‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a transitionary work

There is a tendency to portray Tolkien's legendarium as a single, coherent and consistent sub-creation when discussing his work: a ‘“usable” and “standard” form’ of Middle-earth and its history. This is the view that underlies the fan discussions about a ‘Middle-earth canon’, but even in scholarly work we can also see this idea that one particular version is some mysterious way more ‘true’ than other versions: an example of this can be seen in Vladimir Brljak's paper, ‘The Book of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist’ in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review volume VII.

In his excellent paper, ‘Elvish as She Is Spoke’ (published in The Lord of the Rings 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull¹) Carl Hostetter discusses the attempt, by some, to make ‘Tolkien’s languages, or more properly newly-minted versions of these languages, into “usable” and “standard” forms (their own terminology)’. Hostetter argues that these forms, precisely because of their attempt to achieve a degree of homogeneity and standardisation, are

characterized by conflation of materials and evidence from often widely separated conceptual phases, and by consequent circularity in reasoning about this evidence.
(p. 241)

The most common strategies when attempting to construct a homogeneous and standardised vision of Tolkien's legendarium are to either focus on Tolkien's last thoughts on any given matter, or to focus on the last version of The Lord of the Rings and require consistency with that.

The former of these strategies suffers from a number of problems: first of all Tolkien's last writings were often inconsistent — what he wrote on one subject in, say, 1961, is incompatible with what he wrote on another subject in, say, 1969. The problem here is that none of Tolkien's last writings can be assumed to be his final word on any given subject: in this way there is no reason to presume that the legendarium as a whole ever achieved a greater degree of fixed finality than did his languages.Another problem is that Tolkien's ‘last word’ on various subjects occur over a very long period, in some cases the ‘last’ words were written in the 1930s or even earlier.

The second strategy is the one that is the main focus of this blog entry. When discussing The Lord of the Rings itself, or even when discussing the greater sub-creation of Arda and its history, many people treats the book (in particular the revised version) as displaying the kind of homogeneity and inner consistency that is the very aim of the attempt to create both a ‘Neo-Quenya’ and a ‘Middle-earth Canon’. This, however, is also an over-simplified view that ignores that the years during which Tolkien actually wrote The Lord of the Rings in many ways represents a period of great transitions in his vision of Middle-earth — possibly in part caused by the writing of the book. This transitionary nature of The Lord of the Rings can be traced in a number of threads, but in the following I will focus on the nature of Orcs and in the underlying cosmogony.

Orcs

The Orcs entered Tolkien's legendarium in the very begining. They are a part of the first ‘Fall of Gondolin’ in The Book of Lost Tales, where it is said that

all that race were bred by Melko of the subterranean heats and slime. Their hearts were of granite and their bodies deformed; foul their faces which smiled not, but their laugh that of the clash of metal, and to nothing were they more fain than to aid in the basest of the purposes of Melko.
(The Book of Lost Tales 2 ch. III ‘The Fall of Gondolin’, p. 159-60)

This view of the Orcs as demons created by Melkor stayed valid through the Quenta Silmarillion of the mid-thirties, where it is said that

There countless became the hosts of his beasts and demons; and he brought into being the race of the Orcs, and they grew and multiplied in the bowels of the earth. These Orcs Morgoth made in envy and mockery of the Elves, and they were made of stone, but their hearts of hatred. Glamhoth, the hosts of hate, the Gnomes have called them. Goblins they may be called, but in ancient days they were strong and fell.
(The Lost Road and Other Writings (HoMe 5), part 2, VI ‘Quenta Silmarillion’, ch. 5 §62, p.233)

This view on the origin of the Orcs is essentially what Treebeard is expressing², and which Tolkien later, in a draft letter to Peter Hastings from September 1954³ refuted forcibly. In this early view the Orcs are not ‘demonized’ as such, but rather they are actual demons. This, of course, fits much better as the *reality⁴ behind the orcneas mentioned together with eotenas and ylfe in Beowulf⁵ than does the later concept, which in The Lord of the Rings is given voice by Frodo, who claims that ‘The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own’⁶ which is of course also the view that Tolkien in 1954 supports in his draft letter to Peter Hastings.

Apart from being implied in Treebeard's statement about the Orcs being made in mockery of the Elves, this view of Orcs as demons is implicit also in many other scenes such as e.g. the Battle of the Hornburg where both the game of counting Orc-heads between Gimli and Legolas as well as the total annihilation of the Orcs by the Ents (contrasted by the mercy shown to the Dunlendings) speaks of a de-humanized view of the Orcs that befit their demonic nature far better than the later view.⁷ Indeed, in later years Tolkien felt forced to emphasize that ‘If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost’⁸ and that they never actually did surrender and ask for mercy because Melkor had succeeded so well in his corruption and indoctrination of the Orcs that they thought that their enemies (particularly the Elves) were even crueller than themselves.

Cosmogony

It is well-known that Tolkien long considered changing his original cosmogonic myth so that the solar system would have been created much as it is described by modern astronomy — the Earth, Arda, would always have been a sphere, the Sun, Anar, and the Moon, Isil, would have been created from the very start and thus not from the last fruits of the Two Trees in Valinor. In part one of Morgoth's Ring which deals with the development of the Ainulindalë after Tolkien started writing The Lord of the Ring we learn that the first attempt at a cosmogonic myth incorporating these ideas, a ‘round-world version’, was created in the mid-forties while Tolkien was still writing and revising The Lord of the Rings. In consequence we see traces of both versions of the cosmogonic myth in the work.⁹ When Tom Bombadil says that ‘When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent.’ (emphasis added) he is firmly placed in what Tolkien would call the ‘flat-world version’, but when Gimli sings the song about Durin as the Company of the Ring visits the Khazad-dûm, it strongly suggests the round-world version:

The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.

The Dwarves awoke long before the Noldor returned to Middle-earth, and thus, in the old flat-world version it doesn't make sense to speak of the Moon (stained or unstained) if this cosmogony is used. Similarly Gandalf's riddling poem about the Ents mentions the Moon before it is supposed to have been in existence in the old flat-world version.

Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the forests long ago.

It is curious — even to the point where I suspect intention — that in all cases the passage can be re-interpreted to make sense even in the other cosmogony than the one under which it is written.


I hope with these example to have illustrated that even within The Lord of the Rings there are clear traces of the developing nature of Tolkien's legendarium — Tolkien's views on his own legendarium inevitably developed during the writing of his magnum opus and though Tolkien has done much to preserve the consistency of the work, there are still traces of this development. When we include the greater legendarium, this effect becomes even more obvious, which in its turn shows that any effort to create a ‘“usable” and “standard” form’ of the legendarium: a ‘canonical’ Middle-earth, if you will, is only achievable by

conflation of materials and evidence from often widely separated conceptual phases, and by consequent circularity in reasoning about this evidence.

to borrow Carl Hostetter's words for this context also (as pointed out above, Hostetter applied his statement to attempts to create neo-elvish languages¹⁰).

This does not mean that writings by Tolkien from one period can not inform our reading and understanding of what he wrote in another period, but I propose that instead of trying to create the illusion of a consistent and coherent sub-creation we embrace the evolutionary nature of Tolkien's legendarium, including acceptance of the fact that the writing The Lord of the Rings in many ways marks a transition in Tolkien's conception of his legendarium and that this transitionary nature can still be detected in the book.

