May 2017
Things have been rather hectic again, so I have decided to mostly go about things the easy way and use the intro I get in my feed reader, just citing the first something characters of the post. Everywhere where the description is given as “<text> […]”, the <text> is from the blog post itself. In a very few cases, I have added something or done a comment myself, but these are the exceptions. If this works well, I might choose to use this feature a bit more often, though of course I do hope to find time to comment myself.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: Beren and Lúthien
2: News
3: Events
4: Essays and Scholarship
5: Commentary
6: Reviews and Book News
7: Tolkienian Artwork
8: Story Internal (Ardalogy)
9: Other Stuff
10: Rewarding Discussions
11: Other Reading
12: Web Sites
13: The Blog Roll
14: Sources
 |
| Lótessë (Yén 15, Loa 1) by Tsvetelina ‘Elmenel’ Krumova Lótessë corresponds roughly to the month of May. Enjoy it in full size in Elmenel's calendar. |
Beren and Lúthien
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, Tuesday, 02 May 2017, “"Beren and Lúthien" Waterstones Events: An Evening With Alan Lee“ Waterstones, national bookseller of the UK, is hosting a series of Beren and Lúthien events close to the book's publication. You can read more about them here: https://www.waterstones.com/events/search?shop=&date=®ion=&author=332510 " Celebrate the launch of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Beren and Lúthien" with Alan Lee, the book's illustrator and the man behind much beautiful and iconic Tolkien artwork, […]”
Starts at 60, Friday, 05 May 2017, “A powerful long-lost story from JRR Tolkien
“Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and […]”
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, Monday, 15 May 2017, “Beren and Lúthien Tease
John Garth, New Statesman, Saturday, 27 May 2017, “Beren and Lúthien: Love, war and Tolkien's lost tales
“For Second Lieutenant J R R Tolkien the dance in the glade inspired a fairy tale, written that same summer in hospital, after a relapse of Somme trench fever. To call it a difficult birth would be the understatement of a century: it has taken 100 years […]”
John Garth reviews the new Tolkien book with his deep understanding of the story and of its gestation and evolution.
John Garth, The Telegraph, Sunday, 28 May 2017, ‘The man who brings Tolkien to life’
An interview with Alan Lee by John Garth. Requires login, but is more than worth the effort of creating the account!!
Tom Beer, Newsday, Tuesday, 30 May 2017, “What's new: A classic Tolkien tale, …
“BEREN AND Lúthien, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The legend of a mortal man (Beren) who loves an immortal Elf (Lúthien) and captures a precious Silmaril jewel in order to win her hand, appeared again and again in Tolkien's writings about Middle Earth, beginning […]”
Liza Graham, NPR, Wednesday, 31 May 2017, “'Beren And Lúthien' Reflects Tolkien's Real Life Love Story
“One night in December of 1993, I stood in a frost-bound churchyard in Wolvercote, near Oxford. The tombstone in front of me bore the names of Edith Mary Tolkien and her husband John Ronald, but underneath each name was another: "Lúthien" and "Beren.". […]”
News
 |
| Thrice He Rose by Jenny Dolfen |
Sandy Elliot, Cherwell Online, Monday, 01 May 2017, “Tolkien and 'the problems of another place'
“I do not know precisely, or even approximately, how many hours of my life have been passed watching The Lord of the Rings. Just watching each of the three films once in their theatrical cut amounts to about twelve hours of screen time. […]”
Jordan Harris, Express and Star, Monday, 15 May 2017, “Over 90000 people visit JRR Tolkien exhibition in Staffordshire
