Tolkien Transactions XLVI

February 2014

This issue is already horribly delayed, so I need to finish this and get it out ‘as is’. I have skipped several things that I would normally have commented upon, but given the lateness, I hope this will be acceptable ...

These transactions are posted to the usenet newsgroups rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, and alt.books.inklings, and the usenet version can be accessed at http://www.webuse.net/frameset.php?su=newsgroup.php&ng=rec.arts.books.tolkien
These transactions are also posted on my blog, Parma-kenta (Enquiry into the books): http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com
and on LotR Fanatics Plaza in the books forum: http://www.lotrplaza.com/forumdisplay.php?14-The-Books

This month it has suited my purposes to sort the contents under the following headlines:
1: Tolkien Reading Day
2: The Great War
3: Essays and Scholarship
4: Commentary
5: Reviews and Book News
6: Interviews
7: Tolkienian Artwork
8: Other Stuff
9: The Blog Roll
10: Sources

Jef Murray
A Canticle for Elessar

= = = = Tolkien Reading Day = = = =

Tolkien Reading Day, 25th of March, is fast approaching, so I will include this March update from Marcel Aubron-Bülles where he lists a number of the events that are available to Tolkien enthusiasts and casual by-passers alike

MB, Thursday, 6 March 2014, ‘Tolkien Reading 2014 — Event calendar, worldwide’
http://www.thetolkienist.com/2014/03/06/tolkien-reading-2014-event-calendar-worldwide
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ol7ggkk
Find the Tolkien Reading Day event closest to you — and attend it!

= = = = The Great War = = = =

The Great War, or the first world war, began in 1914, a hundred years ago this year. The BBC has set up a web-site a web-site, and will be transmitting programmes and adding material to this web-site throughout the four years from the centenary of the break-out of the war to the centenary of the peace:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww1
You can find much on this site that is of interest also to understanding the general context of English society in this period.

The influence of the Great War on Tolkien's writings has been explored by John Garth in his brilliant book, Tolkien and the Great War, as well as in various essays and papers and recently also on his blog. However, we should expect that this will be explored again (not least when we come to the centenary of the Battle of Somme and, in Tolkienian circles, the centenary of his first Lost Tales), and we can hope that the explorations will add details to the publicly available knowledge of Tolkien in and after his experiences in the trenches in France.

Under this heading, then, I will collect some of the pieces that are bound to appear on this topic.

BBC, Thursday, 20 February 2014, ‘King Edward's School, Birmingham: JRR Tolkien's Schooldays’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01sldj1
A short piece centering on King Edward's School and Tolkien's circle of friends, the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, including a reading of a letter sent to Tolkien by the then headmaster, and father of Tolkien's friend, Rob Gilson, after Tolkien had written condolances upon the death of Rob Gilson in the war.

Andy Richardson, Birmingham Mail, Sunday, 23 February 2014, ‘Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings battle scenes were inspired by WW1 experiences’
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/tolkiens-lord-rings-battle-scenes-6734894
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ojcawk7
Just a few facts, again centered about King Edward's School and the circle of friends there to which Tolkien belonged.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

Medievalist.net
http://www.medievalists.net/category/articles/
I don't think you need me to point out the many intriguing headlines on old Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian culture, so I will just point out one that have stuck out more than usual for me:
‘The very first Anglo Saxon toast?’ (12 Feb) — recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth the idea of drinking to the ruler's health of course echoes in Éomer's joyful greeting when seeing Théoden outside Meduseld, ‘Westu Théoden hál!’ as well as in the Notion Club papers where the king in the Anglo-Saxon story greets the skald saying, ‘Westu hal, Ælfwine’
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/02/12/the-very-first-anglo-saxon-toast/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pjpd9v2

PC, Tuesday, 11 February 2014, ‘Important letter regarding the publication of The Lord of the Rings on auction’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1142-tolkien-letter-to-cotton-minchin-regarding-publication-of-the-lord-of-the-rings.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kxepxgy
A letter sent by J.R.R. Tolkien to one Cotton Minchin, parts of a draft of which was used for letter no. 187 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, has been up for auction. Pieter has transcribed the letter and offers both images and transcription here (allowing the reader to catch any errors themselves, though Pieter has done an excellent job).

JGa, Thursday, 13 February 2014, ‘Sam Gamgee and Tolkien's batmen’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-tolkiens-batmen/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pt2yhtl
Reflections from John Garth following some comments from the letter discussed above. Anything John Garth writes about Tolkien's early life is definitely always worth reading.

= = = = Commentary = = = =

Fr. Angelo, Monday, 10 February 2014, ‘Is Tolkien's Fantasy Gnostic?’
http://maryvictrix.com/2014/02/10/is-tolkiens-fantasy-gnostic/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kd6z6fe
It appears that an anonymous Catholic priest has argued that Tolkien's fantasy (and particularly The Lord of the Rings) is not Catholic. This, then, is a refutal of that argument by another Catholic (who would, it appears, not particularly agree with Tolkien in his views about the Faith). Though not myself a Catholic and generally very wary of overly Catholic readings of Tolkien, I nonetheless found that there are interesting elements in this measured defence of the Catholicism of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Alison Flood, The Guardian, Tuesday, 11 February 2014, ‘JRR Tolkien advised by WH Auden to drop romance’
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/11/jrr-tolkien-advised-wh-auden-lord-of-the-rings
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lc4bcgx
An interesting letter that Tolkien wrote to to Allen & Unwin in 1955 has come up for auction. In this letter Tolkien reports from a letter he had received from W.H. Auden in which the latter urged him to drop the romance between Arwen and Aragorn, based on the galleys that Auden had been able to read before The Return of the King was finalised. Auden, however, appears not to have had access to the ‘Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen’ given in appendix A, without which I think that there is a good chance that I, too, would agree with Auden's assessment.

Fr. Longenecker, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, ‘Was Tolkien an Evangelist?’
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2014/02/was-tolkien-an-evangelist.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/o32s8n4
Another piece written in reaction to (but not as an explicit response to) the argument against the Catholicism of Tolkien's fantasy.

Kendall Wild, Wednesday, 19 February 2014, ‘The curse of the ring’
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20140219/OPINION04/702199951
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pyt93z7
The foolish Roman ring theory again ... :-( I do very much wish that we could lay this idea to the grave — at least until such a time that there can actually be produced any shred of evidence that would support it. The evidence that is available very strongly suggests that Tolkien never went to the dig site of Collingwood's excavation (he is not on the list of visitors) and there is not a shred of evidence that he ever knew of the ‘Senicianus’ ring, which is not mentioned in the report for which he contributed a philological discussion of the name ‘nodens’. That something is ‘not impossible’ is a very far cry from saying that it is likely — it is, in actual fact, not impossible that the London metropolitan area will tomorrow spontaneously jump a metre into the air by a process known as quantum tunnelling, but it is, admittedly, extremely unlikely. Based on the current actual evidence (as opposed to speculation) this theory appears only marginally less unlikely.

Karl Seigfried, Thursday, 20 February 2014, ‘TOLKIEN ARCHIVES FIELD TRIP, Part One’
http://www.norsemyth.org/2014/02/tolkien-archives-field-trip-part-one.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q9rplfy
An interesting tale about a field trip to the Marquette with his students. Also see part 2 (linked from part one).