Notes
1: Also available on-line from the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship at http://www.elvish.org/articles/
2: ‘But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.’ The Lord of the Rings, book III chapter 4 (The Lord of the Rings has been published in such a great number of editions that giving page numbers is not very useful, so I refrain from doing that).
3: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien no. 153 p. 190-1
4: See e.g. Tom Shippey The Road to Middle-earth ch. 1 (in particular under the sub-heading ‘Asterisk-Reality’ p. 17)
5: See e.g. Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century ch. II p. 88 and also Gilliver, Marshall and Weiner, The Ring of Words ch. 3, the entry for ‘Orc’ p. 174ff.
6: The Lord of the Rings, book IV, ch. 8
7: Tom Shippey, ‘Orcs, Wraiths, Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil.’ in Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien and also Robert T. Tally Jr. ‘Let us now praise famous Orcs: simple humanity in Tolkien's inhuman creatures’ in Mythlore issue 111/112
8: Morgoth's Ring (HoMe 10), part 5 ‘Myths Transformed’, text X, p. 419
9: Examples are from The Lord of the Rings book I chapter 7, book II chapter 4 and book III chapter 8
10: It is with some trepidation that I thus use the words of a highly respected Tolkien scholar in a different context from what he wrote them for — I can only hope that Hostetter, given that I make it clear that the application to this particular context is mine alone, will forgive my presumption.

Tolkien Transactions IX

January 2011

So, we have now reached the ninth issue of my attempt to extract the best (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related ‘goings-on’ on the 'net. This issue is a little delayed, for which I apologize: an unfortunate combination of business both in the on-line Tolkien world and in my own work and private life — there are, after all, times when, against all rational logic, other things must be prioritized before Tolkien . . .

All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)


= = = = Sources = = = =

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Bratman (DB), “Calimac”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/

Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
http://theruminate.blogspot.com

‘Wellinghall', “Musings of an Aging Fan”
http://wellinghall.livejournal.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— and others


= = = = News = = = =

Tuesday, 4 January 2011, “Iran to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday”
http://www.ibna.ir/vdcauino.49nuw1gtk4.html
Just a curious little bit of information out of a country that is not exactly known for its openess to Western culture. Iran's Association of Children and Teenager's Authors celebrated Tolkien's birthday, and the Fantasy Academy of Iran held its first session this winter on assessing Tolkien's work.

DB, Thursday, 6 January 2011, “Words by JRRT”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494746.html
David Bratman discusses music that is not only inspired by Tolkien's work, but which actually sets music to Tolkien's words. It appears that the Tolkien Estate has adopted a policy of not allowing anyone to do this any longer (apparently this was done ‘some years ago'), leaving the Danish/English Tolkien Ensemble to be the last to set music to Tolkien words and publish — at least for some time.

H&S, Sunday, 9 January 2011, “The Tolkien Collector no. 31”
http://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/the-tolkien-collector-no-31/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rgpbpr
Wayne and Christina announce that issue no. 31 of The Tolkien Collector is ‘almost ready for posting to subscribers.'

JC, Thursday, 20 January 2011, “A new trend on Youtube — Reading the books by JRR Tolkien”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/977-Reading_Tolkien_on_YouTube_trend.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/643rxck
Apparently fans reading out of Tolkien's books has become a new trend on YouTube. Pieter gives some examples and some background.

PC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Overview of JRR Tolkien related news from last week”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/980-Tolkien_news_last_week.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4mklw5x
Pieter Collier has begun to make a weekly overview of Tolkien-related items in the news. Some of these items will also appear on my list, but most probably will not. You can find these, and other articles that I do not include here, in the archives of Pieter's Tolkien Library website: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/archives.php

‘Trotter', Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Year's Work and Review of English Studies”
http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1454&forum=9
http://preview.tinyurl.com/47vt8k5
Links to a number of articles by Tolkien in various Oxford publications — unfortunately one does need to have access rights (and I don't know how to get that).

DAA, Sunday, 30 January 2011, “Wormwood indexed, also Avallaunius, Faunus and Tolkien Studies”
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2011/01/wormwood-indexed-also-avallaunius.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6azljff
Douglas A. Anderson announces an on-line database of magazines that has now indexed some journals that he is involved with, including Tolkien Studies. The database is available at http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm


= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

ArwenAmidala, Saturday, 1 January 2011, “Survival of the Tolkienist.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/survial-of-tolkienist.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/65ballu
A collection of four ‘reaction papers' addressing some very different aspects of Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Children of Húrin, The Silmarillion and probably other stuff that I have already forgotten ;) Quite interesting — there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, which I consider a high quality, since, at least in this case, it shows that the analysis and opinions are not merely indifferent.

BC, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Tolkien and the sea-yearning — the meaning of Earendil”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolkien-and-sea-yearning-meaning-of.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/64dhtdm
The two key passages, in my opinion, are

I think Tolkien regarded the sea longing as an aspect or representation of saintliness, where sainthood is conceptualized as being a link between the earthly and heavenly realms, the saint as intercessor for humankind with God.

and

He [...] wrote about those individuals (and races) who were subject to this sea-yearning, and seemed to accord them the highest esteem — yet I would guess Tolkien himself did not directly share this yearning, which is why he wrote comparatively little about the sea itself, and even less about the experience of sea-going.

It is a very interesting idea, and I should very much like to hear your comments on this.

AH, Monday, 3 January 2011, “Wagner and Tolkien Thread: Strange Ring Fellows”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/wagner-and-tolkien-thread-strange-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ennvsb
Andrew continues his investigations into similarities, parallels, or whatever we wish to call it, between Wagner and Tolkien. Personally I don't like Wagner, and I am aware that this makes me more sceptical than I would probably otherwise be, but I do try to keep an open mind, and Andrew's posts are generally quite interesting.

BC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/essential-meaning-and-purpose-of-notion.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ru5rjn
Bruce Charlton is moving on from the specific to the general. Admitting that he has been brooding obsessively (his own words!) over the Notion Club Papers (NCP), he takes a stab at the ultimate intention behind the text. In essence he thinks that the NCP was supposed to establish the link between the mythical world of his legendarium and the modern world: a replacing of the Eriol / Aelfwine figure.

DB, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “the Inklings in fiction”
http://calimac.livejournal.com/494909.html
Announcing an update of his list of fictionalisations of Inklings, either individually or as a group, David Bratman has a list that is much longer than I had thought, currently ranging from 1933 to 2010.

BC, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “Curing the ‘vulgarization' of England — from Smith of Wootton Major”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/curing-vulgarization-of-england-from.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bq42g7
Continuing from his entry on “[t]the essential meaning and purpose of the Notion Club Papers”, Bruce Charlton here combines his ideas on what Tolkien was trying to achieve with the Notion Club Papers with what is know about Tolkien's thoughts on his short story ‘Smith of Wootton Major'. As usual Charlton's observations are interesting and non-obvious.

BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “An imaginary completed Notion Club Papers — form and character”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/imaginary-completed-notion-club-papers.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4vkdykf
This was a busy day on Bruce Charlton's blog. In this first entry on this day he shares some ideas and thoughts on what a the Notion Club Papers might have looked like if Tolkien had ever finished them — the ideas presented here are then built upon in the following entries published on this Friday.

BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “Who is Dolbear? A wizard/ angel/ messenger from Faery”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/who-is-dolbear-wizard-angel-messenger.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/49d4ke8
A good thing about Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog is that he normally uses a title that actually tells you what he is discussing in the entry — an old-fashioned virtue, I know, but I like it ;-) Dolbear is a character in the Notion Club Papers, and Charlton here ponders the significance of this character, speculating that he may be a kind of messenger from Faërie or a human link to Faërie. This links to some of the things that Charlton said in earlier entries this month about the inhabitants of Faërie actively seeking to renew the links between Faërie and the world of humans.

ArwenAmidala, Friday, 21 January 2011, “In which I argue against the Professor with great fear and trepidation.”
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-which-i-argue-against-professor-with.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r6jkrw
ArwenAmidala discusses the Battle of Maldon and Tolkien's interpretation. Taking into account Tolkien's propensity for rhetorics[*], I am not convinced that she is actually arguing so much against Tolkien. It appears to me that Tolkien's main point was that the use of ofermod is meant negatively, and it does not appear that she disagrees with this. (Of course, to a Dane it is very hard to imagine that the word could be positive: the Danish word overmod does mean excessive pride / self-confidence / courage).
[*] See for instance also the essays by Michael Drout and Tom Shippey in LotR Plaza's Scholars’ Forum:
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=77&title=scholars-forum
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6fkcn9j

BC, Friday, 21 January 2011, “The Notion Club Papers — why England, why Oxford?”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/notion-club-papers-why-england-why.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6kh9gjh
It will not have escaped the notice of the observant reader that I am rather fond of Bruce Charlton's Notion Club Papers blog. A part of this is that he often comes up with ideas and thoughts that I would not have thought of myself. Of course that also means that I am often not convinced by his arguments, but it is nonetheless interesting to see his ideas. This entry, in which he discusses the reasons why the Notion Club Papers are set in Oxford, England, is a good example of ideas that are interesting and thought-provoking even though I don't think he is entirely right.

AH, Saturday, 29 January 2011, “Langon — The Mouth of Melko — Some Etymological Detective Work”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/langon-mouth-of-melko.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4j6f3h8
An interesting piece of analysis by Andy Higgins — Langon, the Mouth of Melko, indeed!


= = = = Reviews = = = =

Remember to keep an eye on http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/ where the Mythopoeic Society is publishing review — many of which have previously appeared in either Mythprint or Mythlore. This month we got, among others, Jason Fisher's review of Dimitra Fimi's 2009 book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits that first appeared in Mythlore 111/112 (Fall/winter 2010).

Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “Tolkien's Double Worlds and Creative Process by Arne Zettersten”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/963-Tolkien_Double_Worlds_Creative_Process.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5r5mzn4
Not so much a review, actually, but rather a bit of reminiscing about meeting Arne Zettersten (and others) along with an announcement of Zettersten's upcoming book.

AH, Saturday, 15 January 2011, “Looking for the King — An Inklings Novel By David Downing — A Review”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/looking-for-king-inklings-novel-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/62nbzhr
There has been a bit of attention for this particular book. The author is professor of English at Elizabethtown College and a well-known Lewis scholar, and the dialogue he gives to the inklings is drawn from what they have actually said or written. Andy Higgins is positive about the book, though not as overwhelming as Pieter Collier was (see the transactions for November 2010).

JF, Monday, 24 January 2011, “Middle-earth and Beyond — first look!”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/middle-earth-and-beyond-first-look.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5wq9zdy
More information on the upcoming collection edited by Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kašcáková, Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Another collection of critical essays on Tolkien's work, arguing that it is different because the editors say so. Thinking of the volumes that sit unread on my shelves, I think it's going to take a couple of positive reviews to convince me to buy this volume.

JF, Friday, 28 January 28 2011, “The Bones of the Ox”
http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2011/01/bones-of-ox.html
Following in the tradition that I have established of including announcements of books in the review section, we have here Jason Fisher's announcement that his book (as editor and contributor), The Bones of the Ox”: J.R.R. Tolkien and Source Criticism is forthcoming. This is one book that I am fairly sure that I will buy, if nothing else then because Jason describes its purpose as being in part ‘to explain and justify source criticism as a valid critical approach to Tolkien’s works'. Being somewhat wary of source criticism myself (it can be done very well, I think, but there are many examples where it is not), a book that sets out to justify it, and to ‘lay out a systematic methodology for how it ought to be conducted' will be a good opportunity to get a vocabulary to express what I think is good and useful about source criticism and to express my own critique of source criticism (the bad kind).


= = = = Interesting discussions = = = =

AH, Saturday, 8 January 2011, “The History of Middle Earth — A Chapter by Chapter Exploration”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-of-middle-earth-chapter-by.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6hanqnv
This is not the discussion in itself, but it inspired by a kind of ‘Chapter of the Week' concept sprung from the Tolkien course given by Dimitra Fimi. Unfortunately they have chosen to use Facebook for this extremely interesting project, and the discussion interface on Facebook is abominably bad, so my expectations for this are not too high (already the amount of posts for each chapter seem to be petering out). Still, there is some intersting comments in some of the first chapters, and Dimitra Fimi has contributed some comments.

Various, “Master of Words, by Words Mastered”
http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=239720
The thread is started in December, but I have not become aware of it before January. The overall theme is to explore the relationship between Tolkien's philological work and his fictional work. One of the things that seem to be emerging is a view of Tolkien not as a family man, a philogist, a poet and an epic author, but as one whole person whose personality found outlets in various ways. The main focus, however, is Tolkien's relationship to words and language and how this has influenced all his work.


= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

Comments, idle thoughts, curious articles and what-nots that don't really fit in any of the other categories that I have created.

3 January 2011, “Becoming J.R.R. Tolkien”
http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story.aspx?t=becoming-jrr-tolkien&id=206
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6jak566
A nice enough little piece on Legacy.com about some of Tolkien's sources of inspiration. There is nothing new or controversial here (though it is not entirely precise in all details), and I include it mostly as an example of the tributes to Tolkien on the occasion of his birthday.

BC, Wednesday, 5 January 2011, “A superhero Fellowship of the Ring”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/superhero-fellowship-of-ring.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48z7wpa
Charlton is playing with the idea of creating a more high-powered fellowship to take the Ring to Mount Doom. Personally I disagree strongly with his assessment of Sam, but it's a funny idea in any case.

Justin Olivetti, Friday, 7 January 2011, “The Road to Mordor: The Professor”
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/07/the-road-to-mordor-the-professor/
http://preview.tinyurl.com/645vhbu
A tribute to the Professor from a gamer of ‘The Lord of the Rings On-line' game, detailing for other gamers a quest-chain within the game that is a tribute to Tolkien. Perhaps one ought to try out this game one day . . .

JDR, Friday, 7 January 2011, “A Tolkienian Puzzle”
http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/01/tolienian-puzzle.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ta8f5w
In essence John Rateliff is asking what made Tolkien choose to abandon the prose format of The Book of Lost Tales and adopt the narrative poetic format of the The Lays of Beleriand. He spends a bit more thought on it, but doesn't come up with any suggestions. Any takers?

PC, Friday, 7 January 2011, “Avoid Bying Fake Tolkien Signatures on Ebay”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/965-Avoid_Buying_Fake_Tolkien_Signatures.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/48yyved
Sound advice from Pieter Collier, who not only advises you to avoid the fake signatures (I could have done that), but also on how you can go about at least reducing the risk of buying a fake Tolkien signature.