“The Exhibition, which was launched at the Museum of Cannock Chase in March 2016, is led by the Haywood Society, supported by Staffordshire Libraries and Arts, and largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. […]”
Jennie Ramstad, Straight.com, Tuesday, 30 May 2017, “The Rio Theatre gets geeky with Dungeons & Dragons comedy and Tolkien burlesque
“On Friday (June 2) weary workers can celebrate the end of the week with Lord of the Schwings, a night of burlesque inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Presented by the Geekenders and Kitty Glitter, the evening will feature silly, sexy routines […]”
Events
Reports or comments on past events23 May 2017, East Yorkshire, ‘Centenary Tour of Tolkien's East Yorkshire’, Michael Flowers
Michael Flowers, Tuesday, 23 May 2017, “Centenary Tour of Tolkien's East Yorkshire
1–4 June 2017, National Conference Center, Virginia, US, ‘Mythmoot IV: Invoking Wonder’, Mythgard Institute
David Bratman, Saturday, 3 june 2017, ‘Moria with the lights turned on’
Info on upcoming & on-going events (as of 15 June)
11 May – 8 July 2017, Gallerie Arludik, Paris, ‘John Howe’, Gallerie Arludik
John Howe, Thursday, 20 April 2017, ‘Paris, May 11, 2017’
16–18 June 2017, Waddow Hall, Clitheroe, Lancashire, ‘The Middle-earth Beer & Music Festival’, The Ale House Clitheroe
24 June 2017, East Yorkshire (Hull), ‘JRR Tolkien Shire Safari’, Phil Mathison, Michael Flowers
2 July 2017, Hilton Leeds Hotel, ‘Tolkien Society Seminar 2017’, The Tolkien Society – The theme this year will be “Poetry and Song in Tolkien's works”The Tolkien Society, Sunday, 14 May 2017, “Programme announced for The Tolkien Society Seminar 2017
3–6 July 2017, Leeds, ‘International Medieval Congress’, University of Leeds, Institute for Medieval Studies
Anna Smol, Friday, 19 May 2017, “Tolkien sessions in Leeds, 2017
28–31 July 2017, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA, ‘Mythcon 48’, The Mythopoeic Society
Lynn Maudlin, Monday, 08 May 2017, “Mythcon 48 Progress Report Published
10–13 August 2017, California State University, East Bay, Hayward Campus, USA, ‘Omentielva Otsea: The Seventh International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien's Invented Languages’, Omentielva
21–24 September 2017, St. Anthony's College, Oxford, ‘Oxonmoot’, The Tolkien Society
3–5 November 2017, Chaska, Minnesota, USA, ‘Tol-Con’, Tol-Con Committee
9–10 November 2017, Greenville, South Carolina, USA, ‘Celebrate Tolkien’, Dan Cruver
Andrew Moore, Greenville Journal, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘In November, the armies of Middle Earth will invade downtown Greenville’
1 June – 28 October 2018, Weston Library, Oxford, ‘Tolkien – Maker of Middle-earth’, Bodleian Libraries
Essays and Scholarship
‘“J.R.R. Tolkien” on Academia.edu’‘“Tolkien Studies” on Academia.edu’
A sampling of papers uploaded to Academia.edu in May (-ish ... probably ... or thereabouts, the exact upload date is generally not available). Unsorted. Where a paper is indicated as having been previously published in a journal, this is included here:
Robert T. Tally Jr., Popular Fiction and Spatiality: Reading Genre Settings (ed. Lisa Fletcher), ‘Tolkien's Geopolitical Fantasy: Spatial Narrative in The Lord of the Rings’
Eric Gilhooly, In-formarse 56, ‘Death and the Numenoreans: Is This Life All There Is?’
Rune Tveitstul Jensen, University of Oslo thesis, ‘The Role of Trees in Shakespeare, Tolkien and Atwood’
Lisa Chinellato, Academia.edu, ‘Nostalgia and homesickness: a manifestation of the yearning for a better, ‘primitive’ life in J.R.R Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"’
Simon J. Cook, Tolkien Studies 13, ‘The Cauldron at the Outer Edge: Tolkien on the Oldest English Fairy Tales’
Liuwe Westra, Lembas 2017, ‘There and Back Again – but Whence?’
