So, I finally managed to find the time to read the last of the Tolkien-related material in this volume of Mythlore (the journal of the Mythopoiec Society) — I am not really a fast reader in English, and I didn't start until the start of this year (and this issue is almost entirely dedicated to Tolkien — there is a single essay on Lewis and one on Le Guin, but otherwise it's all about Tolkien's work). With so much good Tolkien scholarship in one place, I just had to write a few words about it ;-)
So without further ado:
Jason Fisher: ‘Dwarves, Spiders, and Murky Woods: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Wonderful Web of Words’
Jason takes a look at the incident from The Hobbit with the spiders in Mirkwood, and the reader is taken along on a playful journey into the world of words from Sanskrit and Old Church Slavonic to Finnish and modern English with stops nearly everywhere in-between. I dearly love words and thus I enjoyed every bit of the ride (my only complaint would be a small sigh that the modern Danish word for a spider is nowhere mentioned: we call it ‘edderkop’ and so I had to have it pointed out to me that there was something special about Tolkien's use of Attercop). Whether Tolkien was aware of all of the connections that Jason's joyous deluge of philological ingenuity uncovers is, in my opinion, highly doubtful. Jason does a good job at showing that Tolkien could have known about them, but in the end it doesn't really matter for me whether he did and whether he was aware of them. For me the main quality of this essay is not whether it tells me anything new about Tolkien's work, but to experience, and share, the joy in the linguistic puzzles. Even had I found it more difficult, Jason would certainly have got me ‘drunk on words’.
Robert T. Tally, Jr.: ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien’s Inhuman Creatures’
There is something about the roles of the Orcs in Tolkien's legendarium that attracts me. This has to do both with the ethical questions and philosophical reflections that arose out of Tolkien's speculations concerning the Orcs, but also the fascinating development on the nature and origin of the Orcs. Robert T. Tally Jr. dives into the portrayal of Orcs in The Lord of the Rings in particular, addressing both the humanised aspect of their portrayal as well as the demonization, which he relates to the traditional demonization of the enemy seen in the wars of the Primary World — not least in the two great wars of the twentieth century. The essay is well written and interesting, and my only complaint (vague and vain as it is) would be that Tally doesn't address take into account the shift in Tolkien's view on the Orcs that occurred while he was writing The Lord of the Rings (for a brief summary of this, see my blog entry, ‘“The Lord of the Rings” as a transitionary work’.
Lynn Whitaker: ‘Corrupting Beauty: Rape Narrative in The Silmarillion’
I freely admit that I started off being very sceptic of this essay - I was somewhat put me off by the title, but I ended up thinking that Lynn Whitaker easily could have gone a step or two further in her analysis. Whitaker analyses the rape narratives (understood in the broadest possible way) of both Aredhel, the sister of Turgon, and Lúthien, and though she asserts in her conclusion that ‘[i]t is in the story of Luthien, however, that the true significance of rape narrative (and the role of beauty within it) as myth is explored by Tolkien’ more space is devoted to the analysis of Aredhel, whose story is, admittedly, also more interesting because of the moral nuances expressed here (what degree of consent is, for instance, implied when Tolkien's narrator states that ‘[i]t is not said that Aredhel was wholly unwilling’?). All in all a well-written paper that manages to convince me of its raison d'être and its premise despite my initial scepticism, and which I thoroughly enjoyed. What praise can I say more?
Jesse Mitchell: ‘Master of Doom by Doom Mastered: Heroism, Fate, and Death in The Children of Húrin’
Mitchell, in my honest opinion, comes off to a very bad start. He starts out by heavily criticising Richard West's view on Túrin, but cites only the very brief reference found in West's essay, ‘Setting the Rocket Off in Story: The Kalevala as the Germ of Tolkien's Legendarium’1. A check in the list of references does not turn out either West's main piece on Túrin, ‘Túrin's Ofermod: An Old English Theme in the Development of the Story of Túrin’2 or Tolkien's essay on Ofermod3. The main thrust of the paper is to employ specific romantic heroic types to describe Túrin, but this, unfortunately, becomes a limitation rather than a help as Mr Mitchell seems overly concerned with these labels and boxes, and so the analysis is brought to a halt against the walls of the boxes: Túrin is forcibly squeezed into the box of the ‘Byronic Hero’, and very little is said of the points where he deviates from this model (which is at least as interesting, if not more, as where he fits the model). This is a pity because it means that the approaches to interesting insights into Túrin's character that are genuinely present in the paper are brought to a stop before they are developed far enough to contribute with new understanding of Túrin. The overall impression is that Mr Mitchell has been more concerned with demonstrating his own understanding of this particular interpretative model and his command of a post-modern jingo than with actually understanding Tolkien's text.
Richard J. Whitt: ‘Germanic Fate and Doom in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion’
As is the case with the Orcs, I am also attracted to the philosophical reflections inherent in the question of free will in Tolkien's fiction, and as a Dane I am naturally favourably predisposed towards attempts to use the Old Norse world-view to aid my understanding and appreciation of Tolkien's work. Whitt does, of course, not limit himself to Old Norse, but investigates the concepts of fate and doom in Germanic thought more broadly. Still, the Old Norse and Old English sources feature prominently in our understanding of Germanic thought and world-view. Whitt investigates the sense of words with meanings in the fate / doom spectrum of meaning, wyrd, rǫk, dōme, and others from various old Germanic texts such as Beowulf, the Poetic Edda and the Heliand and compares to examples of Tolkien's use of fate and doom in The Silmarillion, both his explicit invocations of these concepts, but also his more implicit use. Whitt explains that ‘[f]ate and doom are ever present forces in Tolkien's The Silmarillion’ in several senses, and adding the Christian concepts of providence and the Will of God, he concludes that ‘[t]his combination of fate and doom on the one hand and a supposed omnipotent God on the other finds itself at home in both the Middle-earth of Tolkien and of medieval Germania. Fate and doom are key players throughout The Silmarillion, but as can be seen in Germanic texts such as the Heliand or Beowulf, they ultimately fall in accord with the will of Iluvatar.’
Janet Brennan Croft: ‘The Thread on Which Doom Hangs: Free Will, Disobedience, and Eucatastrophe in Tolkien’s Middle-earth’
One more essay contributing to the understanding the roles of free will and fate in Tolkien's fiction, Janet Brennan Croft focuses on the role of disobedience, which of course requires the freedom of will to actually disobey. Taking her outset in the concept of War in Heaven and how to describe this along several axes, Croft categorizes the War in Heaven in Tolkien's Secondary World as a ‘moderate, eschatological, pro-cosmic system in which the second principle is in rebellion against its creator.’ From there Croft moves into a discussion of obedience and disobedience in such a world, in particular considering the interplay between the obedience / disobedience dipole on one hand, and the free will / providence dipole on the other, concluding that free will is an important weapon for good in a system of the type of Tolkien's War in Heaven, and that Tolkien shows this by repeatedly showing us eucatastrophe as the result of the right kind of disobedience. In Croft's expert handling, the categorizing becomes a useful tool for understanding Tolkien's work — and in the ensuing discussion of obedience, disobedience, free will and providence, the texts themselves take the centre stage with comparisons to the works of other authors such as Pratchett, Asimov, Bujold and the experiments of Stanley Milgam. Though in the end the conclusions are not surprising, but seem rather intuitive, Croft offers a framework for reasoning about it and thereby build rational understanding of Tolkien's use of disobedience to show the role of free will in producing eucatastrophe.
William H. Stoddard: ‘Simbelmynë: Mortality and Memory in Middle-earth’
This essay, the shortest of the Tolkien-related essays in this issue of Mythlore, deals with elegiac elements in The Lord of the Rings. The lament for the lost past, he says, is seen in e.g. the traces of the past that the Fellowship encounters (particularly the ruins), but also in the songs that remember and celebrate the past, and in the great care Men take over the dead. Stoddard asserts that ‘[m]emory seems essential to the nature of the Elves’ and further that this eternal (within Time) memory of the Eldar means that they ‘offer the closest thing to immortality that natural men can hope for’. Moving to the primary power of all the Rings of Power, to preserve and to heal, he investigates the negative side of this aspect of the role of the Elves, that they become not just preservers of Middle-earth, but embalmers. Stoddard speculates that the strong elegiac element in The Lord of the Rings is, in part, a result of Tolkien's own experiences with loss, losing both parents while still a child, and losing most of his close friends as a young man in the Great War. I could have wished that Stoddard had expanded his investigation to also encompass the negative aspects when a culture becomes too reverent of the past, such as described e.g. by Faramir to Frodo and Sam, ‘Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons’ and of course the fate of Númenor should also be recalled, when the fear of death turns the reverence for the past into an unhealthy obsession for the past and a pursuit of true immortality.
This issue of Mythlore also contains two reviews of books about Tolkien's work. Since, however, both reviews are available on-line at the Mythopoeic Society web-site, I will merely link to the reviews here.
Dimitra Fimi, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits is reviewed by Jason Fisher
Bradford Lee Eden (editor), Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien is reviewed by Emily A. Moniz
1: In Chance, Jane (ed.). Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, The University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
2: In Flieger, Verlyn and Hostetter, Carl F. (eds). Tolkien's “Legendarium”: Essays on “The History of Middle-earth”, Greenwood Press, 2000.
3: Part of the work titled ‘The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son’, e.g. in Tolkien, J.R.R. Tree and Leaf, HarperCollins Publishers, several editions.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Tolkien Transactions X
February 2011
The tenth issue!
Yeah, I know — ten is not all that many, but still ;-)
It is time for the tenth issue of my summary of Tolkien related ‘goings-on’ on the 'net that fulfill the three strict criteria for being reported here: 1: it has some relevance to Tolkien, 2: I have seen it, and 3: I've decided that it's interesting enough to pass it on here. A slight delay in posting is mostly due to the fact that I accidentally chrashed my laptop in the last week of February — fortunately I had everything backed up and can now work on a nice new laptop.
As always, disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = News = = = =
Reuters, Thursday, 3 February 2011, “UK police hold man over Churchill fake signatures”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/03/us-britain-churchill-fraud-idINTRE7126QN20110203
BBC News, Thursday, 3 February 2011, “Arrest over fake Winston Churchill signatures”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12361124
Following nicely in the wake of last month's advice by Pieter Collier is the news that a man has been arrested over fake signatures, including Tolkien's. See also news from the 7th.
AH, Saturday, 5 February 2011, “Middle Earth Comes to the IPAD”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/middle-earth-comes-to-ipad.html
So, now you can download a map-application for the Apple iPad that shows Middle-earth in the First Age. There are a lot of fan-produced maps of Middle-earth available on the internet — some of them in high resolution and far more beautifully made than this, so this is not something that could make me wish for an iPad (or any other tablet computer).
BBC News, Monday, 7 February 2011, “Man bailed over fake Winston Churchill items”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12385859
The man whose arrest was reported on the third has been bailed — I just hope that the police is keeping an eye on his activity on E-Bay . . .
The Guardian, Tuesday, 8 February 2011, “Lord of the Rings reworking a hit with fans, but not Tolkien estate”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/08/lord-of-the-rings-reworking-tolkien-estate
The story about Kirill Yeskov's The Last Ring-bearer has been heavily discussed in many places. Here it is the coverage in The Guardian, along with a discussion at a Guardian bookblog:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/feb/08/tolkien-bored-of-the-rings
Kate James (Gather,com), Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “Tolkien Professor Middle Earth iTunes Hit” (sic)
http://technology.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979036386
Corey Olsen got into the news this month. Not only in the Gather.com article above, but also a live chat on the Washington Post web-site:
Washington Post, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “The ‘Tolkien Professor’: Corey Olsen”
http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-tolkien-professor-corey-olsen-02-10.html
and The Washington Post, Saturday, 12 February 2011, “'Tolkien Professor’ Corey Olsen brings Middle-earth to iTunes via podcasts”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021106539.html
and The Columbus Dispatch, Monday, 21 February 2011, “He techno-teaches Tolkien”
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2011/02/21/he-techno-teaches-tolkien.html?sid=101
Why this was the month that Olsen hit the news, I don't know, but I think he deserves a lot of credit for his idea and its execution. His own way of putting it is: ‘Instead of spending all my time doing scholarly publishing, which we're told to do — which most people will never read — I basically decided to put myself out to the public.’ One is of course that the academic level of the podcasts is, perhaps, not quite what the college might expect of its tenured professors (Balrog wings . . .), but Olsen has said that he is working on a book on, if I recall correctly, The Hobbit, and I hope this will give him opportunity to go into more depth than what we see in the podcasts.
Eriq Gardner, Friday, 18 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien Estate Threatens Lawsuit Over Book Featuring Tolkien As Character (Exclusive)”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/jrr-tolkien-estate-threatens-lawsuit-101528
So, the story that the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate has sent a ‘cease-and-desist letter’ to one Stephen Hilliard who has responded with a counter-lawsuit has made a lot of headlines. Unfortunately it is not very clear what exactly the estate is reacting against, but judging by the mythies (Mythopoeic Society members) who have commented on the book, they might will react against having Tolkien's name associated with atrociously bad fiction (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21909). In the MythSoc Yahoo group, there has been discussions of the estate's policies (in addition to the above, you can also see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21941). It is my impression that Tolkien scholars, geeks and enthusiasts are generally quite supportive of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust (there are those who advocate against copyright in general, but that's another issue), and I don't think they will suffer much such much damage to this esteem over the present row, but it does rather raise the question of the nature of this interdependence: we do need each other, the estate, the scholars and the ‘fan-base’, and so there is a limit to how far either party can go without alienating the others. And of course one has to consider that HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin also have some influence on what can be published and what not.
Further items about this story includes:
Scott Edelman, 18 Feb, “Tolkien estate tries to kill novel starring fictionalized Tolkien”
http://blastr.com/2011/02/tolkien-estate-sues-to-ki.php
Rebekah Denn, 21 Feb, “J.R.R. Tolkien as fictional character – fair use or a step too far?”
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0221/J.R.R.-Tolkien-as-fictional-character-fair-use-or-a-step-too-far
Bridget Freeland, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, “Novelist Sues Tolkien's Estate Over Book Featuring ‘Hobbit’ Author”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/02/22/34331.htm
Wellinghall, Friday, 25 February 2011, “The Tolkien Estate”
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/827078.html
Dalya Alberge, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien novel Mirkwood in legal battle with author's estate”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/26/mirkwood-jrr-tolkien-legal-battle
DB, Monday, 28 February 2011, “paddling against the meme tide”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/507589.html
David Bratman addresses some of the negative mention that the Tolkien Estate has had in this month (see e.g. above) on their pursuing their copyrights and trademark rights. He also corrects many of the stories referred to above, explaining that ‘what the estate has demanded cessation of is not the use of Tolkien's name but the commercial appropriation of his name in publicizing and selling the book, a publicity rights issue.’
