April 2017
Once all the reporting is done, there are always the finishing touches to put in – pictures, checking that there is no descriptions left merely as “description” (the default used in the macro I use), and not least writing up these opening comments, usually complaining about my lack of time ….
Well, I am busy. No doubt about that, but these days I am generally busy with things I like to do, so I can’t really complain (there have, however, been periods over the past year or so where my paid job has taken up more time and effort than I am paid for). This mostly involves my family, my paid job and my volunteering for the Guide and Scout movement (in that order) before I get to allocate time for my studies and discussions of the life and works of professor J.R.R. Tolkien. That of course means that these transactions, along with any other discussions of Tolkien, are done when the time is there.
But no matter how much time I spend, I would never be able to guarantee anything about newness, completeness, or relevance of the contents here (or, indeed, any other implication of responsibility), so these come without any guarantees of anything other than idiosyncrasy 🙂
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
6: Tolkienian Artwork
7: Story Internal (Ardalogy)
8: Other Stuff
9: Rewarding Discussions
10: Other Reading
11: Web Sites
12: The Blog Roll
13: Sources
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| A Flower in the Grey North by Peter Xavier Price |
News
Shaun Gunner, Sunday, 16 April 2017, ‘10th anniversary of The Children of Húrin’
Medievalist.net, Sunday, 16 April 2017, ‘Researchers bring Old Norse language back to JORVIK Viking Centre’
University of Arkansas, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘Honors College to Launch ‘Retro Readings’ with Course on Tolkien’
The Reading Agency, Friday, 21 April 2017, ‘Talking fiction? Research reveals our reading habits and hang-ups’
Lying about having read that book? This survey shows that “One quarter of 18-24 year olds (25%) admit to having lied about reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, when they have in fact just watched the film.” Not merely 25% of those who make the claim, but 25% of the total … puts the many claims about the films bringing in millions of readers in a slightly different light, I think.
See also, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, c|cnet, Sunday, 23 April 2017, ‘Are you lying about having read the ‘Lord of the Rings’ books?’
Daniel Helen, Tuesday 25 April, 2017, ‘Winners of The Tolkien Society Awards 2017 announced’
Congratulations, all!
‘Alice Greenleaf’, Middle-earth News, Thursday, 27 April 2017, ‘Soundtracks of Middle-earth’
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| From the Barrow-Downs by Graeme Skinner |
Events
Reports or comments on past events
25 March 2017, Worldwide, ‘Tolkien Reading Day 2017’, The Tolkien Society
This year’s theme was ‘Poetry and Songs in Tolkien’s Fiction’
8 April 2017, Burlington, Vermont, ‘Tolkien in Vermont’, Tolkien at University of Vermont
Anna Smol, Wednesday, 29 March 2017, ‘Tolkien in Vermont 2017: Romance in Middle-earth’
12–15 April 2017, San Diego, California, USA, ‘PCA/ACA National Conference’, PCA / ACA
Anna Smol, Thursday, 6 April 2017, ‘Tolkien Studies at PCA/ACA 2017’
21–23 April 2017, Warwick Arms Hotel, ‘Springmoot and AGM 2017’, The Tolkien Society
Daniel Helen, The Tolkien Society, Monday, 10 April 2017, ‘Mark Atherton to be guest of honour at Annual Dinner’
Info on upcoming & on-going events (as of 1 May)
11 May – 8 July 2017, Gallerie Arludik, Paris, ‘John Howe’, Gallerie Arludik
John Howe, Thursday, 20 April 2017, ‘Paris, May 11, 2017’
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| Thrice He Rose by Jenny Dolfen |
11–14 May 2017, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, ‘International Congress on Medieval Studies (K’zoo)’, Western Michigan University, Medieval Institute
John D. Rateliff, Tuesday, 7 March 2017, ‘Tolkien Sessions at Kalamazoo’
31 May 2017, Waterstones, Oxford, ‘An Evening with Alan Lee’, Waterstones & HarperCollins
Daniel Helen, Tuesday, 11 April 2017, ‘HarperCollins announce Beren and Lúthien launch events’
1 June 2017, Waterstones, Picadilly, ‘An Evening with Alan Lee’, Waterstones & HarperCollins
2 June 2017, Waterstones, Exeter – Roman Gate, ‘An Evening with Alan Lee’, Waterstones & HarperCollins