Diego Klautau, Ciberteologia vol. 2 no. 8, ‘Evil and Power. The symbolism of the One Ring in " The Lord of the Rings "’
Olga Polomoshnova, Academia.edu, ‘Let It Shine’
Dimitra Fimi, Monday, 1 May 2017, ‘How Social Media Has Helped my Research (or, the kindness of strangers!)’
Or perhaps ‘how modern technology expand the opportunities of scholars&rsdquo;.
John Edwards, Medievalists.net, Sunday, 07 May 2017, “Did everyone believe in religion in medieval Europe?
“ One common idea about medieval Europe was that everyone were firm believers in religion. […]”
Dimitra Fimi, The Tolkien Society, Monday, 8 May 2017, ‘Dimitra Fimi - Tolkien and the Art of Book Reviewing: A Circuitous Road to Middle-earth’
Video of Dimitra Fimi's excellent presentation at the 2016 Oxonmoot.
See also Dimitra Fimi, Wednesday, 17 May 2017, “Tolkien and the Art of Book Reviewing: A Circuitous Road to Middle-earth
“ The Tolkien Society has just uploaded on YouTube my talk for Oxonmoot 2016, titled: “Tolkien and the Art of Book Reviewing: A Circuitous Road to Middle-earth”. I thought, therefore, that it would be a good idea to publish the text of the talk and slides too. The talk focuses on Tolkien's three book reviews on “Philology” for The Year's Work in English Studies , published between 1924 and 1927. […]”
Annalisa Palmer, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Wilderness, Faerie, and Character in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
“ French Arthurian romances, like those of Chrétien de Troyes, often gloss over particulars of geography. Other romances involving Sir Gawain, in particular, follow suit; contrary to this, fitt II of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK) highlights specific geography of Northern England. Certainly, scholars elaborated on “Þe wyldrenesse of Wyrale” before (see Elliott and Rudd), […]”
Annalisa Palmer, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Chrétien and the Silent Majority
“ “Well I didn't vote for you” Silence versus speech, namely question and answers, serves as one of the central conceits of Chrétien de Troyes' The Story of the Grail (Perceval ). Perceval begins the story as an uncouth youth who states whatever he wishes, and as indicative of most bildungsroman narratives, he matures, but he matures into silence. […]”
Medievalists.net, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Thousands of Vikings were based at Torksey camp, archaeologists find
“ A huge camp which was home to thousands of Vikings as they prepared to conquer England in the late ninth century has been uncovered by archaeologists.[…]”
John D. Rateliff, Wednesday, 31 May 2017, “Reinventing the Wheel? (Tolkien's sources)
“So, while I was at Marquette on my most recent research trip, the name Holly Ordway came up as someone who had what looks to be an interesting book in the works: TOLKIEN'S MODERN SOURCES. I wasn't able to find out too much about it, other than this brief description: “My current project is a literary-critical study, Tolkien's Modern Sources: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages, to be published“ […]”
 |
| Farewell to Lorien by Peter Xavier Price An older piece from 2002 that I wanted to bring to your attention. |
Commentary
Shawn E. Marchese, Prancing Pony Ponderings, Sunday, 16 Apr 2017, “Smells Like Elf Spirit“ In an early Prancing Pony Ponderings essay, I made brief mention of the following passage in The Hobbit … ‘Hmmm! it smells like elves!’ thought Bilbo, and he looked up at the stars. They were burning bright and blue. (The Hobbit, p. 45) … and quickly skipped past the questionable implications of “elf-smell.” […]”
Alan Sisto, Prancing Pony Ponderings, Sunday, 30 Apr 2017, “Túrin: “Simple Twist of Fate”? or “Freewill”
“ Yes, I referenced both Bob Dylan and Rush in the title of this essay. Fair warning: that may very well be the essay's high point. After all, philosophers have been debating – without a certain answer – the nature of free will for centuries, and I'm unlikely to solve it here. (Spoiler alert: I don't really try.) But it's such a fascinating subject […]”
