Tolkien Transactions V
Troels Forchhammer
September 2010
Time for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most
interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related
'goings-on' on the 'net.
Regardless of how much time I (mis)spend reading blogs and other
stuff, I will never be able to find everything, so please chime in
with interesting stuff that you have found elsewhere!
Nor do I imagine that all of this is new to you, but I hope that
there is at least one or two interesting bits that have escaped
notice for each of you ;-)
= = = = 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>
_Mythprint_ -- 'The Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society'
<http://www.mythsoc.org>
_Amon Hen_ -- the journal of the Tolkien Society
<http://www.tolkiensociety.org/>
- and others
= = = = News = = = =
The two big pieces of news sporting Tolkien's name in September were
the emergence of a paper and a video on women in _The Lord of the
Rings_ by newly elected GOP candidate to the US senate, Christine
O'Donnell, and the continuing story of the obstacles facing the
production of the _Hobbit_ film (the one produced by Peter Jackson).
In this summary I will give only links to stories in any of the
above sources (which makes it a blessedly short list of one item).
JDR, Saturday, October 2, 2010, "Christine O'Donnell, Tolkien
Scholar?"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/10/christine-odonnell-tolkien-scholar.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/383kpac>
John Rateliff has an excellent commentary on Christine O'Donnell's
Tolkien 'scholarship' (I think it is fair to use the qualification
of the citation marks). He is a bit more critical than I was
initially, but reading his arguments, I have to agree with his
assessment.
JF, Thursday, September 23, 2010, "Reading The Lord of the Rings
aloud"
<http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-lord-of-rings-aloud.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/2v5shcz>
Based on the story of a university arranging a marathon reading of
_The Fellowship of the Ring_, Jason shares some thoughts on the
quality of LotR for reading out loud.
JDR, Wednesday, September 22, 2010, "The Saga of King Heidrek the
Wise"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/09/saga-of-king-heidrek-wise.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/34m97nd>
On the upcoming re-publication of Christopher Tolkien's edition of
the saga, and on the on-line availability of other of his works.
Also with a few comments on the possible influences of this saga on
the father's works.
Michael Harrison, Monday, September 20, 2010, "Roads Go Ever On With
Interactive Map of Middle-Earth"
<http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/09/roads-go-ever-on-with-interactive-map-of-middle-earth/>
<http://tinyurl.com/34bvxfh>
The announcement of a new interactive map of Middle-earth. The map
itself is found here:
<http://3rin.gs/#0.8906250,1.6406250,0.0546875,-0.3203125,l,> It's nice enough as long as you don't wish to have too many details.
For instance, even at the highest possible zoom level (7), the only
town that is marked in the Shire is Hobbiton (with Brandywine Bridge
being the only other Hobbit place-name).
JDR, Tuesday, September 14, 2010 "PICTURING TOLKIEN (forthcoming
publication)"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/09/picturing-tolkien-forthcoming.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/33rncjq>
John Rateliff announces his contribution to another forthcoming
(next year) collection of essays, this one edited by Jan Bogstad and
Phil Kaveny and titled _Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy_. I think I've said before that I
am not a terribly visual person, so I think I'd need some solid
recommendations before I put this one on my wish-list.
JF, Monday, September 13, 2010, "My next Tolkien publication"
<http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-next-tolkien-publication.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/34u6uhn>
Jason Fisher also has an essay in an upcoming book. His is an essay
based on a Mythcon paper titled "Sourcing Tolkien's 'Circles of the
World': Speculations on the Heimskringla, the Latin Vulgate Bible,
and the Hereford Mappa Mundi" and it will be appearing in
_Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R. Tolkien_,
edited by Kathleen Dubs and Janka Kašcáková. From the description it
doesn't seem that there is any unifying theme to this volume, which
may prove an advantage after seeing so may topical collections that
the reviewers have criticised for failing in various ways related to
the topic. Jason provides a tantalizing, but short, quotation from
Kathleen Dubs describing the volume, and on that basis this volume
is on my attention list ;-)
= = = = Essays and Scholarship = = = =
Wellinghall, Tuesday, September 28th, 2010, "My Viking paper from
Oxonmoot"
<http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/757915.html>
The notes for a talk on the Vikings' voyages west that was given at
this year's Oxonmoot.