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

HG, Wednesday, 12 February 2014, ‘Science of Middle-Earth: New Paperback Edition’
http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2014/02/12/science-of-middle-earth-new-paperback-edition/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q8mplg6
What it says, really. The second edition of Gee's The Science of Middle-earth, hitherto only published as e-book, will now also become available in paperback. My review of the book is available on my blog:
http://parmarkenta.blogspot.dk/2012/12/the-science-of-middle-earth.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cdhqszh

JF, Friday, 14 February 2014, ‘A Brief History of The Hobbit’
http://lingwe.blogspot.dk/2014/02/a-brief-history-of-hobbit.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/osl4oda
Announcing an abbreviated edition of Rateliff's History of the Hobbit ...
See also JDR, Friday, 28 February 2014, ‘A brief history of 'The Hobbit'’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2014/02/a-brief-history-of-hobbit.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oxforfj
Where John Rateliff tells about this upcoming book.

JGa, Monday, 17 February 2014, ‘The Tolkien brothers in Bumble Dell’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/the-tolkien-brothers-in-bumble-dell/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qj2qqcd
John Garth's review of Black and White Ogre Country by Hilary Tolkien, little brother of JRRT, reproduced on the occasion of 120 anniverary of Hilary Tolkien's birth. Garth's appreciation of the hints of a lost world that lie hidden in the reminisces of Hilary Tolkien is evident, and having tried myself to relate to my own children the sense of growing up in a world before the internet where homes without television sets were not uncommon, I, too, can appreciate that sense of a long lost world that lies in these ‘Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien’.

AS, Monday, 17 February 2014, ‘The Tolkien Encyclopedia & Reader's Diary: A Look Back’
http://annasmol.net/2014/02/17/the-tolkien-encyclopedia-readers-diary-a-look-back/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pkbnsls
Occasioned by the release of ‘The Tolkien Encyclopedia’ in a paperback edition, Anna Smol takes a look back on contributing to the encyclopedia itself, and on the high-quality reader's diary that is an indispensable additional resource when using the encyclopedia.

= = = = Interviews = = = =

Susan Cahill, Talking Books, Newstalk, Monday, 17 February 2014, ‘Conjuring fantastical worlds’
http://www.newstalk.ie/player/podcasts/Talking_Books/Talking_Books/45637/2/Chapter_Twenty-Four:_Conjuring_fantastical_worlds
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qzet6vw
and
Ronan Breathnach, Saturday, 15 February 2014, ‘Hobbits and high fantasy’
http://www.newstalk.ie/Hobbits-and-high-fantasy
Starting about 21'50" is an interview with Helen Conrad-O'Briain, Gerard Hynes and Darryl Jones who have edited (Conrad-O'Briain and Hynes) and contributor (Jones) to the book J.R.R. Tolkien: the Forest and the City, presenting the papers from the homonymous conference in Dublin in the autumn of 2012. Well worth the roughly 20+ minutes with many astute observations.

= = = = Tolkienian Artwork = = = =

Joe Gilronan
Evening in the Shire

JGi, Friday, 7 February 2014, ‘The House Of Tom Bombadil’
http://joegilronanlordoftherings.blogspot.dk/2014/02/the-house-of-tom-bombadil-have.html#.UyIpwvldUpg
http://preview.tinyurl.com/njjkech
Four hobbits approaching the house where Tom stands waiting ...

JGi, Sunday, 9 February 2014, ‘Evening In The Shire.’
http://joegilronanlordoftherings.blogspot.dk/2014/02/evening-in-shire.html#.UyIqPfldUpg
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q8zkm5p

Jef Murray, Wednesday, 26 February 2014, ‘The Arkenstone’
http://jefmurray.mymiddleearth.com/2014/02/26/the-arkenstone/
Bilbo presenting the Arkenstone to Bard and the Elvenking.

Jef Murray, Wednesday, 26 February 2014, ‘A Canticle for Elessar’
http://jefmurray.mymiddleearth.com/2014/02/26/a-canticle-for-elessar/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/okdsgsr
A beautiful painting — I suppose of Arwen in Lothlórien haunted by the memory of her dead husband, Elessar.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

MB, Tuesday, 25 February 2014, ‘Update your blogroll to include some great Tolkienists’
http://www.thetolkienist.com/2014/02/25/update-your-blogroll-to-include-some-great-tolkienists/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/owb8w5c
A select list of Tolkien blogs that I am both humbled and extremely proud that my own Parma-kenta has been deemed worthy to be included in.

= = = = The Blog Roll = = = =

These are blogs you really should be following yourself if you're interested in Tolkien ...
Contents from these blogs will only be reported here if there is something that I find particularly interesting, or posts that fit with a monthly theme. This month I have (due to the lateness of my posting) decided to skip the usual summaries — try reading also the other posts: you are almost guaranteed to find something interesting there.

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

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

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

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA), ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/

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

Marcel Aubron-Bülles (MB), ‘The Tolkienist’
http://thetolkienist.com/

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

John Garth (JGa), ‘John Garth’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/

Jenny Dolfen (JD), ‘Jenny's Sketchbook’
http://goldseven.wordpress.com/

Holly Rodgers (HR), ‘Teaching Tolkien’
http://teachingtolkien.com/

Anna Smol (AS), ‘A Single Leaf’
http://annasmol.net/

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

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

Emil Johansson (EJ), ‘LotR Project Blog’
http://lotrproject.com/blog/

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

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

= = = = Sources = = = =

No new sources in February 2014

For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/p/sources.html

Tolkien Transactions XLV

January 2014

I cannot help a nagging feeling that there is something important that I have forgotten to include in this month's transactions, but I cannot pass^w remember what on earth it might be and I do wish to get this issue on-line tonight before a new week starts, so ...

Having said already that I think that I have not even included what I wished to include, it would appear almost superfluous to add that all the usual disclaimers of course apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)

These transactions are posted to the usenet newsgroups rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, and alt.books.inklings, and the usenet version can be accessed at http://www.webuse.net/frameset.php?su=newsgroup.php&ng=rec.arts.books.tolkien
These transactions are also posted on my blog, Parma-kenta (Enquiry into the books): http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com
and on LotR Fanatics Plaza in the books forum: http://www.lotrplaza.com/forumdisplay.php?14-The-Books

This month it has suited my purposes to sort the contents under the following headlines:

1: The Birthday Toast
2: News
3: Essays and Scholarship
4: Commentary
5: Reviews and Book News
6: Interviews
7: Tolkienian Artwork
8: Other Stuff
9: Rewarding Discussions
10: In Print
11: Web Sites
12: The Blog Roll
13: Sources

Joe Gilronan
Treebeard Wellinghall

= = = = The Birthday Toast = = = =

As you are probably all aware, January 3rd was Tolkien's birthday — his twelfty-second as the Tolkien Society ingenously calls it.
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/toast/2014/
I will forgo a long list of articles and other celebrations and just add this: ‘The Professor!’