Stephen C. Winter, Monday, 1 May 2017, ‘Legolas and Gimli in Minas Tirith’
“On the morning after the great battle Legolas and Gimli are eager to find Merry and Pippin. “It is good to learn that they are still alive,” said Gimli; “for they cost us great pains in our march over Rohan, and I would not have such pains all wasted.” And so they make their way up through the city towards the Houses of Healing and as they do so they ponder this greatest of cities and see […]”
John D. Rateliff, Wednesday, 03 May 2017, “A Certain Resemblance
“So, after trips and scheduling conflicts and illness, we finally managed to get the Monday night D&D group together for another session of Ravenloft last week and again this week.* During the first of these we explored a place we'd been chased out of once and now got chased out of all over again; during the latter we actually snuck into (and back out of) Castle Ravenloft itself, […]”
Bruce Charlton, Thursday, 04 May 2017, “The universal realm of the dream world in The Notion Club Papers - Tolkien's personal beliefs and experiences
“Sleep experience, especially dreaming, lies near the hart of The Notion Club Papers (NCPs). One aspect of this is that there are multiple references to the idea that the dream world is a realm of experience which is universal - in other words, dreaming is a single, vast domain - with distinctive qualities, different from the waking state - that is potentially accessible by all people. […]”
Grant P. Hudson, Clarendon House, Monday, 08 May 2017, “Galadriel and Tolkien's Imagination
“ The character of Galadriel is an instance of Tolkien's retroactive imagination at work. Not originally envisaged in his first tales of Middle-earth, Tolkien, having written her into a key role inThe Lord of the Rings, felt compelled to weave her history backwards into the tapestry of that earlier set of stories - a process which he did not complete, leaving us with various sometimes contradictory […]”
Tom Hillman, Friday, 05 May 2017, “Aglæca
“ There was just something about the word aglæa -- 'awesome opponent, ferocious fighter' as the DOE defines it -- that seemed familiar. From the first time I encountered it in Beowulf , it rang a bell. There the poet most frequently uses it to describe Grendel or the Dragon as, according to the gloss in Klaeber, ' one inspiring awe or misery, formidable one, afflicter, […]”
John D. Rateliff, Sunday, 07 May 2017, “Echoes of Eowyn
“So, recently I came across a passage I'd found years ago and never been able to re-locate. I had been reading the first (and, so far as I knew at that time, only) volume of Ursula Dronke's edition, with extensive commentary, of THE POETIC EDDA, Volume I: HEROIC POEMS […]”
Stephen C Winter, Monday, 08 May 2017, “Legolas and Gimli Speak of The Greatness of Aragorn, The Heir of Isildur.
“ So it is that Legolas and Gimli meet and speak with Merry and Pippin in the gardens of the Houses of Healing. And there the Elf and the Dwarf tell of the mighty ride of the Dunedain and the hosts of the Dead through the valleys of Gondor through Lebennin to the mouth of the Great River at Pelargir. […]”
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Monday, 22 May 2017, “«debt of £700 and upwards due to me by my Brother» Brothers Daniel and John Tolkien!
Here is, as you might say, the smoking gun! Congratulations – and thank you – to Ryszard Derdzinski for keeping at it and digging out the evidence.
I have been critical of Ryszard Derdzinski's premature conclusion that Mr Daniel Tolkien and Mr John Tolkien were brothers, which I think was based on not considering other possibilities and concluding on rather shaky evidence. However, with the addition of this document (the last will and testament of Mr. Daniel Tolkien), the totality of the evidence is now sufficient to say that other (identified) options are now much less likely than the possibility that they were indeed brothers.
Do not forget to also check the many other interesting posts that Ryszard has made during this month (see the link to the May archive in the blog roll at the bottom of these transactions).