LS, Monday, September 27, 2010, "Tolkien and White"
<http://theruminate.blogspot.com/2010/09/tolkien-and-white.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/2v4afb8>
Larry has been reading T. H. White's _The Once and Future King_ and
comments on some of the parallels in the life situations of White
and Tolkien, noting that there should be enough to warrant a
scholarly comparison. I would love to see such a paper published --
'prod-prod' ;-)
JF, Friday, September 17, 2010, "More loose leaves on Tolkien's
Pearl"
<http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-loose-leaves-on-tolkiens-pearl.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/3xgkqrl>
Jason describes the research done between 1979 and 1987 by Jan
Veltman into the history of Tolkien's translation of _Pearl_. This
is a result of Jason's blot post from August 27th.
Cole Matson, Tuesday, September 14, 2010, "Is Tolkien Useless?"
<http://itiablog.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/is-tolkien-useless/>
<http://tinyurl.com/3xs4n2l>
The topic of this article (?) is a bit outside our usual range here,
but I nevertheless found it interesting enough to include it here.
The discussion centers on the relevance of various literary modes to
'Christian discipleship'. The curious thing is that the discussion
seems in large parts to be parallel to the discussion found in more
traditional academic literary circles, including the (alleged?)
disdain of Prof Richard Bauckham for fantastic literature.
JDR, Wednesday, September 8, 2010, "Tolkien on Cars"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/09/tolkien-on-cars.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/3xqjnse>
JDR, Wednesday, September 8, 2010 "Tolkien's Car ('Charge 'Em And
They Scatter')"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/09/charge-em-and-they-scatter.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/3ahzacb>
A couple of curious and related blog postings on Tolkien and his
relations to cars. I didn't know about the story that was called
'The Bovadium Fragments' that Tolkien wrote about cars, but it is
interesting that Rateliff says that the rant against car-factories
in Oxford that is found in 'On Fairy-Stories' is just 'almost (but
not quite) as strong an anti-car statement'. I'd like to see that
story -- perhaps we might hope to see it in some future volume of
_Tolkien Studies_.
= = = = Reviews = = = =
JDR, Thursday, September 2, 2010, "The New Arrival: TOLKIEN STUDIES
VII"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-arrival-tolkien-studies-vii.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/37vex3n>
Rateliff's copy clearly arrived well before mine ;-) I have been
busy trying to finish LotR, so I haven't got around to read _Tolkien
Studies VII_ yet, so I will refrain from further comment until I can
post a review.
JDR, Tuesday, August 31, 2010 "More on 'Tolkien in Oxford'"
<http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-on-tolkien-in-oxford.html>
<http://tinyurl.com/34nbq77>
Of course Rateliff had to go and post an update on his thoughts on
the documentary (released by BBC for on-line viewing in August --
see my summary for that month). In this update he is somewhat more
positive than in the first review he posted.
Highlights from _Mythprint_ Vol. 47 No. 9, September 2010, Whole No.
338
This issue of _Mythprint_ reprints an interview with Verlyn Flieger
made originally for _Journey to the Sea_ in 2008 and still available
at <http://journeytothesea.com/tolkien-flieger/>, and then provides
a review of the 2nd edition of Flieger's _Splintered Light: Logos
and Lan-guage in Tolkien's World_. This was the first of Flieger's
books that I read, and I found it extremely interesting. Flieger has
a perspective that is very different from other of the bedst known
authors of scholarly Tolkien-criticism such as Kocher, Shippey,
Garth, Drout etc. I am not myself familiar with Barfield's work, but
I am aware of criticism of Flieger's book that says that she is
leaning too heavily in one direction, and this does seem to me quite
likely. However, though it is the central thesis of the book that
Tolkien was heavily influenced by Barfield's linguistic work (my
impression is that the most important work is _Poetic Diction_),
this merely provides a framework for Flieger's analysis of Tolkien's
work, which only rarely depends on her central thesis, and which
appears to me very perceptive and insightful. In his review in
_Mythprint_ Douglas Kane also praises Flieger's book highly.