= = = = News = = = =

Suzanne Camfield, Focus Film, Thursday, 9 December 2013, ‘Fox Searchlight Developing J.R.R. Tolkien Biopic’
http://www.focusfilm.co.uk/fox-searchlight-developing-j-r-r-tolkien-biopic-6127
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oxuoecc
Sigh! So now Tolkien ‘was a code breaker during the Second World War’ (no he wasn't!) and ‘is believed to have been a large factor is Lewis' conversion from atheism to Christianity’ (the word is ‘_known_’, not ‘believed’). I am still extremely sceptical of the idea of a Tolkien ‘biopic’ — mainly because I am convinced it will not only get things wrong, but it will also emphasize some events / experiences out of proportion because they make for good drama. And these concerns are essentially my best-case scenario.

JF, Friday, 3 January 2014, ‘Stepping down from Mythprint’
http://lingwe.blogspot.dk/2014/01/stepping-down-from-mythprint.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nf9boce
On Jason Fisher's decision to step down as editor of Mythprint, the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society.

MB, Friday, 3 January 2014, ‘Middle-earth meetings of this year’
http://www.thetolkienist.com/2014/01/03/tolkien-related-events-in-2014-a-chronological-list/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ngtwvoh
Being a list of Tolkien-related events in 2014 that Marcel has gathered. A big ‘Thank you’ to the Tolkienist for this excellent work!

Sarah Hoffman, Friday, 17 January 2014, ‘The Hobbit: an unexpected lawsuit - breach of contract?’
http://www.mondaq.com/NewZealand/x/286362/Contract+Law/The+Hobbit+an+unexpected+lawsuit+breach+of+contract
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nu3yy6c
An article about a lawsuit by Miramax LLC against Warner and New Line for a bigger slice of the cake. The case is not really interesting in itself, but as an illustration of the legal complexities and the intricate squirming involved in these cases of rights it is nonetheless enlightening.

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

Medievalist.net
http://www.medievalists.net/category/articles/
I don't think you need me to point out the many intriguing headlines on old Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian culture, so I will just point out a few that have stuck out more than usual for me:
‘Beowulf in 100 Tweets’ (19 Jan) — though a funny idea, and one that can surely be enjoyed by those who know the poem, I am not convinced that it is always a good idea to deprive old tales of the characteristics that give them their particular and individual power and force.
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/19/beowulf-in-100-tweets/
‘'The Torrent of the Human Race:' The Concept of Movement in the Works of Saint Augustine and Its Impact on the Medieval Imagination’ (22 Jan) — St. Augustine has been mentioned as one of the church fathers likely to have influenced Tolkien's personal philosophies, or at least his philosophical considerations.
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/22/the-torrent-of-the-human-race-the-concept-of-movement-in-the-works-of-saint-augustine-and-its-impact-on-the-medieval-imagination/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nsxlely
‘The Canterbury Tales as Framed Narratives’ (25 Jan) — Tolkien famously worked with Chaucer both as a scholar and a teacher (the failed Clarendon Chaucer and Tolkien's essay ‘Chaucer as a Philogist: The Reeves Tale’ are probably the best known examples). And of course the idea of framed tales is also central to all of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings (I do not mean to suggest a causal connection here — just a curious parallel).
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/the-canterbury-tales-as-framed-narratives/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qjvrr73
‘http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/st-brendan-and-his-miraculous-food-heavenly-meals-for-a-legendary-voyage/’ (25 Jan) — St. Brendan ... Imran ... ‘The Notion Club Papers’ ... read here for a bit of extra background.
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/st-brendan-and-his-miraculous-food-heavenly-meals-for-a-legendary-voyage/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ne6zh6o
‘Figures of Evil in Old English Poetry’ (25 Jan) — One of the things that have occupied me in my studies of Tolkien is the philosophical underpinnings of his work, and this title recalls Tom Shippey's excellent essay on Tolkien's ‘images of evil’.
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/25/figures-of-evil-in-old-english-poetry/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oqu6pn6
‘Medieval English for Dummies’ (30 Jan) — a half-hour video of a presentation about medieval English, from the language of Beowulf over practical pronunciation exercises of Middle English to an interesting comment about the modern status of English as a global Lingua Franca (yes, I do realise the irony here) as preventing any basic change.
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/30/medieval-english-for-dummies/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qcxkm6m

JDR, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, ‘2014 Tolkien at Kalamazoo schedule’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2014/01/2014-tolkien-at-kalamazoo-schedule.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pwhfmzb
Tolkienian events at K'zoo — followed up in the following post (fittingly named ‘More Tolkien at 2014 Kalamazoo’).

Jef Murray
Gandalf Meets Bilbo

JGa, Saturday, 25 January 2014, ‘100 years of Middle-earth’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/100-years-of-middle-earth/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/o82sf4r
In celebration of the hundredth anniversary of ‘the first known public reading of Tolkien’s epic prose.’ The title introduces a series of posts on the origins, history and evolution of Tolkien's legendarium (I first, erroneously, took it to be a tongue-in-cheek naming of this report of a meeting in the Stapledon Society the beginning of Middle-earth, which might be stretching it just a bit). It is interesting to see that there are certain elements of the narrative style that can, in more mature versions, be traced on to the epic prose of Tolkien's legendarium.

Sørina Higgins, Monday, 27 January 2014, ‘Arthurian Geographies in Tolkien, Williams, and Lewis’
http://theoddestinkling.mymiddleearth.com/2014/01/27/arthurian-geographies/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p2err76
A talk that Sørina Higgins gave at New York C.S. Lewis Society on January 10th ‘about The Fall of Arthur and an imaginary, composite, Inklings Arthuriad’. The video shows the slides with the talk, but unfortunately not any subsequent questions and answers (I doubt that this is because there were no questions). Though I am still sceptical of Sørina Higgins' use of a a conglomerate Inklings Arthurian mythology as a device for investigating their Athurian excursions, I do find her comparative work intriguing.

JGa, Wednesday, 29 January 2014, ‘Tolkien, the Somme and scholarship’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/tolkien-the-somme-and-scholarship/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ns5kov9
On the question of Tolkien's experiences in the Great War. Did he share the view that the soldiers in the trenches were ‘lions led by donkeys’, or did he hold the military leaders in greater regard than that? And did his perception of the military leaders in the Great War influence not just his fictional writing, but also his scholarship? (The latter is, of course, far less likely than the former.)

Tolkienseminariet, Thursday, 30 January 2014, ‘17 oktober 2013’
http://tolkienseminariet.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/17-oktober-2013/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/objuvpw
For those who can read Swedish (or make do with e.g. a Google translation), the reports from the Swedish Tolkienseminariet are always gold-mines of information.

= = = = Commentary = = = =

DB, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, ‘stupid hobbit tricks’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/2014/01/stupid-hobbit-tricks.html
I try not to spend much (if any) space here on the film-adaptations of Tolkien's work — I agree with what Corey Olsen said of Peter Jackson's films (at the time, I think it was the LotR films only), that one needs to see them as something wholly distinct from Tolkien's work; it is a different story happening to different characters in a different world. Lately, however, there has been some nonsense going about that the changes to The Hobbit are really based on what Tolkien would have wanted, and I have suggested that I might write something up about it. It turns out, however, that David Bratman has already written this, and as usual much better than I could.

Il, Saturday, 25 January 2014, ‘The Nature of Morgoth’
http://ilverai.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/the-nature-of-morgoth/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oto5up3
Morgoth, Xena the Warrior Princess, Greek legend ... There are some curious parallels that Ilverai points out in this post, but ultimately, I am not sure if it leads anywhere — or if it is intended to lead anywhere but to the pointing out of some curious parallels.