See also: Cory Doctorow, Friday, 25 February 2011, “UPDATED: Tolkien estate censors badge that contains the word ‘Tolkien'”
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/25/tolkien-estate-censo.html
In which the lawyers for the Tolkien Estate explains that the button was taken down by the on-line seller of its own accord.
JDR, Monday, 28 February 2011, “WHERE THE SHADOWS LIE . . .”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/where-shadows-lie.html
Rateliff has heard of yet another book featuring Tolkien as a fictional character, and wonders if this means that ‘we're on the cusp of a flood of Tolkien-as-character/it's-all-real/modern-day Middle-earth fiction’ and ending by expressing his hopes that this is not so, ‘I sure hope not.’ (In the commentary David Bratman adds information suggesting that ‘Tolkien is not a character, but a reference’ in this book.)
Bruce Hopkins, RadioLive, New Zealand, “Mike Foster US Tolkien Society”
Part 1:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Mike-Foster-US-Tolkien-Society-/tabid/506/articleID/18166/Default.aspx
Part 2:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Tolkien-with-Mike-Foster-part-2/tabid/506/articleID/18449/Default.aspx
A radio interview in two parts with Mike Foster, head of the US Tolkien Society.
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
BC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “The pride of Feanor”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/pride-of-feanor.html
Some perceptive comments on the portrayal of pride in Tolkien's work with primary reference to Fëanor. I agree entirely when Charlton asserts that ‘For Tolkien, there is no creative achievement so great that it cannot be undone and reversed by pride.’ I could have wished that Charlton had added some comments relating to Tolkien's ideas about sub-creation, in particular as expressed in the poem Mythopoeia:
BC, Sunday, 6 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien's theology of The Fall and Resurrection”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/jrr-tolkiens-theology-of-fall-and.html
This blog entry starts off with another quotation from the ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’ from Morgoth's Ring — here from Tolkien's commentary concerning Finrod's presumptions and inferences regarding in particular the natures of Eru, of Elves and of Men. Charlton adds some commentary and explication, emphasizing the importance of this text for understanding Tolkien's later conception of his legendarium, but even if I agree with what he says, I still can't quite suppress a ‘yes, and what more?’ reaction.
TF, Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a transitionary work”
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/02/lord-of-rings-as-transitionary-work.html
A bit presumptuous, perhaps, to put myself here, but still . . .
I argue that the years from Tolkien began writing ‘the New Hobbit’ in 1937 until it was published as The Lord of the Rings in 1954 represent just as much a period of transition in Tolkien's views on his legendarium as any other period of equal length since 1917. I also argue that this transition is visible in The Lord of the Rings and that it therefore makes sense in some ways to treat the book as a transitionary work.
BC, Sunday, 13 February 2011, “Depth in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/depth-in-tolkien.html
There is nothing controversial to the basic idea that a great part of the attraction of The Lord of the Rings is due to a feeling of ‘depth’, nor to the idea that this depth is, in part, achieved by the text conveying a sense of a vast backcloth of story, legend and myth. Charlton recounts this, and refers to Tolkien's concern that ‘going there’ would ‘destroy the magic’, concluding that going there did destroy the magic: that the published Silmarillion was an error and that only the vast variety of the History of Middle-earth material as long as, in Charlton's words, ‘we take the stance that these are fragmentary and distorted Annals of lost real history.’
H&S, Tuesday, 15 February 2011, “New Addenda & Corrigenda”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/new-addenda-corrigenda-2/
As the title says, Wayne and Christina have posted some corrections and additions on their website. This time there are new addenda and corrigenda to The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide on top of which they have made a new page of supplemental bibliography related to the addenda and corrigenda to their Reader's Companion.
Anke Eissman, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, “Illustrating Tolkien”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=240409
A nice and personal account from Anke Eissman on her experiences with Tolkien illustrations.
Leo Grin, Saturday, 19 February 2011, “Sanity and Sanctity: The Ennobling Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien Part 1”
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/
and
Leo Grin, Monday, 28 February 2011, “The Order of Grace: The Ennobling Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, Part 2”
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/28/the-order-of-grace-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-2/
This is one of these pieces that are hard to categorize. On one hand there is little original to find here, but on the other hand this essay (or article or whatever we are to call it) is clearly of higher quality than so much else we see on the 'net — with respect to the fact-checking, depth as well as general readability. If you would like to read an introduction to Tolkien criticism that is more accessible than e.g. Shippey's books and at the same time gets their facts right, this is a good choice. I will just add that Tolkien's work speaks to other than just ‘conservatives’ (much less American conservatives), and I don't think that Tolkien's work can be taken as supportive of any of the normal political movements: the ‘enlightened anarchy’ of the Shire is possibly the closest we get to Tolkien's ideals.
BC, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “Legolas, Gimli and the key passage of Lord of the Rings”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/legolas-gimli-and-key-passage-of-lord.html
Taking his outset in the conversation between Legolas and Gimli on their way to the Houses of Healing to visit Merry (and Pippin) which Charlton calls a ‘key passage’, he discusses his own changing perceptions of this passage, mentioning particularly his shift of perception due to his reading of the Athrabeth.
AH, Sunday, 27 February 2011, “Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien - The Long Defeat, The Final Battle, and Glimpses of Victory”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/richard-wagner-and-jrr-tolkien-long.html
My own lack of sympathy for Wagner's work obviously makes me very wary towards Andy's on-going project of finding parallels between Wagner and Tolkien. Still, I do read with interest and an open mind (or try to), and I found Andy's explanation of Wagner going through many versions of the end of his Ring-cycle quite interesting, also to see how Wagner responded to various currents in his age. In the end, however, I do lack some kind of indication of what this means — it is, in my opinion, not enough to point at a parallel (we can always quibble about just how far the parallels / similarities go), I wish also to have some indication of how this could or should affect my appreciation of Tolkien's and / or Wagner's work (or at the very least an indication that it could have such an effect).
= = = = Reviews = = = =
Perhaps this section would be more appropriately called ‘Book Announcements’, but some of all these books that we see announced must at some point be reviewed as well ;-)
PC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “_The Ring and the Cross_: Christianity in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien by Paul E. Kerry”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/989-The_Ring_and_the_Cross.php
An upcoming book with the sub-title ‘Christianity and the _Lord of the Rings_’. It will be interesting to see the reviews — the list of contributors does look somewhat comforting for someone (such as myself) who could fear that such a book would be merely an excuse for the contributors to preach their own faith (as has been the case with some books on Harry Potter and Christianity).
JDR, Tuesday, 8 February 2011, “Forthcoming Publication: PICTURING TOLKIEN”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/forthcoming-publication-picturing.html
This collections of essays offers, according to the publisher (McFarland) ‘a positive consensus of director Peter Jackson’s spectacularly successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy’. I quite like the title of Verlyn Flieger's contribution: ‘Sometimes One Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures’, though I'm curious about how it fits into this ‘positive consensus’ mentioned above. Rateliff's own contributions, ‘Two Kinds of Absence: Elision & Exclusion in Peter Jackson's _The Lord of the Rings_’, investigates the claim that scenes left out of the films nevertheless did take place in the film universe (I can come up with a few key scenes that could not possibly have occurred).
JDR, Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “The New Arrival: another book about Tolkien”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-arrival-another-book-about-tolkien.html
John Rateliff has received his copy of Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J. R. R. Tolkien edited Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kascakova and shares the list of contents. Unfortunately it ‘doesn't immediately bump its way to the top of [his] reading list’ so there is no actual review other than this.
JF, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “More new books — and an excerpt”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-new-books-and-excerpt.html
Jason is discussing three new books here. One is the recent Middle-earth and Beyond mentioned above to which Jason has himself contributed an essay which is available in the preview pages to which there is a link from the blog entry. The others are announcements of the collection The Ring and the Cross: Christianity in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien (ed. Paul E. Kerry), and the other is the Picturing Tolkien collection also announced by John Rateliff above.
JDR, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “Fairleigh-Dickinson”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/fairleigh-dickinson.html
Continuing the announcements is here John Rateliff's announcement (with comments) of the first of Paul Kerry's (ed.) two-volume collection on Christianity in Tolkien's writings. John Rateliff offers a few more comments on the contents, which in his descripion sound promising. One of the weaknesses, IMO, of many books that focus on the religious aspect of an author's writings is that it often becomes more a vessel for the critic to preach their own beliefs than an objective, scholarly investigation of the actual writings of the author. However, by the descriptions that I have seen, the two volumes edited by Paul Kerry promise to achieve that scholarly investigation.
JDR, Friday, 11 February 2011, “Forthcoming publication: SHE AND TOLKIEN Revisited”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/forthcoming-publication-she-and-tolkien.html
One more book announcement from John Rateliff. One is the book edited by Jason Fisher that was mentioned on Jason's blog last month, The Bones of the Ox, now apparently tentatively titled Tolkien & The Study of his Sources: Critical Essays, for which Rateliff provides essentially the same list of contents as Jason (except that Jason lists Shippey's piece as the introduction). Rateliff's own contribution, ‘_She_ & Tolkien, Revisited’, is the paper he gave at the 2010 Mythcon, and a reworking of the first piece he wrote (for Mythlore) back in 1981.
JF, Wednesday, 23 February 2011, “Verlyn Flieger’s forthcoming collection”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/verlyn-fliegers-forthcoming-collection.html
Here Jason announces a book that will make it instantly to the top of my wish-list. A collection of essays by Verlyn Flieger on matters Tolkien. Wow!
See also JDR, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “Verlyn's Book”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/verlyns-book.html
and Verlyn Flieger's own web-site http://www.mythus.com/greensuns.html
JF, Friday, 25 February 2011, “Details on Light Beyond All Shadow”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/details-on-light-beyond-all-shadows.html
Here we get the list of contents for Light Beyond All Shadow: Religious Experience in Tolkien's Work, the companion volume to The Ring and the Cross, the second of the two books containing essays on christianity edited by Paul Kerry and Sandra Miesel and published by Fairleigh-Dickinson.
Bill Peschel, Sunday, 27 February 2011, “Author David C. Downing takes a novel approach to lives of Lewis, Tolkien”
http://blog.pennlive.com/life/2011/02/author_david_c_downing_takes_a.html
In part a review and in part reporting an interview with Downing. Apparently Downing's book has caused some strong reactions in some quarters — I suppose that it is not entirely undesirable for an author to evoke strong emotions, even if it means getting negative reactions that are ‘more intensely hostile than [he is] used to getting for [his] interpretative books.’
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
BC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “The elven ‘argument from desire'”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/elven-argument-from-desire.html
Mostly a quotation of what Tolkien has to say about desire in the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (Morgoth's Ring) with some brief comments added.
H&S, Friday, 4 February 2011, “Books in 2010”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/books-in-2010/
Wayne and Christina discussing the ‘only’ 242 volumes that was added to their collection in 2010 is inevitably Tolkien-related — and of course I find that I relate quite well to that love of books that I detect (or believe that I detect . . .) whenever Wayne and Christina write about their books.
JF, Friday, 11 February 2011, “Friday Diversion”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/friday-diversion.html
A nice little diversion game here. Jason posted a list names, and asked what they have in common (to the exclusion of other, more well-known, names from the same source). I admit I didn't get it until it was pointed out (there's a couple of confusing elements there — let me just say that it is about these specific names rather than the things they name). Can you guess without looking at the answer in the comments?
AH, Sunday, 13 February 2011, “J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rivals and Mrs Malaprop”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/jrr-tolkien-rivals-and-mrs-malaprop.html
A nice and personal retelling of the story of Tolkien playing Mrs Malaprop in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals at King William's School in Birmingham along with others of the TCBS followed by a call for Tolkienian malapropisms.
BC, Monday, 14 February 2011, “Death in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/death-in-tolkien.html
Being mainly a rather bald and brief summary of Tolkien's views on death, and particularly human death (counterposed with Elvish death), I have chosen to put this post here. Perhaps it should rather be put as a lemma to the later discussion of “Legolas, Gimli and the key passage of _The Lord of the Rings_” to which I believe this post leads up both in result and in the intention of the author.
JF, Friday, 18 February 2011, “Books versus “books””
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/books-versus-books.html
Following on from a discussion in the Mythopoeic Society Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21840), Jason discusses why he dislikes E-books (at least as it is usually set up), though of course he uses electronic texts for searching etc. The ensuing discussion is also worth reading (I learned quite a lot from reading this).
= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =
RABT: “Did Tolkien read Cooper?”
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/PgHDUpVqRtU
Not a long thread, but interesting nonetheless. And of it diverges quickly into something else entirely — it's usenet ;-)
LotR Plaza: “The Order of Things”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=240395
Originating in a simple question regarding the relations between the various orders of created beings in Tolkien's sub-creation, this evolved into discussing also the multiplying of entities (or, if you will, the positing of plurality) when discussing story-internal questions.
= = = = Web Sites = = = =
I will try to present a couple of sites every month — if I've found a new site (of any kind) that I have found interesting, then I will add that, and then I'll throw in some oldies to keep things rolling ;-)
“Thoughts from Eryn Lasgallen” (sic)
-- ‘A Tolkien reference guide’
http://thoughtsfromerynlasgallen.blogspot.com/
The first site is a blog that I have only recently discovered, but which has been going since 2008. In essence a series reviewing a number of Tolkien-related websites (these have been running since December 2008), and thus a great opportunity to discover new Tolkien-related sites. It has also been the inspiration for me to create this section of my Tolkien Transactions, but since my interests are not entirely co-inciding with those of Lynn-Marie Gildersleeve who runs the Thoughts from Eryn Lasgallen blog, I thought I'd do my own reviews.
“The Tolkien Meta-FAQ”
http://tolkien.slimy.com
Though I've chosen to give L.M. Gildersleeve's blog the right of first place as both the direct inspiration for this section and for being the most recent addition to my bookmarks, it is clear that any list of Tolkien-related sites that takes its origin from the Tolkien newsgroups must start by mentioning Steuard's site of FAQs and essays. I will emphasize the Tolkien Meta-FAQ itself: a single point of entry to at least five different FAQs on Tolkien's writings, and of course the essays section, http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/, housing learned essays by Steuard Jensen (e.g. What is Tom Bombadil and Tolkien's Parish) and Conrad Dunkerson (including the series The Truth About Balrogs). All in all this is a must-have bookmark.