1–4 June 2017, National Conference Center, Virginia, US, ‘Mythmoot IV: Invoking Wonder’, Mythgard Institute
5 June 2017, Waterstones, Liverpool, ‘An Evening with Alan Lee’, Waterstones & HarperCollins
6 June 2017, Waterstones, Hull, ‘An Evening with Alan Lee’, Waterstones & HarperCollins
16–18 June 2017, Waddow Hall, Clitheroe, Lancashire, ‘The Middle-earth Beer & Music Festival’, The Ale House Clitheroe
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”
3–6 July 2017, Leeds, ‘International Medieval Congress’, University of Leeds, Institute for Medieval Studies
Dimitra Fimi, Wednesday, 30 November 2016, ‘Tolkien Sessions at IMC Leeds, July 2017’
28–31 July 2017, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA, ‘Mythcon 48’, The Mythopoeic Society
Lynn Maudlin, The Horn of Rohan Redux, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘HUZZAH!!! Mythcon 48 Room & Board’
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
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’
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| Amon Ereb by Peter Xavier Price |
Essays and Scholarship
‘“J.R.R. Tolkien” on Academia.edu’
‘“Tolkien Studies” on Academia.edu’
A sampling of papers uploaded to Academia.edu April (-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:
Jeffrey Bullins, Tolkien in Vermont conference paper, ‘Sounds in the Dark: Assimilation and Continuity in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’
Olga Polomoshnova, Academia.edu, ‘Fëanor and Melkor: so different, so alike’
Gavin Holman, Academia.edu, ‘In the Land of Mordor Where the Shadows Lie: Good, Evil and the Quest in Tolkein’s Middle Earth’ [sic]
Marian Makins, thersites 4 (2016), 199-240., ‘Memories of (Ancient Roman) War in Tolkien’s Dead Marshes’
Giovanni Costabile, Academia.edu, ‘Note concerning the Influence of Tolkien’s scholarship on Arthurian Studies’
Olga Polomoshnova, Academia.edu, ‘In the shadows of dark forests’
Jason Fisher, in Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘Sourcing Tolkien’s “Circles of the World”: Speculations on The Heimskringla, The Latin Vulgate Bible, and the Hereford Mappa Mundi’
Jason Fisher, Mythlore 35.1, Fall/Winter 2016, p.191-200, ‘A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart D. Lee (review)’
Jason Fisher, Mythlore 35.2, Spring/Summer 2016, p.171-175, ‘A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins (review)’
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| Sketching the Stones by Graeme Skinner |
John Garth, Friday, 31 March 2017, ‘When Tolkien reinvented Atlantis and Lewis went to Mars’
I know I also included this piece last month, but I didn’t comment upon it (and I’ll use the 1 April update as my excuse 😉 ). Besides displaying Garth usual engaging and highly readable style of writing, it also showcases the careful attention to detail that makes Garth such an enjoyable and convincing author. And do remember to read also the later conversation in comments by David Llewellyn Dodd and John Garth, which is also very enlightening.
Jane Beal, Journal of Tolkien Research, Tuesday, 4 April 2017, ‘Tolkien, Eucatastrophe, and the Re-Creation of Medieval Legend’
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Tuesday, 4 April 2017, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien’s Baptism Act!’
Ryszard Derdzinski has posted a number of bits and pieces from his research into Tolkien’s ancestry. Some of this relates to evidence of various Tolkiens (of that or similar spellings) in Prussia and modern Germany, other of it relating to the etymology of the name. Here, for the sake of brevity, I will only list those that I have found the most interesting and relevant to uncovering details about the ancestry of ‘our’ Tolkien.
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Wednesday, 5 April 2017, ‘Another proof of the East Prussian origin ’
John D. Rateliff, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, ‘Appendices That Might Have Been’
On a very interesting list of contents for The Lord of the Rings found at Marquette. Thanks to Christopher Tolkien diligent work, we do now have some idea of what all these items might have entailed, including those that did not end up in the final book. I am not sure that I find Rateliff’s argument with regards to timing to be convincing, though – I would expect Tolkien to have cast his net quite widely in the first attempts immediately after giving up on the co-publication of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.