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

H&S, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, ‘New Tolkien Projects, Part One’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/new-tolkien-projects-part-one/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ndqadqt
In which Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond tell of upcoming book releases — Farmer Giles of Ham and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil with illustrations by Pauline Baynes and a Harper Collins hardback edition of the Reader's Companion, all updated and corrected. Another dent in my purse, I'm afraid :-)

JDR, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, ‘A Forthcoming Publication (Tolkien and Magic)’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2014/01/a-forthcoming-publication-tolkien-and.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/l7u8uok
About a chapter by John Rateliff that is to appear in The Kobold Guide to Magic. The book itself is focused on the magic systems of role-playing games, but Rateliff will be writing on magic in Tolkien's works. I am sorely tempted to find myself a copy of this book — having played also my share of role-playing games, it would also be fun to see the discussions of RGP-magic, though I cannot imagine that Rateliff's approach will be to look at Tolkienian magic in the game-mechanics discourse typically used in RPG contexts — such an approach would, in my view, not be conducive for an understanding of magic in Tolkien.

BC, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, ‘Review of JRR Tolkien audiobook Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Orfeo - read by Terry Jones (1997)’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.dk/2014/01/review-of-jrr-tolkien-audiobook-sir.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oc5vb3m
What it says, really ...

= = = = Interviews = = = =

JGi, Thursday, 9 January 2014, ‘Finding My Way to Middle-earth’
http://olorispublishing.tumblr.com/post/72818438197/finding-my-way-to-middle-earth-is-a-full-length
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p33lls7
I am not entirely sure where this bit best fits in. Joe Gilronan calls it an ‘interview’ on his own blog, and it is in reference to his article ‘Finding My Way to Middle-earth’ in Silver Leaves issue 5, but it sports a number of his delightful pictures of Shire scenery. In the end I have let Gilronan decide and thrown it in here with the interviews :-)

Wander, Edinburgh Book Review, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, ‘Interview with Jemima Catlin’
http://www.edinburghbookreview.co.uk/news/interview-jemima-catlin
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nfdt5cb
An interview, as the title says, with Jemima Catlin, the celebrated new Hobbit illustrator.

= = = = Tolkienian Artwork = = = =

Julia Lyazgina
http://www.nasha-lavochka.ru/gallery/julia_lyazgina.htm
A collection of very good pictures (pencil, I believe) based on The Silmarillion. The text is in Russian, but an automated translation is good enough to identify the topics quite well.

AD, Thursday, 2 January 2014, ‘Silmarillion Chapter 7: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor’
http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/post/72001359419/silmarillion-chapter-7-of-feanor-and-the
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lutjnvr
Chapter illustration for The Silmarillion chapter 7, ‘Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor’ (the title text is an error — it is correct in the illustration, though).

AD, Monday, 6 January 2014, ‘Silmarillion Chapter 8: Of The Darkening of Valinor’
http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/post/72447234149/silmarillion-chapter-8-of-the-darkening-of
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nbmf2cn

Jenny Dolfen
Laerminuial

Lauren Davis, Tuesday, 7 January 2014, ‘_Dresden Codak_ creator illustrates each chapter of _The Silmarillion_’
http://io9.com/dresden-codak-creator-illustrates-each-chapter-of-the-s-1496454183
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lps2rwd
This article made me aware of the work of Aaron Diaz on illustrating The Silmarillion — a project that uses a style / approach that I do not recall seeing before (of course, I am not as well-versed in Tolkienian art as many others ...)

JGi, Tuesday, 14 January 2014, ‘Gossip at the gate.’
http://joegilronanlordoftherings.blogspot.dk/2014/01/gossip-at-gate.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q3ubygl

AD, Thursday, 16 January 2014, ‘Silmarillion Chapter 9: The Flight of the Noldor’
http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/post/73522229997/silmarillion-chapter-9-the-flight-of-the-noldor
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q33c3m7

JGi, Thursday, 23 January 2014, ‘Treebeard Wellinghall’
http://joegilronanlordoftherings.blogspot.dk/2014/01/blog-post.html#.UvfuBfldUpg
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nk2qtnh
Treebeard is seen walking towards Merry and Pippin in his Wellinghall on the morning of the Entmoot.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

Matthew Francis, Wednesday, 1 January 2014, ‘The Road goes ever on and on’
http://galileospendulum.org/2014/01/01/the-road-goes-ever-on-and-on/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/n35yth6
OK, so this has nothing to do with Tolkien (except for the title and a longer quotation), but it's about science, and scientists, and, implicitly, about their love for Tolkien (on which I have commented also at other times). And ultimately this is my list and so _I_ decide what goes on it ;-)

= = = = Rewarding Discussions = = = =

‘The LotR Book Club’
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forumdisplay.php?106-The-LotR-Book-Club
At the LotR Plaza we have started a ‘chapter of the week’ discussion of The Lord of the Rings, beginning, of course, at the very beginning: the author's foreword ...

= = = = In Print = = = =

Oloris Publishing, Friday, 24 January 2014, ‘Music in Middle-earth: Call for Submission for Issue 6 of Silver Leaves’
http://olorispublishing.mymiddleearth.com/2014/01/24/issue-6-call/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/npwedan
Well, not in print yet, but it will be :-) A call for submissions to issue 6 of Silver Leaves.

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

John Garth (JGa), ‘John Garth’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/
John Garth has created a blog. If you have missed this so far (shame on you), you now have the chance to catch up — make sure to subscribe by your preferred method (mail, RSS, atom, Wordpress account ...) to get new posts while the digital ink is still drying ...

‘The Silmarillion Project’
http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/
‘Every chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion, as illustrated by Dresden Codak author Aaron Diaz.’ Diaz describes his motivation as creating ‘a Middle-Earth visually unique from the style of the Peter Jackson films,’ adding that he likes the films, but misses ‘the days when there was more diversity and interpretation to Tolkien illustrations.’ The visual representation he creates is certainly different from most of what I have otherwise seen, but very fascinating in its unique expression.

= = = = The Blog Roll = = = =

These are blogs you really should be following yourself if you're interested in Tolkien ...
Contents from these blogs will only be reported here if there is something that I find particularly interesting, or posts that fit with a monthly theme, but I will here comment very shortly on any Tolkien-related posts in the month covered by these transactions.

Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (S&H), ‘Too Many Books and Never Enough’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/
One Tolkien-related posts in January 2014, cited above.

Jason Fisher (JF) — ‘Lingwë — Musings of a Fish’
http://lingwe.blogspot.com
One post in January 2014 — see above.

Pieter Collier (PC), ‘The Tolkien Library’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/
Six Tolkien-related posts on the Tolkien Library in January 2014 — three small articles and tree on books, a call-for-papers (Sørina Higgins' The Inklings and King Arthur), an announcement (facsimile edition of the first edition Hobbit) and a review (Devin Brown's Hobbit Lessons).

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA), ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/
No posts in January 2014

John D. Rateliff (JDR) — ‘Sacnoth's Scriptorium’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com
Seven Tolkien-related posts from John Rateliff in January 2014. One on the occasion of Tolkien's birthday, one relating to Bernal (‘The Thought Police’ from 7 Jan), announcing the arrival of The History of the Hobbit for Kindle, the post on Tolkien and magic (see above), one on what, at the face of it, looks a very far-fetched attempt to link Tolkien's Middle-earth to Abyssinia, and the two posts on the Kalamazoo Tolkien-programme referred to above.