“Heimskringla”
http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Main_Page
The Heimskringla is, in their own words, ‘an online collection of Old Norse source material: Primarily the Eddas, the Icelandic sagas and scaldic poetry. In addition to this the collection consists of background material and other related texts.’ This is a wonderful collection of texts in the Old Norse languages, though the majority of the site is only available in the Norse languages (Old Norse and modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Faroese) the original texts in Old Norse are here available for any Tolkien scholar to see. One example is the Völuspá, http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/V%C3%B6lusp%C3%A1 where stanzas 10 through 16 contains the list of Dwarf-names where Tolkien found most of the names for Durin's folk.
= = = = 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), “Calimac”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
http://theruminate.blogspot.com
‘Wellinghall’, “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
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/
- and others
--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or ‘Tolkien’ in subject.
And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left
the path of wisdom.
- Gandalf, /The Fellowship of the Ring/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)
The tenth issue!
Yeah, I know — ten is not all that many, but still ;-)
It is time for the tenth issue of my summary of Tolkien related ‘goings-on’ on the 'net that fulfill the three strict criteria for being reported here: 1: it has some relevance to Tolkien, 2: I have seen it, and 3: I've decided that it's interesting enough to pass it on here. A slight delay in posting is mostly due to the fact that I accidentally chrashed my laptop in the last week of February — fortunately I had everything backed up and can now work on a nice new laptop.
As always, disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = News = = = =
Reuters, Thursday, 3 February 2011, “UK police hold man over Churchill fake signatures”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/03/us-britain-churchill-fraud-idINTRE7126QN20110203
BBC News, Thursday, 3 February 2011, “Arrest over fake Winston Churchill signatures”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12361124
Following nicely in the wake of last month's advice by Pieter Collier is the news that a man has been arrested over fake signatures, including Tolkien's. See also news from the 7th.
AH, Saturday, 5 February 2011, “Middle Earth Comes to the IPAD”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/middle-earth-comes-to-ipad.html
So, now you can download a map-application for the Apple iPad that shows Middle-earth in the First Age. There are a lot of fan-produced maps of Middle-earth available on the internet — some of them in high resolution and far more beautifully made than this, so this is not something that could make me wish for an iPad (or any other tablet computer).
BBC News, Monday, 7 February 2011, “Man bailed over fake Winston Churchill items”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12385859
The man whose arrest was reported on the third has been bailed — I just hope that the police is keeping an eye on his activity on E-Bay . . .
The Guardian, Tuesday, 8 February 2011, “Lord of the Rings reworking a hit with fans, but not Tolkien estate”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/08/lord-of-the-rings-reworking-tolkien-estate
The story about Kirill Yeskov's The Last Ring-bearer has been heavily discussed in many places. Here it is the coverage in The Guardian, along with a discussion at a Guardian bookblog:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/feb/08/tolkien-bored-of-the-rings
Kate James (Gather,com), Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “Tolkien Professor Middle Earth iTunes Hit” (sic)
http://technology.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979036386
Corey Olsen got into the news this month. Not only in the Gather.com article above, but also a live chat on the Washington Post web-site:
Washington Post, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “The ‘Tolkien Professor’: Corey Olsen”
http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-tolkien-professor-corey-olsen-02-10.html
and The Washington Post, Saturday, 12 February 2011, “'Tolkien Professor’ Corey Olsen brings Middle-earth to iTunes via podcasts”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021106539.html
and The Columbus Dispatch, Monday, 21 February 2011, “He techno-teaches Tolkien”
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2011/02/21/he-techno-teaches-tolkien.html?sid=101
Why this was the month that Olsen hit the news, I don't know, but I think he deserves a lot of credit for his idea and its execution. His own way of putting it is: ‘Instead of spending all my time doing scholarly publishing, which we're told to do — which most people will never read — I basically decided to put myself out to the public.’ One is of course that the academic level of the podcasts is, perhaps, not quite what the college might expect of its tenured professors (Balrog wings . . .), but Olsen has said that he is working on a book on, if I recall correctly, The Hobbit, and I hope this will give him opportunity to go into more depth than what we see in the podcasts.
Eriq Gardner, Friday, 18 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien Estate Threatens Lawsuit Over Book Featuring Tolkien As Character (Exclusive)”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/jrr-tolkien-estate-threatens-lawsuit-101528
So, the story that the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate has sent a ‘cease-and-desist letter’ to one Stephen Hilliard who has responded with a counter-lawsuit has made a lot of headlines. Unfortunately it is not very clear what exactly the estate is reacting against, but judging by the mythies (Mythopoeic Society members) who have commented on the book, they might will react against having Tolkien's name associated with atrociously bad fiction (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21909). In the MythSoc Yahoo group, there has been discussions of the estate's policies (in addition to the above, you can also see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21941). It is my impression that Tolkien scholars, geeks and enthusiasts are generally quite supportive of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust (there are those who advocate against copyright in general, but that's another issue), and I don't think they will suffer much such much damage to this esteem over the present row, but it does rather raise the question of the nature of this interdependence: we do need each other, the estate, the scholars and the ‘fan-base’, and so there is a limit to how far either party can go without alienating the others. And of course one has to consider that HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin also have some influence on what can be published and what not.
Further items about this story includes:
Scott Edelman, 18 Feb, “Tolkien estate tries to kill novel starring fictionalized Tolkien”
http://blastr.com/2011/02/tolkien-estate-sues-to-ki.php
Rebekah Denn, 21 Feb, “J.R.R. Tolkien as fictional character – fair use or a step too far?”
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0221/J.R.R.-Tolkien-as-fictional-character-fair-use-or-a-step-too-far
Bridget Freeland, Tuesday, 22 February 2011, “Novelist Sues Tolkien's Estate Over Book Featuring ‘Hobbit’ Author”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/02/22/34331.htm
Wellinghall, Friday, 25 February 2011, “The Tolkien Estate”
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/827078.html
Dalya Alberge, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien novel Mirkwood in legal battle with author's estate”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/26/mirkwood-jrr-tolkien-legal-battle
DB, Monday, 28 February 2011, “paddling against the meme tide”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/507589.html
David Bratman addresses some of the negative mention that the Tolkien Estate has had in this month (see e.g. above) on their pursuing their copyrights and trademark rights. He also corrects many of the stories referred to above, explaining that ‘what the estate has demanded cessation of is not the use of Tolkien's name but the commercial appropriation of his name in publicizing and selling the book, a publicity rights issue.’
See also: Cory Doctorow, Friday, 25 February 2011, “UPDATED: Tolkien estate censors badge that contains the word ‘Tolkien'”
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/25/tolkien-estate-censo.html
In which the lawyers for the Tolkien Estate explains that the button was taken down by the on-line seller of its own accord.
JDR, Monday, 28 February 2011, “WHERE THE SHADOWS LIE . . .”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/where-shadows-lie.html
Rateliff has heard of yet another book featuring Tolkien as a fictional character, and wonders if this means that ‘we're on the cusp of a flood of Tolkien-as-character/it's-all-real/modern-day Middle-earth fiction’ and ending by expressing his hopes that this is not so, ‘I sure hope not.’ (In the commentary David Bratman adds information suggesting that ‘Tolkien is not a character, but a reference’ in this book.)
Bruce Hopkins, RadioLive, New Zealand, “Mike Foster US Tolkien Society”
Part 1:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Mike-Foster-US-Tolkien-Society-/tabid/506/articleID/18166/Default.aspx
Part 2:
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Tolkien-with-Mike-Foster-part-2/tabid/506/articleID/18449/Default.aspx
A radio interview in two parts with Mike Foster, head of the US Tolkien Society.
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
BC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “The pride of Feanor”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/pride-of-feanor.html
Some perceptive comments on the portrayal of pride in Tolkien's work with primary reference to Fëanor. I agree entirely when Charlton asserts that ‘For Tolkien, there is no creative achievement so great that it cannot be undone and reversed by pride.’ I could have wished that Charlton had added some comments relating to Tolkien's ideas about sub-creation, in particular as expressed in the poem Mythopoeia:
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
[...]
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.
BC, Sunday, 6 February 2011, “JRR Tolkien's theology of The Fall and Resurrection”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/jrr-tolkiens-theology-of-fall-and.html
This blog entry starts off with another quotation from the ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’ from Morgoth's Ring — here from Tolkien's commentary concerning Finrod's presumptions and inferences regarding in particular the natures of Eru, of Elves and of Men. Charlton adds some commentary and explication, emphasizing the importance of this text for understanding Tolkien's later conception of his legendarium, but even if I agree with what he says, I still can't quite suppress a ‘yes, and what more?’ reaction.
TF, Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a transitionary work”
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/02/lord-of-rings-as-transitionary-work.html
A bit presumptuous, perhaps, to put myself here, but still . . .
I argue that the years from Tolkien began writing ‘the New Hobbit’ in 1937 until it was published as The Lord of the Rings in 1954 represent just as much a period of transition in Tolkien's views on his legendarium as any other period of equal length since 1917. I also argue that this transition is visible in The Lord of the Rings and that it therefore makes sense in some ways to treat the book as a transitionary work.
BC, Sunday, 13 February 2011, “Depth in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/depth-in-tolkien.html
There is nothing controversial to the basic idea that a great part of the attraction of The Lord of the Rings is due to a feeling of ‘depth’, nor to the idea that this depth is, in part, achieved by the text conveying a sense of a vast backcloth of story, legend and myth. Charlton recounts this, and refers to Tolkien's concern that ‘going there’ would ‘destroy the magic’, concluding that going there did destroy the magic: that the published Silmarillion was an error and that only the vast variety of the History of Middle-earth material as long as, in Charlton's words, ‘we take the stance that these are fragmentary and distorted Annals of lost real history.’
H&S, Tuesday, 15 February 2011, “New Addenda & Corrigenda”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/new-addenda-corrigenda-2/
As the title says, Wayne and Christina have posted some corrections and additions on their website. This time there are new addenda and corrigenda to The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide on top of which they have made a new page of supplemental bibliography related to the addenda and corrigenda to their Reader's Companion.
Anke Eissman, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, “Illustrating Tolkien”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=240409
A nice and personal account from Anke Eissman on her experiences with Tolkien illustrations.
Leo Grin, Saturday, 19 February 2011, “Sanity and Sanctity: The Ennobling Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien Part 1”
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/19/sanity-and-sanctity-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-1/
and
Leo Grin, Monday, 28 February 2011, “The Order of Grace: The Ennobling Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, Part 2”
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/28/the-order-of-grace-the-ennobling-fantasy-of-j-r-r-tolkien-part-2/
This is one of these pieces that are hard to categorize. On one hand there is little original to find here, but on the other hand this essay (or article or whatever we are to call it) is clearly of higher quality than so much else we see on the 'net — with respect to the fact-checking, depth as well as general readability. If you would like to read an introduction to Tolkien criticism that is more accessible than e.g. Shippey's books and at the same time gets their facts right, this is a good choice. I will just add that Tolkien's work speaks to other than just ‘conservatives’ (much less American conservatives), and I don't think that Tolkien's work can be taken as supportive of any of the normal political movements: the ‘enlightened anarchy’ of the Shire is possibly the closest we get to Tolkien's ideals.
BC, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “Legolas, Gimli and the key passage of Lord of the Rings”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/legolas-gimli-and-key-passage-of-lord.html
Taking his outset in the conversation between Legolas and Gimli on their way to the Houses of Healing to visit Merry (and Pippin) which Charlton calls a ‘key passage’, he discusses his own changing perceptions of this passage, mentioning particularly his shift of perception due to his reading of the Athrabeth.
AH, Sunday, 27 February 2011, “Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien - The Long Defeat, The Final Battle, and Glimpses of Victory”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/richard-wagner-and-jrr-tolkien-long.html
My own lack of sympathy for Wagner's work obviously makes me very wary towards Andy's on-going project of finding parallels between Wagner and Tolkien. Still, I do read with interest and an open mind (or try to), and I found Andy's explanation of Wagner going through many versions of the end of his Ring-cycle quite interesting, also to see how Wagner responded to various currents in his age. In the end, however, I do lack some kind of indication of what this means — it is, in my opinion, not enough to point at a parallel (we can always quibble about just how far the parallels / similarities go), I wish also to have some indication of how this could or should affect my appreciation of Tolkien's and / or Wagner's work (or at the very least an indication that it could have such an effect).
= = = = Reviews = = = =
Perhaps this section would be more appropriately called ‘Book Announcements’, but some of all these books that we see announced must at some point be reviewed as well ;-)
PC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “_The Ring and the Cross_: Christianity in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien by Paul E. Kerry”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/989-The_Ring_and_the_Cross.php
An upcoming book with the sub-title ‘Christianity and the _Lord of the Rings_’. It will be interesting to see the reviews — the list of contributors does look somewhat comforting for someone (such as myself) who could fear that such a book would be merely an excuse for the contributors to preach their own faith (as has been the case with some books on Harry Potter and Christianity).
JDR, Tuesday, 8 February 2011, “Forthcoming Publication: PICTURING TOLKIEN”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/forthcoming-publication-picturing.html
This collections of essays offers, according to the publisher (McFarland) ‘a positive consensus of director Peter Jackson’s spectacularly successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy’. I quite like the title of Verlyn Flieger's contribution: ‘Sometimes One Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures’, though I'm curious about how it fits into this ‘positive consensus’ mentioned above. Rateliff's own contributions, ‘Two Kinds of Absence: Elision & Exclusion in Peter Jackson's _The Lord of the Rings_’, investigates the claim that scenes left out of the films nevertheless did take place in the film universe (I can come up with a few key scenes that could not possibly have occurred).
JDR, Wednesday, 9 February 2011, “The New Arrival: another book about Tolkien”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-arrival-another-book-about-tolkien.html
John Rateliff has received his copy of Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J. R. R. Tolkien edited Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kascakova and shares the list of contents. Unfortunately it ‘doesn't immediately bump its way to the top of [his] reading list’ so there is no actual review other than this.
JF, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “More new books — and an excerpt”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-new-books-and-excerpt.html
Jason is discussing three new books here. One is the recent Middle-earth and Beyond mentioned above to which Jason has himself contributed an essay which is available in the preview pages to which there is a link from the blog entry. The others are announcements of the collection The Ring and the Cross: Christianity in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien (ed. Paul E. Kerry), and the other is the Picturing Tolkien collection also announced by John Rateliff above.