Andrew Latham, Medievalist.net, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘Medieval Sources of Sovereignty: The Idea of Supreme Authority in Quanto Personam and its Glosses’
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘Christian Tolkien in Creuzburg, 1750? Looking for this Christian Tolkien…’
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘Michael Tolkien (1708–1795), “Bürger und Kürschner” from Danzig’
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| Balrog by Tomás Hijo |
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘Daniel Tolkien, father of Johann Christian (Riesenburg 1811)’
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, Friday, 21 April 2017, ‘The Tolkien Family Tree on Ancestry.co.uk – Why I think John B. Tolkien was born in Gdańsk’
A good summary of the main results of Derdzinski’s research into the origins of the Tolkien family. The research is very interesting, indeed, and looks quite promising, though the evidence provided so far is not quite as convincing as it may appear – as I also say in a comment to this post, there are in my view other scenarios that would explain the available evidence equally well, and which are, in my assessment, no less likely. But I encourage my readers to look through Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski’s interesting posts on the topic and assess the evidence for themselves.
Medievalist.net, Wednesday, 26 April 2017, ‘When did the Vikings start raiding England?’
… earlier than the 793 attack on Lindisfarne, certainly.
John William Houghton, Journal of Tolkien Research, Thursday, 27 April 2017, ‘Neues Testament und Märchen: Tolkien, Fairy Stories, and the Gospel’
Commentary
Stephen C. Winter, Monday, 3 April 2017, ‘The King and The Healing of Faramir’
Jonathan S. McIntosh, Monday, 3 April 2017, ‘Saruman’s philosophy of war’
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| Sketching the Stones by Graeme Skinner |
John D. Rateliff, Friday, 7 April 2017, ‘Just How Long is LotR Anyway? (word counts)’
The answer to that question quite obviously depends on which words you count …
Lynn Forest-Hill, Southfarthing Mathom, Sunday, 9 April 2017, ‘First Meeting in April’
The Southampton Tolkien Reading Group has now reached that last book of the narrative of The Lord of the Rings, this time discussing the first two chapters of book VI.
Stephen C Winter, Monday, 10 April 2017, ‘The King and The Healing of Éowyn’
I usually find Winter’s reflections interesting or even enjoyable, but this time I felt quite provoked by the dismissal of the northern spirit (to use Tolkien’s term), claiming that it, “in the form that has come to us through the mythology of the North is ultimately bleak and without meaning.” It is quite fine that Winter himself finds it bleak and cannot find meaning therein, but Tolkien obviously didn’t find it so, nor does millions of people today (far more than just those who consider themselves Ásatrú). The Danish priest (and historian, philosopher, and even philological thinker) N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783 – 1872) found a richness in that form that prompted him to use the mythology of the North to enrich his vision of Christianity in the North (Scandinavia). Having been raised in a culture strongly affected by Grundtvig’s thinking to appreciate the richness and meaningfulness of the mythology of the North, I found Winter’s comments here to be far off the mark.
Ben, Monday, 10 April 2017, ‘Tolkienian Eucatastrophe’
Follow-up posts: Ben, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘Turin and Pridefulness’
An analysis and a critique of some of the more usual attempts at explaining the story of Túrin in a manner that is compatible with Tolkien’s conjecture of eucatastrophe (I call it a conjecture because I believe it to be false for fairy story as a whole, though it can be a useful lens through which to approach Tolkien himself). I have commented the second post (Turin and Pridefulness), and will here merely refer to that discussion. I look forward to the continuation in the hope that it will also address the questions I raise.
Jack Malvern, The Australian, Thursday, 13 April 2017, ‘From Terry Pratchett to Queen Margrethe: Tolkien’s fan mail’
In anticipation of the 2018 exhibition at the Bodleian, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, this article lists some notable people who wrote to Tolkien to express admiration for his fiction.
Matthew Hicks, Quora / HuffPost, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth: How Would The Silmarillion Have Been Different if Feanor Didn’t Burn the Ships at Losgar?’
Given what we know about the Elves being bound to the Music of the Ainur as fate, I am not sure that a question such as this is meaningful at all, and I would expect any proper discussion of such contrafactual questions to include at least a discussion also of this. I am rather unimpressed by this answer, even if I tend to agree that it would have no great impact on neither the story of the Quenta Silmarillion or on the history of the Wars of Beleriand.
Stephen C. Winter, Monday, 17 April 2017, ‘The King and The Healing of Merry’
Séamas Ó Sionnaigh, Monday, 17 April 2017, ‘Destroyer of Cities, Homer, Jrr Tolkien and George RR Martin’
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| Gil-galad was an Elvenking by Jenny Dolfen |
Olga Polomoshnova, Monday, 17 April 2017, ‘«Alone of the Valar he knew fear»’
Dennis Wise, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘Tolkien and . . . Igor Stravinsky?’
