Tolkien Transactions XVI

August 2011

Matthew Bladen, Monday, 8 August 2011, ‘Öjevind Lång’
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3lvknhg
Early in August the Tolkien Newsgroups were hit by the sad news that Öjevind Lång had died. A long-time regular of the newsgroups, and a personal friend to many of the regulars, Öjevind's warmth, wit and wisdom will long be remembered by those who experienced them in the groups. Öjevind also translated The Children of Húrin to his native Swedish. He will be missed! Namarië!

= = = = News = = = =

Robert Marquand, The Christian Science Monitor, Friday, 5 August 2011, ‘Tea-party hobbits? Hardly, say indignant Tolkien scholars’
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0805/Tea-party-hobbits-Hardly-say-indignant-Tolkien-scholars
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3l98bkd
One of last month's more amusing items was the appearance of ‘hobbits’ in US politics — presumably intended disparagingly. Though gainsaid by such illustrious Tolkien scholars as Jason Fisher and Wayne Hammond, I will maintain what I said last month that the comparison need not be quite as far-fetched as all that (perhaps I should add that I most certainly do not sympathize with the Tea Party movement). This, of course, does not invalidate the points of critique here levelled against the usage.

Arwen, Middle-earth News, Sunday, 7 August 2011, "Mythgard Institute Partners with UWIC"
http://www.middleearthnews.net/2011/08/mythgard-institute-partners-with-uwic.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3skzweg
The news that the two institutes offering on-line academic courses on Tolkien, the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and the Mythgard Institute, have entered into a partnership and will recognize the credits earned at each other. Strangely the linked pages at the Mythgard Institute appears to have been taken down again — does this mean that the partnership has stopped before it started?

H&S, Monday, 8 August 2011, ‘New Website’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/new-website/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/43huycw
Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull are moving their web-site to a new host and a new URL — see under web sites below.

Glen Weldon, NPR, Thursday, 11 August 2011, "NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction And Fantasy Novels: Parsing The Results"
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/08/11/139346998/nprs-top-100-science-fiction-and-fantasy-novels-parsing-the-results
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3qdrzz4
NPR has had a vote on the 100 best science fiction and fantasy novels, and has now released the results. Not surprisingly _The Lord of the Rings_ comes in first, but it's more surprising that The Silmarillion gets in as number 46. Lewis' Space Trilogy only just makes the list as no. 100. I haven't found any other Inkling books on the list. Children's books and young adult books were banned, which, while this means that The Hobbit and the Narnia books were ruled out together with His Dark Materials and the Harry Potter books, it also kept out such as Twilight and Eragon . . .
John Rateliff comments on the list here:
JDR, Friday, 12 August 2011, ‘And The WInner Is . . . (NPR Fantasy List)’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-winner-is-npr-fantasy-list.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/44yxzw8

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

LS, Saturday, 6 August 2011, ‘A Saga sort of post.....’
http://theruminate.blogspot.com/2011/08/saga-sort-of-post.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3lnmdls
Primarily on compounding in Germanic languages with a focus on compounds of the old word for an enclosure, geard or garthi. I first read this post shortly after having helped my daughter with her homework on compounds in modern Danish. In modern Danish there is only one way in which you can put two nouns next to each other an keep them as two words: if the first is a genitive form. Otherwise you run them together in a compound word (you do this iteratively, so you can, if you will, construct completely legal compounds of ten or more nouns run together). Speaking of compounds and words, Larry takes his outset from Miklagarthi (Constantinople) and also touches on Tolkien's use of Mundburg and Isengard.

BC, Saturday, 6 August 2011, ‘Tolkien and the nature of evil: Morgoth versus Sauron’
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2011/08/tolkien-and-nature-of-evil-morgoth.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3uxa4rp
Tom Shippey has discussed Tolkien's portrayal of the nature of evil in The Lord of the Rings, but I think that the study of this question based on The Silmarillion, and particularly based on the late work on the Silmarillion published in Morgoth's Ring and _The War of the Jewels_ is due. Bruce Charlton makes a start of this and that deserves to be encouraged here.

TF, Sunday, 28 August 2011, ‘Source Criticism’
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/08/source-criticism.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3rrlvf7
Prior to starting reading Jason Fisher's new book, _Tolkien and the Study of his Sources_ I wanted to put down some of my thoughts on source criticism. Jason has stated (see the Tolkien Library interview below) that he would like to win over some sceptics, and so I thought it a good experiment to see if he manages to sway my views with his book.

= = = = Taum's Aphorisms = = = =

JDR, Wednesday, 10 August 2011, ‘Taum: Twenty Years’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/parker.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/423q96h
John Rateliff has been publishing a series of posts containing a set of aphorisms written by Taum Santoski (what Rateliff says might be called ‘Aphorisms Towards a Poetics of Fantasy’), celebrating Santoski's life and his contributions to Tolkien studies up to the twentieth anniversary of his death.
No. 1: Wednesday, 10 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-i.html
No. 2: Thursday, 11 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-ii.html
No. 3: Friday, 12 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-iii.html
No. 4: Saturday, 13 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-iv.html
No. 5: Tuesday, 16 August 2011.
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-v.html
No. 6: Thursday, 18 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-vi.html
No. 7: Friday, 26 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-vii.html
No. 8: Saturday, 27 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-viii.html
No. 9: Sunday, 28 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-ix.html
No. 10, Monday, 29 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-x.html
No. 11, Tuesday, 30 August 2011:
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-xi.html
No. 12, Wednesday, 31 August 2011
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski-xii.html

Commentary:
JDR, Friday, 26 August 2011, ‘Taum's Aphorisms, parts I to VI’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taums-aphorisms-parts-i-to-vi.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3egfzt4

One of the advantages of writing in aphorisms is that it lends itself to a great deal of ambigiuity, so there is some room for interpretation ;-) Rateliff says, in his comments to no. 6, that he thinks that this one is ‘entirely specious’ though of course he can't rule out the possibility that he doesn't see the subtlety, and this is, I think, one of the dangers of this form. I am trying myself to make sense of it all, and I think that there is some valuable help both in Rateliff's comments and in other comments on the individual aphorisms.

= = = = Book News = = = =

PC, Monday, 1 August 2011, "Interview with Jason Fisher about Tolkien and the Study of His Sources"
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1001-Interview_Jason_Fisher_Tolkien_Sources.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3rghedj
One of the big news of late has been the book that Jason Fisher has been editing on source criticism in a Tolkien context, and here is an interview that Pieter Collier has done with Jason on the subject. I doubt that Jason will win over many of those who reject source criticism as a valid approach to Tolkien's work because they probably will not read his book, but people such as myself, who are very wary of source criticism without rejecting it outright may come to view it in a more positive light. I look very much forward to reading this book.

Damien Bador, The Tolkien Library, Tuesday, 2 August 2011, "Interview with Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull about The Art of the Hobbit"
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1002-Interview_Art_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/43no5yh
A little extra information on the upcoming book by Wayne and Christina on Tolkien's own artwork for The Hobbit. There is very little to add, I think, except to note the intriguing promise of their having ‘one or two ideas’ which they 'hope to develop with HarperCollins and the Tolkien Estate' but which they are 'not yet free to talk about'.

JDR, Thursday, 4 August 2011, ‘The Bones of the Ox’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/bones-of-ox.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3ruob4x
We are, it appears, several who are reading _Tolkien and the Study of his Sources_ edited by Jason Fisher. John Rateliff is one of the contributors, but at the moment of writing, I have not yet reached his essay on She and Tolkien.

Kunochan, Periannath.com, Monday, 8 August 2011, "Glow-in-the-Dark Hobbits & Homophobic Frodos: Rankin Bass' 1980 'The Return of the King' Reviewed"
http://periannath.com/feature/glow-in-the-dark-hobbits-homophobic-frodos-rankin-bass-1980-the-return-of-the-king-reviewed/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3b6tev5
(Thank you, internet, for URL shorteners!) A rather humorous review of the abominable (as most viewers appear to agree) 1980 animated adaptation of The Return of the Ring by Rankin & Bass.

JF, Friday, 12 August 2011, "My book is now published and available!"
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-book-is-now-published-and-available.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wwhjuu
Jason Fisher is understandably elated that his book, _Tolkien and the Study of his Sources_ is now available from the book sellers.

Kristin Thompson, Thursday, 18 August 2011, "editors discuss ‘picturing tolkien,’ a new anthology on the lotr film trilogy"
http://www.kristinthompson.net/blog/2011/08/18/editors-discuss-picturing-tolkien-a-new-anthology-on-the-lotr-film-trilogy/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4xuvwek
Kristin Thompson, who wrote The Frodo Franchise, interviews the editors of _Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings Film Trilogy_, a new book dealing with Tolkien and Jackson.

