or, what Tolkien was doing when you weren’t paying attention. I’ve been keeping an annotated bibliography of the Inklings in fiction, that is, their appearances as characters in stories by other writers. Many of these novels and stories I’ve read. For some of those I had not, the descriptions were sketchy and uninformed. I decided […]
You’ve all seen the articles like the one in the Guardian proclaiming “Unseen JRR Tolkien poems found in school magazine.” As a news item, this story is a curious thing. What’s just now been discovered is the school’s copy of the magazine with the poems in it. As the article makes clear, when Wayne G. […]
You’ve seen Stephen Colbert on The Late Show criticizing the scientist who named a species of spider after Sméagol? It should have been Gollum, Colbert says, or better yet, how about Shelob? “This is sad,” Colbert concludes. It is, but the problem lies more with him.
So last fall I wrote about TV host Stephen Colbert, his Tolkien trivia mastery, and the pitfalls thereof. Though I came to critique, Colbert’s show persona is clear: nobody bests him at Tolkien trivia. Well, I’ve now seen somebody stumping Colbert, but they may have had to cheat to do it. It was actor Ryan […]
Remember how we were accused of somehow having rigged all the popular polls that chose The Lord of the Rings as the most popular novel, or even one of the most popular novels, of the last century? Well, it looks like the crafty Tolkien Society must have suborned 81 distinguished foreign critics choosing the 100 […]
Next time you’re listening to the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with its music in the English classical tradition written by Stephen Oliver, contemplate the bizarre but interesting fact that the composer was the uncle of John Oliver, of Last Week Tonight.
or, what Tolkien was doing when you weren’t paying attention. I’ve been keeping an annotated bibliography of the Inklings in fiction, that is, their appearances as characters in stories by other writers. Many of these novels and stories I’ve read. For some of those I had not, the descriptions were sketchy and uninformed. I decided […]
So last fall I wrote about TV host Stephen Colbert, his Tolkien trivia mastery, and the pitfalls thereof. Though I came to critique, Colbert’s show persona is clear: nobody bests him at Tolkien trivia. Well, I’ve now seen somebody stumping Colbert, but they may have had to cheat to do it. It was actor Ryan […]
You’ve all seen the articles like the one in the Guardian proclaiming “Unseen JRR Tolkien poems found in school magazine.” As a news item, this story is a curious thing. What’s just now been discovered is the school’s copy of the magazine with the poems in it. As the article makes clear, when Wayne G. […]
Remember how we were accused of somehow having rigged all the popular polls that chose The Lord of the Rings as the most popular novel, or even one of the most popular novels, of the last century? Well, it looks like the crafty Tolkien Society must have suborned 81 distinguished foreign critics choosing the 100 […]
You’ve seen Stephen Colbert on The Late Show criticizing the scientist who named a species of spider after Sméagol? It should have been Gollum, Colbert says, or better yet, how about Shelob? “This is sad,” Colbert concludes. It is, but the problem lies more with him.
Next time you’re listening to the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with its music in the English classical tradition written by Stephen Oliver, contemplate the bizarre but interesting fact that the composer was the uncle of John Oliver, of Last Week Tonight.