Medievalist.net, Sunday, 23 April 2017, ‘Seven Things You Didn’t Know About Medieval Dragons’
Because, you know … dragons! 🙂
Olga Polomoshnova, Monday, 24 April 2017, ‘The King’s Leaf. A Guest Blog by Olga Polomoshnova.’
Introduction by Stephen C. Winter.
Jonathan S. McIntosh, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘Aragorn vs. Saruman’
Eric Grundhauser, Atlas Obscura, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘The Movie Date That Solidified J.R.R. Tolkien’s Dislike of Walt Disney’
Mr Grundhauser has combined information from various sources to tell the story of Lewis’ and Tolkien’s visit to the theatre to see Disney’s Snow White, throwing additional light on the contempt of Disney that shines through some of Tolkien’s comments. Personally I understand their reaction to Disney’s dwarfs &ndash the ridicule of Disney is, I think, even worse than the vilification of Grimm.
Trish Lambert, Tuesday, 2 May 2017, ‘Guest Post — Trish Lambert — Snow White and Bilbo Baggins’
Though posted in May, this post is a direct response to the above article (and not merely reporting on it), and so deserves to be mentioned here.
Brenton Dickieson, Wednesday, 26 April 2017, ‘Ragnarök’n’roll! The Poetic Edda and Tolkien’s Sigurd and Gudrún’
Tom Hillman, Wednesday, 26 April 2017, ‘Barrow-wights, Ringwraiths, and William Morris (FR 2.ii.248)’
Bruce Charlton, Friday, 28 April 2017, ‘How important were The Inklings to The Inklings?’
A good question. And while I do think that Charlton overstates things when he thinks (with little evidence) that “it is clear that for Tolkien and Lewis the Inklings meetings were part of a broader cultural effort”, I also think Charlton is right in concluding that the answer depended a lot on which member you asked, and that the group was more important for Tolkien and Lewis than for the other members.
Tom Hillman, Sunday, 30 April 2017, ‘From Terrible Beauty to Beacon of Hope — The Silmarils from Fëanor to Eärendil’
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| Hobbiton. Gandalf’s Search For A Burglar by Joe Gilronan |
Reviews and Book News
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, Friday, 7 April 2017, ‘Upcoming Tolkien Books of 2017 [So Far…]’
David Bratman, Tuesday, 11 April 2017, ‘Tolkien Studies 14: an announcement’
Announcing the contents. Now for waiting with waning patience …
Brenton Dickieson, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, ‘Approaching “The Silmarillion” for the First Time’
Not so much a review as such, but more some advice on how to approach the book for first-time readers. One of the things that is abundantly clear is that readers vary quite a lot, and the advice that helps one reader get a good reading experience may destroy the experience of another reader. Therefore, any reading advice is good – the more the merrier – but sort it through carefully before taking it. As an example, on my first reading of The Silmarillion I found the Ainulindalë entirely enchanting an captivating, and didn’t get bogged down at any point before I reached the Quenta Silmarillion proper …
See also this response / follow-up, Steve Hayes, Thursday, 13 April 2017, ‘On reading The Silmarillion’
Fracesca T Barbini, Sci-fi and Fantasy Network, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, ‘A brand new edition and translation of Tolkien’s Letters’
A new translation of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien into Italian is to be published towards the end of the year.
John Garth, Friday, 14 April 2017, ‘Tolkien at Exeter College: Birth of a legend’
Insofar as this is, as he claims, Garth blowing his own trumpet, at least he does so in an informative way, and lets us in on the trumpet-blowing right from the outset. And I can warmly recommend the booklet as well as the trumpet-blowing …
Yorkshire Post, Friday, 14 April 2017, ‘Hobbit-forming: book launch celebrates Tolkien links with Yorkshre’
More about the upcoming (but delayed …) release of Beren and Lúthien.