TF, Tuesday, 23 August 2011, ‘Tolkien and Wales’
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/08/tolkien-and-wales.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3szkmeq
My on-line review of Phelstead's book Tolkien and Wales. The short version is: it's an excellent book, buy it and read it yourself! The long version? Well, read the review ;-)

JF, Mythprint, Tuesday, 23 August 2011, "Reviews: A Tolkien English Glossary"
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-english-glossary/
‘This review originally appeared in Mythprint 48:6 (#347) in June 2011.’ Jason Fisher applauds the concept, but doesn't find the execution at all up to it.

JDR, Thursday, 25 August 2011, "My Newest Publication: "Two Kinds of Absence""
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-newest-publication-two-kinds-of.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3fnb3cx
John Rateliff has also contributed to the volume _Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings Film Trilogy_ and here offers a few comments.

PC, Sunday, 28 August 2011, "A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to Accompany The Lord of the Rings Will be Released Next Week"
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/991-A_Tolkien_Tapestry.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/49u7uj9
The text of the news-item from Pieter Collier doesn't appear on the page that it refers to, but the news run:
Next week, on the 1st of September, there will be released the book called A Tolkien Tapestry, that brings together all art by Cor Blok. I'm very proud to announce this, since I was asked to edit the book and find and scan all of the art that was sold all accross the globe. Hope you will all enjoy the result. Further this month there will also be released a signed limited deluxe edition.
Cor Blok's illustrations to The Lord of the Rings have produced some very strong reactions — one needs only to read a few of the on-line discussions on the 2011 and 2012 calendars — but though I have, initially, had to admit that Blok's artwork was outside of my limited sympathies, I have become increasingly curious about his work. I have started to seriously consider buying this book.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

JDR, Friday, 19 August 2011, ‘Taum Santoski’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/08/taum-santoski.html
On the day of the twentieth anniversary of Taum Santoski's death, a brief remembrance.

Tom O'Boyle, _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, 28 August 2011, "The Next Page / The eternal C.S. Lewis: now, more than ever"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11240/1170132-109-0.stm
http://preview.tinyurl.com/444ppbq
I love Tolkien's work, and I am interested in the other Inklings insofar as the group was an important part of the context in which Tolkien wrote, but I have never read very much of their work (I've read the Narnia books, which I found preachy, but nothing else). So, I glean what I can from what I can find, and here was some bits that I didn't know about C.S. Lewis, and which I found interesting. The perspective is quite obviously Christian (the article describes what can best be termed a pilgrimage to Lewis' Oxford), but not in an importunate way.

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

RABT/AFT: ‘Jackson's Dwarves are smarter Dwarves’

news:slrnj2s5rv.d9.steuard@steuard.local
http://preview.tinyurl.com/42chjwd
There were some attempts made to try and bridge the usual trenches into which discussions of Jackson's film-versions of _The Lord of the Rings_ too often, and too easily, fall. Though the attempts may not in all ways have been successful, the chance to discover that it is often minute differences in perspective that decide whether you end up being regarded as for or against the films more than made up for the eventual reversal to the entrenched positions of some of the debaters.

LotR Plaza: ‘The Ring and Ofermod’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=241945
The best thing about this debate, from my perspective, was that I learned something about the scholarly discussions regarding the interpretation of the Old English word ofermod and of Tolkien's interpretation of The Battle of Maldon.

= = = = 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 ;-)

Wayne & Christina
http://www.hammondandscull.com/
That Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond has a web-site is nothing new, but it has now moved to a new URL, so remember to update your bookmarks!

The Tolkien Usenet Groups' Web-site Project
http://tolkien.forchhammer.net/aft-rabt-index.html
The pages at SilenceIsDefeat.net have apparently grown unstable again, and so I will advocate using the mirror I have made on my own web-hotel. Everything that was on the other site is also found here, including the full overview of all our Chapter-of-the-Week discussions. 

= = = = Sources = = = =

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

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

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

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.
- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Source Criticism

I am about to embark on reading Jason Fisher's new book, Tolkien and the Study of his Sources, and I thought that I would carry out a little experiment — I am, after all, an experimental physicist by education ;-)

Now, before I start reading, I will record some of my thoughts on source criticism, and when I have finished Jason's book on the practice, I'll post again to note any developments and changes in my position.

First off, what is source criticism? Having decided to do this experiment, I realize that I don't really know the formal definition as such. I know that it involves the identification of more or less probable sources of inspiration for elements in a story — e.g. Kullervo in the Kalevala as the original inspiration for Túrin Turambar — but I don't know if the term is used to cover more than just the identification of the possible source, so here at least there is something for me to learn ;-)  However, for the purpose of this post, I will use ‘source criticism’ to refer to the activity of identifying sources exclusively.

So, source criticism …

Generally my first criterion when evaluating literary criticism is whether it affects my appreciation of the work in question — I like it best if it can heighten my appreciation or deepen my understanding, but I guess that such a positive effect is a luxury one cannot always insist on :-)  Now, in my experience this is very rarely, if ever, achieved by source criticism alone (in the sense given above) — not that it doesn't occur in any study that takes its outset in source criticism, but the effect is then achieved by combining the source criticism with other, often comparative, approaches.

Tolkien discourages source criticism in e.g. his essay On Fairy-Stories, but that is, in my view, not a good reason in itself to abstain from it, even with regards to Tolkien's own writings — he also discourages the study of an author's biographical details, and that at least is a widely accepted and appreciated area also within Tolkien studies, including the study of biographical details as sources of inspiration for his fiction (where source study and biography meet), and I greatly appreciate good biographical studies that give me an increased understanding of the man behind the art.

This also implies one route in which source criticism can be expanded upon: if Tolkien (or some other author — my considerations are not limited to Tolkien, though his work is my focus) knew something and adapted (consciously or not) it into his own art in a given way, does this, then, tell us anything about the man himself? E.g. about his position with respect to the source?

Another route might be to turn the focus to the source itself. The mere fact that Tolkien may have known some other work doesn't necessarily mean that it is interesting to me, but some further description and criticism of the source might make me appreciate the source more (or make me interested in experiencing the source personally).

One can also imagine the route of speculative extrapolation: if indeed Tolkien based some element of his fiction on a certain source, can we then use that assumption to tell us something about this element in Tolkien's fiction, that is not obvious from a study only of Tolkien's work itself?

It should not be too difficult to expand upon this list of routes, but the common characteristic is that even if they do take their outset in source criticism, they all move beyond the mere identification of a possible source and add something that is not, in the sense I use it here, source criticism. When used in such ways, I am all in favour of source criticism as a good and sound basis for critical studies, and I have thoroughly enjoyed many such studies (e.g. by Verlyn Flieger and Tom Shippey to name a couple of the most prominent scholars in the field).


Unfortunately that is not always the case.

Much of the source criticism that I have seen has been self-congratulatorily satisfied with identifying a source, demonstrating the erudition of the critic rather than attempting to understand Tolkien's work in any greater depth. These are, I realize, quite harsh words, but I must insist that the mere identification of a possible source and noting a number of more or less obvious (and occasionally strained) similarities is, in and of itself, quite uninteresting — it is only when the study is expanded beyond the mere source identification that it has the power to add value for the reader (exceptions can probably be found to this blanket rejection, but I do believe it is true for the vast majority of possible source critical studies).

This also brings me to speak of the problematic elements that mar at least some source critical studies. I will refrain from citing explicit examples of the various types of problematic behaviour, and so you will have to trust me that none of this is my own invention.

My personal background is in the sciences: I hold a master's degree in physics and a bachelor in computer science, and I work with the mathematical and statistical analysis of industrial tests and test results. As such there is often one particular thing that bothers me in source studies: when they ignore to consider alternative hypotheses (including the possibility of an amalgam of different sources, all pointing in roughly the same direction and alloyed in the crucible of the author's creative imagination). It is fine that they identify some source that may have inspired Tolkien, but if they don't consider alternative hypotheses at all, they can only show that a connection is possible, but say nothing about its likelihood: it is actually possible that I will suddenly tunnel a metre into the air, but it is not at all likely. One alternative that should always be considered is that of noise — that any similarities are merely random (I haven't come across a study that tries to quantify the amount of similarities between randomly selected works, but that could surely be interesting).

