September 2015
The Tolkienian month of September starts with the anniversary of Tolkien's 1973 death on September 2nd. It's a moment for reflection, but it also quickly gives way to the anticipation for the Tolkien Society Oxonmoot and the joint birthday of Bilbo and Frodo (not going into the discussion of proper calendric translation here) on what is becoming known as ‘Hobbit Day’. The celebration in Bri, the Copenhagen Tolkien Society, was already on the 13th, and together with my daughter I partook in a very fine seven-course medieval / renaissance dinner on that day.On Hobbit Day, the chairman of the Tolkien Society posted to list some of the good reasons for joining the society. There are more, of course, but you can't list everything ...
Shaun Gunner, Tuesday, 22 September 2015, ‘Why you should join the Tolkien Society’
Needless to say, the Mythopoeic Society in the US has many of the same kinds of offers, though the names differ.
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| An Elf in the Fields by Jenny Dolfen Available as a wallpaper to Jenny's patrons at patreon.com. |
Of course, as usual, all the standard disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) :-) Given that I have been quite busy with Scouting in September, the disclaimer about completeness is probably even more relevant than usual as much has been sorted out.
These transactions are posted on my blog, Parma-kenta (Enquiry into the books) and on the Tolkien Society web-site.
This month it has suited my purposes to sort the contents under the following headlines:
1: News
2: Events
3: Essays and Scholarship
4: Commentary
5: Reviews and Book News
7: Tolkienian Artwork
8: Other Stuff
9: Web Sites
10: The Blog Roll
11: Sources
News
Richard Kreitner, Wednesday, 2 September 2015, ‘September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies’A reprinting from, and of, Edmund Wilson's scathing 1956 review of The Lord of the Rings. Using the anniversary of Tolkien's death for this may seem slightly inappropriate, but sometimes it is good to remind ourselves that there are others, who do not like what we like (even if most of the specific complaints can be rejected, there remains a matter of taste, though at times Wilson reads almost as if wishing to purge himself of an unwelcome attraction to the work).
Nicole Levy, DNAinfo, Thursday, 10 September 2015, ‘'Orcs of New York' Parodies 'Humans of NY' With Tolkien Creatures’
One among many stories about this new Facebook page, Orcs of New York that has sprung up in August. See also the treatment under ‘web sites, and the articles below.
Kimberley Yam, Huffington Post, Friday, 11 September 2015, ‘'Orcs Of New York' Is The 'HONY' Parody Even Sauron Would Adore’
‘Stubby the Rocket’, Friday, 11 September 2015, ‘Orcs of New York Will Restore Your Faith in Orc-Kind’
Myla Malinalda, Middle-earth News, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, ‘Get to Know the Orcs of New York’
J.e. Reich, Tech Times, Thursday, 17 September 2015, ‘Humans Of New York Parody 'Orcs Of New York' Puts Mordor In The Big Apple’
Shaun Gunner, The Tolkien Society, Monday, 21 September 2015, ‘“Orcs of New York” Parody Facebook page’
Daniel Helen, The Tolkien Society, Monday, 28 September 2015, ‘Letter explaining creation of Estella Brandybuck up for auction’
On a typed letter by his secretary, Baillie Knapheis, Tolkien added a handwritten note about Merry's wife which later would lead him to add Estella Bolger (a sister of Fredagar Bolger) to the Hobbit family trees in The Lord of the Rings along with her marriage to Merry. This letter is now up for auction and estimated to collect at least £1,500.
Events
Reports from past events2 - 26 September 2015, Sheffield, UK, ‘Artshow: Evil in the Shining Light’
Francesca Barbini, 26 September 2015, ‘Evil In The Shining Light Exhibition’
John Cockshaw (curator of the exhibition), 29 September 2015, ‘Evil in the Shining Light art exhibition’
5 - 6 September 2015, Sarehole, Birmingham, ‘Middle Earth Festival 2015’
Formerly known as ‘Middle-earth Weekend’
Francesca Barbini, 2 September 2015, ‘Middle Earth Festival 2015’
Shaun Gunner, Friday, 4 September 2015, ‘Middle-earth Festival Returns to Sarehole Mill this Weekend’
5 - 6 September 2015, Barletta, Italy, ‘Hobbit Village 2015’
Aubron-Bülles, Sunday 6 September, ‘Impressions from Hobbit Village 2015 in Barletta, Italy’
10 - 13 September 2015, St Antony's College, Oxford, ‘ Oxonmoot 2015’, The Tolkien Society
Andrew Wells, 12 September 2015, ‘Oxonmoot’
Dimitra Fimi, The Tolkien Society, 20 September 2015, ‘Dimitra Fimi - Constructions of Childhood in Tolkien's Legendarium’ — video (1h 4m) of Dimitra Fimi's lecture at OxonMoot 2015.
Michael Flowers, 20 September 2015, ‘Oxford Weekend’ — with beautiful photos from the tour of Oxford.