BC, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “Free-will, purpose, prophecy and providence in Tolkien”
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2011/01/free-will-purpose-prophecy-and.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4pz57gt
Quoting from ‘The Quest of Erebor' as published in Unfinished Tales, Bruce Charlton makes the following statements:
The Lord of the Rings is permeated by a deep understanding
of the Christian concept of how free-will is compatible
with with purpose, prophecy and providence.

When such matters seem seem paradoxical, or merely muddled,
this is well worth pondering.
I agree on this (obviously — I have myself spent quite some time pondering this), and though I don't really think that a blog is an appropriate medium for that discussion, I do hope that Charlton will take up the thread in another blog entry.

AH, Sunday, 23 January 2011, “To Have and To Have Not”
http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/to-have-and-to-have-not.html
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6cxbacl
Andy Higgins is learning Finnish and in that connection he shares some thoughts on how the idea of ‘to have' is phrased in some non-Germanic languages.

PC, Monday, 24 January 2011, “The amazing art of bookbinding”
Pieter Collier has made a series of articles on bindings for Tolkien's books, where he looks at some absolutely fabulous bindings — the good thing is that the price of these is so high that it is likely to stay outside my reach forever: that way I can read the articles without getting any ‘my precious' urges ;-)
So far this series comprises:
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 1”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/981-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4rb3seh
“The Lord of the Rings — Part 2”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/982-Book_art_book_binding_lord_of_the_rings_2.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhrxxs
“The Hobbit”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/983-Book_art_book_binding_The_Hobbit.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rhcdjb
“The Silmarillion”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/984-Book_art_book_binding_The_Silmarillion.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4wg9omt

PC, Monday, 31 January 2011, “The most expensive copies of The Hobbit in the World — Association Copies”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/987-The_Hobbit_Association_Copies.php
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v79bkl
Following up on his articles on rebound (and very expensive) copies of Tolkien's books, Pieter here goes through some of the most expensive copies of The Hobbit that have been sold on auctions — the top scorer being sold at a staggering £60,000!

—
Troels Forchhammer

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
- Reaper Man (Terry Pratchett)

Tolkien Transactions VIII

Tolkien Transactions VIII
December 2010

All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-)

= = = = Sources  = = = =

John D. Rateliff (JDR) - “Sacnoth's Scriptorium”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com>

Jason Fisher (JF) - “Lingwë - Musings of a Fish”
<lingwe.blogspot.com>

Michael Drout (MD) - “Wormtalk and Slugspeak”
<wormtalk.blogspot.com/>

Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull (H&S) - “Too Many Books and Never Enough”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/>

Pieter Collier (PC) - “The Tolkien Library”
<www.tolkienlibrary.com/>

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA) et Al. - “Wormwoodiana”
<wormwoodiana.blogspot.com>

Corey Olsen (CO), “The Tolkien Professor”
<www.tolkienprofessor.com>

David Bratman (DB), “Calimac”
<calimac.livejournal.com/>

Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
<theruminate.blogspot.com>

‘Wellinghall’, “Musings of an Aging Fan”
<wellinghall.livejournal.com>

Various, ‘The Northeast Tolkien Society’ (NETS), “Heren Istarion”
<herenistarionnets.blogspot.com>

Bruce Charlton (BC), “Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/>

Andrew Higgins (AH), “Wotan's Musings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com>

Various, The Mythopoeic Society
<www.mythsoc.org>

Troels Forchhammer (TF), “Parmar-kenta”
<parmarkenta.blogspot.com>

Mythprint — ‘The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society’
<www.mythsoc.org>

Amon Hen — the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society
<www.tolkiensociety.org/>

- and others


= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

BC, Thursday, 9 December 2010, “Tolkien and the ‘good German’ — The Lost Road fragment”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-and-good-german-lost-road.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/37hb7hp>
This is one of those things where I can't quite decide what to say. Did Tolkien consciously intend this correspondence, or is it rather along the lines of the One Ring in LotR, about which Tolkien said
    You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if
    you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for
    all attempts to defeat evil power by power. But that is
    only because all power magical or mechanical does always so
    work.
  (Letters #109 to Stanley Unwin, July 1947)
Would Tolkien say something similar about the attempt to read into his writings about Númenor under the rule of Sauron (de facto if not de jure) an allegory of Germany under the rule of Hitler? I am tempted to believe that he would say roughly the same, though he might agree that it was further towards the fore of his mind in the latter half of the 1930s because of the Nazi regime in Germany.

AH, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, “Richard Wagner and J.R.R Tolkien The Forgers of their Rings”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/richard-wagner-and-jrr-tolkien-forgers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/395knrw>
It should, I believe, be fairly easy to demonstrate that Tolkien could not have been entirely unaffected by Wagner's Ring — it is well known that he read Der Ring des Niebelungen in 1934, and it seems unlikely that he would be completely unaffected by that. It is, however, a quite different matter to suggest that the Master Ring in The Lord of the Rings is just an adaptation of Wagner's Ring of the Niebelungs. The former claim can, as I suggested, be argued convincingly while the other can be dismissed also with relative ease, but between these is a scale of possible levels of inspiration that we can, as far as I am aware, not resolve with the available evidence. I would, however, be more comfortable with this whole discussion if it would not contain so many repetitions of logical fallacies (variations of post hoc ergo propter hoc) or insults (imply that Tolkien would have been unable to independently arrive at the Ruling Ring). It is most likely that Tolkien did get the general idea of an omnipotent ring from Wagner, but it is also possible that he didn't.

H&S, Friday, 24 December 2010, “Christmas Addenda”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/christmas-addenda/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34ndhed>
Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond announce their posting further addenda and corrigenda to several of their books on Tolkien. The addenda and corrigenda itself can be found on their web-site at <mysite.verizon.net/wghammond/addenda.html>
A word of gratitude is in its place for the great work Wayne and Christina are doing — not least for continuing to update their published work with new information.


= = = = Reviews = = = =

The Mythopoeic Society regularly releases reviews on the internet some time after their appearance in Mythprint or Mythlore. In December, we have seen the release on the internet of the following Tolkien-related reviews:

Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits by Dimitra Fimi; reviewed by Mark T. Hooker
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/tolkien-race-and-cultural-history-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3aj2e7w>

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World by Verlyn Flieger; reviewed by Douglas C. Kane
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/splintered-light/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32b8tx2>

Fastitocalon: Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern: Immortals and the Undead edited by Thomas Honegger and Fanfan Chen; reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/fastitocalon/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/34nxo7q>

Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien by Hilary Tolkien, edited by Angela Gardner; reviewed by David Oberhelman
<www.mythsoc.org/reviews/black-white-ogre-country-mythprint/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/39qxpxo>


= = = = In Print = = = =

December has been a good month for reception of the printed material from the British Tolkien Society and the Mythopoeic Society: In addition to the monthly bulletins, Amon Hen and Mythlore, I have received Mallorn issue 50 and Mythlore issue 111/112. Unfortunately I have yet to find the time to read Mythlore, so a commentary on that will have to wait.

Mythprint 341
Vol. 47 No. 12 December 2010 Whole No. 341
Not much about Tolkien in this month's edition of Mythprint — but of course there is lot in the latest Mythlore. However, though S. Dorman is speaking explicitly of Lewis in his article, ‘Fictionalizing Lewis’, the points made can with ease be transferred to Tolkien, who has also been a subject of fictionalizations in recent years. In the article Dorman reaches the conclusion that it is perhaps all-right (‘ethical’) for an author to fictionalize ‘a person made by God in primary creation’, ‘if his or her craft is good enough to coordinate the elements of story inclusive of such characterization.’ However, Dorman also hastens to assert that ‘there is no license to defame, distort, or otherwise abuse a real person.’ I wonder if the recent fictionalizations of Tolkien can live up to the high standard Dorman sets — and whether they should rather not have been, if they don't?