Marcel Aubron-Bülles (MB), ‘The Tolkienist’
http://thetolkienist.com/
5 (more or less) Tolkien-related posts in January 2014. In addition to the most excellent list of Tolkien-related events (see above), Marcel has also proven that ‘It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons’ and ‘Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory.’ are NOT by Tolkien — let's take that again: those quotations, though often MISattributed to Tolkien, are NOT by him at all. (Ah! That feels better!) Oh, and there are also a couple of other fan-activity-related posts.

Joe Gilronan
Gossip at the Gate

David Bratman (DB), ‘Kalimac’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/
and the old home:
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
Two distinctly Tolkien-related posts in January 2014 — on the day following Tolkien's birthday, Bratman posted on the Wikipedia treatment of the story of Tolkien's brief encounter with the secret world of code-breaking during WWII, and then there is the post on Peter Jackson's Hobbit films listed above. I will also recommend the January 2nd post on Isaac Asimov's predictions for 2014 (Tolkien expressed a fondness of Asimov's work), and the ‘world according to cat’ series. The post ‘Maia’ is, despite the name (and the appearance of Pippin), not about Tolkien ...

John Garth (JGa), ‘John Garth’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/
2 Tolkien-related posts in January 2014 — both referred to above.

Jenny Dolfen (JD), ‘Jenny's Sketchbook’
http://goldseven.wordpress.com/
One Tolkien-related painting in January 2014 — a tutorial featuring a role-playing character from Tolkien's work.

Holly Rodgers (HR), ‘Teaching Tolkien’
http://teachingtolkien.com/
No posts in January 2014.

Anna Smol (AS), ‘A Single Leaf’
http://annasmol.net/
Two posts in January 2014, one spreading the word on the call-for-papers for Humour in and around the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (Walking Tree) where the deadline has been extended to March 3rd, and one referring to Marcel Aubron-Bülles' list of Tolkien-related events and John Rateliff's posts on the Tolkien at K'zoo programme.

Various, The Mythopoeic Society
http://www.mythsoc.org
No posts in January 2014.

Morgan Thomsen (MT), ‘Mythoi’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net
No posts in January 2014.

Lynn Forest-Hill (and others), ‘Southfarthing Mathom’ SM
http://southfarthingmathom2012.wordpress.com/
2 Tolkien related posts in January 2014. The Southampton Reading Group has had their usual two meetings in January, first ending their reading of Sigurd and Gudrún and then starting on The Fall of Arthur. As always the reports of their discussions are very much worth reading (if ever I'm in the area in time for a meeting, I will certainly be begging to be allowed to sit in on it).

Emil Johansson (EJ), ‘LotR Project Blog’
http://lotrproject.com/blog/
No posts in January 2014

Michael Martinez (MM), ‘Middle-earth’
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/
Eight story-internal Tolkien-related posts in January 2014 (and two relating to the Peter Jackson films).

Bruce Charlton (BC), ‘Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/
2 Tolkien-related posts in January 2014: the review linked to above and a brief mention of Charlton's own first encounter with Tolkien's work.

= = = = Sources = = = =

New sources in January 2014

John Garth (JGa), ‘John Garth’
http://johngarth.wordpress.com/

Aaron Diaz (AD) ‘The Silmarillion Project’
http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/

For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/p/sources.html

Tolkien Transactions XLIV

December 2013

First: Happy New Year!

Secondly: Do not forget to join in the Tolkien birthday toast. You do this by having a glass (or cup, goblet, mug or whatever container) of your preferred drink (alcoholic or not as you prefer), and at 9 PM (21:00) local time on Friday, January 3rd (that is, today by Danish time), you stand up, raise the container, say the toast: ‘The Professor!’ and take a sip or swig of the drink.
See also http://tolkiensociety.org/toast/2014/ where you can also enter your personal greeting to Tolkien enthusiasts all over the world.

Joe Gilronan
The Great River

As is probably well-known by everyone reading this, December has seem the release of the second installment of Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on Tolkien's story, The Hobbit. Whatever one's feeling's about it, I dare say it has been ‘expected’ (though I suspect with emotions spanning the whole range from the blackest dread and despair to the most deleriously happy expecations). I am going to ignore the film here — in part because I have no intention of further fuelling the divisive debates among otherwise friendly Tolkien enthusiasts, and partly because I do not really find it terribly interesting to discuss whether Peter Jackson is a blasphemer or a brilliant artist ... or perhaps both.


So, this month all the usual disclaimers — about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) — appear even more relevant than usual.

These transactions are posted to the usenet newsgroups rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, and alt.books.inklings, and the usenet version can be accessed at http://www.webuse.net/frameset.php?su=newsgroup.php &ng=rec.arts.books.tolkien
These transactions are also posted on my blog, Parma-kenta (Enquiry into the books): http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com
and on LotR Fanatics Plaza in the books forum: http://www.lotrplaza.com/forumdisplay.php?14-The-Books

This month it has suited my purposes to sort the contents under the following headlines:
1: News
2: Essays and Scholarship
3: Commentary
4: Reviews and Book News
5: Tolkienian Artwork
6: Other Stuff
7: Web Sites
8: The Blog Roll
9: Sources

= = = = News = = = =

William Turvil, Daily Mail, Tuesday, 3 December 2013, ‘His precious: The revolver JRR Tolkien carried with him in the trenches of WWI is going on display for the first time’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2517560/His-precious-The-revolver-JRR-Tolkien-carried-trenches-WWI-going-display-time.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kz62lgy
Right ... so ... apart from the inappropriateness of the use of ‘precious’ in this context, this story has still received far too much attention, giving the impression that modern journalists do indeed love the arrow for its swiftness and not least the gun for its loudness. Still, there are few interesting biographical details surrounding this.
See also
Liz Bury, The Guardian, Thursday, 12 December 2013, ‘JRR Tolkien's wartime gun goes on display in Manchester’
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/12/jrr-tolkien-gun-first-world-war-manchester
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nnu5pjn
A more subdued and appropriate account ...

Oxford Mail, Tuesday, 3 December 2013, ‘Tolkien's life to get Hollywood treatment’
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/10850341.Tolkien___s_life_to_get_Hollywood_treatment/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pfl54ug
One of a huge number of news outlets carrying the news that a film about the life of Tolkien is being planned. While I would agree with Tolkien Society chairman Shaun Gunner that Tolkien ‘is an incredibly intersting person,’ I cannot agree that he would make a good character for a film — films are rather poor as the means of conveying erudition and philosophical depth, and these are what makes Tolkien's life interesting.

Anna Pearson, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, ‘Wasps named after Hobbit characters’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9496022/Wasps-named-after-Hobbit-characters
http://preview.tinyurl.com/osr753m
That scientists are often Tolkien fans shows in many ways small and large. The nicknaming of the Homo Floresiensis as ‘The Hobbit’ is a well-known example, and in The Science of Middle-earth Henry Gee lists numerous other examples of Tolkien-inspired scientific names. Had Henry Gee attempted to make an exhaustive list, he would have set himself an impossible task as that list would have to be updated regularly — as is evidenced by this short piece of news about the naming of new-found species of small wasps.