JDR, Thursday, 10 February 2011, “Fairleigh-Dickinson”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/fairleigh-dickinson.html
Continuing the announcements is here John Rateliff's announcement (with comments) of the first of Paul Kerry's (ed.) two-volume collection on Christianity in Tolkien's writings. John Rateliff offers a few more comments on the contents, which in his descripion sound promising. One of the weaknesses, IMO, of many books that focus on the religious aspect of an author's writings is that it often becomes more a vessel for the critic to preach their own beliefs than an objective, scholarly investigation of the actual writings of the author. However, by the descriptions that I have seen, the two volumes edited by Paul Kerry promise to achieve that scholarly investigation.
JDR, Friday, 11 February 2011, “Forthcoming publication: SHE AND TOLKIEN Revisited”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/forthcoming-publication-she-and-tolkien.html
One more book announcement from John Rateliff. One is the book edited by Jason Fisher that was mentioned on Jason's blog last month, The Bones of the Ox, now apparently tentatively titled Tolkien & The Study of his Sources: Critical Essays, for which Rateliff provides essentially the same list of contents as Jason (except that Jason lists Shippey's piece as the introduction). Rateliff's own contribution, ‘_She_ & Tolkien, Revisited’, is the paper he gave at the 2010 Mythcon, and a reworking of the first piece he wrote (for Mythlore) back in 1981.
JF, Wednesday, 23 February 2011, “Verlyn Flieger’s forthcoming collection”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/verlyn-fliegers-forthcoming-collection.html
Here Jason announces a book that will make it instantly to the top of my wish-list. A collection of essays by Verlyn Flieger on matters Tolkien. Wow!
See also JDR, Saturday, 26 February 2011, “Verlyn's Book”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/02/verlyns-book.html
and Verlyn Flieger's own web-site http://www.mythus.com/greensuns.html
JF, Friday, 25 February 2011, “Details on Light Beyond All Shadow”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/details-on-light-beyond-all-shadows.html
Here we get the list of contents for Light Beyond All Shadow: Religious Experience in Tolkien's Work, the companion volume to The Ring and the Cross, the second of the two books containing essays on christianity edited by Paul Kerry and Sandra Miesel and published by Fairleigh-Dickinson.
Bill Peschel, Sunday, 27 February 2011, “Author David C. Downing takes a novel approach to lives of Lewis, Tolkien”
http://blog.pennlive.com/life/2011/02/author_david_c_downing_takes_a.html
In part a review and in part reporting an interview with Downing. Apparently Downing's book has caused some strong reactions in some quarters — I suppose that it is not entirely undesirable for an author to evoke strong emotions, even if it means getting negative reactions that are ‘more intensely hostile than [he is] used to getting for [his] interpretative books.’
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
BC, Wednesday, 2 February 2011, “The elven ‘argument from desire'”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/elven-argument-from-desire.html
Mostly a quotation of what Tolkien has to say about desire in the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (Morgoth's Ring) with some brief comments added.
H&S, Friday, 4 February 2011, “Books in 2010”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/books-in-2010/
Wayne and Christina discussing the ‘only’ 242 volumes that was added to their collection in 2010 is inevitably Tolkien-related — and of course I find that I relate quite well to that love of books that I detect (or believe that I detect . . .) whenever Wayne and Christina write about their books.
JF, Friday, 11 February 2011, “Friday Diversion”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/friday-diversion.html
A nice little diversion game here. Jason posted a list names, and asked what they have in common (to the exclusion of other, more well-known, names from the same source). I admit I didn't get it until it was pointed out (there's a couple of confusing elements there — let me just say that it is about these specific names rather than the things they name). Can you guess without looking at the answer in the comments?
AH, Sunday, 13 February 2011, “J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rivals and Mrs Malaprop”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/02/jrr-tolkien-rivals-and-mrs-malaprop.html
A nice and personal retelling of the story of Tolkien playing Mrs Malaprop in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals at King William's School in Birmingham along with others of the TCBS followed by a call for Tolkienian malapropisms.
BC, Monday, 14 February 2011, “Death in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/02/death-in-tolkien.html
Being mainly a rather bald and brief summary of Tolkien's views on death, and particularly human death (counterposed with Elvish death), I have chosen to put this post here. Perhaps it should rather be put as a lemma to the later discussion of “Legolas, Gimli and the key passage of _The Lord of the Rings_” to which I believe this post leads up both in result and in the intention of the author.
JF, Friday, 18 February 2011, “Books versus “books””
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/02/books-versus-books.html
Following on from a discussion in the Mythopoeic Society Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/21840), Jason discusses why he dislikes E-books (at least as it is usually set up), though of course he uses electronic texts for searching etc. The ensuing discussion is also worth reading (I learned quite a lot from reading this).
= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =
RABT: “Did Tolkien read Cooper?”
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.books.tolkien/PgHDUpVqRtU
Not a long thread, but interesting nonetheless. And of it diverges quickly into something else entirely — it's usenet ;-)
LotR Plaza: “The Order of Things”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=240395
Originating in a simple question regarding the relations between the various orders of created beings in Tolkien's sub-creation, this evolved into discussing also the multiplying of entities (or, if you will, the positing of plurality) when discussing story-internal questions.
= = = = Web Sites = = = =
I will try to present a couple of sites every month — if I've found a new site (of any kind) that I have found interesting, then I will add that, and then I'll throw in some oldies to keep things rolling ;-)
“Thoughts from Eryn Lasgallen” (sic)
-- ‘A Tolkien reference guide’
http://thoughtsfromerynlasgallen.blogspot.com/
The first site is a blog that I have only recently discovered, but which has been going since 2008. In essence a series reviewing a number of Tolkien-related websites (these have been running since December 2008), and thus a great opportunity to discover new Tolkien-related sites. It has also been the inspiration for me to create this section of my Tolkien Transactions, but since my interests are not entirely co-inciding with those of Lynn-Marie Gildersleeve who runs the Thoughts from Eryn Lasgallen blog, I thought I'd do my own reviews.
“The Tolkien Meta-FAQ”
http://tolkien.slimy.com
Though I've chosen to give L.M. Gildersleeve's blog the right of first place as both the direct inspiration for this section and for being the most recent addition to my bookmarks, it is clear that any list of Tolkien-related sites that takes its origin from the Tolkien newsgroups must start by mentioning Steuard's site of FAQs and essays. I will emphasize the Tolkien Meta-FAQ itself: a single point of entry to at least five different FAQs on Tolkien's writings, and of course the essays section, http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/, housing learned essays by Steuard Jensen (e.g. What is Tom Bombadil and Tolkien's Parish) and Conrad Dunkerson (including the series The Truth About Balrogs). All in all this is a must-have bookmark.
“Heimskringla”
http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Main_Page
The Heimskringla is, in their own words, ‘an online collection of Old Norse source material: Primarily the Eddas, the Icelandic sagas and scaldic poetry. In addition to this the collection consists of background material and other related texts.’ This is a wonderful collection of texts in the Old Norse languages, though the majority of the site is only available in the Norse languages (Old Norse and modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Faroese) the original texts in Old Norse are here available for any Tolkien scholar to see. One example is the Völuspá, http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/V%C3%B6lusp%C3%A1 where stanzas 10 through 16 contains the list of Dwarf-names where Tolkien found most of the names for Durin's folk.
= = = = 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), “Calimac”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
http://theruminate.blogspot.com
‘Wellinghall’, “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
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/
- and others
--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or ‘Tolkien’ in subject.
And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left
the path of wisdom.
- Gandalf, /The Fellowship of the Ring/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a transitionary work
There is a tendency to portray Tolkien's legendarium as a single, coherent and consistent sub-creation when discussing his work: a ‘“usable” and “standard” form’ of Middle-earth and its history. This is the view that underlies the fan discussions about a ‘Middle-earth canon’, but even in scholarly work we can also see this idea that one particular version is some mysterious way more ‘true’ than other versions: an example of this can be seen in Vladimir Brljak's paper, ‘The Book of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist’ in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review volume VII.
In his excellent paper, ‘Elvish as She Is Spoke’ (published in The Lord of the Rings 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull1) Carl Hostetter discusses the attempt, by some, to make ‘Tolkien’s languages, or more properly newly-minted versions of these languages, into “usable” and “standard” forms (their own terminology)’. Hostetter argues that these forms, precisely because of their attempt to achieve a degree of homogeneity and standardisation, are
The most common strategies when attempting to construct a homogeneous and standardised vision of Tolkien's legendarium are to either focus on Tolkien's last thoughts on any given matter, or to focus on the last version of The Lord of the Rings and require consistency with that.
The former of these strategies suffers from a number of problems: first of all Tolkien's last writings were often inconsistent — what he wrote on one subject in, say, 1961, is incompatible with what he wrote on another subject in, say, 1969. The problem here is that none of Tolkien's last writings can be assumed to be his final word on any given subject: in this way there is no reason to presume that the legendarium as a whole ever achieved a greater degree of fixed finality than did his languages.Another problem is that Tolkien's ‘last word’ on various subjects occur over a very long period, in some cases the ‘last’ words were written in the 1930s or even earlier.
The second strategy is the one that is the main focus of this blog entry. When discussing The Lord of the Rings itself, or even when discussing the greater sub-creation of Arda and its history, many people treats the book (in particular the revised version) as displaying the kind of homogeneity and inner consistency that is the very aim of the attempt to create both a ‘Neo-Quenya’ and a ‘Middle-earth Canon’. This, however, is also an over-simplified view that ignores that the years during which Tolkien actually wrote The Lord of the Rings in many ways represents a period of great transitions in his vision of Middle-earth — possibly in part caused by the writing of the book. This transitionary nature of The Lord of the Rings can be traced in a number of threads, but in the following I will focus on the nature of Orcs and in the underlying cosmogony.
Orcs
The Orcs entered Tolkien's legendarium in the very begining. They are a part of the first ‘Fall of Gondolin’ in The Book of Lost Tales, where it is said that
Apart from being implied in Treebeard's statement about the Orcs being made in mockery of the Elves, this view of Orcs as demons is implicit also in many other scenes such as e.g. the Battle of the Hornburg where both the game of counting Orc-heads between Gimli and Legolas as well as the total annihilation of the Orcs by the Ents (contrasted by the mercy shown to the Dunlendings) speaks of a de-humanized view of the Orcs that befit their demonic nature far better than the later view.7 Indeed, in later years Tolkien felt forced to emphasize that ‘If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost’8 and that they never actually did surrender and ask for mercy because Melkor had succeeded so well in his corruption and indoctrination of the Orcs that they thought that their enemies (particularly the Elves) were even crueller than themselves.
Cosmogony
It is well-known that Tolkien long considered changing his original cosmogonic myth so that the solar system would have been created much as it is described by modern astronomy — the Earth, Arda, would always have been a sphere, the Sun, Anar, and the Moon, Isil, would have been created from the very start and thus not from the last fruits of the Two Trees in Valinor. In part one of Morgoth's Ring which deals with the development of the Ainulindalë after Tolkien started writing The Lord of the Ring we learn that the first attempt at a cosmogonic myth incorporating these ideas, a ‘round-world version’, was created in the mid-forties while Tolkien was still writing and revising The Lord of the Rings. In consequence we see traces of both versions of the cosmogonic myth in the work.9 When Tom Bombadil says that ‘When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent.’ (emphasis added) he is firmly placed in what Tolkien would call the ‘flat-world version’, but when Gimli sings the song about Durin as the Company of the Ring visits the Khazad-dûm, it strongly suggests the round-world version:
The Dwarves awoke long before the Noldor returned to Middle-earth, and thus, in the old flat-world version it doesn't make sense to speak of the Moon (stained or unstained) if this cosmogony is used. Similarly Gandalf's riddling poem about the Ents mentions the Moon before it is supposed to have been in existence in the old flat-world version.
It is curious — even to the point where I suspect intention — that in all cases the passage can be re-interpreted to make sense even in the other cosmogony than the one under which it is written.
I hope with these example to have illustrated that even within The Lord of the Rings there are clear traces of the developing nature of Tolkien's legendarium — Tolkien's views on his own legendarium inevitably developed during the writing of his magnum opus and though Tolkien has done much to preserve the consistency of the work, there are still traces of this development. When we include the greater legendarium, this effect becomes even more obvious, which in its turn shows that any effort to create a ‘“usable” and “standard” form’ of the legendarium: a ‘canonical’ Middle-earth, if you will, is only achievable by
This does not mean that writings by Tolkien from one period can not inform our reading and understanding of what he wrote in another period, but I propose that instead of trying to create the illusion of a consistent and coherent sub-creation we embrace the evolutionary nature of Tolkien's legendarium, including acceptance of the fact that the writing The Lord of the Rings in many ways marks a transition in Tolkien's conception of his legendarium and that this transitionary nature can still be detected in the book.
Notes
1: Also available on-line from the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship at http://www.elvish.org/articles/
2: ‘But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.’ The Lord of the Rings, book III chapter 4 (The Lord of the Rings has been published in such a great number of editions that giving page numbers is not very useful, so I refrain from doing that).
3: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien no. 153 p. 190-1
4: See e.g. Tom Shippey The Road to Middle-earth ch. 1 (in particular under the sub-heading ‘Asterisk-Reality’ p. 17)
5: See e.g. Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century ch. II p. 88 and also Gilliver, Marshall and Weiner, The Ring of Words ch. 3, the entry for ‘Orc’ p. 174ff.
6: The Lord of the Rings, book IV, ch. 8
7: Tom Shippey, ‘Orcs, Wraiths, Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil.’ in Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien and also Robert T. Tally Jr. ‘Let us now praise famous Orcs: simple humanity in Tolkien's inhuman creatures’ in Mythlore issue 111/112
8: Morgoth's Ring (HoMe 10), part 5 ‘Myths Transformed’, text X, p. 419
9: Examples are from The Lord of the Rings book I chapter 7, book II chapter 4 and book III chapter 8
10: It is with some trepidation that I thus use the words of a highly respected Tolkien scholar in a different context from what he wrote them for — I can only hope that Hostetter, given that I make it clear that the application to this particular context is mine alone, will forgive my presumption.
In his excellent paper, ‘Elvish as She Is Spoke’ (published in The Lord of the Rings 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull1) Carl Hostetter discusses the attempt, by some, to make ‘Tolkien’s languages, or more properly newly-minted versions of these languages, into “usable” and “standard” forms (their own terminology)’. Hostetter argues that these forms, precisely because of their attempt to achieve a degree of homogeneity and standardisation, are
characterized by conflation of materials and evidence from often widely separated conceptual phases, and by consequent circularity in reasoning about this evidence.
(p. 241)
The most common strategies when attempting to construct a homogeneous and standardised vision of Tolkien's legendarium are to either focus on Tolkien's last thoughts on any given matter, or to focus on the last version of The Lord of the Rings and require consistency with that.