Mallorn 50
This semi-centesimal issue is certainly a worthy tribute to the journal and the society. The 52 pages are packed with stuff reflecting the wealth of interests found in the Tolkien Society: Paintings and drawings based on Tolkien's work, poetry fan-fiction, commentary and more scholarly articles fill the journal. I admit that not all of these categories suit my own interests, but the quality of those that do suit my interests is a reliable guide, then everything in this issue of Mallorn is of very high quality indeed.

A few highlights:

The editorial is provided by Marcel Bülles who writes about the future of Tolkien ‘fandom’ in ‘Envisaging the Future’ Marcel makes two bold proposals, both of which I think ought to be carried through: paid employees to deal with the day-to-day business of the Society (freeing voluntary resources to more rewarding tasks), and Arda*Con 2020, the world-convention of Tolkien societies ….

While Marcel Bülles tried to envisage the future, Charles E. Noad tells of the early days of the Tolkien Society from the earliest groupings of Tolkien fans about 1960 over the first informal start of the Tolkien Society in 1969, the ‘formal beginning of the society’ on 15 January 1972 and on to the resignation from the board of Mrs Vera Chapman — better known in the society as Belladona (Took) — in 1976, which, to Charles Noad at least, marks the end of the ‘early years’.

In other contributions Maggie Burns writes about Tolkien and Birmingham (clearly the childhood in the Birmingham area had a profound influence on Tolkien, but I can't help my scepticism from asserting itself forcefully when I see claims of unattested 1:1 correspondences between fiction and real life, such as those implied for Perrot's Folly), Simon Barrow on fantasy literature (a minor grievance here is that he appears to equate quality with popularity) and Chad Chisholm looks into Gandalf's skills at rhetoric. Mike Foster has interviewed Tolkien's grandson, Simon, about both his grandfather, but mainly about his own careers as solicitor, barrister and writer of crime fiction.

Amon Hen 226
The high point, for me, in this issue of Amon Hen was Charles Noad's article on another Collingwood—Tolkien connnection found in a new (1992) edition of Collingwood's The New Leviathan, or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism. David Derr's inquiry into the nature of Gandalf was also interesting; in particular the recommendation that ‘the reader visit William Loos’ web page’ (though the reference unfortunately is to the mirror at <www.faqs.org>), whereas I was more sceptical of the attempt, in the second part of the article, ‘to draw a parallel between Tolkien's character Gandalf [...] and the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and I strongly disagree with the conclusion that Tolkien ‘through the power given to the fictitious character of Gandalf’ demonstrates (whether apparently or not) ‘the parallel power that was wielded in the real person of Jesus of Nazareth’ — this is, in my opinion, almost as bad as ‘five wizards=five senses’.

Another thing I wish to emphasize is the advert for ‘Return of the Ring’ in Loughborough August 2012: <www.returnofthering.org/> (I have booked — what about you?)


= = = = Other Stuff = = = =

JDR, Friday, 10 December 10 2010, “Build Yr Own Dodo”
<sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/12/build-yr-own-dodo.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2447xdh>
As John Rateliff puts it, ‘You just knew that someone devoted to minutia like this was probably a Tolkien fan’ and Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) proves it by showing, briefly, a map of Middle-earth that he drew himself. The talk itself is about something else, and the map appears only for a couple of seconds (2:48 - 2:50), but the whole thing is interesting enough in itself, even without the Middle-earth map (it is difficult to gauge the size, but unless his writing is very small, the map is quite large).
If you are uninterested in Rateliff's description and just want to see the clip, it can be found here: <www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html>

AH, Saturday, 11 December 2010, “Tolkien Studies for 2011”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/tolkien-studies-for-2011.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/3547j4d>
Andrew Higgins announces that he will be back more regularly in 2011, ‘exploring several areas of Tolkien Scholarship’, and then he goes on to provide a more in-depth description of the contents of issue #19 of Parma Eldalamberon.

H&S, Sunday, 12 December 2010, “Fifteen Years”
<wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/fifteen-years/>
<preview.tinyurl.com/352uve2>
I normally don't include the more personal blog entries in these collections, but Christina Scull's look back at the fifteen years since she moved to the US with Wayne Hammond not only has a charm deserving advocacy, but also has a certain amount of Tolkien-interest embedded such as a list of some of the work that Wayne and Christina have done during these years, including links to podcasts about Roverandom in particular and Tolkien in general.

JF, Wednesday, 15 December 15 2010, “Word of the Day: Fart”
<lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/12/word-of-day-fart.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/32uqzam>
We do agree, I trust, that anything to do with Old English (Anglo-Saxon) etymology is on-topic in a Tolkien context? :-)  Even so, this has to be said to be on the light side …. Apparently someone had the audacity to address Jason as ‘an old fart’ on the occasion of his fortieth birthday. Now I am left wondering if modern Danish ‘prut’ derives from Old Norse freta (I doubt it — this is more likely the now archaic ‘fjært’) or French péter or something entirely different … (the Dictionary of the Danish Language marks it as onomatopoeic, though it also refers to similar onomatopoeic words in French and Low German).

AH, Monday, 20 December 2010, “I've discovered the works of Edward Plunkett The 18th Baron of Dunsany”
<wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-discovered-works-of-edward-plunkett.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2usndkr>
Not directly related to Tolkien, but it is worth recalling that Dunsany is mentioned as one of Tolkien's sources.

BC, Sunday, 26 December 2010, “My hopes for The Notion Club Papers — separate cover publication”
<notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-hopes-for-notion-club-papers.html>
<preview.tinyurl.com/2vd5dh6>
A dream …
Bruce Charlton presents his dream that one day, the Notion Club material, including the Lost Road and presumably also the Fall of Númenor, will be published in a single volume. I actually like the idea of ordering the History of Middle-earth material topically instead of chronologically, though I am not sure that this is the best way to do it (though I think Charlton is possibly right that the Lost Road / Notion Club material might be able to sell in such a format).

    Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis
    best suited to open the way to the next better one.
 - Konrad Lorenz

Twelve Days of Christmas

We recently had a resurgence of the classic Christmas thread: how best to create a Tolkien version of the Twelve Days of Christmas carol. Personally I am of the opinion that one should try to make both the numbers and the items fit something from Tolkien's texts — five golden rings simply doesn't work because there were no five Rings anywhere. To make it more challenging, I further hold that one should attempt to keep not just the metre of the original, but also the patterns of rhymes and alliterations. Having made it that challenging, it is inevitable that I cannot myself live up to this standard, but I will nonetheless impose my best effort on anyone reading this ;-)

1. On the first day of Christmas, the Valar gave to me
   A Good King from the Great Sea
2. Two fallen lamps
3. Three Elf-kins
4. Four Free Peoples
5. Five Istari
6. Six Dwarf mothers
7. Seven Stones a-seeing
8. Eight fellows fleeing
9. Nine Wraiths a-raiding
10. Ten Noldor knighting
11. Eleven Houses housing
12. Twelve guards a-guarding

Unfortunately I cannot find a good word to replace ‘Christmas’ — neither ‘Yule’, ‘Lithe’ or any other word that I can come up with fits the metre.