Russ Burlingame, Comic Book, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien Gets a Sesame Street Parody in Lord of the Crumbs’
http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/12/11/j-r-r-tolkien-gets-a-sesame-street-parody-in-lord-of-the-crumbs/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nnlscct
Just for laughs ... but good and hearty laughs :-)
(A Sesame Street parody featuring, of course, the Cookie Monster — how much bigger does it get?)

Andrew, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, ‘Tolkien's Rivendell comes to life with 200,000 LEGO bricks’
http://www.brothers-brick.com/2013/12/11/tolkiens-rivendell-comes-to-life-with-200000-lego-bricks-exclusive-interview-with-builders-alice-finch-david-frank/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/l4ea6k9
Being an ‘exclusive interview with builders Alice Finch & David Frank’ who have done a very nice recreation of Rivendell (though I'm not sure which, if any, visualisation of Rivendell this is based on, but it is definitely not Tolkien's).

AFP, Monday, 16 December 2013, ‘The line between JRR Tolkien's good and evil characters may come down to vitamin D’
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/the-line-between-jrr-tolkiens-good-and-evil-characters-may-come-down-to-vitamin-d/story-e6frg8pf-1226783770077
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ohfgjj6
All in the spirit of good fun — I suppose that the medical science is solid, though of course this reverses cause and effect within the narrative.

The Oxford Times, Tuesday, 17 December 2013, ‘Book Tolkien signed is bought by college’
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/10880954.Book_Tolkien_signed_is_bought_by_college/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ppwt3p9
The story of Exeter College, where Tolkien himself studied, buying a book by William Morris which has been signed by Tolkien. If the Oxford Colleges associated with Tolkien start being this eager to demonstrate their links with Tolkien, there may yet be hope for the academic world ;-)

HR, Thursday, 19 December 2013, ‘Saturdays with Smaug’
http://teachingtolkien.com/2013/12/19/saturdays-with-smaug/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pmadb2y
Right ... so ... no rule without exceptions, and the exception here is Holly Rodgers' tale of how she took her group of Dwarves (or most of them, anyway) to the cinema to watch the latest work by Peter Jackson.

EJ, Sunday, 29 December 2013, ‘An environmentally friendly source of light?’
http://lotrproject.com/blog/2013/12/29/an-environmentally-friendly-source-of-light/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ojtlqja
Just for fun!
It raises, of course, the question of magic as a source of energy — is this the long sought-for _perpetuum mobile_?

Joe Gilronan
The Fellowship Doors of Durin

= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

Medievalist.net
http://www.medievalists.net/category/articles/
Being a list of articles from Medievalist.net with some (though occasionally rather vague) Tolkien-relation ...
‘The Icelandic Althing: Dawn of Parliamentary Democracy’ (4 Dec) — for me anything Norse of course has a Tolkien relation ;-)
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/04/the-icelandic-althing-dawn-of-parliamentary-democracy/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pd66oph
‘The Bones in the Soup: The Anglo-Saxon Flavour of Tolkien's _The Hobbit_’ (9 Dec) — An article from Lembas Extra (the journal of Unquendor, the Dutch Tolkien Society) about, as it says, , the Anglo-Saxon inspirations in The Hobbit
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/09/the-bones-in-the-soup-the-anglo-saxon-flavour-of-tolkiens-the-hobbit/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nt6w5d8
‘Doing a PhD in Middle-earth’ (10 Dec) — a rather clever (and humorous) reading of The Hobbit as an allegory of the process of doing a Ph.D.
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/10/doing-a-phd-in-middle-earth/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pg634s2
‘Tolkien's The Hobbit: Bilbo’s Quest for Identity and Maturity’ () — being a bachelor's thesis from the Czech Republic investigating in three chapters ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’, ‘Bilbo's Quest for Identity’ and ‘Aspects of the Popularity’ of Tolkien's book.
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/11/tolkiens-the-hobbit-bilbos-quest-for-identity-and-maturity/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qzjz3ck
‘Theoderic the Great vs. Boethius: Tensions in Italy in the Late 5th and Early 6th Centuries’ (28 Dec) — Boëthius, and particularly the work of his imprisonment, The Consolation of Philosophy, has often been mentioned with respect to Tolkien as a source for certain philosophical aspects of Tolkien's work. Here is a paper giving some additional context to the circumstances in which Boëthius' book came to be.
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/12/28/theoderic-the-great-vs-boethius-tensions-in-italy-in-the-late-5th-and-early-6th-centuriestheoderic-the-great-vs-boethius-tensions-in-italy-in-the-late-5th-and-early-6th-centuries/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nzhp79h

MT, Wednesday, 4 December 2013, ‘Tolkien at the Moorend Park hotel in 1913’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net/#post12
Morgan Thomsen has uncovered a very interesting little piece of information about Tolkien's movements about the time when he renewed contact with Edith Bratt after he had himself turned 21. This includes where he stayed and the precise dates of his stays, but do read the story for yourself at the Mythoi blog and in the relevant books (mainly The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond; Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth, and of course Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter).

Dan Lunt / Radagast the Brown, Friday, 6 December 2013, ‘Scientists simulate the climate of Tolkien's Middle Earth’
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2013/10013.html
I am afraid that the serious science of this paper has been overlooked by many commenters, who have merely found it amusing. The serious science is of course in the advances in climate science and computing capabilities — based on Tolkien's maps and a few other bits of information, the climate models have been capable of predicting the climate of Middle-earth. It is, at least for me, impressive that Tolkien has, working solely on some deep intuition, been able to place the Shire such that it would have the climate of the English Midlands (though Leistershire and Lincolnshire that are mentioned here are counted to the East Midlands rather than Tolkien's West Midlands).
See also Adam Vaughan, Friday, 6 December 2013, ‘Tolkien gesture — scientist maps climate of Lord of the Rings’
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/dec/06/jrr-tolkien-climate-lord-of-the-rings
http://preview.tinyurl.com/m7aeogn
I'll forgo mentioning further articles on this — searching Google News for ‘Tolkien Middle-earth weather climate Bristol’ will return numerous results, few of which have anything significant to add to the press release from The University of Bristol above.

Simon Cook, Sunday, 8 December 2013, ‘On the Origin of Hobbits: J.R.R. Tolkien's ideas of descent’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1130-on-the-origin-of-hobbits.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/o28rwup
In this essay Simon Cook revisits some of the ideas he shared in the essay published in August, but this time round he wishes to address the topic differently, continuing his research, while at the same time wishing to ‘tidy things up’ — even to the point of saying that ‘some of [his] earlier concluding suggestions [...] now seem distinctly dubious.’ In this essay Simon Cook certainly avoids the traps that gave me misgivings in August. He starts by giving a short summary of the evolution of the relations of language/philology and race to the central concept of (national) identity, and then progresses to find parallels between ideas about the otherwise unknown neolithic aborigines of Britain and Tolkien's Hobbits. It will be interesting to see where he will eventually take these emerging ideas.
See also the full essay at
https://www.academia.edu/5223795/On_Welsh_Marches_Identities_and_Hobbits

H&S, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, ‘Tolkien and the Tape Recorder’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/tolkien-and-the-tape-recorder/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p9knze7
The fascinating history of Tolkien's relation with tape recorders. Read and enjoy!