Francesca Barbini, 21 September 2015, ‘Oxonmoot 2015 – What You Have Missed!’ — Oh, great, Francesca ... just rub it in, will you ;-)
Dimitra Fimi, 27 September 2015, ‘Oxonmoot 2015 and forthcoming Oxford event’
22 September 2015, worldwide & on-line, ‘Hobbit Day’
Shaun Gunner, The Tolkien Society, 22 September 2015, ‘Events to celebrate Hobbit Day’
Anna Smol, 22 September 2015, ‘Happy Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo! #HobbitDay’
26 - 27 Septeber 2015, Castle Keep and Black Gate, Newcastle, UK, ‘Tolkien Weekend at Newcastle Castle’
Info on upcoming events (as of 1 October)
9 - 12 October 2015, Hotel Maya, Alicanta, Spain, ‘Mereth Aderthad’
14 October 2015, Brisbane, Australia, ‘An Evening in Middle-earth’
29 October 2015, Weston Library, Oxford, ‘Tolkien's Legacy’
See also the description of the event on the Tolkien Society web-site, ‘The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s Legacy’.
Dimitra Fimi, 27 September 2015, ‘Oxonmoot 2015 and forthcoming Oxford event’ —
5 - 7 December 2015, ‘Italian Ringers Con 2015’
2016 Events 21 - 25 March 2016, Seattle, WA, USA, ‘PCA/ACA National Conference, PCA/ACA’
Anna Smol, Tuesday, 30 June 2015, ‘Call for papers: Tolkien Studies at PCA/ACA, March 2016’
25 March 2016, Worldwide, ‘Tolkien Reading Day, The Tolkien Society’
17 - 19 June 2016, Leiden | Den Haag, ‘Lustrum 2016: Unlocking Tolkien, Unquendor – The Dutch Tolkien Society’
September? 2016, Oxford, ‘Oxonmoot 2016’, The Tolkien Society — an Oxonmoot will be held ...
Essays and Scholarship
Jane Beal, Medievalist.net, Saturday, 12 September 2015, ‘Teaching Tolkien's Translations of Medieval Literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo and Pearl’ |
| Avari by Jenny Dolfen |
A description of a course that Beal teaches on Tolkien. The description is quite detailed, including thoughts on the metacognitive processes that Beal attempts to stimulate. Quite interesting to see how the teaching of Tolkien can be approached.
John Garth, Friday, 25 September 2015, ‘Tolkien's ‘immortal four’ meet for the last time’
Another piece of the story of the TCBS and the last meeting of ‘the immortal four’ on 25–26 September 1915 … a hundred years ago. Read Garth's excellent piece to learn why the discovery of the signatures of R.Q. Gilson and G.B. Smith in the guestbook at Samuel Johnson's birthplace in Lichfield is a testimony to the strength of the friendship in the core group of the TCBS.
Roy M. Liuzza, Saturday, 26 September 2015, ‘The Sense of Time in Anglo-Saxon England’
Many have commented on how Tolkien manages to create a sense of pre-history, perhaps especially in his Lord of the Rings, and here we have a scholar starting an article by stating that “One of the more impressive aspects of Beowulf is its rich sense of time.” and going on to assert that “Characters in the poem are constantly aware of past generations of ancestors and heroes.” This opens up to a new statement, saying that ”There is a kind of prehistory in the poem”. All of these statements might as well have been said of Tolkien's work as of the Beowulf poem.
Though at times rather technical, this article is quite interesting, and at the conclusion I was again reminded strongly of Tolkien's work when Liuzza explains what might be “the most profound difference between Anglo- Saxon time and our own: the sense that time is finite, and that it devolves as it approaches its destination.”
Commentary
Daniel E. Flores, The Valley Star, Friday, 11 September 2015, ‘Tolkien and the gold that does not glitter’On the importance of the difference between Tolkien's (in the story actually written by Bilbo) version, “All that is gold does not glitter” and the normal proverbial version, “All that glitters is not gold”.
Lynn Forest-Hill, Wednesday, 30 September 2015, ‘Last meeting in September’
Discussing chapter 3 of book 3 of The Lord of the Rings, ‘The Uruk-hai’, and as always the discussions are well worth going over.
Reviews and Book News
Stuart Lee, Wednesday, 2 September 2015, ‘Is HarperCollins flogging a dead horse with latest Tolkien publication?’Stuart Lee comes to a mixed conclusion with respect to the titular question, but overall finds that Tolkien readers now having access to the Kullervo and Kalevala texts, on balance, must be a good thing.
Douglas A. Anderson, Tuesday, 8 September 2015, ‘Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition (2015) by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Verlyn Flieger’
This first article of volume 2 of the Journal of Tolkien Research offers Douglas A. Anderson's review of Verlyn Flieger's 2015 edition of Smith of Wootton Major.
In this review, Douglas A. Anderson addresses various infelicitous errors and omissions in Verlyn Flieger's ordering and selection of the materials for this edition (and for the 2005 edition). Based on Anderson's explanations here, I join him in hoping “for a corrected and revamped edition in the future, one which better and more fully presents the archival materials.”