Since the Tolkien references for these are, perhaps, not equally obvious to everyone, I follow with a brief explanation of what each line refers to:

1. May refer to either Elendil or Elessar — a good king from the people of Númenor that came out of the Great Sea, Belegaer.
2. The Two Lamps, Iluin and Ormal, that Aulë raised, Varda filled and Manwë hallowed for the spring of Arda
3. The Vanyar, the Noldor and the Sindar
4. From the long list of the Ents (before the addition of Hobbits): Elves, Dwarves, Ents and Men
5. The five Wizards
6. According to the legend Durin, the eldest of the Dwarven Fathers was not put to sleep without a spouse, whereas each of the other six Dwarven Fathers were put to sleep each with his proper spouse.
7. The Seven Palantíri mentioned in the rhyme of lore Gandalf quotes as he is riding with Pippin from Dol Baran
8. The eight members of the Fellowship of the Ring that fled Moria
9. Fairly obvious, I suppose — the nine Ringwraiths 
10. The ten companions, Felagund's most faithful knights, that went with Finrod Felagund to help Beren (and who died in Sauron's captivity without giving away the secrets of the their king). ‘Knighting’ is here meant as the proper activities of a knight rather than to the elevation to knighthood by a ruler
11. The Eleven Houses of Gondolin that housed its population
12. The guards, ‘knights both of Rohan and Gondor’, that guarded the bed of state of Théoden King in the Hall of the Tower before the throne of Gondor after the Battle of the Pelennor.

Please do try to come up with something better — whether for a single word, a line or more.

Here's some references to the threads in the Tolkien newsgroups
2010 version: Google Groups: Twelve days of Christmas -- again
2008 version: Google Groups: 12 Days of Christmas revisited
2003-4 version: Google Groups: 12 days of Christmas (Galadriel gave to me)

There was also an effort in the Harry Potter newsgroups a few years back (as I count these things!) that Igenlode has kindly archived at http://ivory.vlexofree.com/Tower/Fiction/Carols.html

Concerning Hobbits

I really should have known better than to start a blog at a time when I knew I would be dreadfully busy. Not only am I busy at work, but I have promised to write a review of Tolkien Studies vol. VII, and then there's the scouting obligations . . . oh well ;-)

I do expect to find more time to put up something interesting after Christmas, but in the mean-time, certain events have called some attention to Tolkien's description of the Hobbits.

Kunochan, writing at Periannath.com, statest that

Tolkien’s Middle Earth is specifically intended to be Europe in a far distant age of the past. Not like Europe, or analogous to Europe – our Europe. Its Men are the ancestors of today’s Germanic peoples, especially the Anglo-Saxons. That was Tolkien’s brief – to create an Anglo-Saxon mythology to replace the true one that is largely lost.
(‘Of Course Hobbits Have to be White’, 2010-12-10)

And while this is certainly true, it also ignores some key facts about the Hobbits in particular.

Hobbits are, ‘of course, really meant to be a branch of the specifically human race’^[1], but they are nonetheless a separate breed from the ‘Big Folk’, and so, what is known to apply to the Big Folk does not necessarily apply to Hobbits as well. The ‘Men’ of the north-west of Middle-earth may well, as Kunochan points out, be ‘the ancestors of today’s Germanic peoples’, but this, quite obviously, does not apply to the Hobbits.

Apart from more or less educated guesses about Tolkien's intention, we are therefore left with what little Tolkien actually wrote about the appearance of the Hobbits. Near the beginning of The Hobbit we learn that

Hobbits have no beards. [...]. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). (The Hobbit ch. 1 ‘An Unexpected Party’)

Apart from information about the peculiarities of Hobbit extremities, there is little of interest here: they have brown hair and brown fingers. There is little more help to find in the sequel

[...] their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly brown. [...]; but they had long and skilful fingers and could make many other useful and comely things. Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking.
(The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, ‘1. Concerning Hobbits’)

The red cheeks is another small hint, but again it is more useful for eliminating possibilities (i.e. no black Hobbits in the Shire). The prologue also tells us that the ‘Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless’ and that the ‘Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others’ but without some indications of both the amount of variation and the average, this doesn't really tell us anything. Based on the evidence so far, we can't very well conclude anything much: Hobbits had brown hands, which suggests a brown skin, but were not darker than to be able to have red cheeks, and there were noticeable variations from this depending on breed (Harfoot, Stoor or Fallohide).

Towards the end of The Lord of the Rings we hear about the Year of Plenty (1420 S.R.) that, ‘All the children born or begotten in that year, and there were many, were fair to see and strong, and most of them had a rich golden hair that had before been rare among hobbits.’ (LotR, book VI, ch. 9 ‘The Grey Havens’), which tells us both that golden hair had not been unheard of among Hobbits, but it had been the exception rather than the rule.

So, where does all this leave us? Not very much wiser, I'm afraid.

But that is precisely where the educated guesses take over. Culturally the Hobbits represent the rural population of the English West-Midlands about the time of the Silver Jubilee (of Queen Victoria), but the people of Dale represents culturally the Nordic countries of the sagas, and yet their prime representative, Bard the Bowman, had black hair. The irony here is that I do agree that Hobbits, apart from size and certain peculiarities about feet, hand and ears in particular, really are intended, by Tolkien, to be also physically similar to that stock of good rural Englishmen that they also represent culturally, but I think we need to acknowledge that this is just that, an educated guess, even if we do have a very high degree of confidence about it.

Praetereo censeo that it is no more problematic to have a Pakistani-looking Hobbit than to have a bearded dúnadan — while the latter actually contradicts Tolkien's explicit statements, both are, in my opinion, irrelevant deviations (I think there are things that are far more critical: the loss of an underlying spirituality in the New Line Cinema adaptations of The Lord of the Rings was, to me, far more grievous, but that is not a discussion that I have any intention of embarking on here and now).

[1] Humphrey Carpenter (ed), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, footnote to letter #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951?

Tolkien Transactions VII

Tolkien Transactions VII
November 2010

The time has come for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien-related events this past month. This month I have ignored a lot of things that haven't really caught my interest, including a legion of reports and ‘news-items’ about the current project to do a cinematic adaptation of The Hobbit. Still, as usual, please chime in with interesting stuff that you have found elsewhere!

All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance — and in particular about any implication of responsibility :-)

 = = = = Sources  = = = =

John D. Rateliff (JDR) — “Sacnoth's Scriptorium”
URL = http://sacnoths.blogspot.com

Jason Fisher (JF) — “Lingwë — Musings of a Fish”
URL = http://lingwe.blogspot.com

Michael Drout (MD) — “Wormtalk and Slugspeak”
URL = http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/

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

Pieter Collier (PC) — “The Tolkien Library”
URL = http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/

Douglas A. Anderson (DAA) et Al. — “Wormwoodiana”
URL = http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com

Corey Olsen (CO), “The Tolkien Professor”
URL = http://www.tolkienprofessor.com

David Bratman (DB), “Calimac”
URL = http://calimac.livejournal.com/

Larry Swain (LS), “The Ruminate”
URL = http://theruminate.blogspot.com

‘Wellinghall’, “Musings of an Aging Fan”
URL = http://wellinghall.livejournal.com

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

Bruce Charlton (BC), “Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers”
URL = http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/

Andrew Higgins (AH), “Wotan's Musings”
URL = http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com

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

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

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

- and others


 = = = = News = = = =

Josh Tyler, November 30, 2010, “Riddles In The Dark: 4 Big Story Problems Peter Jackson Must Solve To Make The Hobbit”
URL = http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Riddles-In-The-Dark-4-Big-Story-Problems-Peter-Jackson-Must-Solve-To-Make-The-Hobbit-21954.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2u4lps5
This is the only piece of news related to the Jackson films that I am going to put in this month's issue of Tolkien Transactions — the rest, while some of it has been amusing, has failed on to be either interesting or essential. Josh Tyler obviously knows his Hobbit well enough to write intelligently about it (even if he overestimates the distance between the Lonely Mountain and Lake Town just a bit: the actual distance was some 40 - 50 miles), and he discusses four major problems that any adaptation will face.

