-purgatory/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cyd9zvz
On visual representations . . .

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

The Tolkien newsgroups have seen some interesting discussions of some story-internal questions: one might say that the discussions concern the inner consistency of reality as it is expressed in the causality of the tale: are there sufficient causes for the effects we see?
‘why not talk about the three?’
news:uzwdnsyf8qogsuhsnz2dnuvz_hgdnz2d@insightbb.com
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/-Go9xlVN_yQ/discussion
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cv4occ7

‘at the moment of truth ....’ (Why Sauron sent the Ringwraiths toward Sammath Naur instead of going himself)
news:simdnro4h5fllbvsnz2dnuvz_hidnz2d@insightbb.com
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/u1AW71Hwuls/discussion
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cq3o5n9

‘did just touching the chain confuse the Ringwraith in Woody End?’
news:4pedntjjxpvmexlsnz2dnuvz_rodnz2d@insightbb.com
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/_KwKN8M17Uc/discussion
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d2vm4wu

‘The Hobbit - On the Doorstep 1 (HRT 11)’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243654
In discussion of this chapter relating to the dating of Durin's Day user ‘Lord of the Rings’ adds some very interesting facts, with reference to Pliny, about the seasons as they were reckoned in Roman calendars.

‘The Hobbit - Inside Information (HRT 12)’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243700
An interesting discussion of this chapter in The Hobbit

‘The Only Power?’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243730
Starting from a discussion of whom Gandalf refers to in I,2 as ‘only one Power in this world that knows all about the Rings and their effects’, this turns into an interesting discussion of Sauron's own ‘addiction’ (to use Shippey's metaphor) to the Master Ring.

‘Interesting Quote from Tolkien’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243775
Discussing the intended meaning of Tolkien's statement that ‘The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.’ (Letters no. 142 to Robert Murray, 2 December 1953)

"Gothic, ‘Bagme Bloma,’ and ‘lindos"’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=243814
On the meaning of lindos in Tolkien's Gothic poem, Bagme Bloma — with some interesting philological information (even for those of us who don't understand a word of Gothic).

= = = = In Print = = = =

Beyond Bree April 2012
This issue of Beyond Bree has an interesting article by Mark Hooker on ‘Matrilineal Hobbits’ investigating matrilineal patterns (based on matrilineal patterns in Welsh mythology) in the otherwise patrilinear Hobbit society. Mark Hooker also reviews Hobbit Place-names: A Linguistic Excursion through the Shire by Rainer Nagel, which he finds excellent. Dale Nelson has two pieces about the early Tolkien ‘fandom’, investigating early receptions of The Lord of the Rings (‘Days of the Craze No.5: The Two Trees’) and one about other references to Tolkien's works in the sixties and early seventies. Brad Eden calls for responses to a survey on women enjoying Tolkien's work for a presentation he is sponsoring for Kalamazoo 2012. See
http://robin-anne-reid.dreamwidth.org/45806.html
Nancy Martsch, the editor of Beyond Bree reviews Lembas Extra 2011 from the Dutch Tolkien Society, Unquendor, which she finds ‘an interesting and thought-provoking issue’. As usual the journal carries numerous letters as well as a list of Tolkien events and other smaller items.

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

Some older blogs postings that have caught my attention in April:

Andrew Dickson, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, ‘The Pagan Tolkien’
http://dicksonland.blogspot.com/2007/04/pagan-tolkien.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cy9xnyo
As a reaction against some overly Christian readings of Tolkien, this suffers from going too far in the opposite direction: it is simply not correct to claim that Tolkien's ‘attempts to recreate the pre-Christian myths of England seem to be entirely separate from [Tolkien's Catholic] faith.’ I come across both views, and it is a testament to Tolkien's versatile applicability that you can have people inveterately and savagely defending both extremes, but personally I think that my appreciation and understanding of Tolkien's work flourishes best with a position somewhere in-between.

Jeremy Pryor, Saturday, 2 August 2008, ‘Gandalf the Grey — Tolkien's Apostolic Archetype’
http://jeremypryor.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/gandalf-the-grey-tolkiens-apostolic-archetype/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/d6qoqep
This could have been one of the posts that Andrew Dickson reacted against in the piece above, had this not appeared more than a year later than Dickson's. The apostolic resonances in Gandalf may very well be right, but leaving out all the other resonances — notably Tolkien describing Gandalf as an ‘Odinic wanderer’ — creates what is, in my opinion, a skewed presentation of Gandalf.

The Chronological Tolkien Page
http://www.chronology.org/tolkien/
Another ‘oldie’ that deserves to be mentioned from time to time — if nothing else, then for the sheer amount of work that has gone into creating the elaborate tables behind the paragraph-by-paragraph chronology of the primary Middle-earth books (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Children of Húrin).

= = = = Sources = = = =

Regarding Pictures

All pictures that are displayed on this blog appear with the kind permission of the artist, for which I am exceedingly grateful. Please do not copy or reuse them without permission, and please recall to always give credit where it is due.

Pictures that are not my own photos, are linked to lead to the artist's page – please click through and visit their page. You support them already by showing an interest, but please consider supporting them also financially – buying some of their works, or otherwise.

The artists that have allowed me to use their images are

Tsvetelina ‘Elmenel’ Krumova

Katarzyna ‘Kasiopea’ Chmiel-Gugulska

Graeme Skinner

Before his untimely death in August 2015, I had a similar arrangement with Jef Murray.