This is probably tied closely to the idea seems to underlie some source critical studies, namely that everything must have a source. ‘What is the source of this?’ the critic asks rhetorically, implying that they are not willing to consider the idea that there is no source — that we may be dealing with original invention. If we were dealing with original invention, then the similarities would be random, which is why it would be good to know something about this ‘noise-level’ in literature. I should probably add that I do not think that this is intentional — I don't think that any serious source-hunter would deny Tolkien's originality and inventive imagination, but their focus on the sources makes it easy to accidentally alienate some readers by appearing to do so.

A last practice is definitely not unique to source studies, and may not even be more prevalent there than in other critical approaches, but I will include it here because I have seen it in source studies, and I believe it is an example of mild misconduct in scholarship. I am talking of the practice of stating unconnected (and incontrovertible) facts in such a way that the reader is invited to draw the conclusion that they are connected, even though the scholar cannot make this conclusion her- or himself because there is actually no evidence for such a conclusion. The form it takes in source studies is usually to state facts showing that some source (e.g. in the form of a book) was available to Tolkien, for instance by noting that a book was available in a library at a period when Tolkien had access to, or even was using, said library. This invites the reader to conclude that Tolkien not only had access to the book, but also did access it: a conclusion that is completely without basis — in particular since any evidence that Tolkien did access it (e.g. that he took it out from the library) would surely have been given if it existed.


So, this is where I start. Now I look very much forward to reading Jason Fisher's book — I suspect that the definition that I have used of ‘source criticism’ is too narrow, but I have employed it here as a useful way to speak of the source-finding activity alone. It may seem odd, but I hope to be proven wrong, to be able to see the usefulness of source criticism (i.e. the source-hunting alone, as I have defined it above): it is much as with cheese, which I, unfortunately, intensely dislike, but watching friends and family enjoy a good cheese table (with a good red wine, which of course I can share the enjoyment of), I can get the feeling that my tastes prevent me from enjoying something very valuable. I trust, however, that my reason is more easily persuaded by reason than my taste buds ;-)

Tolkien and Wales

Carl Phelpstead. Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011

Christina Scull has posted a review of this book on her and Wayne Hammond's blog, and overall I agree with just about everything Christina writes, and if you take only one thing away from this, let it be that this is a very excellent book that I recommend warmly!




The contents of the book are:

Preface
Acknowledgements
Definitions, conventions and abbreviations
Chronology
Part I: Language

1. Encountering Welsh
2. Linguistic taste
3. Inventing language

Part II: Literature

4. Mythological sources
5. Arthurian literature
6. Breton connections

Part III: Identity

7. Insular identities

Appendix: Tolkien’s Welsh books
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Overall the book is, as said above, excellent — truly a gem! As a non-native speaker, I often find the academic works on Tolkien to be rather slow to read, but Phelpstead's language makes it easier to read this book without, as I perceive it, loss of clarity or precision. There are few specialized expressions, and those that are there are necessary and are well explained (such as i-mutation and i-affection).

The Chronology lists only the main events discussed in the book along with very few primary events of Tolkien's life (presumably to put the events of the book in context). While there is little there that cannot be found in the Chronology volume of Hammond and Scull's The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, I actually found it very useful while reading to have this overview handy.

The part on languages is well-structured, and gives, besides what is hinted at in the chapter titles, an overview of the books that Tolkien owned on Welsh subjects and which are now in university collections in Oxford (the Bodleian or the English Faculty libraries) — valuable new biographical information — and an overview of the subject of Celtic and Celts both culturally and linguistically — this is a very valuable introduction to the question both as it were when Tolkien lived and as it stands now. Apart from this, the first chapter deals with Tolkien's encounter with Welsh and draws heavily on readily available sources, the second chapter dealing with linguistic taste contains the discussion of the evolution of the concept of ‘Celtic’, but I would have liked more depth in the discussion of Tolkien's personal linguistic taste to go along with his general theory, and in the last chapter that compares Sindarin and Welsh, I would have like to see a discussion of how the sounds, the phonemes, of Welsh influenced Sindarin. There may at times be a tendency to trust Tolkien's statements a bit further than may be wise. We know that Tolkien was given to a certain degree of exaggeration for rhetorical effect and to drive his point home, so I think Tolkien scholars need to be a little more careful when evaluating Tolkien's statements.

The part on literature also gives an overview of the surviving medieval literature in Welsh, Arthurian literature and Breton lays (each in the appropriate chapter). We get an overview in each chapter of the work Tolkien is known to have done pertaining to each area, including the influences that this literature has had on his fiction. Generally these influences on Tolkien's fiction are easier to spot in his smaller works such as Farmer Giles of Ham, Roverandom, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun and the unpublished The Fall of Arthur. With respect to the influences on Tolkien's legendarium, from The Book of Lost Tales to the late Silmarillion writings, the influences are often more conjectural. Phelpstead is clearly far more careful than many other writers, but cannot completely avoid what seems a small confirmation bias. He is, however, (as Christina Scull also notes) careful not to present such conjectures as fact.

The final, single-chapter part on identities presents the reader with an excellent discussion of Tolkien's personal identity as a west Midlander, Mercian or Hwiccian. There are some hints at a deeper theory of identity, but these are, I think, not elaborated enough upon to do the topic full justice. Tolkien's general ideas about regional identity may not be politically correct in our day, but they were nonetheless his and would, I think, deserve a closer investigation in a book that dedicates an entire chapter to Tolkien's own regional identity. I think that further work on this topic would be a valuable contribution to the field of Tolkien studies.

There is little for me to say about the addenda. It starts with an appendix listing the books Tolkien owned on Welsh matters that are now in either the Bodleian Library or the English Faculty Library. The forty pages of end-notes are a mix of references and comments (personally I would prefer to have separate systems for citations and explanatory notes), and they are followed by the bibliography and the index. The index seems to be quite good - only a couple of my test keyword searches failed (Beleriand and Lay of Leithian).

For me, one of the best things of Phelpstead's presentation is his inclusion of background knowledge on many of the scholarly topics that he discusses. While the book touches on many topics, and few can be expected to be experts in all of them, a scholar specializing in medieval Britian language and/or literature will probably find most of this superfluous, but to the non-expert is is invaluable. Where else would I have learned about the kingdom of Hwicce, and why this is relevant to Tolkien?

They say that people generally remember only the first and the last of what you say, so let me repeat what I said in the beginning: if you take only one thing away from this, let it be that Carl Phelpstead's book is excellent: a fine piece of Tolkien scholarship which is a rare pleasure to read, and which I warmly recommend.


Other on-line reviews:

Christina Scull: http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/tolkien-and-wales/

Andrew Higgins: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/22418

Pieter Collier (announcement): http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/971-Tolkien_and_Wales-Language_Literature_Identity.php

Tolkien Transactions XV

July 2011

July 2011 will, at least in Denmark, be remembered for the tragic events in Norway on Friday the 22nd. When John F. Kennedy wanted to express his sympathy and empathy with the people of the divided city of Berlin, he said that ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ — well, that Friday I wanted to cry from the rooftop that ‘Ei er ein Nordmann!’ — I am a Norwegian.

In other respects, it has been a good month for Tolkien enthusiasts on the internet. In addition to the usual list of blogs that regularly report on Tolkienian matters, it would appear that the general lull in world events that usually occur every year in the northern summer (in Denmark we call this the ‘cucumber seson’) has left some space for a few Tolkien oddities to reach a greater audience than they would otherwise have done. In this category you will find odd news about Tolkien related builds in Lego, a bridge in Poland and in a game world. The release of the last Potter film inevitably provoked comparisons to that other famous fantasy film series, which, just as inevitably, spilled over to comparisons of the Harry Potter series to The Lord of the Rings. Towards the end of the month, the US newspaper Wall Street Journal referred to Hobbits in an article that was quoted in the Senate, and controversy ensued.