Sue Bridgwater, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘Historical Principles’
A response to The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver
Alicia Fox-Lenz, The Horn of Rohan Redux, Monday, 24 April 2017, ‘Mythlore 130 published’
John D. Rateliff, Thursday, 27 April 2017, ‘New Arrivals’
Comments (many of them very brief) on the following books: Tolkien and Sanskrit by Mark Hooker, Deep Roots in a Time of Frost: Essays on Tolkien by Patrick Curry, Wagner and Tolkien: Mythmakers by Renée Vink, The Magical World of J. R. R. Tolkien by Gareth Knight, On the Perilous Road: An Unauthorized Biography by Elizabeth Currie & Alex Lewis, John Ronald’S Dragons by Caroline McAlister, Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendour, & Transcendence in Middle-earth by Lisa Coutras, Tolkien, Self & Other: “This Queer Creation” by Jane Chance, Critical Insights: The Hobbit, ed. Stephen W. Potts as well as a few that are not directly about Tolkien.
Harley J. Sims, Mercatornet, Thursday, 27 April 2017, ‘The Silmarillion: tracing the roots of Tolkien’s mythical universe’
Amrit Sidhu-Brar, Miruvor, Saturday, 29 April 2017, ‘A move to Editors new, and the (very) late Hilary 2016 issue’
Tolkienian Artwork
Jenny Dolfen, Sunday, 2 April 2017, ‘Thrice he rose’
Fingolfin fighting Melkor …
Jenny Dolfen, Tuesday, 4 April 2017, ‘Gil-galad was an Elvenking’
Chris ‘QueenslandChris’, DeviantArt, Tuesday, 4 April 2017, ‘The Edge of the Wild’
Wizard, Hobbit and Dwarves …
Miruna Lavinia, DeviantArt, Thursday, 6 April 2017, ‘Smaug And Bard’
Kitty L, SciFiFantasy Network, Friday, 7 April 2017, ‘Jay Johnstone’s Tolkienography & Fantasy Art’
Elena Kukanova, DeviantArt, Friday, 7 April 2017, ‘King of the Valinorian Noldor’
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| The Lord’s Prayer by Tsvetelina Krumova – Elmenel |
Tsvetelina Krumova, Sunday, 9 April 2017, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’
Peter Xavier Price, Thursday, 13 April 2017, ‘Amon Ereb’
Peter Xavier Price, DeviantArt, Friday, 14 April 2017, ‘A Flower in the Grey North’
Peter Xavier Price’s explorations of the Followers, the After-born, the Sickly, the Mortals, the Inscrutable of The Silmarillion are enchanting …
Ted Nasmith, Saturday, 15 April 2017, ‘Battle of the Black Gate’
Joe Gilronan, Sunday, 16 April 2017, ‘Hobbiton. Gandalf’s Search For A Burglar’
Elena Kukanova, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘Lorien’
Abe Papakhian, DeviantArt, Wednesday, 19 April 2017, ‘The Horn of Boromir’
Graeme Skinner, Thursday, 20 April 2017, ‘Sketching The Stones’
W. Somers, DeviantArt, Sunday, 23 April 2017, ‘Frodo at Bag End’
W. Somers, DeviantArt, Sunday, 23 April 2017, ‘Orcs, Trolls and Other Scary Things’
Tomás Hijo, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘Balrog – Tolkien meets Goya’
Graeme Skinner, Tuesday, 25 April 2017, ‘From the Barrow-Downs’
‘Tobi’, John Howe: Flavour of the Month, Thursday, 27 April 2017, ‘What Happened To The Stone Trolls?’
Elena Kukanova, Friday, 28 April 2017, ‘Celegorm’
Story Internal (Ardalogy)
Olga , Wednesday, N April 2017, ‘Marriage divine’
On the concept of marriage as applied to the Valar.
Michael Martinez, Monday, 10 April 2017, ‘Are There Taxes in Middle-earth?’
Michael Martinez, Monday, 17 April 2017, ‘Who Ruled Minas Tirith When Aragorn Became King?’
Jeff LaSala, Tor.com, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘The Trial of Galadriel’
Michael Martinez, Monday, 24 April 2017, ‘Who Were the Bearded Easterlings with Large Axes?’
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| Sketching the Stones by Graeme Skinner |
Other Stuff
Bruce Charlton, Tuesday, 4 April 2017, ‘What is Myth? Answers from Tolkien, CS Lewis, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield’
Quoting from a 1971 book on these four Inklings. The 1971 book reaches the conclusion that Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams, “… have used myth … but they have not really said why”, but for Tolkien, the amount of writings by Tolkien published since 1971 is so huge that this is now erroneous (one need just to turn to the published Letters), and I very much suspect that the same is true at least for Lewis. Tolkien’s approach to myth is, however, in most ways far more prosaic and thus rejects the mysticism of Barfield.