Shawn E. Marchese, Prancing Pony Ponderings, Sunday, 14 May 2017, “Pity and Fear: the Tragic Tale of Túrin
“ It's been three weeks since Alan and I finished our trilogy of episodes on the story of Túrin Turambar in The Silmarillion, and no one is looking forward to Tuor showing up on the podcast more than I am. But before we say farewell to the son of Húrin, I still wish to explore the idea of Túrin as a tragic hero, as I promised to do […]”
Stephen C Winter, Monday, 15 May 2017, “Gandalf Thinks About the Weather
“ We can forgive Gandalf for mixing not just two but three metaphors because of who he is. Perhaps he mixes them deliberately in order to leave his hearers in no doubt about the point that he is making. The hearers are the lords of the allies gathered at the gates of Minas Tirith. […]”
Middle-earth Reflections, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Glorfindel: the power of white light (II)
“The rider's cloak streamed behind him, and his hood was thrown back; his golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed. To Frodo it appeared that a white light was shining through the form and raiment […]”
Lynn Forest-Hill, Southfarthing Mathom 2012, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “First in May
“ 13.5.17 At our first meeting in May we were without Ian but were joined by Julie again, so 6 of us tackled the issues raised by ‘Mount Doom&rquo;. This led to a discussion heavily influenced by theological matters, with occasional references to World War One. […]”
 |
| Quickbeam / Bregalad by Peter Xavier Price |
“ So, just before leaving for Kalamazoo I got a message from my local Barnes & Nobel that an item I'd pre-ordered had come in: RISE OF THE DUNGEON MASTER: GARY GYGAX AND THE CREATION OF D&D by David Kushner (text) and Koren Shadmi (art). Essentially this is a biography in graphic novel form, with word balloons sometimes representing the biographer's narration or commentary […]”
Stephen C Winter, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Gandalf Speaks of a Time to Risk Everything
“ I never thought that I would ever quote Lenin in this blog but there is no doubt that he was a man who knew how to recognise and then to seize opportunity when it came. […]”
Tom Hillman, Tuesday, 23 May 2017, “Things You Find In Grammar Books
Middle-earth Reflections, Tuesday, 23 May 2017, “Language notes /// On Galadriel.
“Lady Galadriel, who is so poetically and very precisely described by Sam in his conversation with Faramir, came to become one of the pivotal characters in Tolkien’s mythology. […]”
Allya Whiteley, Den of Geek UK, Friday, 26 May 2017, “The little known fairy stories of J R R Tolkien
“In 1938/39 JRR Tolkien was just beginning the task of writing The Lord Of The Rings. He was a meticulous writer and rewriter, building his world one detail at a time […]”
Stephen C Winter, Monday, 29 May 2017, “The “Hopeless Journey” of the Armies of the West.
“A few days after the great battle the armies of the West gather once more upon the Pelennor Fields in order to march towards the Morannon, the same Black Gate that Frodo and Sam saw upon their journey to Mordor and realised was impossible to enter. Tolkien describes the march as a “hopeless journey”, one that must end in inevitable defeat and death, […]”
Lynn Forest-hill, Southfarthing Mathom 2012, Tuesday, 30 May 2017, “Last Meeting in May
“ 27.5.17 Only four of us managed to get to the meeting today, partly on account of train cancellations, music festivals, and general Bank Holiday demands. However, Chris had sent some thoughts on the chapter(s) we had planned to discuss. Because Ian had been away for our last meeting we revisited some topics discussed then, so Carol's comments on these were included last time. Laura opened proceed”
Reviews and Book News
Abe Kenmore, The Guilfordian, Monday, 1 May 2017, ‘Professor Caroline McAlister presents story on Tolkien's life’Brenton Dickieson, Wednesday, 03 May 2017, “John Lawlor's Memories and Reflections on C.S. Lewis
“ I have just had the delightful experience of reading John Lawlor's book, C.S. Lewis: Memories and Reflections (1998). Prof. Lawlor was an undergraduate student of C.S. Lewis' before and after WWII before continuing on to do his graduate work with J.R.R. Tolkien. […]”
Douglas A. Anderson, Sunday, 07 May 2017, “Beginnings and Endings
“Some recent events have got me looking back upon how I got started in this field. I first read Tolkien in the summer of 1973, and for the next few years I looked for anything similar to Tolkien to read. There were some notable successes, like Lord Dunsany, Ursula K. Le Guin, Clark Ashton Smith, and Patricia A. McKillip. […]” – About four bibliographical resources from the late seventies that stand out still.