In other ,less frivolous, news, there are now two interesting books available for order: the collection of essays by Verlyn Flieger, Green Suns and Faerie: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien, and Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays edited by Jason Fisher. Right now I'm trying to find the money to order both — unless someone can get me a review copy of either . . . (hoping) ;-)

= = = = News = = = =

Chris Phipson, Friday, 24 June 2011, ‘Journey of the Fellowship 2011’
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/276793
A group of people decided to make Lego builds inspired by The Lord of the Rings for the Brickworld 2011 convention. Most of it is very nice, but I just wish they hadn't used the horror from the Jackson films as their model for the Black Tower — complete with the ludicrous eye :-(

NH/JB, Wednesday, 13 July 2011, ‘Gdansk to get Tolkien viaduct?’
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/51268,Gdansk-to-get-Tolkien-viaduct
http://preview.tinyurl.com/62gkn33
The story that the city of Gdansk in Poland may name a viaduct after Tolkien is probably not very interesting in itself, but there are other aspects that may be considered interesting. The mayor suggesting the use of Facebook to gauge interest in the idea shows how much influence the internet has in current politics. The use of Tolkien in this way — naming a new construction in a place with which he had no connection — is also, I believe, fairly new: I don't remember seeing it before, though I would be surprised if this is the very first. We have seen the use of Tolkien's name for selling books (see Douglas Anderson's ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’ blog cited below), and of course there are a number of places, particularly in England, that are using even rather tenuous connections with Tolkien for marketing purposes, but apparently Tolkien has now reached a status where his name can be used to name bridges — and who knows what more? Roads? Buildings? Squares? How about a ‘J.R.R. Tolkien Center’ — a new giant shopping center in Frankfurt? Or a ‘Piazza del Tolkien’ in Naples? It is, of course, a good thing that Tolkien's name can now be used by a town council in Poland to promote themselves to their voters, but I can't help wondering what Tolkien would have thought, had he been alive to see it.

DS, Thursday, 14 July 2011, ‘Wits with Neil Gaiman, Adam Savage, and Gollum: 'I Will Survive'’
http://www.aiyailuvatar.org/2011/07/wits-with-neil-gaiman-adam-savage-and-gollum-i-will-survive.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3hu7jts
Adam Savage once more presents credentials as a certifiable Tolkien geek . . .

With the advent of the final instalment of the Harry Potter film series it is probably inevitable that comparisons will arise between the various hugely succesful fantasy film franchises (which includes the Narnia films and the Star Wars films), occasionally accompanied by comparisons of the original works. A few examples of this genre follow:
James Verniere, Boston Herald, Friday, 15 July 2011, ‘‘Harry’ vs. ‘Lord’: Which will last?’
http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/general/view/2011_0715harry_vs_lord_which_will_last/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/66arsuu
Steven Anfield, Benzinga, Friday, 15 July 2011, ‘Harry Potter — Just Go Away Already’
http://www.benzinga.com/general/11/07/1768662/harry-potter-just-go-away-already
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6dej5mq
Louis Bedigian, Benzinga, Friday, 15 July 2011, ‘Is Harry Potter Better Than Tolkien, Narnia, and Star Wars?’
http://www.benzinga.com/media/11/07/1768794/is-harry-potter-better-than-tolkien-narnia-and-star-wars
http://preview.tinyurl.com/65rbdzp
Michael Gerson, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, ‘Harry Potter and the power of myth’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harry-potter-and-the-power-of-myth/2011/07/18/gIQArUChMI_story.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3ktdb67
Allison Gofman & Anaam Butt, PolicyMic, Friday, 22 July 2011, ‘What has stronger political themes, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?’
http://www.policymic.com/article/show/id/1101
So far the opinion seems to be to favour Tolkien's work over Rowling's, but I probably won't live to see the final judgement on this war. I went to see the final Harry Potter film myself with the family, and found it a very good film — my only quib being that they didn't seize the chance to improve the story where Rowling had messed it up.

David D. Oberhelman, Mythopoeic Society, Sunday, 17 July 2011, ‘Mythopoeic Awards: 2011 Winners Announced’
http://www.mythsoc.org/news/award-winners-2011/
As it says — the winners of the 2011 Mythopoeic Awards. The award in Inklings Studies this year goes to a C.S. Lewis book, Planet Narnia by Michael Ward, and the award for Myth and Fantasy Studies goes to Caroline Sumpter for her book The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale.

Arwen, Sunday, 17 July 2011, "UWIC's ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth and Middle-earth in Context’ Class Starts in October"
http://www.middleearthnews.net/2011/07/uwics-jrr-tolkien-myth-and-middle-earth.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3tdd2bz
Dimitra Fimi's on-line lectures under the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff continues this fall with a course on Tolkien's legendarium:
http://www3.uwic.ac.uk/english/education/enterprise/courses/tolkien/pages/home.aspx
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3qqotdw

Arwen, Sunday, 17 July 2011, ‘EXCLUSIVE: Middle-earth Net and The Tolkien Professor Launch Mythgard Institute’
http://www.middleearthnews.net/2011/07/exclusive-middle-earth-net-and-tolkien.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/42mp8o4
The announcement at Middle-earth News of the Mythgard Institute (see below in the links section).

Wellinghall, Friday, 22 July 2011, ‘Tolkien slept here’
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/899607.html
A collection of stories that make various claims about Tolkien's or Middle-earth's relation to some area or other — occasionally some of these claims may actually hold a new hint of something, but unfortunately not very often.

Jeff Mirus, CatholicCulture.org, Friday, 22 July 2011, ‘Ignatius and T. M. Doran: Toward the Gleam’
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=835
http://preview.tinyurl.com/425adr8
A review of yet another fictionalisation of Inklings, though this one apparently isn't quite so vocal about it as other recent works. The premise for this book sounds interesting — one could almost call it a kind of intelligent sequel to Tolkien's work, but in the end I suppose it's unlikely that I'll ever read it.

Platform Nation, Monday, 25 July 2011, ‘Minecraft and Middle Earth: One Build To Rule Them All’
http://www.platformnation.com/2011/07/25/minecraft-and-middle-earth-one-build-to-rule-them-all/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3uhjpw7
There is a new game in town called Minecraft in which you can (probably among many other things) build your own world. Inevitably someone will use it to try to build their version of Middle-earth. I was actually introduced to this by my sons, who had found it very impressive, and I agree. I looked through the Moria part with them, and I strongly suspect that these people are closer to Tolkien's vision of the vast kingdom and mines of the Longbeards than was Mr. Jackson.

DB, Wednesday, 27 July 2011, ‘welcome to the new home’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/2011/07/welcome-to-new-home.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/43gyk7z
David Bratman's merry blog has a new provide and a new URL — the ‘Calimac’ blog at Livejournal will probably continue to be updated, but we should expect new posts to appear first at the ‘Kalimac’ blog at Blogspot.

Arwen, Middle-earth News, Thursday, 28 July 2011, ‘EXCLUSIVE: Middle-earth Network Takes on Publishing, Producing, and a Record Label’
http://www.middleearthnews.net/2011/07/exclusive-middle-earth-network-takes-on.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3tldvr9
I suppose the headline sums it up pretty well. Only time will show what will become of this, and what quality such a publishing effort may entail (whereby I immediately show my complete lack of interest for the record label or film production — there is a good reason why the title of my Tolkien blog translates ‘Enquiry into the Books’).

JDR, Thursday, 28 July 2011, ‘Well, This Is Weird’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/well-this-is-weird.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4x927a5
I was long in doubt whether to post anything about this, but there is, I think, an interesting comment on Tolkien's sub-creation hidden away in this whole situation.
As I read it, the original WSJ article seems to have been reasonably favourable of Hobbits as such even if it does seem to present belief in this Hobbit scenario as being very naïve. Possibly the intention with the mention of Hobbits is precisely to invoke this naïvitée about how the larger world works, and this would, I believe, be reasonably in line with how Tolkien portrayed the Hobbits.
Speaking of Sam as a more representative hobbit, Tolkien describes some truly typical Hobbit traits:
a vulgarity — by which I do not mean a mere 'down-to-
earthiness' — a mental myopia which is proud of itself,
a smugness (in varying degrees) and cocksureness, and a
readiness to measure and sum up all things from a limited
experience, largely enshrined in sententious traditional
‘wisdom’
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Humprey Carpenter (ed.),
no. 246 to Mrs Eileen Elgar (drafts) September 1963
This, it would seem to me, is quite close to what the writer of the original WSJ article intends to imply, possibly together with an acknowledgement also of the good sides of the Hobbits — their courage and indomitability, for example (this should not be construed in any way as a comment on the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of the writer's intention).

Kieran Healy, Saturday, 30 July 2011, ‘Text Editors in The Lord of the Rings’
http://crookedtimber.org/2011/07/30/text-editors-in-the-lord-of-the-rings/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/455qlpf
Thanks to Steuard for pointing out this humorous (though doubtlessly, as a comment on text-editors, also at least half in earnest) attempt to link text editors and Middle-earth locations.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

JDR, Friday, 1 July 2011, ‘Bilbo's Clue (clew)’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/bilbos-clue-clew.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6dz54el
What did Bilbo mean when he referred to himself as ‘the clue-finder’ to Smaug? Well, according to this update by John Rateliff, he certainly meant that he had found the clew. The evidence is compelling that this is another case of a reference remaining in the published book to an episode that was cut — something we also see several examples of in The Lord of the Rings.