Dimitra Fimi, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, ‘Literary Tourism: Wales, Land of Legends’
About a new website for the literary tourist of Wales. And, yes, it does have links to both Tolkien and Fimi …
Brian Sibley, Tuesday, 18 April 2017, ‘Hobbits and Lions and Emus, Oh My!’
About the Barbara Remington cover design for the 1965 Ballantine paperbacks.
Deniz Bevan, Monday, 24 April 2017, ‘T is for… Tolkien’
Rewarding Discussions
I have been asked where one can find good and rewarding discussions about Tolkien and his work these days, and how to conduct oneself in that connection.
Back when I started myself (in an earlier millennium …), the place to be was definitely the Tolkien usenet groups, rec.arts.books.tolkien (Google Groups link) and alt.fan.tolkien (Google Groups link). These were vibrant, high-volume groups with a number of highly knowledgable posters. About ten years ago, the groups suffered a concerted attack trying to disrupt them (not exactly spam, but high volumes of posts using the names and addresses of regular posters, and containing bits and pieces thrown together from posts all over usenet). During this attack a lot of regulars found other places to discuss Tolkien, and the volume of posts never really recovered.
In the first decade of the new century, a lot of Tolkien-related discussion fora sprang up all around. Places like lotrplaza.com, www.barrowdowns.com, www.xenite.org/, www.theonering.net and others that I have forgotten or which no longer offer discussions took over as the World Wide Web (HTTP and HTML) took over from the older NNTP of usenet as the favoured places for discussion on the internet. Many of these sites (certainly the ones listed) still offer a place for discussions about Tolkien, but they, too, no longer carry the volume of posts they once did.
These days it seems that the higher volume discussions have moved on to social media, especially Facebook. The great pity about this is that most groups tend to be closed or even secret – not because they do not want anyone to find them, but because this is the only way to prevent one’s activity from spilling onto the news feeds of one’s non-Tolkienian friends (and this can be a substantial amount of posts for some of us …). But there you can find such groups as the “Tolkien Society” Facebook Group, “Tolkien Discussions”, “That’s What I’m Tolkien About”, “Christopher Tolkien” and many, many others. Despite the downright crappy interface for discussions, this seems to be where things happen these days. Unfortunately.
Other Reading
Lynn Maudlin, The Horn of Rohan Redux, Tuesday, 11 April 2017, ‘Mythprint #380 Published’
Also, I am still making my way through Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell – enjoying it whenever I can get 10 – 20 minutes with the book.
Web Sites
Well … not so much new exciting websites as stumbling across old articles that I didn’t discover at the time when they were published …
Grant P. Hudson, Clarendon House, 25 November 2016, ‘The Mountain and the City’
“Angry Staff Officer”, 4 November 2016, ‘Warfighter: Middle Earth’ [sic]
John Garth, Oxford Today, 24 October 2016, ‘The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary’
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.
Dimitra Fimi, ‘Dr. Dimitra Fimi’
Archive of posts from April 2017
John D. Rateliff — ‘Sacnoth’s Scriptorium’
Archive of posts from April 2017
John Garth, ‘John Garth’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Jonathan S. McIntosh, ‘The Flame Imperishable’
Archive of posts from April 2017
David Bratman, ‘Kalimac’s Journal’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Jenny Dolfen, ‘Jenny’s Sketchbook’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Anna Smol, ‘A Single Leaf’
Archive of posts from April 2017
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 April 2017
Southfarthing Mathom
Archive of posts from April 2017
Various, The Mythopoeic Society, ‘The Horn of Rohan Redux’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Sue Bridgwater, ‘Skorn’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Tom Hilman, ‘Alas, not me’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Emil Johansson, ‘LotR Project Blog’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Taruithorn, the Oxford Tolkien Society, ‘’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Michael Martinez, ‘Middle-earth’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Ben, ‘A clearer thinking oasis’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Bruce Charlton, ‘Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Various, ‘Middle-earth News’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, ‘Expressions of Substance’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, ‘Tolknięty’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Stephen C. Winter, ‘Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings’
Archive of posts from April 2017
Sources
New sources in April 2017
Olga Polomoshnova, ‘Middle-earth Reflections’
For older sources, see http://parmarkenta.com/p/sources.html