The former of these strategies suffers from a number of problems: first of all Tolkien's last writings were often inconsistent — what he wrote on one subject in, say, 1961, is incompatible with what he wrote on another subject in, say, 1969. The problem here is that none of Tolkien's last writings can be assumed to be his final word on any given subject: in this way there is no reason to presume that the legendarium as a whole ever achieved a greater degree of fixed finality than did his languages.Another problem is that Tolkien's ‘last word’ on various subjects occur over a very long period, in some cases the ‘last’ words were written in the 1930s or even earlier.
The second strategy is the one that is the main focus of this blog entry. When discussing The Lord of the Rings itself, or even when discussing the greater sub-creation of Arda and its history, many people treats the book (in particular the revised version) as displaying the kind of homogeneity and inner consistency that is the very aim of the attempt to create both a ‘Neo-Quenya’ and a ‘Middle-earth Canon’. This, however, is also an over-simplified view that ignores that the years during which Tolkien actually wrote The Lord of the Rings in many ways represents a period of great transitions in his vision of Middle-earth — possibly in part caused by the writing of the book. This transitionary nature of The Lord of the Rings can be traced in a number of threads, but in the following I will focus on the nature of Orcs and in the underlying cosmogony.
Orcs
The Orcs entered Tolkien's legendarium in the very begining. They are a part of the first ‘Fall of Gondolin’ in The Book of Lost Tales, where it is said that
all that race were bred by Melko of the subterranean heats and slime. Their hearts were of granite and their bodies deformed; foul their faces which smiled not, but their laugh that of the clash of metal, and to nothing were they more fain than to aid in the basest of the purposes of Melko.This view of the Orcs as demons created by Melkor stayed valid through the Quenta Silmarillion of the mid-thirties, where it is said that
(The Book of Lost Tales 2 ch. III ‘The Fall of Gondolin’, p. 159-60)
There countless became the hosts of his beasts and demons; and he brought into being the race of the Orcs, and they grew and multiplied in the bowels of the earth. These Orcs Morgoth made in envy and mockery of the Elves, and they were made of stone, but their hearts of hatred. Glamhoth, the hosts of hate, the Gnomes have called them. Goblins they may be called, but in ancient days they were strong and fell.This view on the origin of the Orcs is essentially what Treebeard is expressing2, and which Tolkien later, in a draft letter to Peter Hastings from September 19543 refuted forcibly. In this early view the Orcs are not ‘demonized’ as such, but rather they are actual demons. This, of course, fits much better as the *reality4 behind the orcneas mentioned together with eotenas and ylfe in Beowulf5 than does the later concept, which in The Lord of the Rings is given voice by Frodo, who claims that ‘The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own’6 which is of course also the view that Tolkien in 1954 supports in his draft letter to Peter Hastings.
(The Lost Road and Other Writings (HoMe 5), part 2, VI ‘Quenta Silmarillion’, ch. 5 §62, p.233)
Apart from being implied in Treebeard's statement about the Orcs being made in mockery of the Elves, this view of Orcs as demons is implicit also in many other scenes such as e.g. the Battle of the Hornburg where both the game of counting Orc-heads between Gimli and Legolas as well as the total annihilation of the Orcs by the Ents (contrasted by the mercy shown to the Dunlendings) speaks of a de-humanized view of the Orcs that befit their demonic nature far better than the later view.7 Indeed, in later years Tolkien felt forced to emphasize that ‘If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost’8 and that they never actually did surrender and ask for mercy because Melkor had succeeded so well in his corruption and indoctrination of the Orcs that they thought that their enemies (particularly the Elves) were even crueller than themselves.
Cosmogony
It is well-known that Tolkien long considered changing his original cosmogonic myth so that the solar system would have been created much as it is described by modern astronomy — the Earth, Arda, would always have been a sphere, the Sun, Anar, and the Moon, Isil, would have been created from the very start and thus not from the last fruits of the Two Trees in Valinor. In part one of Morgoth's Ring which deals with the development of the Ainulindalë after Tolkien started writing The Lord of the Ring we learn that the first attempt at a cosmogonic myth incorporating these ideas, a ‘round-world version’, was created in the mid-forties while Tolkien was still writing and revising The Lord of the Rings. In consequence we see traces of both versions of the cosmogonic myth in the work.9 When Tom Bombadil says that ‘When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent.’ (emphasis added) he is firmly placed in what Tolkien would call the ‘flat-world version’, but when Gimli sings the song about Durin as the Company of the Ring visits the Khazad-dûm, it strongly suggests the round-world version:
The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
The Dwarves awoke long before the Noldor returned to Middle-earth, and thus, in the old flat-world version it doesn't make sense to speak of the Moon (stained or unstained) if this cosmogony is used. Similarly Gandalf's riddling poem about the Ents mentions the Moon before it is supposed to have been in existence in the old flat-world version.
Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the forests long ago.
It is curious — even to the point where I suspect intention — that in all cases the passage can be re-interpreted to make sense even in the other cosmogony than the one under which it is written.
I hope with these example to have illustrated that even within The Lord of the Rings there are clear traces of the developing nature of Tolkien's legendarium — Tolkien's views on his own legendarium inevitably developed during the writing of his magnum opus and though Tolkien has done much to preserve the consistency of the work, there are still traces of this development. When we include the greater legendarium, this effect becomes even more obvious, which in its turn shows that any effort to create a ‘“usable” and “standard” form’ of the legendarium: a ‘canonical’ Middle-earth, if you will, is only achievable by
conflation of materials and evidence from often widely separated conceptual phases, and by consequent circularity in reasoning about this evidence.to borrow Carl Hostetter's words for this context also (as pointed out above, Hostetter applied his statement to attempts to create neo-elvish languages10).
This does not mean that writings by Tolkien from one period can not inform our reading and understanding of what he wrote in another period, but I propose that instead of trying to create the illusion of a consistent and coherent sub-creation we embrace the evolutionary nature of Tolkien's legendarium, including acceptance of the fact that the writing The Lord of the Rings in many ways marks a transition in Tolkien's conception of his legendarium and that this transitionary nature can still be detected in the book.
Notes
1: Also available on-line from the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship at http://www.elvish.org/articles/
2: ‘But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.’ The Lord of the Rings, book III chapter 4 (The Lord of the Rings has been published in such a great number of editions that giving page numbers is not very useful, so I refrain from doing that).
3: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien no. 153 p. 190-1
4: See e.g. Tom Shippey The Road to Middle-earth ch. 1 (in particular under the sub-heading ‘Asterisk-Reality’ p. 17)
5: See e.g. Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century ch. II p. 88 and also Gilliver, Marshall and Weiner, The Ring of Words ch. 3, the entry for ‘Orc’ p. 174ff.
6: The Lord of the Rings, book IV, ch. 8
7: Tom Shippey, ‘Orcs, Wraiths, Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil.’ in Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien and also Robert T. Tally Jr. ‘Let us now praise famous Orcs: simple humanity in Tolkien's inhuman creatures’ in Mythlore issue 111/112
8: Morgoth's Ring (HoMe 10), part 5 ‘Myths Transformed’, text X, p. 419
9: Examples are from The Lord of the Rings book I chapter 7, book II chapter 4 and book III chapter 8
10: It is with some trepidation that I thus use the words of a highly respected Tolkien scholar in a different context from what he wrote them for — I can only hope that Hostetter, given that I make it clear that the application to this particular context is mine alone, will forgive my presumption.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Tolkien Transactions IX
January 2011
So, we have now reached the ninth issue of my attempt to extract the best (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related ‘goings-on’ on the 'net. This issue is a little delayed, for which I apologize: an unfortunate combination of business both in the on-line Tolkien world and in my own work and private life — there are, after all, times when, against all rational logic, other things must be prioritized before Tolkien . . .
All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = 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), “Calimac”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
http://theruminate.blogspot.com
‘Wellinghall', “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
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/
— and others
= = = = News = = = =
Tuesday, 4 January 2011, “Iran to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday”
http://www.ibna.ir/vdcauino.49nuw1gtk4.html
Just a curious little bit of information out of a country that is not exactly known for its openess to Western culture. Iran's Association of Children and Teenager's Authors celebrated Tolkien's birthday, and the Fantasy Academy of Iran held its first session this winter on assessing Tolkien's work.
DB, Thursday, 6 January 2011, “Words by JRRT”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494746.html
David Bratman discusses music that is not only inspired by Tolkien's work, but which actually sets music to Tolkien's words. It appears that the Tolkien Estate has adopted a policy of not allowing anyone to do this any longer (apparently this was done ‘some years ago'), leaving the Danish/English Tolkien Ensemble to be the last to set music to Tolkien words and publish — at least for some time.
H&S, Sunday, 9 January 2011, “The Tolkien Collector no. 31”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/the-tolkien-collector-no-31/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rgpbpr
Wayne and Christina announce that issue no. 31 of The Tolkien Collector is ‘almost ready for posting to subscribers.'
JC, Thursday, 20 January 2011, “A new trend on Youtube — Reading the books by JRR Tolkien”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/977-Reading_Tolkien_on_YouTube_trend.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/643rxck
Apparently fans reading out of Tolkien's books has become a new trend on YouTube. Pieter gives some examples and some background.
PC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Overview of JRR Tolkien related news from last week”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/980-Tolkien_news_last_week.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4mklw5x
Pieter Collier has begun to make a weekly overview of Tolkien-related items in the news. Some of these items will also appear on my list, but most probably will not. You can find these, and other articles that I do not include here, in the archives of Pieter's Tolkien Library website: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/archives.php
‘Trotter', Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Year's Work and Review of English Studies”
http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1454&forum=9
http://preview.tinyurl.com/47vt8k5
Links to a number of articles by Tolkien in various Oxford publications — unfortunately one does need to have access rights (and I don't know how to get that).
DAA, Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Wormwood indexed, also Avallaunius, Faunus and Tolkien Studies”
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2011/01/wormwood-indexed-also-avallaunius.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6azljff
Douglas A. Anderson announces an on-line database of magazines that has now indexed some journals that he is involved with, including Tolkien Studies. The database is available at http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
ArwenAmidala, Saturday, 1 January 2011, “Survival of the Tolkienist.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/survial-of-tolkienist.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/65ballu
A collection of four ‘reaction papers' addressing some very different aspects of Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Children of Húrin, The Silmarillion and probably other stuff that I have already forgotten ;) Quite interesting — there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, which I consider a high quality, since, at least in this case, it shows that the analysis and opinions are not merely indifferent.
BC, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Tolkien and the sea-yearning — the meaning of Earendil”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolkien-and-sea-yearning-meaning-of.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/64dhtdm
The two key passages, in my opinion, are
AH, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Wagner and Tolkien Thread: Strange Ring Fellows”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/wagner-and-tolkien-thread-strange-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ennvsb
Andrew continues his investigations into similarities, parallels, or whatever we wish to call it, between Wagner and Tolkien. Personally I don't like Wagner, and I am aware that this makes me more sceptical than I would probably otherwise be, but I do try to keep an open mind, and Andrew's posts are generally quite interesting.
BC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/essential-meaning-and-purpose-of-notion.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ru5rjn
Bruce Charlton is moving on from the specific to the general. Admitting that he has been brooding obsessively (his own words!) over the Notion Club Papers (NCP), he takes a stab at the ultimate intention behind the text. In essence he thinks that the NCP was supposed to establish the link between the mythical world of his legendarium and the modern world: a replacing of the Eriol / Aelfwine figure.
DB, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “the Inklings in fiction”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494909.html
Announcing an update of his list of fictionalisations of Inklings, either individually or as a group, David Bratman has a list that is much longer than I had thought, currently ranging from 1933 to 2010.
BC, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “Curing the ‘vulgarization' of England — from Smith of Wootton Major”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/curing-vulgarization-of-england-from.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bq42g7
Continuing from his entry on “[t]the essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”, Bruce Charlton here combines his ideas on what Tolkien was trying to achieve with the Notion Club Papers with what is know about Tolkien's thoughts on his short story ‘Smith of Wootton Major'. As usual Charlton's observations are interesting and non-obvious.
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “An imaginary completed Notion Club Papers — form and character”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/imaginary-completed-notion-club-papers.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4vkdykf
This was a busy day on Bruce Charlton's blog. In this first entry on this day he shares some ideas and thoughts on what a the Notion Club Papers might have looked like if Tolkien had ever finished them — the ideas presented here are then built upon in the following entries published on this Friday.
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “Who is Dolbear? A wizard/ angel/ messenger from Faery”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/who-is-dolbear-wizard-angel-messenger.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/49d4ke8
A good thing about Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog is that he normally uses a title that actually tells you what he is discussing in the entry — an old-fashioned virtue, I know, but I like it ;-) Dolbear is a character in the Notion Club Papers, and Charlton here ponders the significance of this character, speculating that he may be a kind of messenger from Faërie or a human link to Faërie. This links to some of the things that Charlton said in earlier entries this month about the inhabitants of Faërie actively seeking to renew the links between Faërie and the world of humans.
ArwenAmidala, Friday, 21 January 2011, “In which I argue against the Professor with great fear and trepidation.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-which-i-argue-against-professor-with.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r6jkrw
ArwenAmidala discusses the Battle of Maldon and Tolkien's interpretation. Taking into account Tolkien's propensity for rhetorics[*], I am not convinced that she is actually arguing so much against Tolkien. It appears to me that Tolkien's main point was that the use of ofermod is meant negatively, and it does not appear that she disagrees with this. (Of course, to a Dane it is very hard to imagine that the word could be positive: the Danish word overmod does mean excessive pride / self-confidence / courage).
[*] See for instance also the essays by Michael Drout and Tom Shippey in LotR Plaza's Scholars’ Forum:
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=77&title=scholars-forum
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6fkcn9j
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “The Notion Club Papers — why England, why Oxford?”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/notion-club-papers-why-england-why.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6kh9gjh
It will not have escaped the notice of the observant reader that I am rather fond of Bruce Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog. A part of this is that he often comes up with ideas and thoughts that I would not have thought of myself. Of course that also means that I am often not convinced by his arguments, but it is nonetheless interesting to see his ideas. This entry, in which he discusses the reasons why the Notion Club Papers are set in Oxford, England, is a good example of ideas that are interesting and thought-provoking even though I don't think he is entirely right.
AH, Saturday, 29 January 2011, “Langon — The Mouth of Melko — Some Etymological Detective Work”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/langon-mouth-of-melko.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4j6f3h8
An interesting piece of analysis by Andy Higgins — Langon, the Mouth of Melko, indeed!
= = = = Reviews = = = =
Remember to keep an eye on http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/ where the Mythopoeic Society is publishing review — many of which have previously appeared in either Mythprint or Mythlore. This month we got, among others, Jason Fisher's review of Dimitra Fimi's 2009 book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits that first appeared in Mythlore 111/112 (Fall/winter 2010).
Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process by Arne Zettersten”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/963-Tolkien_Double_Worlds_Creative_Process.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r5mzn4
Not so much a review, actually, but rather a bit of reminiscing about meeting Arne Zettersten (and others) along with an announcement of Zettersten's upcoming book.
AH, Saturday, 15 January 2011, “Looking for the King — An Inklings Novel By David Downing — A Review”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/looking-for-king-inklings-novel-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/62nbzhr
There has been a bit of attention for this particular book. The author is professor of English at Elizabethtown College and a well-known Lewis scholar, and the dialogue he gives to the inklings is drawn from what they have actually said or written. Andy Higgins is positive about the book, though not as overwhelming as Pieter Collier was (see the transactions for November 2010).
JF, Monday, 24 January 2011, “Middle-earth and Beyond — first look!”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/middle-earth-and-beyond-first-look.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5wq9zdy
More information on the upcoming collection edited by Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kašcáková, Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Another collection of critical essays on Tolkien's work, arguing that it is different because the editors say so. Thinking of the volumes that sit unread on my shelves, I think it's going to take a couple of positive reviews to convince me to buy this volume.
JF, Friday, 28 January 28 2011, “The Bones of the Ox”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/bones-of-ox.html
Following in the tradition that I have established of including announcements of books in the review section, we have here Jason Fisher's announcement that his book (as editor and contributor), The Bones of the Ox”: J.R.R. Tolkien and Source Criticism is forthcoming. This is one book that I am fairly sure that I will buy, if nothing else then because Jason describes its purpose as being in part ‘to explain and justify source criticism as a valid critical approach to Tolkien’s works'. Being somewhat wary of source criticism myself (it can be done very well, I think, but there are many examples where it is not), a book that sets out to justify it, and to ‘lay out a systematic methodology for how it ought to be conducted' will be a good opportunity to get a vocabulary to express what I think is good and useful about source criticism and to express my own critique of source criticism (the bad kind).
= = = = Interesting discussions = = = =
AH, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “The History of Middle Earth — A Chapter by Chapter Exploration”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-of-middle-earth-chapter-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6hanqnv
This is not the discussion in itself, but it inspired by a kind of ‘Chapter of the Week' concept sprung from the Tolkien course given by Dimitra Fimi. Unfortunately they have chosen to use Facebook for this extremely interesting project, and the discussion interface on Facebook is abominably bad, so my expectations for this are not too high (already the amount of posts for each chapter seem to be petering out). Still, there is some intersting comments in some of the first chapters, and Dimitra Fimi has contributed some comments.
Various, “Master of Words, by Words Mastered”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=239720
The thread is started in December, but I have not become aware of it before January. The overall theme is to explore the relationship between Tolkien's philological work and his fictional work. One of the things that seem to be emerging is a view of Tolkien not as a family man, a philogist, a poet and an epic author, but as one whole person whose personality found outlets in various ways. The main focus, however, is Tolkien's relationship to words and language and how this has influenced all his work.
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
Comments, idle thoughts, curious articles and what-nots that don't really fit in any of the other categories that I have created.
3 January 2011, “Becoming J.R.R. Tolkien”
http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=becoming-jrr-tolkien&id=206
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6jak566
A nice enough little piece on Legacy.com about some of Tolkien's sources of inspiration. There is nothing new or controversial here (though it is not entirely precise in all details), and I include it mostly as an example of the tributes to Tolkien on the occasion of his birthday.
BC, Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “A superhero Fellowship of the Ring”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/superhero-fellowship-of-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48z7wpa
Charlton is playing with the idea of creating a more high-powered fellowship to take the Ring to Mount Doom. Personally I disagree strongly with his assessment of Sam, but it's a funny idea in any case.
Justin Olivetti, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The Road to Mordor: The Professor”
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/07/the-road-to-mordor-the-professor/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/645vhbu
A tribute to the Professor from a gamer of ‘The Lord of the Rings On-line' game, detailing for other gamers a quest-chain within the game that is a tribute to Tolkien. Perhaps one ought to try out this game one day . . .
JDR, Friday, 7 January 2011, “A Tolkienian Puzzle”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolienian-puzzle.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ta8f5w
In essence John Rateliff is asking what made Tolkien choose to abandon the prose format of The Book of Lost Tales and adopt the narrative poetic format of the The Lays of Beleriand. He spends a bit more thought on it, but doesn't come up with any suggestions. Any takers?
PC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “Avoid Bying Fake Tolkien Signatures on Ebay”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/965-Avoid_Buying_Fake_Tolkien_Signatures.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48yyved
Sound advice from Pieter Collier, who not only advises you to avoid the fake signatures (I could have done that), but also on how you can go about at least reducing the risk of buying a fake Tolkien signature.
BC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Free-will, purpose, prophecy and providence in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/free-will-purpose-prophecy-and.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4pz57gt
Quoting from ‘The Quest of Erebor' as published in Unfinished Tales, Bruce Charlton makes the following statements:
The Lord of the Rings is permeated by a deep understanding
of the Christian concept of how free-will is compatible
with with purpose, prophecy and providence.
When such matters seem seem paradoxical, or merely muddled,
this is well worth pondering.
I agree on this (obviously — I have myself spent quite some time pondering this), and though I don't really think that a blog is an appropriate medium for that discussion, I do hope that Charlton will take up the thread in another blog entry.
AH, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “To Have and To Have Not”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/to-have-and-to-have-not.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6cxbacl
Andy Higgins is learning Finnish and in that connection he shares some thoughts on how the idea of ‘to have' is phrased in some non-Germanic languages.
PC, Monday, 24 January 2011, “The amazing art of bookbinding”
Pieter Collier has made a series of articles on bindings for Tolkien's books, where he looks at some absolutely fabulous bindings — the good thing is that the price of these is so high that it is likely to stay outside my reach forever: that way I can read the articles without getting any ‘my precious' urges ;-)
So far this series comprises:
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 1”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/981-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4rb3seh
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 2”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/982-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings_2.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhrxxs
“The Hobbit”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/983-Book_art_book_binding_The_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhcdjb
“The Silmarillion”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/984-Book_art_book_binding_The_Silmarillion.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4wg9omt
PC, Monday, 31 January 2011, “The most expensive copies of The Hobbit in the World — Association Copies”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/987-The_Hobbit_Association_Copies.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v79bkl
Following up on his articles on rebound (and very expensive) copies of Tolkien's books, Pieter here goes through some of the most expensive copies of The Hobbit that have been sold on auctions — the top scorer being sold at a staggering £60,000!
—
Troels Forchhammer
Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
- Reaper Man (Terry Pratchett)
So, we have now reached the ninth issue of my attempt to extract the best (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related ‘goings-on’ on the 'net. This issue is a little delayed, for which I apologize: an unfortunate combination of business both in the on-line Tolkien world and in my own work and private life — there are, after all, times when, against all rational logic, other things must be prioritized before Tolkien . . .
All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = 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), “Calimac”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
http://theruminate.blogspot.com
‘Wellinghall', “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
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/
— and others
= = = = News = = = =
Tuesday, 4 January 2011, “Iran to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday”
http://www.ibna.ir/vdcauino.49nuw1gtk4.html
Just a curious little bit of information out of a country that is not exactly known for its openess to Western culture. Iran's Association of Children and Teenager's Authors celebrated Tolkien's birthday, and the Fantasy Academy of Iran held its first session this winter on assessing Tolkien's work.
DB, Thursday, 6 January 2011, “Words by JRRT”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494746.html
David Bratman discusses music that is not only inspired by Tolkien's work, but which actually sets music to Tolkien's words. It appears that the Tolkien Estate has adopted a policy of not allowing anyone to do this any longer (apparently this was done ‘some years ago'), leaving the Danish/English Tolkien Ensemble to be the last to set music to Tolkien words and publish — at least for some time.
H&S, Sunday, 9 January 2011, “The Tolkien Collector no. 31”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/the-tolkien-collector-no-31/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rgpbpr
Wayne and Christina announce that issue no. 31 of The Tolkien Collector is ‘almost ready for posting to subscribers.'
JC, Thursday, 20 January 2011, “A new trend on Youtube — Reading the books by JRR Tolkien”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/977-Reading_Tolkien_on_YouTube_trend.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/643rxck
Apparently fans reading out of Tolkien's books has become a new trend on YouTube. Pieter gives some examples and some background.
PC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Overview of JRR Tolkien related news from last week”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/980-Tolkien_news_last_week.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4mklw5x
Pieter Collier has begun to make a weekly overview of Tolkien-related items in the news. Some of these items will also appear on my list, but most probably will not. You can find these, and other articles that I do not include here, in the archives of Pieter's Tolkien Library website: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/archives.php
‘Trotter', Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Year's Work and Review of English Studies”
http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1454&forum=9
http://preview.tinyurl.com/47vt8k5
Links to a number of articles by Tolkien in various Oxford publications — unfortunately one does need to have access rights (and I don't know how to get that).
DAA, Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Wormwood indexed, also Avallaunius, Faunus and Tolkien Studies”
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2011/01/wormwood-indexed-also-avallaunius.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6azljff
Douglas A. Anderson announces an on-line database of magazines that has now indexed some journals that he is involved with, including Tolkien Studies. The database is available at http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
ArwenAmidala, Saturday, 1 January 2011, “Survival of the Tolkienist.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/survial-of-tolkienist.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/65ballu
A collection of four ‘reaction papers' addressing some very different aspects of Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Children of Húrin, The Silmarillion and probably other stuff that I have already forgotten ;) Quite interesting — there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, which I consider a high quality, since, at least in this case, it shows that the analysis and opinions are not merely indifferent.
BC, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Tolkien and the sea-yearning — the meaning of Earendil”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolkien-and-sea-yearning-meaning-of.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/64dhtdm
The two key passages, in my opinion, are
I think Tolkien regarded the sea longing as an aspect or representation of saintliness, where sainthood is conceptualized as being a link between the earthly and heavenly realms, the saint as intercessor for humankind with God.and
He [...] wrote about those individuals (and races) who were subject to this sea-yearning, and seemed to accord them the highest esteem — yet I would guess Tolkien himself did not directly share this yearning, which is why he wrote comparatively little about the sea itself, and even less about the experience of sea-going.It is a very interesting idea, and I should very much like to hear your comments on this.
AH, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Wagner and Tolkien Thread: Strange Ring Fellows”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/wagner-and-tolkien-thread-strange-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ennvsb
Andrew continues his investigations into similarities, parallels, or whatever we wish to call it, between Wagner and Tolkien. Personally I don't like Wagner, and I am aware that this makes me more sceptical than I would probably otherwise be, but I do try to keep an open mind, and Andrew's posts are generally quite interesting.
BC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/essential-meaning-and-purpose-of-notion.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ru5rjn
Bruce Charlton is moving on from the specific to the general. Admitting that he has been brooding obsessively (his own words!) over the Notion Club Papers (NCP), he takes a stab at the ultimate intention behind the text. In essence he thinks that the NCP was supposed to establish the link between the mythical world of his legendarium and the modern world: a replacing of the Eriol / Aelfwine figure.
DB, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “the Inklings in fiction”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494909.html
Announcing an update of his list of fictionalisations of Inklings, either individually or as a group, David Bratman has a list that is much longer than I had thought, currently ranging from 1933 to 2010.
BC, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “Curing the ‘vulgarization' of England — from Smith of Wootton Major”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/curing-vulgarization-of-england-from.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bq42g7
Continuing from his entry on “[t]the essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”, Bruce Charlton here combines his ideas on what Tolkien was trying to achieve with the Notion Club Papers with what is know about Tolkien's thoughts on his short story ‘Smith of Wootton Major'. As usual Charlton's observations are interesting and non-obvious.
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “An imaginary completed Notion Club Papers — form and character”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/imaginary-completed-notion-club-papers.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4vkdykf
This was a busy day on Bruce Charlton's blog. In this first entry on this day he shares some ideas and thoughts on what a the Notion Club Papers might have looked like if Tolkien had ever finished them — the ideas presented here are then built upon in the following entries published on this Friday.
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “Who is Dolbear? A wizard/ angel/ messenger from Faery”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/who-is-dolbear-wizard-angel-messenger.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/49d4ke8
A good thing about Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog is that he normally uses a title that actually tells you what he is discussing in the entry — an old-fashioned virtue, I know, but I like it ;-) Dolbear is a character in the Notion Club Papers, and Charlton here ponders the significance of this character, speculating that he may be a kind of messenger from Faërie or a human link to Faërie. This links to some of the things that Charlton said in earlier entries this month about the inhabitants of Faërie actively seeking to renew the links between Faërie and the world of humans.
ArwenAmidala, Friday, 21 January 2011, “In which I argue against the Professor with great fear and trepidation.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-which-i-argue-against-professor-with.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r6jkrw
ArwenAmidala discusses the Battle of Maldon and Tolkien's interpretation. Taking into account Tolkien's propensity for rhetorics[*], I am not convinced that she is actually arguing so much against Tolkien. It appears to me that Tolkien's main point was that the use of ofermod is meant negatively, and it does not appear that she disagrees with this. (Of course, to a Dane it is very hard to imagine that the word could be positive: the Danish word overmod does mean excessive pride / self-confidence / courage).
[*] See for instance also the essays by Michael Drout and Tom Shippey in LotR Plaza's Scholars’ Forum:
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=77&title=scholars-forum
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6fkcn9j
BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “The Notion Club Papers — why England, why Oxford?”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/notion-club-papers-why-england-why.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6kh9gjh
It will not have escaped the notice of the observant reader that I am rather fond of Bruce Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog. A part of this is that he often comes up with ideas and thoughts that I would not have thought of myself. Of course that also means that I am often not convinced by his arguments, but it is nonetheless interesting to see his ideas. This entry, in which he discusses the reasons why the Notion Club Papers are set in Oxford, England, is a good example of ideas that are interesting and thought-provoking even though I don't think he is entirely right.
AH, Saturday, 29 January 2011, “Langon — The Mouth of Melko — Some Etymological Detective Work”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/langon-mouth-of-melko.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4j6f3h8
An interesting piece of analysis by Andy Higgins — Langon, the Mouth of Melko, indeed!
= = = = Reviews = = = =
Remember to keep an eye on http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/ where the Mythopoeic Society is publishing review — many of which have previously appeared in either Mythprint or Mythlore. This month we got, among others, Jason Fisher's review of Dimitra Fimi's 2009 book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits that first appeared in Mythlore 111/112 (Fall/winter 2010).
Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process by Arne Zettersten”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/963-Tolkien_Double_Worlds_Creative_Process.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r5mzn4
Not so much a review, actually, but rather a bit of reminiscing about meeting Arne Zettersten (and others) along with an announcement of Zettersten's upcoming book.
AH, Saturday, 15 January 2011, “Looking for the King — An Inklings Novel By David Downing — A Review”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/looking-for-king-inklings-novel-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/62nbzhr
There has been a bit of attention for this particular book. The author is professor of English at Elizabethtown College and a well-known Lewis scholar, and the dialogue he gives to the inklings is drawn from what they have actually said or written. Andy Higgins is positive about the book, though not as overwhelming as Pieter Collier was (see the transactions for November 2010).
JF, Monday, 24 January 2011, “Middle-earth and Beyond — first look!”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/middle-earth-and-beyond-first-look.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5wq9zdy
More information on the upcoming collection edited by Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kašcáková, Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Another collection of critical essays on Tolkien's work, arguing that it is different because the editors say so. Thinking of the volumes that sit unread on my shelves, I think it's going to take a couple of positive reviews to convince me to buy this volume.
JF, Friday, 28 January 28 2011, “The Bones of the Ox”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/bones-of-ox.html
Following in the tradition that I have established of including announcements of books in the review section, we have here Jason Fisher's announcement that his book (as editor and contributor), The Bones of the Ox”: J.R.R. Tolkien and Source Criticism is forthcoming. This is one book that I am fairly sure that I will buy, if nothing else then because Jason describes its purpose as being in part ‘to explain and justify source criticism as a valid critical approach to Tolkien’s works'. Being somewhat wary of source criticism myself (it can be done very well, I think, but there are many examples where it is not), a book that sets out to justify it, and to ‘lay out a systematic methodology for how it ought to be conducted' will be a good opportunity to get a vocabulary to express what I think is good and useful about source criticism and to express my own critique of source criticism (the bad kind).
= = = = Interesting discussions = = = =
AH, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “The History of Middle Earth — A Chapter by Chapter Exploration”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-of-middle-earth-chapter-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6hanqnv
This is not the discussion in itself, but it inspired by a kind of ‘Chapter of the Week' concept sprung from the Tolkien course given by Dimitra Fimi. Unfortunately they have chosen to use Facebook for this extremely interesting project, and the discussion interface on Facebook is abominably bad, so my expectations for this are not too high (already the amount of posts for each chapter seem to be petering out). Still, there is some intersting comments in some of the first chapters, and Dimitra Fimi has contributed some comments.
Various, “Master of Words, by Words Mastered”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=239720
The thread is started in December, but I have not become aware of it before January. The overall theme is to explore the relationship between Tolkien's philological work and his fictional work. One of the things that seem to be emerging is a view of Tolkien not as a family man, a philogist, a poet and an epic author, but as one whole person whose personality found outlets in various ways. The main focus, however, is Tolkien's relationship to words and language and how this has influenced all his work.
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
Comments, idle thoughts, curious articles and what-nots that don't really fit in any of the other categories that I have created.
3 January 2011, “Becoming J.R.R. Tolkien”
http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=becoming-jrr-tolkien&id=206
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6jak566
A nice enough little piece on Legacy.com about some of Tolkien's sources of inspiration. There is nothing new or controversial here (though it is not entirely precise in all details), and I include it mostly as an example of the tributes to Tolkien on the occasion of his birthday.
BC, Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “A superhero Fellowship of the Ring”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/superhero-fellowship-of-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48z7wpa
Charlton is playing with the idea of creating a more high-powered fellowship to take the Ring to Mount Doom. Personally I disagree strongly with his assessment of Sam, but it's a funny idea in any case.
Justin Olivetti, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The Road to Mordor: The Professor”
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/07/the-road-to-mordor-the-professor/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/645vhbu
A tribute to the Professor from a gamer of ‘The Lord of the Rings On-line' game, detailing for other gamers a quest-chain within the game that is a tribute to Tolkien. Perhaps one ought to try out this game one day . . .
JDR, Friday, 7 January 2011, “A Tolkienian Puzzle”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolienian-puzzle.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ta8f5w
In essence John Rateliff is asking what made Tolkien choose to abandon the prose format of The Book of Lost Tales and adopt the narrative poetic format of the The Lays of Beleriand. He spends a bit more thought on it, but doesn't come up with any suggestions. Any takers?
PC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “Avoid Bying Fake Tolkien Signatures on Ebay”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/965-Avoid_Buying_Fake_Tolkien_Signatures.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48yyved
Sound advice from Pieter Collier, who not only advises you to avoid the fake signatures (I could have done that), but also on how you can go about at least reducing the risk of buying a fake Tolkien signature.
BC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Free-will, purpose, prophecy and providence in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/free-will-purpose-prophecy-and.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4pz57gt
Quoting from ‘The Quest of Erebor' as published in Unfinished Tales, Bruce Charlton makes the following statements:
The Lord of the Rings is permeated by a deep understanding
of the Christian concept of how free-will is compatible
with with purpose, prophecy and providence.
When such matters seem seem paradoxical, or merely muddled,
this is well worth pondering.
I agree on this (obviously — I have myself spent quite some time pondering this), and though I don't really think that a blog is an appropriate medium for that discussion, I do hope that Charlton will take up the thread in another blog entry.
AH, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “To Have and To Have Not”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/to-have-and-to-have-not.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6cxbacl
Andy Higgins is learning Finnish and in that connection he shares some thoughts on how the idea of ‘to have' is phrased in some non-Germanic languages.
PC, Monday, 24 January 2011, “The amazing art of bookbinding”
Pieter Collier has made a series of articles on bindings for Tolkien's books, where he looks at some absolutely fabulous bindings — the good thing is that the price of these is so high that it is likely to stay outside my reach forever: that way I can read the articles without getting any ‘my precious' urges ;-)
So far this series comprises:
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 1”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/981-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4rb3seh
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 2”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/982-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings_2.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhrxxs
“The Hobbit”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/983-Book_art_book_binding_The_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhcdjb
“The Silmarillion”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/984-Book_art_book_binding_The_Silmarillion.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4wg9omt
PC, Monday, 31 January 2011, “The most expensive copies of The Hobbit in the World — Association Copies”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/987-The_Hobbit_Association_Copies.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v79bkl
Following up on his articles on rebound (and very expensive) copies of Tolkien's books, Pieter here goes through some of the most expensive copies of The Hobbit that have been sold on auctions — the top scorer being sold at a staggering £60,000!
—
Troels Forchhammer
Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
- Reaper Man (Terry Pratchett)
Monday, 3 January 2011
Tolkien Transactions VIII
Tolkien Transactions VIII
December 2010
All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = Sources = = = =
John D. Rateliff (JDR) - “Sacnoth's Scriptorium”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com>
Jason Fisher (JF) - “Lingwë - Musings of a Fish”
<lingwe.blogspot.com>
Michael Drout (MD) - “Wormtalk and Slugspeak”
<wormtalk.blogspot.com/>
Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull (H&S) - “Too Many Books and Never Enough”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/>
Pieter Collier (PC) - “The Tolkien Library”
<www.tolkienlibrary.com/>
Douglas A. Anderson (DAA) et Al. - “Wormwoodiana”
<wormwoodiana.blogspot.com>
Corey Olsen (CO), “The Tolkien Professor”
<www.tolkienprofessor.com>
David Bratman (DB), “Calimac”
<calimac.livejournal.com/>
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
<theruminate.blogspot.com>
‘Wellinghall’, “Musings of an Aging Fan”
<wellinghall.livejournal.com>
Various, ‘The Northeast Tolkien Society’ (NETS), “Heren Istarion”
<herenistarionnets.blogspot.com>
Bruce Charlton (BC), “Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/>
Andrew Higgins (AH), “Wotan's Musings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com>
Various, The Mythopoeic Society
<www.mythsoc.org>
Troels Forchhammer (TF), “Parmar-kenta”
<parmarkenta.blogspot.com>
Mythprint — ‘The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society’
<www.mythsoc.org>
Amon Hen — the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society
<www.tolkiensociety.org/>
- and others
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
BC, Thursday, 9 December 2010, “Tolkien and the ‘good German’ — The Lost Road fragment”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-and-good-german-lost-road.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/37hb7hp>
This is one of those things where I can't quite decide what to say. Did Tolkien consciously intend this correspondence, or is it rather along the lines of the One Ring in LotR, about which Tolkien said
You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if
you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for
all attempts to defeat evil power by power. But that is
only because all power magical or mechanical does always so
work.
(Letters #109 to Stanley Unwin, July 1947)
Would Tolkien say something similar about the attempt to read into his writings about Númenor under the rule of Sauron (de facto if not de jure) an allegory of Germany under the rule of Hitler? I am tempted to believe that he would say roughly the same, though he might agree that it was further towards the fore of his mind in the latter half of the 1930s because of the Nazi regime in Germany.
AH, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, “Richard Wagner and J.R.R Tolkien The Forgers of their Rings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/richard-wagner-and-jrr-tolkien-forgers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/395knrw>
It should, I believe, be fairly easy to demonstrate that Tolkien could not have been entirely unaffected by Wagner's Ring — it is well known that he read Der Ring des Niebelungen in 1934, and it seems unlikely that he would be completely unaffected by that. It is, however, a quite different matter to suggest that the Master Ring in The Lord of the Rings is just an adaptation of Wagner's Ring of the Niebelungs. The former claim can, as I suggested, be argued convincingly while the other can be dismissed also with relative ease, but between these is a scale of possible levels of inspiration that we can, as far as I am aware, not resolve with the available evidence. I would, however, be more comfortable with this whole discussion if it would not contain so many repetitions of logical fallacies (variations of post hoc ergo propter hoc) or insults (imply that Tolkien would have been unable to independently arrive at the Ruling Ring). It is most likely that Tolkien did get the general idea of an omnipotent ring from Wagner, but it is also possible that he didn't.
H&S, Friday, 24 December 2010, “Christmas Addenda”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/christmas-addenda/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34ndhed>
Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond announce their posting further addenda and corrigenda to several of their books on Tolkien. The addenda and corrigenda itself can be found on their web-site at <mysite.verizon.net/wghammond/addenda.html>
A word of gratitude is in its place for the great work Wayne and Christina are doing — not least for continuing to update their published work with new information.
= = = = Reviews = = = =
The Mythopoeic Society regularly releases reviews on the internet some time after their appearance in Mythprint or Mythlore. In December, we have seen the release on the internet of the following Tolkien-related reviews:
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits by Dimitra Fimi; reviewed by Mark T. Hooker
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-race-and-cultural-history-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3aj2e7w>
Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World by Verlyn Flieger; reviewed by Douglas C. Kane
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/splintered-light/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32b8tx2>
Fastitocalon: Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern: Immortals and the Undead edited by Thomas Honegger and Fanfan Chen; reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/fastitocalon/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34nxo7q>
Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien by Hilary Tolkien, edited by Angela Gardner; reviewed by David Oberhelman
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/black-white-ogre-country-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/39qxpxo>
= = = = In Print = = = =
December has been a good month for reception of the printed material from the British Tolkien Society and the Mythopoeic Society: In addition to the monthly bulletins, Amon Hen and Mythlore, I have received Mallorn issue 50 and Mythlore issue 111/112. Unfortunately I have yet to find the time to read Mythlore, so a commentary on that will have to wait.
Mythprint 341
Vol. 47 No. 12 December 2010 Whole No. 341
Not much about Tolkien in this month's edition of Mythprint — but of course there is lot in the latest Mythlore. However, though S. Dorman is speaking explicitly of Lewis in his article, ‘Fictionalizing Lewis’, the points made can with ease be transferred to Tolkien, who has also been a subject of fictionalizations in recent years. In the article Dorman reaches the conclusion that it is perhaps all-right (‘ethical’) for an author to fictionalize ‘a person made by God in primary creation’, ‘if his or her craft is good enough to coordinate the elements of story inclusive of such characterization.’ However, Dorman also hastens to assert that ‘there is no license to defame, distort, or otherwise abuse a real person.’ I wonder if the recent fictionalizations of Tolkien can live up to the high standard Dorman sets — and whether they should rather not have been, if they don't?
Mallorn 50
This semi-centesimal issue is certainly a worthy tribute to the journal and the society. The 52 pages are packed with stuff reflecting the wealth of interests found in the Tolkien Society: Paintings and drawings based on Tolkien's work, poetry fan-fiction, commentary and more scholarly articles fill the journal. I admit that not all of these categories suit my own interests, but the quality of those that do suit my interests is a reliable guide, then everything in this issue of Mallorn is of very high quality indeed.
A few highlights:
The editorial is provided by Marcel Bülles who writes about the future of Tolkien ‘fandom’ in ‘Envisaging the Future’ Marcel makes two bold proposals, both of which I think ought to be carried through: paid employees to deal with the day-to-day business of the Society (freeing voluntary resources to more rewarding tasks), and Arda*Con 2020, the world-convention of Tolkien societies ….
While Marcel Bülles tried to envisage the future, Charles E. Noad tells of the early days of the Tolkien Society from the earliest groupings of Tolkien fans about 1960 over the first informal start of the Tolkien Society in 1969, the ‘formal beginning of the society’ on 15 January 1972 and on to the resignation from the board of Mrs Vera Chapman — better known in the society as Belladona (Took) — in 1976, which, to Charles Noad at least, marks the end of the ‘early years’.
In other contributions Maggie Burns writes about Tolkien and Birmingham (clearly the childhood in the Birmingham area had a profound influence on Tolkien, but I can't help my scepticism from asserting itself forcefully when I see claims of unattested 1:1 correspondences between fiction and real life, such as those implied for Perrot's Folly), Simon Barrow on fantasy literature (a minor grievance here is that he appears to equate quality with popularity) and Chad Chisholm looks into Gandalf's skills at rhetoric. Mike Foster has interviewed Tolkien's grandson, Simon, about both his grandfather, but mainly about his own careers as solicitor, barrister and writer of crime fiction.
Amon Hen 226
The high point, for me, in this issue of Amon Hen was Charles Noad's article on another Collingwood—Tolkien connnection found in a new (1992) edition of Collingwood's The New Leviathan, or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism. David Derr's inquiry into the nature of Gandalf was also interesting; in particular the recommendation that ‘the reader visit William Loos’ web page’ (though the reference unfortunately is to the mirror at <www.faqs.org>), whereas I was more sceptical of the attempt, in the second part of the article, ‘to draw a parallel between Tolkien's character Gandalf [...] and the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and I strongly disagree with the conclusion that Tolkien ‘through the power given to the fictitious character of Gandalf’ demonstrates (whether apparently or not) ‘the parallel power that was wielded in the real person of Jesus of Nazareth’ — this is, in my opinion, almost as bad as ‘five wizards=five senses’.