John D. Rateliff, Wednesday, 10 May 2017, “festschrift flyer (Flieger)
“ So, I'm happy to announce that A WILDERNESS OF DRAGONS: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF VERLYN FLIEGER now has a publisher, Gabbro Head Press. Primary editing has now been all but completed. The book still needs a second editorial pass, plus an introduction and index. We're hoping for a publication date before the end of the year. Here's the flyer I'm distributing here at Kalamazoo, […]”
DB's Data Base and nal de jour, Thursday, 11 May 2017, “scholarly book review
“ Tom Shippey, Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction (Liverpool University Press)
Tom Shippey is, of course, the renowned Tolkien scholar, famous for his lucid explanations of what Tolkien was actually trying to do, and his robust denunciations of critics who carp at Tolkien from positions of cluelessness as to either his intent or achievement. […]”
Douglas A. Anderson, Monday, 22 May 2017, “A New Issue of ORCRIST!
“Orcrist no. 9, dated April, but published May 2017 The J.R.R. Tolkien Society at the University of Wisconsin--Madison was founded in 1966. It has met continuously for over fifty years. It also published eight issues of a journal, Orcrist, with issue one dated 1966/1967 and issue eight dated 1977. Orcrist has been dormant for forty year, but now, at long last, issue nine has just been published! […]”
Anna Smol, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Forthcoming: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger
“ I'm very happy to announce that one of my essays will be part of a festschrift for Verlyn Flieger, a renowned Tolkien scholar and someone I admire very much. The book, A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, is edited by John Rateliff. […]”
David Bratman, Thursday, 25 May 2017, “publications ahoy
“After too long an absence from other scholarly venues than the one I edit for, I got to finalize the texts of two papers today, OKing the final tweaks from their editors. Both are fairly short, but it's good to have them out. And for one of them, it means I get to be in this. […]”
John D. Rateliff, Friday, 26 May 2017, “The Inklings Book of Arthur
“So, last week I learned about the Go Fund Me drive for Sørina Higgins' project THE INKLINGS AND KING ARTHUR, a collection of about twenty essays looking at the Arthurian works of Tolkien, Lewis, Wms, and Barfield. Apparently the book is done but permissions ran higher than expected, hence the fund drive to fill in the gap. […]”
Andrew Higgins, Tuesday, 30 May 2017, “Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) by Mark J.P. Wolf and Revisiting Imaginary World (2016) edited by Mark J.P. Wolf
“Book review of Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) by Mark J.P. Wolf and Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2016), edited by Mark J.P. Wolf, reviewed by Andrew Higgins.”
Tolkienian Artwork
Šárka Škorpíková, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 1 March 2017, ‘Nenuial (Lake Evendim)’Miruna Lavinia, DeviantArt, Monday, 01 May 2017, “Hobbits resting
 |
| The Prancing Pony by Tomás Hijo Currently available as a poster at reduced price … I have already bought mine. |
Joe Gilronan, Fine Art America, Tuesday, 09 May 2017, “Late Evening Bag End
Tomás Hijo Art, Tuesday, 09 May 2017, “The banner for King Théoden of Rohan
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 10 May 2017, “Lúthien Tinuviel
Tomás Hijo Art, Wednesday, 10 May 2017, “Westu hál, Théoden, King of Rohan
Rhett Whittington, DeviantArt, Friday, 12 May 2017, “Gandalf Progression
James Turner Mohan, DeviantArt, Friday, 12 May 2017, “Going Treeish
Joe Gilronan, Fine Art America, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Good Morning
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Finrod
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Orodreth
Tomás Hijo Art, Thursday, 18 May 2017, ““The man in the moon”: As they have never landed in www.tomashijo.com, I have sold only...