= = = = Commentary = = = =

John Garth, Wednesday, 20 November 2013, ‘John Garth on Pauline Baynes’
http://www.jjbooks.com/illustration-series/john-garth-on-pauline-baynes
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p29gfop
The title says it, I think :) Personally I have not yet found the key that will unlock for me the fascination of Pauline Baynes' illustrations, but looking at them, I can at least feel that such a key must exist ... But whether you have already found your own key to Baynes' work or you, like me, is still searching, this loving introduction by John Garth to this famous illustrator of Tolkien and others is well worth reading.

Philip Hoare, The Guardian, Monday 9 December 2013, ‘From Smaug to the Clangers: a brief history of dragons’
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/09/brief-history-dragons-smaug-hobbit-tolkien
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lcrxs9j
An intelligent recapitulation of dragon lore — I just wish that he had found room also for Fafnír, for as Tolkien said, ‘the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.’ (from the essay ‘On Fairy-stories’).

Charles McNair, Tuesday, 10 December 2013, ‘The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: There and back again, again’
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/12/the-hobbit-by-jrr-tolkien.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oeh9bva
One of these articles that are well-meant, and which gets almost all its facts correct. Tolkien, for instance, says in ‘On Fairy-stories’ that he didn't particularly like fairy-stories as a child; after his mother's death, he and his brother Hilary didn't pass into the care of relatives, but into the care of Fr. Francis of the Birmingham Oratory, he held a position at the University of Leeds between the short stint at the New English Dictionary and the position as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University (in which position he was, a year after his appointment, made a fellow of Pembroke). I could continue, but I suppose this suffices to show that one has to be careful about trusting information in such articles no matter how well-meant and how favourably they describe Tolkien's work.

Dawn Duncan Harrell, Friday, 13 December 2013, ‘Jackson v. Tolkien v. Miéville’
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/cultivare/2013/12/jackson-v-tolkien-v-mieville/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p2puk4a
An interesting commentary on Tolkien, taking at its focusing lens the commentary by China Miéville on Jackson and Tolkien.

JDR, Monday, 16 December 2013, ‘Stephen King, Tolkien Fan’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.dk/2013/12/stephen-king-tolkien-fan.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/osgk3cd
About finding Tolkien references in Stephen King's Joyland ...

Michelle Nijhuis, Wednesday, 18 December 2013, ‘One Weird Old Trick to Undermine the Patriarchy’
http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/12/18/one-weird-old-trick/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q8yzys2
Excellent! All the more power to the child (oh, and I don't really mind undermining the patriarchy a bit). It was also good to see that one Peter Walker in comment #14 has pointed out that in the Shire names ending -o were actually feminine and that ‘Bilbo’ is an Anglicization of ‘Bilba’ — I wonder if the original author of this piece has read that particular gem of information :)

Ed Power, Sunday, 22 December 2013, ‘Sorry, J.R.R. Tolkien is not the father of fantasy’
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/12/22/sorry-tolkien-not-father-fantasy/pljM6NOC54JmFaqY8bzNSI/story.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/l9lpx53
I am sure that most would agree that ‘father of fantasy’ is rather an exaggeration — even Tolkien acknowledges modern(-ish) fantastic fiction preceding his own (McDonald, Morris, Lang, Dunsany, Haggard, Buchan, etc.), but Power's attempt to belittle Tolkien's role in the popularity of fantasy today is even more wrong from the other side, just as his repetition of the old tired criticisms of Tolkien as ‘morally simplistic’ etc. is itself even more simplistic. Make sure to also read the commentary:
Fredrick Martin, Sunday, 29 December 2013, ‘Confronted with complex questions in a fantasy world’
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2013/12/29/tolkien-fantasy-world-confronts-with-complex-questions/sNJuM0bUoZGUu7sHLQrzdJ/story.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pj8tu23
‘when I need to figure out the hard times, Sam Gamgee and Frodo offer more wisdom than Power understands.’ Brilliant!

Il, Saturday, 28 December 2013, ‘Did anyone call an Eagle?’
http://ilverai.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/did-anyone-call-an-eagle/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nl4r2zl
About Tolkien's use of the Eagles, with some speculation on how to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge.

Teesdale Mercury, Tuesday, 31 December 2013, ‘Did the Hobbit come from Teesdale’
http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/Articles/2013/did-the-hobbit-come-from-teesdale
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qjz64du
Not so much about Tolkien, actually — more about Alslabie Denham, the author of the Denham Tracts where the word ‘hobbit’ first appears in print. Still, the Denham Tracts are an important piece of the linguistic puzzle surrounding that famous first line of Tolkien's children's book.

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

PC, Thursday, 5 December 2013, ‘Tolkien: the Forest and the City’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1108-tolkien-the-forest-and-the-city.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/odzjrvk
The proceedings of the homonymous conference held last year in September, this has papers from speakers such as Flieger, Shippey, Drout, Honegger, Milbank, Fimi and others. I haven't had time to read it myself, but I look forward to getting into it.

PC, Friday, 6 December 2013, ‘The Real Middle-earth, Discovering the Origin of The Lord of the Rings’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1131-real-middle-earth-discovering-origin-lord-of-the-rings.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qem6z2s
So, now we are to believe that Abyssinia is an important source to _The Lord of the Rings_? I suppose that one shouldn't reject ideas before at least investigating them, but starting with random phonetic and/or spelling similarities is a good way to get me in my most sceptical mode. “It is hard to express the disgust [Tolkien] must have felt at the old, pre-philological habit of snatching at coincidental similarities” writes Tolkien scholar par excellance, Tom Shippey, in his contribution to Jason Fisher's collection Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, and in Pieter Collier's very favourable review, “snatching at coincidental similarities” seems to be precisely where Mr Muhling starts of. For myself, I think I will wait to see what reviews this book gets elsewhere — though it is off to a bad start, the final scholarship can, of course, be excellent.

Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, ‘'The Making of Middle-earth' by Christopher Snyder’
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/12/11/book-review-the-making-middle-earth-new-look-inside-world-tolkien-christopher-snyder/3Hgwro1gF9Iyfs3Xm74pEN/story.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/oa3mtws
A review of Snyder's book. Gilsdorf (I find that I am always more inclined to listen to the voice of someone who can spell ‘Middle-earth’ correctly) says that the book ‘as a beginner’s guide, ‘The Making of Middle-earth’ adds an important voice to the growing body of Tolkien scholarship for laypeople.’ With the very accessible scholarly works of Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull; Tom Shippey; John Garth and others at our fingertips, I am, however, not sure that what we need is a beginner's guide to Tolkien.

Oloris Publishing, Friday, 20 December 2013, ‘Pre-order Dr. Deborah Higgens' 'Anglo-Saxon Community In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings'’
http://olorispublishing.mymiddleearth.com/2013/12/20/pre-order-dr-deborah-higgens-anglo-saxon-community-in-j-r-r-tolkiens-the-lord-of-the-rings/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pxeo2h2
On the date of the destruction of the Master Ring, Oloris Publishing will release Anglo-Saxon Community in J.R.R. Tolkien's ‘The Lord of the Rings' about Anglo-Saxon culture and it's 'reinvention’ in Rohan.