Another thing I wish to emphasize is the advert for ‘Return of the Ring’ in Loughborough August 2012: <www.returnofthering.org/> (I have booked — what about you?)
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
JDR, Friday, 10 December 10 2010, “Build Yr Own Dodo”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/12/build-yr-own-dodo.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2447xdh>
As John Rateliff puts it, ‘You just knew that someone devoted to minutia like this was probably a Tolkien fan’ and Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) proves it by showing, briefly, a map of Middle-earth that he drew himself. The talk itself is about something else, and the map appears only for a couple of seconds (2:48 - 2:50), but the whole thing is interesting enough in itself, even without the Middle-earth map (it is difficult to gauge the size, but unless his writing is very small, the map is quite large).
If you are uninterested in Rateliff's description and just want to see the clip, it can be found here: <www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html>
AH, Saturday, 11 December 2010, “Tolkien Studies for 2011”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-studies-for-2011.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3547j4d>
Andrew Higgins announces that he will be back more regularly in 2011, ‘exploring several areas of Tolkien Scholarship’, and then he goes on to provide a more in-depth description of the contents of issue #19 of Parma Eldalamberon.
H&S, Sunday, 12 December 2010, “Fifteen Years”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/fifteen-years/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/352uve2>
I normally don't include the more personal blog entries in these collections, but Christina Scull's look back at the fifteen years since she moved to the US with Wayne Hammond not only has a charm deserving advocacy, but also has a certain amount of Tolkien-interest embedded such as a list of some of the work that Wayne and Christina have done during these years, including links to podcasts about Roverandom in particular and Tolkien in general.
JF, Wednesday, 15 December 15 2010, “Word of the Day: Fart”
<lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/12/word-of-day-fart.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32uqzam>
We do agree, I trust, that anything to do with Old English (Anglo-Saxon) etymology is on-topic in a Tolkien context? :-) Even so, this has to be said to be on the light side …. Apparently someone had the audacity to address Jason as ‘an old fart’ on the occasion of his fortieth birthday. Now I am left wondering if modern Danish ‘prut’ derives from Old Norse freta (I doubt it — this is more likely the now archaic ‘fjært’) or French péter or something entirely different … (the Dictionary of the Danish Language marks it as onomatopoeic, though it also refers to similar onomatopoeic words in French and Low German).
AH, Monday, 20 December 2010, “I've discovered the works of Edward Plunkett The 18th Baron of Dunsany”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-discovered-works-of-edward-plunkett.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2usndkr>
Not directly related to Tolkien, but it is worth recalling that Dunsany is mentioned as one of Tolkien's sources.
BC, Sunday, 26 December 2010, “My hopes for The Notion Club Papers — separate cover publication”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-hopes-for-notion-club-papers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2vd5dh6>
A dream …
Bruce Charlton presents his dream that one day, the Notion Club material, including the Lost Road and presumably also the Fall of Númenor, will be published in a single volume. I actually like the idea of ordering the History of Middle-earth material topically instead of chronologically, though I am not sure that this is the best way to do it (though I think Charlton is possibly right that the Lost Road / Notion Club material might be able to sell in such a format).
Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis
best suited to open the way to the next better one.
- Konrad Lorenz
December 2010
All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)
= = = = Sources = = = =
John D. Rateliff (JDR) - “Sacnoth's Scriptorium”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com>
Jason Fisher (JF) - “Lingwë - Musings of a Fish”
<lingwe.blogspot.com>
Michael Drout (MD) - “Wormtalk and Slugspeak”
<wormtalk.blogspot.com/>
Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull (H&S) - “Too Many Books and Never Enough”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/>
Pieter Collier (PC) - “The Tolkien Library”
<www.tolkienlibrary.com/>
Douglas A. Anderson (DAA) et Al. - “Wormwoodiana”
<wormwoodiana.blogspot.com>
Corey Olsen (CO), “The Tolkien Professor”
<www.tolkienprofessor.com>
David Bratman (DB), “Calimac”
<calimac.livejournal.com/>
Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
<theruminate.blogspot.com>
‘Wellinghall’, “Musings of an Aging Fan”
<wellinghall.livejournal.com>
Various, ‘The Northeast Tolkien Society’ (NETS), “Heren Istarion”
<herenistarionnets.blogspot.com>
Bruce Charlton (BC), “Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/>
Andrew Higgins (AH), “Wotan's Musings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com>
Various, The Mythopoeic Society
<www.mythsoc.org>
Troels Forchhammer (TF), “Parmar-kenta”
<parmarkenta.blogspot.com>
Mythprint — ‘The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society’
<www.mythsoc.org>
Amon Hen — the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society
<www.tolkiensociety.org/>
- and others
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
BC, Thursday, 9 December 2010, “Tolkien and the ‘good German’ — The Lost Road fragment”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-and-good-german-lost-road.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/37hb7hp>
This is one of those things where I can't quite decide what to say. Did Tolkien consciously intend this correspondence, or is it rather along the lines of the One Ring in LotR, about which Tolkien said
You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if
you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for
all attempts to defeat evil power by power. But that is
only because all power magical or mechanical does always so
work.
(Letters #109 to Stanley Unwin, July 1947)
Would Tolkien say something similar about the attempt to read into his writings about Númenor under the rule of Sauron (de facto if not de jure) an allegory of Germany under the rule of Hitler? I am tempted to believe that he would say roughly the same, though he might agree that it was further towards the fore of his mind in the latter half of the 1930s because of the Nazi regime in Germany.
AH, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, “Richard Wagner and J.R.R Tolkien The Forgers of their Rings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/richard-wagner-and-jrr-tolkien-forgers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/395knrw>
It should, I believe, be fairly easy to demonstrate that Tolkien could not have been entirely unaffected by Wagner's Ring — it is well known that he read Der Ring des Niebelungen in 1934, and it seems unlikely that he would be completely unaffected by that. It is, however, a quite different matter to suggest that the Master Ring in The Lord of the Rings is just an adaptation of Wagner's Ring of the Niebelungs. The former claim can, as I suggested, be argued convincingly while the other can be dismissed also with relative ease, but between these is a scale of possible levels of inspiration that we can, as far as I am aware, not resolve with the available evidence. I would, however, be more comfortable with this whole discussion if it would not contain so many repetitions of logical fallacies (variations of post hoc ergo propter hoc) or insults (imply that Tolkien would have been unable to independently arrive at the Ruling Ring). It is most likely that Tolkien did get the general idea of an omnipotent ring from Wagner, but it is also possible that he didn't.
H&S, Friday, 24 December 2010, “Christmas Addenda”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/christmas-addenda/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34ndhed>
Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond announce their posting further addenda and corrigenda to several of their books on Tolkien. The addenda and corrigenda itself can be found on their web-site at <mysite.verizon.net/wghammond/addenda.html>
A word of gratitude is in its place for the great work Wayne and Christina are doing — not least for continuing to update their published work with new information.
= = = = Reviews = = = =
The Mythopoeic Society regularly releases reviews on the internet some time after their appearance in Mythprint or Mythlore. In December, we have seen the release on the internet of the following Tolkien-related reviews:
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits by Dimitra Fimi; reviewed by Mark T. Hooker
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-race-and-cultural-history-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3aj2e7w>
Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World by Verlyn Flieger; reviewed by Douglas C. Kane
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/splintered-light/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32b8tx2>
Fastitocalon: Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern: Immortals and the Undead edited by Thomas Honegger and Fanfan Chen; reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/fastitocalon/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34nxo7q>
Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien by Hilary Tolkien, edited by Angela Gardner; reviewed by David Oberhelman
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/black-white-ogre-country-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/39qxpxo>
= = = = In Print = = = =
December has been a good month for reception of the printed material from the British Tolkien Society and the Mythopoeic Society: In addition to the monthly bulletins, Amon Hen and Mythlore, I have received Mallorn issue 50 and Mythlore issue 111/112. Unfortunately I have yet to find the time to read Mythlore, so a commentary on that will have to wait.
Mythprint 341
Vol. 47 No. 12 December 2010 Whole No. 341
Not much about Tolkien in this month's edition of Mythprint — but of course there is lot in the latest Mythlore. However, though S. Dorman is speaking explicitly of Lewis in his article, ‘Fictionalizing Lewis’, the points made can with ease be transferred to Tolkien, who has also been a subject of fictionalizations in recent years. In the article Dorman reaches the conclusion that it is perhaps all-right (‘ethical’) for an author to fictionalize ‘a person made by God in primary creation’, ‘if his or her craft is good enough to coordinate the elements of story inclusive of such characterization.’ However, Dorman also hastens to assert that ‘there is no license to defame, distort, or otherwise abuse a real person.’ I wonder if the recent fictionalizations of Tolkien can live up to the high standard Dorman sets — and whether they should rather not have been, if they don't?
Mallorn 50
This semi-centesimal issue is certainly a worthy tribute to the journal and the society. The 52 pages are packed with stuff reflecting the wealth of interests found in the Tolkien Society: Paintings and drawings based on Tolkien's work, poetry fan-fiction, commentary and more scholarly articles fill the journal. I admit that not all of these categories suit my own interests, but the quality of those that do suit my interests is a reliable guide, then everything in this issue of Mallorn is of very high quality indeed.
A few highlights:
The editorial is provided by Marcel Bülles who writes about the future of Tolkien ‘fandom’ in ‘Envisaging the Future’ Marcel makes two bold proposals, both of which I think ought to be carried through: paid employees to deal with the day-to-day business of the Society (freeing voluntary resources to more rewarding tasks), and Arda*Con 2020, the world-convention of Tolkien societies ….
While Marcel Bülles tried to envisage the future, Charles E. Noad tells of the early days of the Tolkien Society from the earliest groupings of Tolkien fans about 1960 over the first informal start of the Tolkien Society in 1969, the ‘formal beginning of the society’ on 15 January 1972 and on to the resignation from the board of Mrs Vera Chapman — better known in the society as Belladona (Took) — in 1976, which, to Charles Noad at least, marks the end of the ‘early years’.
In other contributions Maggie Burns writes about Tolkien and Birmingham (clearly the childhood in the Birmingham area had a profound influence on Tolkien, but I can't help my scepticism from asserting itself forcefully when I see claims of unattested 1:1 correspondences between fiction and real life, such as those implied for Perrot's Folly), Simon Barrow on fantasy literature (a minor grievance here is that he appears to equate quality with popularity) and Chad Chisholm looks into Gandalf's skills at rhetoric. Mike Foster has interviewed Tolkien's grandson, Simon, about both his grandfather, but mainly about his own careers as solicitor, barrister and writer of crime fiction.
Amon Hen 226
The high point, for me, in this issue of Amon Hen was Charles Noad's article on another Collingwood—Tolkien connnection found in a new (1992) edition of Collingwood's The New Leviathan, or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism. David Derr's inquiry into the nature of Gandalf was also interesting; in particular the recommendation that ‘the reader visit William Loos’ web page’ (though the reference unfortunately is to the mirror at <www.faqs.org>), whereas I was more sceptical of the attempt, in the second part of the article, ‘to draw a parallel between Tolkien's character Gandalf [...] and the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and I strongly disagree with the conclusion that Tolkien ‘through the power given to the fictitious character of Gandalf’ demonstrates (whether apparently or not) ‘the parallel power that was wielded in the real person of Jesus of Nazareth’ — this is, in my opinion, almost as bad as ‘five wizards=five senses’.
Another thing I wish to emphasize is the advert for ‘Return of the Ring’ in Loughborough August 2012: <www.returnofthering.org/> (I have booked — what about you?)
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
JDR, Friday, 10 December 10 2010, “Build Yr Own Dodo”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/12/build-yr-own-dodo.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2447xdh>
As John Rateliff puts it, ‘You just knew that someone devoted to minutia like this was probably a Tolkien fan’ and Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) proves it by showing, briefly, a map of Middle-earth that he drew himself. The talk itself is about something else, and the map appears only for a couple of seconds (2:48 - 2:50), but the whole thing is interesting enough in itself, even without the Middle-earth map (it is difficult to gauge the size, but unless his writing is very small, the map is quite large).
If you are uninterested in Rateliff's description and just want to see the clip, it can be found here: <www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html>
AH, Saturday, 11 December 2010, “Tolkien Studies for 2011”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-studies-for-2011.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3547j4d>
Andrew Higgins announces that he will be back more regularly in 2011, ‘exploring several areas of Tolkien Scholarship’, and then he goes on to provide a more in-depth description of the contents of issue #19 of Parma Eldalamberon.
H&S, Sunday, 12 December 2010, “Fifteen Years”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/fifteen-years/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/352uve2>
I normally don't include the more personal blog entries in these collections, but Christina Scull's look back at the fifteen years since she moved to the US with Wayne Hammond not only has a charm deserving advocacy, but also has a certain amount of Tolkien-interest embedded such as a list of some of the work that Wayne and Christina have done during these years, including links to podcasts about Roverandom in particular and Tolkien in general.
JF, Wednesday, 15 December 15 2010, “Word of the Day: Fart”
<lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/12/word-of-day-fart.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32uqzam>
We do agree, I trust, that anything to do with Old English (Anglo-Saxon) etymology is on-topic in a Tolkien context? :-) Even so, this has to be said to be on the light side …. Apparently someone had the audacity to address Jason as ‘an old fart’ on the occasion of his fortieth birthday. Now I am left wondering if modern Danish ‘prut’ derives from Old Norse freta (I doubt it — this is more likely the now archaic ‘fjært’) or French péter or something entirely different … (the Dictionary of the Danish Language marks it as onomatopoeic, though it also refers to similar onomatopoeic words in French and Low German).
AH, Monday, 20 December 2010, “I've discovered the works of Edward Plunkett The 18th Baron of Dunsany”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-discovered-works-of-edward-plunkett.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2usndkr>
Not directly related to Tolkien, but it is worth recalling that Dunsany is mentioned as one of Tolkien's sources.
BC, Sunday, 26 December 2010, “My hopes for The Notion Club Papers — separate cover publication”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-hopes-for-notion-club-papers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2vd5dh6>
A dream …
Bruce Charlton presents his dream that one day, the Notion Club material, including the Lost Road and presumably also the Fall of Númenor, will be published in a single volume. I actually like the idea of ordering the History of Middle-earth material topically instead of chronologically, though I am not sure that this is the best way to do it (though I think Charlton is possibly right that the Lost Road / Notion Club material might be able to sell in such a format).
Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis
best suited to open the way to the next better one.
- Konrad Lorenz
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