PC, Tuesday, November 30, 2010, “Interview with Dr. Alison Milbank author of Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians”
URL = http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/Chesterton_and_Tolkien_as_Theologians.php
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/yfdjlyz
Actually this was posted on October 22 2007, but Pieter called attention to it again on November 30 this year, and I found it interesting enough to include here. As the title suggests, Pieter has interviewed the author of Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians: The Fantasy of the Real, Dr. Alison Milbank. As with so many other academics, she appears to really come to life when the interview falls on her academic pursuits including the topic of her book. Of course one shouldn't buy a book based on what the author has to say about it, but based on this interview, it is certainly a book that I will look for more information about — I hope to find some detailed reviews because this sounds quite promising.

Lisa Hutchinson, Evening Chronicle, Friday, November 26, 2010, “JRR Tolkien inspired by family in Newcastle”
URL = http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/11/26/jrr-tolkien-inspired-by-family-in-newcastle-72703-27721961/
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2b4nktq
This is the story about Tolkien's aunt, Grace Mountain (née Tolkien) whose grave has been discovered during a clearing-up in the Newcastle graveyard where she lies with her husband. The existence of Aunt Grace in Newcastle is no surprise to any reader of Carpenter's biography or of Hammond and Scull's Companion and Guide: ‘During school holidays Ronald and Hilary often stay with other relatives. Among these are two of their father's sisters (see *Tolkien family), Aunt Grace who lives in Newcastle with her husband William Mountain and their children Kenneth and Dorothy, and Aunt Mabel who lives at Abbotsford 69 Wake Green Road, Mosely, Birmingham with her husband, Tom Mitton and their children.’ vol I, Chronology, 1904, p.10.  The further claims in the article of very specific inspirations taken from these visits to the Mountain family are, however, not very convincing. Wellinghall comments, ‘Someone please tell me this is a spoof’
URL = http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/784914.html

JDR, Tuesday, November 23, 2010, “Salmon Rushdie on Tolkien (et al)”
URL = http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/11/salmon-rushdie-on-tolkien-et-al.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/35ewtxw
Comments on an article in Wall Street Journal by Salman Rushdie ‘on five fantasy authors who appeal equally to young readers and also adults.’ Rushdie includes Tolkien along with Carroll, Barrie, Pullman and Haddon (since John Rateliff admits to the same, I am unashamed to admit that I don't know Haddon). Rateliff also includes a link to Rushdie's article if you wish to see the original.

Various, November 2010, “Cancelled — Wheelbarrows at Dawn: Memories of Hilary Tolkien”
URL = http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&type=&topic_id=1311&forum=9
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2fcg22z
This relates to the cancellation by the publisher, ADC Publications, of the book Wheelbarrows at Dawn by Angela Gardner and Neil Holford. The announcement by the publisher contained the following, ‘Despite many revisions and changes made at the insistence of The Tolkien Estate it appears that The Tolkien Estate will seek to take court action to prevent the release of this book regardless.’ and the Estate has responded (e.g. through Wayne and Christina), saying that ‘it had no issue with the publication of the book providing the material in question — affecting only 20 pages out of a total of some 300 — was removed.’ According to one of the authors (posting under the name of Déagol), the issue was related to the copyright value of Tolkien's letters, which seems such a sad issue to be allowed to stop the project.

DB, Saturday, November 6, 2010, “Glen GoodKnight”
URL = http://calimac.livejournal.com/481261.html
David Bratman's obituary for Glen GoodKnight, the founder of the Mythopoeic Society.  There are more obituary blogs linked from Bratman's blog and more can be found elsewhere including e.g. the Los Angeles Times:
URL = http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-glen-goodknight-20101114,0,496766.story
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/39lfuot
GoodKnight is also remembered in issue 340 of Mythlore (Vol. 47 No. 11) which is a special issue dedicated entirely to his memory.

MD, Sunday, October 31, 2010, “Frivolous But Fun Piece in the Washington Post”
URL = http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/2010/10/frivolous-but-fun-piece-in-washington.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/37vfczf
Michael Drout tells about the genesis of the piece below, and argues the points he makes there.

MD, Sunday, October 31, 2010, “Dept. of What If: Would hobbits go on strike?”
URL = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102905847.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/37b9zj2
A brief piece, called by its author ‘frivolous, but fun’, on various labour aspects of Middle-earth. I suppose that some of it may be due to some specific references to the USA labour market, and the rest may be due to my lack of humour, but I'm afraid the fun goes over my head — cheap laughs or not. Actually I find Drout's explanation of this piece from his blog (see above) more amusing than the piece itself :-)


 = = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =

AH, Saturday, 20 November 2010, “Tolkien Myth in Context Unit Seven Discussion Question”
URL = http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2010/11/tolkien-myth-in-context-unit-seven.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/3a2ppjf
Andrew is back at his blog with a long piece about his love for Tolkienian linguistics and how it has developed. Andrew mentions Carl Hostetter's paper ‘Elvish as She is Spoke’ (originally appearing in _ The Lord of the Rings 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder_ edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull) as pivotal for his own interest in Tolkien linguistics, and he ends by sketching the direction he hopes that Tolkien lingustics will move in.

BC, Saturday, 20 November 2010, “How similar are Dolbear & ‘Humphrey’ Havard? John Havard's opinion”
URL = http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-similar-are-dolbear-humphrey-havard.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/3yjmb29
Charlton's Notion Club Papers (NCP) blog continues to be an interesting source of knowledge, ideas and theories about the NCP — regardless of whether you agree on the individual hypotheses suggested. Charlton appears to be fascinated by the idea that the members of the fictional club were modelled on members of Tolkien's real club, the Inklings. Charlton has, accordingly, been in contact with a son of one of the Inklings, John Havard, son of Robert ‘Humphrey’ Havard, and this seems to put a limit to how far the inspiration / modelling goes.

JF, Tuesday, November 16, 2010, “Bagshot in Tolkien and Rowling”
URL = http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/11/bagshot-in-tolkien-and-rowling.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dmevf2
One of the things that have always fascinated me about Tolkien's writings is his obvious love of words. From the Hobbit's ‘Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’ over the list of royal names of Rohan all with a meaning in the ‘king’, ‘ruler’, ‘leader’ category, to — well, to wherever it may lead us. Jason investigates the word Bagshot that appears in both Tolkien (Bagshot Row just below Bag End) and Rowling (Bathilda Bagshot, magical historian and friend of the Dumbledores). The further comments contributing details about the etymology — or rather the theories about the etymology — of ‘Bagshot’ are also very interesting.