‘Aegeri’, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 17 May 2017, “Cirith Ungol
‘Suwi’;. DeviantArt, Wednesday, 17 May 2017, “The King of the Golden Hall
Miruna Lavinia, DeviantArt, Thursday, 18 May 2017, “The passing of the Elves
‘Aegeri’, DeviantArt, Monday, 22 May 2017, “Mirkwood
Peter Xavier Price, DeviantArt, Thursday, 25 May 2017, “Quickbeam/Bregalad
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Friday, 26 May 2017, “Ard Gallen
‘Ellthalion’, DeviantArt, Saturday, 27 May 2017, “Sigurd, sigurd
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 31 May 2017, “Princess of Nargothrond
James Turner Mohan, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 31 May 2017, “Beren and Lúthien (WIP)
Story Internal (Ardalogy)
Austin Gilkeson, Tuesday, 09 May 2017, “Smaug vs. Durin's Bane: Who Would Win in the Ultimate Dragon/Balrog Showdown?“ No question animates the mind of a young speculative fiction fan more than “Who would win?” It's a question that provokes our firmest cultural loyalties and the lizard part of our brain that enjoys nothing more than smashing action figures together. It's a question that's lead to untold hours of heated discussion, ruined hundreds of friendships, and earned billions of dollars at the box office […]” (And which, Troels adds, is particularly uninteresting.)
Michael Martinez, Thursday, 11 May 2017, “How Long was the Voyage from Middle-earth to Valinor?
“ Q: How Long was the Voyage from Middle-earth to Valinor? ANSWER: This is one of those questions that can be answered in two ways. One way is a trick response, although probably technically correct. The other way is highly speculative[…]”
Michael Martinez, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Did the Black Riders Reach Hobbiton in Less Time than Gandalf on Shadowfax?
“ Q: Did the Black Riders Reach Hobbiton in Less Time than Gandalf on Shadowfax? ANSWER: Last year a reader asked me if I could explain an apparent discrepancy between the reported time for the Nazgûl's journey to Hobbiton versus Gandalf's […]”
Michael Martinez, Monday, 29 May 2017, “Answers Too Short for their Own Articles
“ Q: Was Celebrimbor Fëanor's only grandchild? ANSWER: A reader asked for clarification about how many grand-children Fëanor had. To the best of my knowledge, so far as I know, Celebrimbor was the only third-generation Fëanorian to live in Middle-earth. […]”
 |
| Good Morning by Joe Gilronan |
Other Stuff
Bruce Charlton, Tuesday, 02 May 2017, “Our destiny is to become both conscious and free - Owen Barfield in a nutshell...“Owen Barfield's nature and achievement is usually under-sold by a partial, and therefore misleading, summary; that states his goal was to prove by evidence that human consciousness had evolved; and that this was achieved mainly via 'philological' investigations into the changing meaning of words. […]”
Dennis Wise, Thursday, 04 May 2017, “Chuck Willias -- the "Last Magician" or the "Third Inkling"?