Lydia Willgress, Mail Online, Saturday, 12 September 2015, ‘Unfinished J.R.R. Tolkien work The Story of Kullervo 'to be published later this month'’
Reporting, on 12 September, that The Story of Kullervo will be (future tense) published by HarperCollins on 27 August, this article doesn't add anything, but I include it more to show how broad the interest in a new Tolkien title is.
Steve Hayes, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, ‘Inklings (book review)’
A review of the book Inklings by Melanie M. Jeschke. Not a biographical or otherwise critical work, but a work of, according to Hayes, rather poor fiction.
John D. Rateliff, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, ‘The New Calendar’
A look at the 2016 Tolkien calendar with illustrations by Tove Jansson.
Tolkienian Artwork
Tomás Hijo, Tuesday, 8 September 2015, ‘Smaug, hijo mío, lo tuyo es un no parar. Smaug prints’Prints of Tomás Hijo's Smaug.
Jenny Dolfen, Friday, 11 September 2015, ‘Thranduil in Spring’
This third seasonal Thranduil follows the autumn and winter pictures of the Elvenking. Now we can just wait for the summer image ...
Jenny Dolfen, Thursday, 17 September 2015, ‘Avari’
Avari wandering the forests of Middle-earth ...
Shaun Gunner, The Tolkien Society, Friday, 18 September 2015, ‘Beyond Bree Calendar 2016’
Announcing the release of the 2016 Beyond Bree calendar.
Graeme Skinner, Wednesday, 23 September 2015, ‘Sir Gandalf of Valinor’
Having fun.
‘CG-Warrior’, Friday, 25 September 2015, ‘Gendalf’ [sic]
A portrait of Gandalf with his pipe
Other Stuff
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| Thranduil in Spring by Jenny Dolfen |
I agree with Rateliff that there is little evidence that Francis can be called ‘a Tolkien fan’, but that the evidence suggests a familiarity with at least The Lord of the Rings and a fondness of the book. And yes, the translation I provided at The Tolkienist is indeed very rough (having studied my Spanish in my teens and only used it very sporadically since).
Marc Vander Maas, Wednesday, 16 September 2015, ‘Video: Jonathan Witt On Tolkien's Vision Of Freedom’
As I have said before, I am deeply sceptical of the work by Witt and Richards in their Hobbit Party book. From what I have so far read and seen by the two authors, their work seems very strongly affected by confirmation bias – or, to put it more bluntly, they seem more concerned about analysing how Tolkien can be made to confirm their own views rather than providing an unbiased analysis of what Tolkien's views actually were. Although this video only confirms me in that assessment, I should probably also add that this does not mean that there is nothing worthwhile to find in their treatment, but one needs to approach it with caution.
Kelly cowling, Friday, 25 September 2015, ‘Building a Home for Fairies: A Changing Grey Havens Group’
About the Grey Havens Group, about making room and home for (as Tolkien would have put it) Faërie, and about the changing structuring of the community.
Myla Malinalda, Middle-earth News, Saturday, 26 September 2015, ‘The Lord of the Rings Dioramas’
About a group of German diorama-builders, who have been working on dioramas inspired by Jackson's films.
Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic Sentinel, Wednesday, 30 September 2015, ‘Colbert, Tolkien and gifts’
Taking his outset in the interview with Stephen Colbert (see last month's transactions for the quotations and a discussion of which letters Colbert was thinking of), Barron moves on to discuss where Tolkien might himself have learned this lesson, and how it might have been central at the Birmingham Oratory.
Anna Smol, Wednesday, 30 September 2015, ‘Eala! Unlock your word hoards!’
About a new journal, Eala, which intends to publish poetry in medieval Germanic languages such as Old English. Now to start composing (and remember to use the alliterative meter – end-rhymes has no place in such poetry!)
Web Sites
Harry Aspinwall, August 2015, ‘Orcs of New York’The page parodies the blog ‘Humans of New York’ using Orcs instead of humans, and includes many references to The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.
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. However, you will find below links to monthly archives of posts for months where the blog has featured interesting posts with at least some Tolkien connection. In some cases you may find a headline for a post, if I wish to recommend it particularly.
John D. Rateliff -- ‘Sacnoth's Scriptorium’
Archive of posts from September 2015
John Garth, ‘John Garth’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Marcel Aubron-Bülles, ‘The Tolkienist’
Archive of posts from September 2015
David Bratman, ‘Kalimac's Journal’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Jenny Dolfen, ‘Jenny's Sketchbook’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Anna Smol, ‘A Single Leaf’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Various (Bradford Eden, ed.) Journal of Tolkien Research (JTR)
Archive of contributions for the on-going volume 2, issue 1
Various, The Tolkien Society (TS)
Archive of posts from September 2015
Southfarthing Mathom
Archive of posts from September 2015
Taruithorn, the Oxford Tolkien Society, ‘’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Michael Martinez, ‘Middle-earth’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Grey Havens Group, ‘The Grey Havens Group’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Bruce Charlton, ‘Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers’
Archive of posts from September 2015
Sources
No new sources in September 2015For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/p/sources.html