JDR, Friday, 8 July 2011, ‘Two Outta Three Ain't Bad’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-outta-three-aint-bad.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6khnf3l
Not so much scholarship in its own right as a comment on the academic status of Tolkien as an author. Spurred by a claim about signs that ‘an author has "arrived"’ in the book Bloomsbury Pie by Regina Marler (about the Bloomsbury Group), Rateliff takes a look at the signs that Tolkien has ‘arrived’ as an author in the academic world.

DAA, Monday, 11 July 2011, ‘Pre-1970 Paperbacks with Comparisons to Tolkien’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/pre-1970-paperbacks-with-comparisons-to.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ug98jz
Following up from last month's round-up post, Douglas Anderson here provides us with more marketing comparisons of books to Tolkien's story. I concur with Anderson noting it as interesting that ‘the bulk of these early blurbs seem to have originated with people who had some connections with Tolkien.’ Both interesting and curious.

BC, Monday, 25 july 2011, ‘On JRR Tolkien's The Marring of Men’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-jrr-tolkiens-marring-of-men.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3o5r6t7
This post is really just a pointer to, as Charlton puts it, his ‘only official Tolkien-related publication’, which is an essay / article from The Chronicle of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society, 2008; Vol 5, Issue 3: 20-29 that he posted on another blog in September 2008. The article, which is essentially an analysis of the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth published in Morgoth's Ring, is, however, well-written and very interesting. Charlton has some points that I haven't seen elsewhere (not that I have seen much criticism of this text, which one would otherwise have thought merited it). Do read the article — it is, in my opinion, well worth the time.

BC, Monday, 25 july 2011, ‘Rank and Pay of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/07/rank-and-pay-of-major-warren-hamilton.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3howl6u
Laying another small piece of the biographical puzzles of the Inklings, Charlton here has something to say of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, his rank and his pay.

Ruth Lacon, Sunday, 31 July 2011, ‘Image and Glance - Some Thoughts on Tolkien-inspired Art and Illustration’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1000-Review_Cor_Blok_Calendar_2011.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/42chp27
This is not a mere copy of Ruth Lacon's review of the 2011 Tolkien Calendar in Amon Hen #228 from March (mentioned in Tolkien Transactions XI), but a separate essay that nonetheless shows the same insight and appreciation that she showed in the review. I think the best praise that I can give it is to say that it is insights such as this that makes me wish to make an actual effort to stretch my sympathies to encompass Cor Blok's artwork.

Paul Nolan Hyde, Sunday, 31 July 2011, ‘Emotion with Dignity: J.R.R. Tolkien and Love’
http://home.comcast.net/~niggle85/tolkienlove.htm
I have no idea when this was originally put on-line, but it came to my attention in a tweet this month. It is a discussion of Tolkien's treatment of the relationship between men and women that takes its outset in a letter to his son, Michael, from March 1941.

= = = = Reviews and Announcements = = = =

Charles A. Huttar, Mythopoeic Society, Thursday, 7 July 2011, ‘Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-sources-inspiration/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6hoxrjk
‘This review originally appeared in Mythlore 113/114.’
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings_: Sources of inspiration_ is a collection of papers, proceedings from a conference organised by Exeter College with some extra essays thrown in. Huttar finds the volume varying in quality, though he speaks very well of the papers of the biographical section.

Jason Fisher, Mythprint, Tuesday, 12 July 2011, ‘C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/lewis-lost-aeneid/
Jason comments not only on Lewis' verse (which he finds excellent), but also on translation in general — a topic that we know also occupied Tolkien (just see his detailed instructions to translators of The Lord of the Rings).

Maggie Hartford, The Oxford Times, Monday, 18 July 2011, ‘Guide to Tolkien's Oxford’
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/9145485.Guide_to_Tolkien_s_Oxford/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3z4yvgg
A brief review of The Pitkin Guide to Tolkien by Robert Blackham.

HG, Wednesday, 6 July 2011, ‘Middle-earth News Just In’
http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2011/07/06/middle-earth-news-just-in/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3dahd5s
It seems that we can expect a new, revised, edition of Henry Gee's book on The Science of Middle-earth — possibly as e-book or print-on-demand.

Christina Scull, Wednesday, 27 July 2011, ‘Tolkien and Wales’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/tolkien-and-wales/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3zny2ac
In her review of Carl Phelpstead's Tolkien and Wales Christina Scull says ‘that it has been a long time since I enjoyed a work on Tolkien as much as I did this one’. Praise from the praiseworthy!

TF, Thursday, 28 July 2011, ‘Tolkien and Wales’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=240326&PID=7410864#7410864
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3umm5c7
My own review in which I essentially agree with Christina Scull ;-)

JDR, Tuesday, 26 July 2011, ‘The Even Newer Arrival’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/even-newer-arrival.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3zmf4v8
And obviously John Rateliff has also received his copy of Phelpstead's book, but has not yet had time to read it ;-)

PC, Saturday, 30 July 2011, ‘A Pocket Hobbit to celebrate The Hobbit's 75th anniversary of publication’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/999-The_Pocket_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3sfvf36
Announcing another book to appear as part of the celebration fo the 75th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of The Hobbit: a pocket edition.

JDR, Sunday, 31 July 2011, ‘More on Horne’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-on-horne.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3kz6j3x
Having read Rateliff's review of the Tolkien biography by Mark Horne is ‘don't buy, but be on the watch for Tolkien-related essays or articles from the author’.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

JDR, Saturday, 2 July 2011, ‘It Begins’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/it-begins.html
Rateliff investigates the first small hints at what changes to the story Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit might bring. So, the speculations begins . . .

JDR, Wednesday, 6 July 2011, ‘Poke-Em-With-A-Stick-Wednesday (Joseph Wright Takes On Saul of Tarsus)’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/poke-em-with-stick-wednesday-joseph.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/69zyf9n
From Virginia Woolf and a character of hers who was inspired by Tolkien's tutor, the philologist Joseph Wright, this turns to Wright's attitude towards women (quite enlightened for his time) and finally to speculations over whether Wright's enlightened attitude may have rubbed off on his famous pupil, Ronald, despite the latter's otherwise often fairly conservative attitudes.

XKCD, Wednesday, 6 July 2011, ‘Delivery Notification’
http://xkcd.com/921/
The Tolkien — or rather the Jackson reference should be rather easy to spot . . . ;-)

Starr Keshet, TG Daily, Saturday, 9 July 2011, ‘On geek girls and Lord of the Rings’
http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/57126-on-geek-girls-and-lord-of-the-rings
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5w6cuq2
Starr Keshet speculates on the possibility of e.g. a ‘LOTR mini-series that would offer a comprehensive and faithful visual depiction of the beloved trilogy.’ Part of the motivation for such a wish is to see Bombadil included, but while I appreciate the importance of Tom Bombadil in the book and to its author, I am not sure that he would translate all that well to a visual medium. The particular rythm that characterizes all his dialogue would, of course, be strengthened (many readers of the book, including myself, fails to notice this until it is pointed out), but I wonder if the dignity of the character is compatible with a faithful visual representation.

JDR, Monday, 11 July 2011, ‘The New Arrivals: Eddas and Fanzines’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-arrivals-eddas-and-fanzines.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/684maym
John Rateliff is quite good at blogging about what new books he gets, and here we learn about two new arrivals, both of which have some Tolkien relevance. Both are the third volume of a series — one in a new English edition of the eddas by Ursula Dronke (‘text, translation and extensive commentary’ Rateliff writes), and the other belongs to a series by Gary Hunnewell who is apparently dedicated to producing a survey of all Tolkien fanzines in chronological order, and Rateliff notes that Hunnewell lists
the contents of each Tolkien fanzine, or other science
fiction/fantasy fanzine that had Tolkien content, with a
brief description of each essay or poem or editorial.
Both series are projects that command my respect.

BC, Thursday, 14 July 2011, ‘The Notion Club visualized by Afalstein’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/07/notion-club-visualized-by-afalstein.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/68mxeym
Charlton has found someone who has tried their hand at illustrating episodes from The Notion Club Papers — interesting.

DB, Tuesday, 19 July 2011, ‘Mythcon 42’
http://calimac.livejournal.com/535544.html
and
DB, Wednesday, 20 July 2011, ‘Mythcon 42: program’
http://calimac.livejournal.com/535647.html
David Bratman's comments / report / review of this year's Mythcon, held in New Mexico. Once again I lament the costs of attending these conferences, which allow me only to attend something every fifth year or so (and probably never in the US).

