Section 5 Abstracts of the Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference

Tolkien Society: 'a star shines on the hour of our meeting'

Tolkien Centenary Conference Proceedings Abstracts

At the Wordface: J.R.R. Tolkien's Work on the Oxford English Dictionary.: An description of J.R.R. Tolkien's time working on the Oxford English Dictionary together with a detailed analysis of the evidence for his contribution to the entries for individual words.

The Growth of Grammar in the Elven Tongues.: While some features of Elven grammar go back to the earliest records, such as the "Quenya Lexicon", others are unique to later works such as the "Secret Vice" poems and the Etymologies, and some do not emerge until after The Lord of the Rings. The Elven languages form an expanding canvas (like Niggle's), and many of the individual poems and sentences can be examined in terms of how they elaborate or enhance the overall grammar of Elvish.

Tolkien's Dictionary Poetics: The Influence of the OED's Defining Style on Tolkien's Fiction.: This paper examines the connections between Tolkien's writing of fiction and his work as a lexicographer on the Oxford English Dictionary. Some of Tolkien's most characteristic stylistic flourishes show the influence of the distinctive, charming defining style of the first edition of the O.E.D.

Problems of Translating into Russian.: The general tradition of Russian literature has been based on the requirement that any literary translation should be good literature in itself as well as preserving the author's manner of writing. It seems that understanding of J.R.R. Tolkien and his books is growing very slowly in Russia. There have never been any professional literary works on Tolkien or the problems of translating his works. A number of approaches to translating are connected with this fact. A short history of this subject shows that both the author's attitude and fairy-story reality should be reproduced correctly and with care. I am going to compare Russian published versions of The Lord of the Rings (by V. Murav'ëv & A. Kistyakovskii, by V. Matorina, by N. Grigorieva & V. Grushetskiy, and by Z. Bobir).

J.R.R. Tolkien and Old English Studies: An Appreciation.: Some scholars argue that Tolkien did not fulfil some of his responsibilities during his thirty-four years as an Oxford Professor, in that he spent the bulk of his research time on his imaginative writings, thereby depriving scholarship of valuable works he - or other holders of his Chairs - might have produced. This paper leaves posterity to judge this issue, but in assessing Tolkien's contribution to Old English studies, it will argue that one of them - his 1936 British Academy lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" - has had more influence than most of the products of his critics, and that many Old English scholars owe much to his inspiration.

Tom Shippey

Tolkien and the Gawain-poet.: One of Tolkien's major academic works was the edition he prepared, with E.V. Gordon, of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Yet this poem is only one of four in identical dialect (an important point to Tolkien) and in the same manuscript. This paper considers the philological issues these poems raise, and shows how the theories, eccentricities and linguistics of the Gawain-poet were read and used by Tolkien.