H&S, Monday, 30 December 2013, ‘The Tolkien Collector 33’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/the-tolkien-collector-33/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/o4tufpl
Issue no. 33 of The Tolkien Collector has been posted — back issues can be bought from Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond's web-site:
http://www.hammondandscull.com/collect.html

= = = = Tolkienian Artwork = = = =

Various, December 2013, ‘Flavor of the Month’
http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/details.php?image_id=6192
tinyurl.com/o5lh2mp
The flavour of the month in the fan art on John Howe's website has been dragons. The link is to a picture of someone fishing out the black arrow many years after Smaug's death, but there are a number of other Tolkien-inspired pictures, and of course dragons are always in some way Tolkien-related ;-)

Jef Murray
A Canticle for Elessar (study)

Mark Dery, Thursday, 5 December 2013, ‘Original Ballantine book cover concept art for J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings on eBay’
http://boingboing.net/2013/12/05/original-ballantine-book-cover.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/po35mlg
While I suppose it may be debated whether Barbara Remington's cover art for the original Ballantine PB editions of The Lord of the Rings can really count as Tolkienian artwork (I seem to remember that she had not had time to even read the books when doing the covers), there is really no denying that it is in many ways iconic. Click the link in the bottom for the E-bay auction with a letter from Betty Ballantine telling some of the story of this piece of book-cover-art.

JGi, Saturday, 7 December 2013, ‘Congratulations Artist Joe Gilronan for winning first place in the juried art contest (Landscape Paintings.)’
http://joegilronanlordoftherings.blogspot.dk/2013/12/congratulations-artist-joe-gilronan-for.html#.UsX-GfRDspg
http://preview.tinyurl.com/onczx25
A very nice landscape picture from Joe Gilronan -- congratulations!

Alyse, Thursday, 19 December 2013, ‘'Out of the Shire': Wonderful Art Show Tribute to Tolkien's Middle-earth’
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2013/12/19/85091-out-of-the-shire-wonderful-art-show-tribute-to-tolkiens-middle-earth/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qdqm8j2
A brief report from the art show ‘out of the Shire’ (in the Nucleus gallery in Alhambra, California) featuring art in tribute to Tolkien by more than 30 artists. Evidently not all of it is a direct artistic interpretation of Tolkien's work, but is still somehow related.

= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

Matt Lebovic, Times of Israel, Wednesday, 11 December 2013, ‘Are Tolkien's dwarves an allegory for the Jews?’
http://www.timesofisrael.com/are-tolkiens-dwarves-an-allegory-for-the-jews/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p8q8l2q
What a load of tosh! I don't know which so-called ‘Tolkien scholars’ Mr Lebovic refers to, but they are certainly not reputable Tolkien scholars. I speculated whether to include this item at all since I will not be able to provide a refutation of all that is wrong (I would recommend people to start out by reading up on the dwarfs of the Old Norse legends and myths and attribute anything possible to that source for a start), but sometimes it is better to acknowledge the existing while crying to the world, ‘Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!’ I just hope that this is one of those instances.

HG, Sunday, 15 December 2013, ‘Crossover Fanfic’
http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2013/12/15/crossover-fanfic/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pw92xb5
I have always enjoyed the suggestion that Tom Bombadil is a Time Lord — possibly even the Doctor himself — of the numerous attempts to pigeonhole Tom Bombadil, this one manages to be both funny and oddly apt, though, of course, completely off the mark :-)

= = = = Web Sites = = = =

‘The Real LotR’
http://reallotr.wordpress.com/
A new blog (see under sources).

= = = = The Blog Roll = = = =

These are blogs you really should be following yourself if you're interested in Tolkien ...

Jef Murray
A Country Smial

Contents from these blogs will only be reported here if there is something that I find particularly interesting, or posts that fit with a monthly theme, but I will here note the number of Tolkien-related posts in the month covered by these transactions (while the number of posts with a vaguer relation — e.g. by being about other Inklings — are given in parentheses).

Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (S&H), ‘Too Many Books and Never Enough’
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/
The two Tolkien-related posts by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond in December 2013 have been referred to above.

Jason Fisher (JF) — ‘Lingwë — Musings of a Fish’
http://lingwe.blogspot.com
Jason Fisher has posted a review of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and a notice about commenting on his blog. Given the normal level of Tolkien-content on Lingwë, I'd say that these two are equally Tolkien-related ;-)

Pieter Collier (PC), ‘The Tolkien Library’
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/
8 directly, and 9 indirectly Tolkien-related posts in December 2013. The directly related include, in addition to the articles cited above, suggestions for Christmas presents for Tolkienists, new high-quality editions of Unfinished Tales and The Fall of Arthur, the sale of a copy of the New Testament (Westminster Version) owned and commented by Tolkien, and the selling of prints of Cor Blok art.

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA), ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’
http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/
No posts in December 2013

John D. Rateliff (JDR) — ‘Sacnoth's Scriptorium’
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com
In December 2013, John Rateliff has posted a couple of Tolkien-related items (one about one of Tolkien's desks, and the other about Tolkien references in a Stephen King), a couple of posts about Lewis, one about the rumours of an upcoming Tolkien biopic and some four or five posts about the latest work of Peter Jackson.

Marcel Aubron-Bülles (MB), ‘The Tolkienist’
http://thetolkienist.com/
Five posts relating to Peter Jackson's latest from The Tolkienist in December 2013.

David Bratman (DB), ‘Kalimac’
http://kalimac.blogspot.com/
and the old home:
http://calimac.livejournal.com/
An obituary for Colin Wilson (author of a “breezy” Tolkien essay titled ‘Tree by Tolkien’) and a review of Peter Jackson's latest are the most Tolkien-related posts from David Bratman in December 2013

Jenny Dolfen (JD), ‘Jenny's Sketchbook’
http://goldseven.wordpress.com/
No Tolkien-related posts in December 2013, but Jenny Dolfen has pursued her interest in Hannibal with a couple of posts with very nice new work.

Holly Rodgers (HR), ‘Teaching Tolkien’
http://teachingtolkien.com/
See above for the only post in December 2013

Anna Smol (AS), ‘A Single Leaf’
http://annasmol.net/
No posts in December 2013

Various, The Mythopoeic Society
http://www.mythsoc.org
No posts in December 2013

Morgan Thomsen (MT), ‘Mythoi’
http://mythoi.tolkienindex.net
1 very interesting Tolkien-related posts in December 2013 (see above)

Emil Johansson (EJ), ‘LotR Project Blog’
http://lotrproject.com/blog/
One Tolkien-related joke (see above) and a review of the latest Peter Jackson work in December 2013

Michael Martinez (MM), ‘Middle-earth’
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/
8 Tolkien-related posts in December 2013 and two related to the latest from Peter Jackson.

Bruce Charlton (BC), ‘Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers’
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/
Nothing directly related to Tolkien, but a review of the latest work by Peter Jackson (they seem to be quite the vogue), another post about Charles Williams, and a post about a fan-fiction based on the Notion Club Papers.

= = = = Sources = = = =

New sources in December 2013:
‘The Real LotR’
http://reallotr.wordpress.com/
A new Tolkien-related blog. The first post (‘Who is the Real LOTR?’) sets out the agenda for The Real LotR — an attempt ‘to bring back authentic dialogue and discussion to [Tolkien's] work.’ Here, from a blog dedicated to the ‘Enquiry into the Books’ I wish The Real LotR all the best in that endeavour!

For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/p/sources.html