BC, Sunday, 24 July 2011, ‘If history is myth; then modern socio-politics is also myth’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-history-is-myth-then-modern-socio.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wy6yfb
I suppose one might see this as a kind of manifesto by Charlton. It contains two leaps that I not entirely convinced are justified with respect to Tolkien and the clubs referred to (the TCBS, the Inklings and the fictitious Notion Club): that the ‘core Inklings project’ was ‘the recovery of history as myth’ and that this, even to the extent that it may be true, would mean what Charlton interprets it to mean. Still, as usual one doesn't have to agree with Charlton's analysis in order to find it interesting.

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

Lotr Plaza: ‘Christianity in Lord of the Rings’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=241382&PID=7400469#7400469
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3tscgdx
Though actually starting earlier than July, this thread has given me the opportunity to express some of the ideas and thoughts that I have been developing regarding the role of Christianity in Tolkien's writings — both in The Lord of the Rings and in the larger legendarium. With a degree of self-promovation the URLs above are to my own contributions, which should definitely not be taken to imply that there is nothing worth reading higher up on the thread.

Dwarves in AFT & RABT
‘Dwarves baiting Wood Elves?’


http://preview.tinyurl.com/442eg7m
and
‘Jackson's Dwarves are smarter Dwarves’


http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wr63eg
Steuard must, for some reason, have been thinking of stunted people this month, for his has posted two sets of intelligent comment on the dwarves in The Hobbit, noting that their actions do not always make sense. This has sparked some interesting comments.

= = = = 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 ;-)

Mythgard Institute
http://www.mythgard.org/
A new project launched by ‘Middle-earth Network’ and Corey Olsen (also known by his kilmessi ‘The Tolkien Professor’) that aims to offer ‘challenging, engaging classes, taught by world-class teachers and leading scholars.’ The classes are on subjects related to Tolkien:
The Mythgard Institute aspires to be an organization that
will support and facilitate teaching and research in
Tolkien studies and related fields into the twenty-first
century.
It costs $150 to audit a class — as they point out, that is a mere $10 per week: about the price of a cinema ticket (actually its a bit less than a cinema ticket here in Denmark: it cost my family $16 per person to watch the last and latest instalment of the Harry Potter saga). I'm sorely tempted, but it also depends on the schedule.

David Simmons (DS), ‘Aiya Ilúvatar’
http://www.aiyailuvatar.org/
Steve Morrison was so kind as to point me to the blog aggregator at http://lotr.zebby.org that had many blogs that I didn't know before. Many of these are now unavailable, and some of them have not seen new posts since 2006 or 2007, but a few of them are still active, and David Simmons' Aiya Ilúvatar blog has contributed an entry to this month's transactions.

TEUNC — probably ‘Tolkien Eccentric Unusual Nut-Cases’
http://www.teunc.org/
TEUNC describe themselves as ‘a humorous offshoot from the usenet groups alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkien.’ This is, to the best of my limited knowledge, the oldest such organisation. They used to count the highly respected ‘Softrat’ among their membership, and still they have many respected AFT & RABT posters among their membership. TEUNC really defies description — it is one of these things that are like a stone in the shoe that you have grown to like and love and which you wouldn't miss for anything.

UFAT — Who are not TEUNC
http://ufat.150m.com/
Having mentioned TEUNC, I had better also mention UFAT — a rival group for the attention of readers of AFT and RABT. Whatever their position on Balrog wings, UFAT is firmly in the non-pink-fluffy-slipper faction of Balrog scholarship. Sometimes I think one really had to be there . . ..

= = = = Sources = = = =

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

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

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

The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your
feeling of what reality "ought to be".
- Richard Feynman

Tolkien Transactions XIV

June 2011

This has, at least in my perspective, been a quiet month, which has suited me quite well. At a personal level, my work situation is now more sorted out, so that I know what tasks remain for me in Nokia and when I will be fired (end of April 2012). This hopefully means that I, when I come back from holiday in the middle of July, can address the remaining tasks with new energy.

Enough of this private stuff — this is my collection of the most interesting Tolkien-related things from the internet in June 2011. All my usual disclaimers naturally apply as well as any implication of any responsibility on my part ;)

Obviously I am ignoring a lot of stuff here — in particular the stream of news relating to antipodean film project. Though this stream has been steadily growing as the work progresses (or not), I really do not find such news very interesting — I couldn't care less about who is chosen to play some part, nor about what changes Jackson is going to introduce to make the work conform to his own vision of what a film has to contain. I look forward to watching his Hobbit films in the cinema, but I find the perpetual stream of trivia that fills the news rather annoying.

Have a nice summer!

= = = = News = = = =

Ethan Gilsdorf, Wednesday, 1 June 2011, ‘Tolkien hippie stickers resurface’
http://www.ethangilsdorf.com/ethanfreak-blog/2011/6/1/tolkien-hippie-stickers-resurface.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3btovnl
Ethan Gilsdorf (author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms) evidently attended the 3rd. Conference on Middle-earth (see the March issue) where he got to speak with Ed Meskys, one-time president of the Tolkien Society of America, from whom he got some old The Lord of the Rings stickers that are both terrible and wonderful — I'd hate to see them as illustrations of the book, but viewed like this they have a definite charm (at least for one who is old enough to remember the end of the era that produced them).
There is also a short mention here:
Ethan Gilsdorf, Wired.com, Monday, 6 June 2011, ‘Groovy Lord of the Rings Stickers Unearthed’
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/06/groovy-lord-of-the-rings-stickers-unearthed/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3jnxv9c

Josh Vogt, _ Examiner_, Thursday, 2 June 2011, ‘The Hobbit fans reenact Tolkien's Battle of Five Armies’
http://www.examiner.com/tolkien-in-national/the-hobbit-fans-reenact-tolkien-s-battle-of-five-armies
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4xwrj5a
If you wish to experience the Battle of Five Armies in full detail, but are hesitant to expose yourself to the vision of Mr Jackson, this might be the solution — watch out for details on next year's reenactment.
Another article on the same event:
Jan Flemr, abc-cbn news.com, Monday, 6 June 2011, ‘Have at ye! Goblins battle elves in Tolkien reenactment’
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/06/06/11/have-ye-goblins-battle-elves-tolkien-reenactment
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6dsx7hq

Steve Morrison via Discover Magazine, Thursday, 2 June 2011, ‘The nameless things that gnaw the world — found!’
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/06/01/meet-mephisto-the-worm-that-rules-the-underworld/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3moh8y3
Thanks to Steve for pointing this out in the Tolkien Newsgroups (the link is to the original article rather than to his post). Though possibly not exactly what Tolkien had in mind, imagining these things in 10 feet versions inhabiting the lowest levels of Moria will surely produce the effect he was aiming for.

JF, Thursday, 16 June 2011, ‘Proofing, indexing’
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/06/proofing-indexing.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5w3a375
A brief update on the progress on Jason's upcoming book on source criticism in a Tolkien context. As is noted often, including in the comments, a good index is one of the best investments of time for a scholarly book. Tolkien enthusiasts will know how much The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien was enhanced by the expanded index by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull.

Helly, the Fail blog, Friday, 17 June 2011, ‘LOTR FAIL’
http://failblog.org/2011/06/17/epic-fail-photos-lotr-fail/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3hzwfbu
Definitely in the humorous end, this shows why one shouldn't always go for the cheapest manufacturer for one's merchandise.

H&S, Thursday, 23 June 2011, ‘Art of The Hobbit Progress’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/art-of-the-hobbit-progress/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/635j2hd
Another progress report on a piece of upcoming Tolkien scholarship. This time the news is that the outside design for the book has finished, and a nice picture illustrates this blog entry.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

DB, Wednesday, 1 June 2011, ‘Race in Earthsea’
http://calimac.livejournal.com/529509.html
Not really Tolkien, but related to a question that often comes up in a Tolkien connection, and since I was introduced to Ursula Le Quin's Earthsea novels by other Tolkien enthusiasts, I thought this analysis by David Bratman belongs here. It might be interesting to do the same for Tolkien's work, though I suspect that there would be far more references there — the physical characteristics of peoples do have a greater place in Tolkien's world than in Le Guin's.

BC, Saturday, 4 June 2011, ‘TCBS — Inklings — Notion Club’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/06/tcbs-inklings-notion-club.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6frxtum
There has been a lot of focus on the Inklings, who they were and what the social aspect of the club meant to them and their work, but outside of John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War (absolutely brilliant book!) there has been little focus on the TCBS, Tea Club and Barrovian Society. I am sure that there is much more to say about the TCBS as a formative social context for young Ronald Tolkien, in particular on how this group helped shape Tolkien's artistic aspirations and interests, but possibly also on other aspects of his life. Bruce Charlton here suggests one line of research that connects the dots all the way to Tolkien's fictional representation of the Inklings, which is the title of Bruce's blog. The emphasis here is on the last days of the TCBS when they decided that they could change the world, how this decision shaped Tolkien's artistic work, and how this aspect was not a deliberate part of the later real and fictional clubs, nor an aim that was shared by all the members of the real club.