JF, Monday, November 15, 2010, “Some Contributions to Middle-earth Lexicography: Hapax Legomena in The Lord of the Rings”
URL = http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=239540
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vto34m
Jason looks into 9 rare words in The Lord of the Rings — 8 of them appearing just once (thus being, as Jason tells us, Hapax Legomena), and one of them twice (a Dis Legomena). Four of these words stem from Germanic sources and the remaining five illustrate, according to Jason, Tolkien's Christianity ‘absorbed into the story and the symbolism’ of LotR. If you haven't read this yet, then go read it!
Jason has announced also announced this on his blog:
JF, Tuesday, November 30, 2010, “A new essay”
URL = http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-essay.html

BC, Monday, 8 November 2010, “Another Ramer-Tolkien parallel identified — The Land of Pohja painting”
URL = http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-ramer-tolkien-parallel.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vlab6z
The underlying theory here is, of course, that the character Ramer in Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers (NCP) is a representation of the author himself in some way (this is, I think, associated to the further idea that the Notion Club is modelled on the Inklings to the extent that individual characters are modelled on individual Inklings). That the Ramer dialogue that Charlton quotes refers to the same image that is pictured in The Land of Pohja is, I would say, quite certain.

BC, Friday, 5 November 2010, “The Notion Club Papers as Tolkien's self-therapy”
URL = http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/notion-club-papers-as-tolkiens-self.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/267ygwt
In this blog-post, Charlton takes his outset in his idea, presented in October, that Tolkien suffered from a nervous break-down about the time when he wrote The Notion Club Papers (NCP). He then argues that, for Tolkien to have insisted on writing the NCP at such a time, when he was also extremely busy, the writing itself must have been therapeutic for Tolkien, and Charlton then goes on to look at which elements of the NCP that might have had this therapeutic effect for Tolkien.

BC, Friday, 5 November 2010, “The Notion Club Papers are Tolkien's Charles Williams novel”
URL = http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2010/11/notion-club-papers-are-tolkiens-charles.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/36dsat4
As the title says, this posting introduces the idea that The Notion Club Papers (NCP) is inspired by or for some other reason resembles Charles Williams' work. Charlton notes that the NCP ‘are structured like a C.W. novel — a novel about how the supernatural and mythical breaks through into normal everyday life.’ He goes on to discuss some of the surrounding aspects of the NCP, but in the end I must admit that I remain unconvinced. I am, however, admittedly influenced by Tolkien's own statement in e.g. Letters no 159 that ‘I do not think we influenced one another at all!’ Quite possibly this idea is better evaluated by someone less prejudiced.

JF, Tuesday, November 2, 2010, “The jaws of Carcharoth”
URL = http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/11/jaws-of-carcharoth.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vdp68x
Perhaps primarily interesting to those with an interest in Tolkien's invented languages and not least the process of their genesis. Jason Fisher discusses the multiple etymologies for ‘the mightiest wolf that would ever walk the world’, Carcharoth as it is called in the published version of The Silmarillion, or Karkaras as the name is in The Book of Lost Tales.

 = = = = Reviews = = = =

DB, “The Fantastic Horizon”
URL = http://www.mythsoc.org/reviews/fantastic-horizon/
Though not particularly about Tolkien, and even less about other Inklings, Bratman nevertheless feels that this book, The Fantastic Horizon: Essays and Reviews by Darrell Schweitzer should be of interest for Inklings scholars and fans. As Bratman starts out by saying, the fantasy field ‘needs a polemicist’, and after mentioning Tom Shippey and Lin Carter, he claims that ‘The best polemicist in the field today may well be Darrell Schweitzer.’ I'm not sure that my book budget will allow me to include this, but it is likely that I will end up ordering it from the library one day.

DAA, Sunday, November 14, 2010, “Weird Words”
URL = http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2010/11/weird-words.html
Review of Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon by Dan Clore. This is apperently — hopefully — the first of a series of weird words collected by the author. This review reprints the full entry for the word nodens (of Tolkien relevance). This work would seem a treasure trove for anyone who, like Lord Peter Wimsey, finds it so easy to get drunk on words that they are seldom perfectly sober.

Anthony Burdge, Friday, November 12, 2010, “The Lonely Mountain Band: Beyond the Western Seas”
URL = http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2010/11/lonely-mountain-band-beyond-western.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/2cusb55
Anthony Burdge (with comments from Jessica Burke and Namiko Hitosubashi) is enthusiastic about the album Beyond the Western Seas by The Lonely Mountain Band, saying that he and Jessica ‘I count it as important as Ted Nasmith’s Hidden Door, The Fellowship’s In Elven Lands, and Brocelïande’s Starlit Jewel.’ I hope the Lonely Mountain Band knows how to value praise from the praiseworthy.

Anthony & Jessica, Thursday, November 11, 2010, “Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel”
URL = http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2010/11/looking-for-king-inklings-novel.html
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/3abfec2
Not so much a review, I suppose, but Anothony and Jessica here post “the official press release, book trailer, and information on the author David C. Downing.” I would be very interested to hear from other people who have read the book, to hear their opinion.

PC, Friday, November 5, 2010, “Review: Looking for the King”
URL = http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/955-Looking_for_the_king.php
Tiny URL = http://preview.tinyurl.com/23yz7n7
Pieter Collier gives a very positive review of David C. Downing's Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel. Pieter is positive enough to make me seriously consider buying this book myself.


 = = = = Other Stuff = = = =

I seem to have forgotten to renew my membership of the Mythopoeic Society in time to receive the latest issue of Mythlore — I have remedied the situation at once, but it will of course be a while before I receive the journal.

--
Troels Forchhammer

And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left he path of wisdom.
 — Gandalf, /The Fellowship of the Ring/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Parmar-kenta

Parmar-kenta, enquiry into (the) books. From Quenya parma, book (pl. parmar) and Q kenta (or centa), enquiry, communication essay.



Welcome! 

You are now reading the parmar-kenta, my blog on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and related matters. But wait, ‘Yet another Tolkien blog?’ you might ask, and all I can say is, yes, yet another Tolkien blog, but this one is mine!  ;-)

Why you should read it, you ask? Well, certainly not because the author has any particular claim to worthiness or fame … or even notoriety … I hope. You should read this if it catches your interest (which is, of course, rather difficult with this first post), and I will promise to post irregularly on a number of topics that have some relation to Tolkien and his writings. As the title suggests, the focus here is on that which has been written: the parmar.

I will most likely be referring quite a lot to the ‘Tolkien newsgroups’, by which I mean the usenet groups alt.fan.tolkien, usually known just as ‘AFT’, and rec.arts.books.tolkien, ‘RABT’ (if you don't have a dedicated usenet client set up, you might want to use the Google Groups interfaces: Google Groups: AFT and Google Groups: RABT. Google Groups unfortunately only carries posts back to 1992 and 1993 respectively, but AFT is older than that.

Every month (approximately) I have made a summary of the Tolkien-related stuff (mainly on the internet) that I have found and have found most interesting. This summary, which I in my presumptuosness have called Tolkien Transactions, has been posted to the Tolkien newsgroups, and the latest issue has kindly also been posted by Larry Swain on his blog, The Ruminate, here. I expect that I will also post these here — usually within a week of the turn of the month (but no promises, mind!).

In any case, if you plan to read what I may have to say, then the best thing to do is to subscribe using one of the many tools that are provided such as RSS feeds etc.

This is about as much as I have to say for an introduction.