“ I'm not a fan of Charles Williams, but Grevel Lindop's biography of him, Charles Williams:The Third Inkling , has been widely praised, even winning a Mythopoeic award for Inklings Studies last year. About the only criticism of Lindop's book I've seen concerned it's name. Tolkien scholar David Bratman, for example, has argued that calling CW "the third Inkling" unfairly puts CW into the shadow […]”
Tom Hillman, Monday, 08 May 2017, “Dreams of Beowulf
“ Sometimes I have the coolest dreams. The other night I fell asleep at my desk (as one does) leaning on my hands, trying to hold my head up and stay awake, so I could finish my daily reading in Beowulf. […] ”
Joshua Dudley, Observer, Wednesday, 10 May 2017, “People Who Podcast: Improv Meets Tolkien Adventures in 'Hello From the Magic Tavern'
“This is People Who Podcast, where we talk to the people behind some of the most fun and interesting podcasts available today. Why do they make their shows? What do they love about them? And is podcasting actually a viable career option […]”
David Bratman, Friday, 19 May 2017, “another one to cross off his list
“I confess I've never read much of the criticism of F.R. Leavis. What I have read was enough to demonstrate that, rather to my surprise, Frederick Crews' famous "Simon Lacerous" parody - "Another book to cross off your list" - isn't much of an exaggeration. Leavis really was that brutally waspish - or waspishly brutal. […]”
Grant P. Hudson, Clarendon House, Monday, 22 May 2017, “The Importance of Proofreading
“Have you ever been so moved by a piece of literature or so persuaded by an essay that you immediately changed your own views either of the world or regarding the topic it addressed? Have you ever re-read something just because it was so wonderful that you couldn't get enough of it? To tell you the truth, I often re-read my favourite books for just that reason […]”
Signum University, Friday, 26 May 2017, “Announcing Anytime Audits
“Signum University is proud to announce a new feature: Anytime Auditing! This is a brand new way of allowing people to access to our graduate-level courses whenever they like. […]”
Grant P. Hudson, Clarendon House, Tuesday, 30 May 2017, “C. S. Lewis: Allegory and Symbolism
“ Quite apart from the use of a commonplace wardrobe as a portal to a different world, and the introduction of a ‘re-booted’ God figure join the form of Aslan, Lewis used other symbology in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. […]”
Rewarding Discussions
Maria Messer, Middle-earth News, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, “Join Our Hobbit Book Club in June!“All month long in June, Middle-earth News will host a book club were we will read Tolkien's The Hobbit. Ever wanted to discuss a scene or dialogue in The Hobbit? Something in the novel you […]”
Other Reading
Web Sites
Alan Sisto and Shawn E. Marchese, The Prancing Pony PodcastCentred about the podcast done by Shawn E. Marchese and Alan Sisto, the site also includes much other content than just the podcast episodes. This includes the Prancing Pony Ponderings, which is a blog with short essays (usually related to the topics of contemporary podcasts).
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.
 |
| Gil-Galad by Jenny Dolfen |
Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, ‘Too Many Books and Never Enough’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Dimitra Fimi, ‘Dr. Dimitra Fimi’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Jason Fisher, ‘Lingwë -- Musings of a Fish’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Douglas A. Anderson, ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’
Archive of posts from May 2017
John D. Rateliff -- ‘Sacnoth's Scriptorium’
Archive of posts from May 2017
John Garth, ‘John Garth’
Archive of posts from May 2017
David Bratman, ‘Kalimac's Journal’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Jenny Dolfen, ‘Jenny's Sketchbook’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Andrew Higgens, ‘Wotan's Musings’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Anna Smol, ‘A Single Leaf’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Edmund Weiner, ‘Philoloblog’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Robin Anne Reid, her blog
Archive of posts from May 2017
Annalisa Palmer, her blog
Archive of posts from September 2016
Various, The Mythopoeic Society
News archive
Various (Bradford Eden, ed.)Journal of Tolkien Research (JTR)
Archive of contributions for the on-going volume 4, issue 1
Various, The Tolkien Society (TS)
Archive of posts from May 2017
Southfarthing Mathom
Archive of posts from May 2017
Various, The Mythopoeic Society, ‘The Horn of Rohan Redux’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Sue Bridgwater, ‘Skorn’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Tom Hilman, ‘Alas, not me’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Michael Martinez, ‘Middle-earth’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Bruce Charlton, ‘Tolkien's The Notion Club Papers’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Various, ‘Middle-earth News’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, ‘Expressions of Substance’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, ‘Tolknięty’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Stephen C. Winter, ‘Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings’
Archive of posts from May 2017
Sources
New sources in May 2017Alan Sisto & Shawn E. Marchese, ‘Prancing Pony Ponderings’
For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.blogspot.com/p/sources.html