TF, Tuesday, 7 June 2011, ‘Fans and Scholars?’
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/06/fans-and-scholars.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/434hlyf
Spurred by my comments on The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, I take up a debate we had in RABT & AFT some time ago. In particular I comment on the interdependence of the story-external and the story-internal views.

DAA, Friday, 10 June 2011, ‘Roundup: TS8, More Stybiorn news, etc. etc.’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/06/roundup-ts8-more-stybiorn-news-etc-etc.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wwb9es
Douglas A. Anderson shares some news on Tolkien Studies vol. 8 (mine arrived on the 22nd), and some other book news. It lands in this section due to the research into blurbs comparing the present book to Tolkien and in particular to The Lord of the Rings. The earliest examples listed in the blog piece and the comments date from 1965 — 1967. Some of the examples listed are hilarious — particularly the attempt to sell a book as ‘an erotic Tolkien’.

BC, Saturday, 11 june 2011, ‘How Tolkien could/ should have published The Silmarillion’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-tolkien-could-should-have-published.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4x6u35h
Basically Bruce Charlton is suggesting that Tolkien should have published his disparate material more or less ‘as is’

as a compendium of various modes of writing, varying in finish and completeness and of various fictional provenance — held together by some kind of editorial apparatus.

This approach to Tolkien's legendarium is akin to the discussion by Gergely Nagy in ‘The Great Chain of Reading’ in Tolkien the Medievalist by Jane Chance (ed.), but ultimately I don't think that Tolkien saw things that way — this way of looking at the great collection of material as versions of the same myth is, I believe, alien to Tolkien's own thinking. I strongly believe that he saw each new version as the only valid version (the exception being the period when he was considering both a ‘round world’ and a ‘flat world’ version of the Ainulindalë). The evidence, as I read it, points to Tolkien desiring the tales he wrote to be consistently ‘true’ within his sub-created world, and that the evolution and everchanging versions of the tales represent the changes and evolution in his conception of what was ‘true’ rather than experiments in different narrative perspectives, different forms, etc.

Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner, Thursday, 16 June 2011, ‘The Revision of Ruel-bone in the OED’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=241541&PID=7400796&title=the-revision-of-ruelbone-in-the-oed#7400796
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6xu24bc
From the authors of The Ring of Words comes a contribution to the LotR Plaza's Scholars' forum that investigates the newest revision of the word ‘ruel-bone’ in the OED and of course its Tolkien connections.

= = = = 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, Thursday, 2 June 2011, ‘The Art of The Hobbit by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/998-The_Art_of_The_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6keryys
A piece by Pieter Collier on the upcoming book by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, The Art of The Hobbit.

TF, Thursday, 2 June 2011, ‘The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún’
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/2011/06/legend-of-sigurd-and-gudrun.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5relo7v
Not a review as such, but a few thoughts and comments upon finishing The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún — in particular I comment on some of the desires that fuelled Tolkien's effort.

JDR, Friday, 3 June 2011, ‘As Catholic As The Day Is Long’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/06/as-catholic-as-day-is-long.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6782pls
A review of a TV documentary by Joseph Pearce on Tolkien as a Catholic author (originally made for a Catholic station). While commending the biographical details, I think the position of the review is best summed in the statements that

By overstating his case, Pearce has weakened it. I think it's one of those times when, having picked up a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

Though this is certainly not unheard of in other lines of academic criticism of Tolkien's work, it has always struck me as being particularly annoying when the perspective is a religion that is shared between Tolkien and the critic (or by some other author and the scholar / critic) — it seems to me that there is a tendency to not only see the whole world as made of nails, but to also start preaching the singular value of hammers . . .
Rateliff has a particularly well-worded comment, saying that

Tolkien was a complex man. To seize upon one aspect of his life — his medievalism, his faith, his love of trees, his language-creation, his status as a writer of fantasy or a survivor of the Great War or a mid-century writer, his compulsion to write even without hope of publication, his belonging to the Inklings or being a friend of Lewis's — and insist it's the only one that's important is to seriously distort the picture.

Well said! Thank you!

H&S, Tuesday, 7 June 2011, ‘Go, Little Book’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/go-little-book/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6d3ghhp
A bit of news from Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull on their upcoming book, The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. They have finished work on the book, and give a sample from the introduction. HarperCollins has very conveniently set the (tentative) publication date to my 45th birthday — guess what's on the wish list ;-)

Larry Swain, Mythprint, Monday, 13 June 2011, ‘Languages, Myths and History’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/languages-myths-and-history/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r4ogmv
This review originally appeared in Mythprint 48:3 (#344) in March 2011.
A reviewof the book Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and Literary Background of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fiction by Elizabeth Solopova. All in all a positive review ending with a recommendation of the book ‘even for the experienced Tolkien fan and scholar.’

JDR, Thursday, 16 June 2011, ‘The Return of the Emu’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/06/return-of-emu.html
In Danish, when trying to warn that appearances can be deceptive, we advise people not to judge the hound by the hairs (‘sku ikke hunden på hårene’), while in English people are warned not to judge the book by its cover. When, however, the cover is all that is currently available, a reviewer may see how much can be learned and deduced from the cover. Such is the exercise that John Rateliff here engages in with the cover of the book J. R. R. Tolkien, a biography by Alexandra and John Wallner aimed for young children (the reading level is given as ‘Ages 4 — 8’). Though certainly entertaining, I think Rateliff is perhaps taking his analysis one or two steps further than the current evidence can really support, though I would certainly not be surprised to find that he is correct. Also interesting is the comment by David Bratman about Tolkien's birthplace.

Mike Foster, Monday, 27 June 2011, ‘Tolkien Studies VII’
http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-studies-7/
This review originally appeared in Mythprint 48:3 (#344) in March 2011.
The nature of Tolkien Studies is such that a review is as much a resume as a review, but by various hints, I can easily see that Mike Foster has a higher opinion of some of the essays than I have (my review has appeared in Mallorn #51), but that is the nature of any collection. However, we obviously do agree on the praise of Flieger's transcription and commentary on Tolkien's Kalevala work and of Garth's paper on Tolkien's relationship with Robert Q. Gilson and his family — work which Garth follow up upon in volume 8.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

JDR, Wednesday, 1 June 2011, ‘Lewis Loved Being Read To . . .’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/06/lewis-loved-being-read-to.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5vk28la
A confluence of various bits makes John Rateliff suggest that Lewis had problems reading Tolkien's handwriting, and that this is the explanation for some known statements from Lewis and Tolkien. It is not without problems, as Rateliff himself acknowledges, and will require more in the way of evidence, but it's nonetheless an interesting idea.

BC, Thursday, 2 June 2011, ‘The Question of Pengolod - Superb Numenorean Fanfiction’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/06/question-of-pengolod-superb-numenorean.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6h8wjkr
As regular readers of this will know, I have grown very fond of Bruce Charlton's blog. Though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, I generally find his bloggings interesting and thought-provoking: even when I don't agree Bruce Charlton's pieces usually help me understand my own reading of Tolkien's work better, and that is surely worth a lot.
Therefore, though I am personally not interested in fanfiction at all (which may also help explain some of the negative aspects of my evaluation of the various adaptations of Tolkien's work), I cannot help but feel that a fan-fiction story that Bruce Charlton praises certainly deserves to be known more widely.

BC, Sunday, 12 June 2011, ‘Is reward more dangerous than punishment?’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/06/is-reward-more-dangerous-than.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6z7hrh5
For lack of a better description, I will categorize this as showcasing how some of Tolkien's comments re. Númenor can be applied to the modern world . . .. It touches on the applicability of Middle-earth to the world we know, and though I don't particularly agree with the sentiments described, I wonder if, and how far, Tolkien might have agreed.

JDR, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, ‘Getting Very Near the End’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/06/getting-very-near-end.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/666s23e
The sad story that the British author, Sir Terry Pratchett, is very close to succumbing finally to his Alzheimer's disease. Despite, or perhaps precisely because, writing books that are very different from Tolkien's, I have always been very fond of Pratchett's books, in particular his Disworld novels. The loss of his lively and witty imagination will be felt.