This issue of _Mythprint_ also features Mark Hooker's review of
Dimitra Fimi's book, _Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From
Fairies to Hobbits_, which won her the 2010 Mythopoeic Society's
Award for Inkling Studies. This book also receives much praise in
the review, and together with the other praise that I have seen
heaped on this book, it will be one of the books that I will receive
for my birthday later this month (my wife and I have the very
expedient agreement that we get a certain sum to spend as we wish
for our birthdays). Incidentally I have also found that Dimitra Fimi
has written a paper for LotR Plaza's Scholars' Forum about Hobbit
folklore (the forum is currently down, so I can't give a direct
link) that ties in well with Steuard's question about the tales that
Gandalf told the Hobbits.
= = = = Conference Season = = = =
Wellinghall, Friday, October 1, 2010, "We went to Oxonmoot"
<http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/760569.html>
A report from Oxonmoot -- there really isn't anything to add
(except, perhaps, that I really wish I had a LOT more money to go to
these things).
= = = = Other Stuff = = = =
Wellinghall, Sunday, October 3, 2010, "Some links"
<http://wellinghall.livejournal.com/760905.html>
What it says, really. A few of the links are Tolkien related, making
it relevant to this forum (though I'm sure you all know Wayne and
Christina's blog, you may be unware, for instance, that Tolkien's
letter to the OED on the word 'Hobbit' can be seen on Flickr; I
certainly was).
Martin Rundkvist, Monday, September 13, 2010, "Hobbit Continuity
Error"
<http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/09/hobbit_continuity_error.php>
<http://tinyurl.com/32jetht>
Some comments on the problems related to Orcrist and Glamdring in
_The Hobbit_. It isn't really new, but here the comments are by a
Swedish archaeologist, Dr Martin Rundkvist, which at least lends a
bit extra weight to some of his comments.
--
Troels Forchhammer <troelsfo(a)googlewave.com>
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.
The major problem [encountered in time travel] is quite
simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this
matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's
Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations.
- Douglas Adams, /The Restaurant at the End of the Universe/
Troels Forchhammer
Troels Forchhammer <Tro...@ThisIsFake.invalid> spoke these staves:
> Tolkien Transactions V
> September 2010
<snip>
> = = = = News = = = =
>
> JDR, Saturday, October 2, 2010, "Christine O'Donnell, Tolkien
> Scholar?"
> <http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2010/10/christine-odonnell-tolkien-scholar.html>
> <http://tinyurl.com/383kpac>
Confusticate and bebother! I should of course have included David
Bratman's blog on the same issue:
DB, Thursday, September 16, 2010, "another literary reference shot"
<http://calimac.livejournal.com/468731.html>
Here Bratman calls O'Donnell's article 'unsurprisingly, not at all
good'. I have no problem with the specific criticisms of O'Donnell's
article, but Bratman is also trying to actively distance himself
from O'Donnell's world-view in general and I do suspect that this
may have led to him being even less inclined to acknowledge what
little of worth there is in the article: saying that 'there is much
that could be said complimentarily about Galadriel and Eowyn as
strong figures in _The Lord of the Rings_, but O'Donnell doesn't
manage to say any of it' is, I think, perhaps a tad too harsh (I do
believe that some of the comments on Éowyn are solid enough, though
I suspect that they are not very original).
--
Troels Forchhammer <troelsfo(a)googlewave.com>
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.
Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
- /Reaper Man/ (Terry Pratchett)
Stan Brown
>
> Tolkien Transactions V
> September 2010
>
> Time for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most
> interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related
> 'goings-on' on the 'net.
Troels, do you have I through IV on a Web page somewhere?