JDR, Thursday, 16 June 2011, ‘Pratchett's Homage to Tolkien’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/06/pratchetts-homage-to-tolkien.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6j3sfj7
Following up on the above, John Rateliff has posted a quotation from Pratchett showing the author's awareness of his debt to Tolkien.

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

‘Owen Barfield’ (mythsoc Yahoo group)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mythsoc/message/22359
A very interesting discussion on the Mythopoeic Society list at Yahoo Groups focusing on Owen Barfield and particularly on how to interpret the relationship between Barfield's work and Tolkien's (i.e. not the relationship between the two men per se). The advice to go read Poetic Diction is probably sound, but my understanding, based on the comments I've read, is that it is not a very accessible work — perhaps one day when the kids have moved out and I have tons of time ;-)

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

The Tolkien Usenet Groups' Web-site Project
http://users.silenceisdefeat.net/~aft-rabt/
The AFT/RABT web-site project includes a full overview of the Chapter of the Week discussions as well as collections of links.

The Tolkien Society
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/
The UK-based Tolkien Society. The Tolkien Society publishes the bulletin Amon Hen and the journal Mallorn and organises various events, of which e.g. the annual seminar focusing on some aspect of Tolkien's work, the annual Oxonmoot as well as less frequent events such as the one-week ‘The Return of the Ring’ conference taking place in Loughborough in 2012.

The Mythopoeic Society
http://www.mythsoc.org/
The Mythopoeic Society is based in the US and focuses on the works of the Inklings in general and Williams, Lewis and Tolkien in particular. At some point it merged with the Tolkien Society of America and is often seen as a sister-organisation of the Tolkien Society. The Mythopoeic Society publishes the bulletin Mythprint and the journal Mythlore where the contents generally has a more academic/scholarly stamp than in Mallorn but on the other hand includes more non-Tolkienian articles. There is also the Mythic Circle that contains ‘original short fiction, poetry, and artwork’ celebrating the work of Tolkien, Lewis and Williams. The society also has its own publishing house, the Mythopoeic Press, which publishes books promoting the society's interests. The Mythopoeic Society also hosts events such as the annual Mythcon.

= = = = 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

Fans and Scholars?

As I was revising my last blog entry on The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrùn, my comments on Tolkien ‘ret-conning’ the old sagas made me remember a discussion we had a few years back in the Tolkien Newsgroups, Tolkien Scholars / Writers (2006-07-12)¹

The discussion started with a question on whom were the ‘top 10 of Tolkien scholars’, but the perspective that I remembered in this context was better captured in the question, ‘Would a scholar for example ask whether elves have pointed ears or balrogs wings?’ The central question here is whether this kind of ‘story-internal’ questions are really scholarly? Is it so that there are some topics, some questions, that belong wholly or predominantly in a fan culture and are frowned upon in scholarly circles, and others that belong wholly or predominantly in a scholarly culture that are frowned upon in fan discussions (or somehow out of reach for fans)?

We didn't reach a conclusion back then, but I have occasionally been wondering about this question since then.

It would be easy to point at many of the on-line discussion fora where fans² discuss Tolkien's works and say that these discussions are predominantly taking the story-internal view (and the perspective they take is very often that of creating the kind of consistent whole: a particular vision of Tolkien's sub-creation that can then be standardised and even canonised), and when you read some of the scholarly work such as e.g. the contents of Tolkien Studies which prides itself with the subtitle, An Annual Scholarly Review, the perspective is predominantly story-external (there are many approaches to this type of view of which the biographical and the source-critical are but two).

I think, however, that the picture is more complex than a superficial scan of the titles and abstracts of these papers, books and discussions would suggest.

First of all it seems to me obvious (and entirely non-controversial) that the portrayal of a dichotomy is too simplistic: at every turn we see the two approaches mixed so that fans may cite biographical or source-critical points in order to argue their own story-internal view, and scholars will argue a story-internal point in order to support their analysis³. Not only that, but while there is certainly a trend to have the main emphasis in different parts of this scale, you can also find fan-discussions where the main emphasis is on what would, in the simple view, be seen as scholarly topics, and scholarly work where the main emphasis is story-internal.⁴

The other point I'd like to make in this connection is neither new nor not original to me. However, I think it deserves to be highlighted now and again.

A while back (OK, actually it's been more than seven years), Michael Drout posted on his blog on ‘Becoming a “Tolkien Scholar”’ in which his main point is that the scholarly study of Tolkien is still very open and to a large extent dominated by independent scholars, so that it is possible to contribute even without academic tenure or formal education.

Drout goes on to note that

I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there who know a lot more about the internal elements of Middle-earth than I do. These people are enormous resources for Tolkien scholarship, and they should be encouraged and listened to, not mocked or derided. I think that my additional training in literary study, ancient languages and linguistics gives me the opportunity to add value and context to the analysis and discovery by people who work only within the materials of Middle-earth, but I don't ever pretend that I know more about Middle-earth than they do.

This goes right to the heart of what I aiming at here: the interdependence of the two perspectives that I have outlined above.

This interdependence seems to me to be stronger for fiction that is set in a sub-created world because of the nature of the sub-creative process. We know that in Middle-earth, Tolkien's personal views are fully integrated into the fabric of the sub-creation — most careful readers will be able to point out where his Roman Catholic faith is immanent in the nature of causation in Middle-earth. I know that for Tolkien there is a very strong connection between his personal interests, ideas, beliefs etc. and the way that things work in his sub-created universe, and though I cannot say to what extent it applies to other authors in general, I suspect that there is a tendency for this connection to be stronger the more of the world the author sub-creates her- or himself.

Whatever the details, I will claim that this connection is particularly strong in Tolkien's case, and that this linked to the fortuitous situation that Drout describes in the passage quoted above. The story-internal perspective deals with how things work inside Middle-earth, but solving such questions tells us something about what Tolkien thought. On the other hand, knowing what Tolkien thought can often solve the question of how something is supposed to work.

Sometimes a question may come out of hand — the infamous balrog wings is a good example — but even there a kernel of relevant scholarship may possibly be found. I once saw the argument that the reason that angels in Christian imagery are portrayed with wings is because they were thought of as insubstantial. The reasoning, as I recall it, was that insubstantial associated with air, air with flight, and flight was symbolised with wings.⁵. If this is true, then it could be relevant to know if balrogs had wings, because it might possibly tell us something about Tolkien's view on evil (the balrogs, too, were insubstantial spirits in their origin, but presumably became bound to their shapes in a state that approached incarnation: see ‘Ósanwe-kenta’ for details).

Other, perhaps more plausible, examples can be found:

• What is the detailed nature of the agency of the Master Ring? Sentience? Sapience? Free will?
• Was the Master Ring influencing Isildur to make him reject Círdan and Elrond's advice? And if so, how was it influencing him?
• What is the nature of the invisibility conveyed by the Rings of Power (except by the Three)?

These questions are some that have been debated in fan fora (as far as I know without reaching consensus), and where the answer might tell us something about Tolkien's thoughts that would be relevant for Tolkien scholarship — but also where scholarly findings might contribute to resolving the questions.

So, my dear fellow Tolkien fans, geeks and enthusiasts, let us not be ashamed of quarrelling over the shape of Elvish ears or Tom Bombadil's place in the taxonomy of Middle-earth. Let us rather work to keep these discussions at a level where we can attract also Tolkien scholars to our discussions to our mutual benefit. Why should it not be considered a legitimate subject of Tolkien scholarship to discuss in detail whether the Master Ring could think and whether it had free will? (Now, there's a paper I'd like to see in Tolkien Studies!)


1^ Also available from Google Groups: Tolkien Scholars / Writers  Back

2^ I actually don't like the word fan all that much and I try to avoid using it of myself, mostly for the association with fanaticism. I prefer to describe myself as a Tolkien enthusiast or geek — possibly obsessed, but not, I think, fanatic. It is, however, a widely used word so that references to an on-line fan community or on-line fandom will be instantly recognised, and therefore use the word here to include also my own activities and the fora where I am active.  Back

3^ To give just a single example, Verlyn Flieger's discussion of the workings of Elvish free will in Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World would qualify as using a story-internal question to argue a point in a scholarly work.  Back

4^ An excellent example of this is Vladimir Brljak's paper, ‘The Books of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist’ in Tolkien Studies 7 in which the main points is to argue a specific metafictional, but entirely story-internal, tradition of transmission for the books.  Back

5^ I do not know whether this explanation is correct, or a mistake (possibly a previously held, but now abandoned, explanation) — I offer it here only to exemplify my idea. I also realise that I am stretching credibility by choosing the balrog wings example, but that is interesting as an example precisely because it doesn't get much more absurd than the Balrog Wings Flame Wars.  Back