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Tolkien FAQs: http://Tolkien.slimy.com (Steuard Jensen's site)
Tolkien letters FAQ:
http://mysite.verizon.net/aznirb/mtr/lettersfaq.html
FAQ of the Rings: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm
Encyclopedia of Arda: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm
more FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm
Troels Forchhammer
Stan Brown <the_sta...@fastmail.fm> spoke these staves:
>
> On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:40:34 +0200, Troels Forchhammer wrote:
>>
>> Tolkien Transactions V
>> September 2010
>>
>> Time for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most
>> interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related
>> 'goings-on' on the 'net.
>
> Troels, do you have I through IV on a Web page somewhere?
They're on Google, of course, but I hadn't thought of HTML-izing them
(I have them in text format also on my hard-disk). I may be reading
entirely too much into it, but I'll admit that I'm flattered that you
ask about them, and if you think it would be a good idea to make them
available in HTML format, I'll happily convert them and put them on-
line ;-)
--
Troels Forchhammer <troelsfo(a)googlewave.com>
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.
Thus, the future of the universe is not completely
determined by the laws of science, and its present state,
as Laplace thought. God still has a few tricks up his
sleeve.
- Stephen Hawking
Stan Brown
>
> In message <news:MPG.271372a24...@news.individual.net>
> Stan Brown <the_sta...@fastmail.fm> spoke these staves:
> >
> > On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:40:34 +0200, Troels Forchhammer wrote:
> >>
> >> Tolkien Transactions V
> >> September 2010
> >>
> >> Time for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most
> >> interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related
> >> 'goings-on' on the 'net.
> >
> > Troels, do you have I through IV on a Web page somewhere?
>
> They're on Google, of course, but I hadn't thought of HTML-izing them
> (I have them in text format also on my hard-disk). I may be reading
> entirely too much into it, but I'll admit that I'm flattered that you
> ask about them, and if you think it would be a good idea to make them
> available in HTML format, I'll happily convert them and put them on-
> line ;-)
Thanks, Troels, but I must have had a temporary lapse of sense. Of
course they're on Google Groups.
Weland
> In message<news:MPG.271372a24...@news.individual.net>
> Stan Brown<the_sta...@fastmail.fm> spoke these staves:
>>
>> On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:40:34 +0200, Troels Forchhammer wrote:
>>>
>>> Tolkien Transactions V
>>> September 2010
>>>
>>> Time for a new issue of my attempt to extract the best or most
>>> interesting (in my highly subjective estimate) of Tolkien related
>>> 'goings-on' on the 'net.
>>
>> Troels, do you have I through IV on a Web page somewhere?
>
> They're on Google, of course, but I hadn't thought of HTML-izing them
> (I have them in text format also on my hard-disk). I may be reading
> entirely too much into it, but I'll admit that I'm flattered that you
> ask about them, and if you think it would be a good idea to make them
> available in HTML format, I'll happily convert them and put them on-
> line ;-)
>
I've been meaning to not only say thank you for doing this, but willing
to host these on my blog as well if you like.
Troels Forchhammer
Weland <gi...@poetic.com> spoke these staves:
>
<snip>
> I've been meaning to not only say thank you for doing this, but
> willing to host these on my blog as well if you like.
I'd be honoured! Thank you!
What format would suit you best? I can easily HTML-ize the posts and
mail them to you.
--
Troels Forchhammer <troelsfo(a)googlewave.com>
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not
imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They
laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed
at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the
Clown.
- Carl Sagan
Weland
> In message<news:i8tpmu$93g$1...@news.eternal-september.org>
> Weland<gi...@poetic.com> spoke these staves:
>>
>
> <snip>
>
>> I've been meaning to not only say thank you for doing this, but
>> willing to host these on my blog as well if you like.
>
> I'd be honoured! Thank you!
>
> What format would suit you best? I can easily HTML-ize the posts and
> mail them to you.
>
Actually, just post them here, the only thing I'd really need to do code
on is the links, or you can email them to me at the blog address with
that already done. The blog software does most of the rest.