Blog

July 2014

This is, without doubt, the most belated issue of my transactions ever. Let’s hope that it will remain so in perpetuum, so I will put this on-line without further ado.

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The Eagle and Child, Oxford. (c) 2013 Lyn Wilshire. A popular meeting place of the Inklings.
The Eagle and Child, Oxford. (c) 2013 Lyn Wilshire. A popular meeting place of the Inklings.

Tourism is an important source of income for any city, region, or country. It was estimated that in 2013 tourism was “worth £106bn to England’s economy”(1). It should therefore come as no surprise that there is such a thing as a Tolkien tourist industry. For several decades Tolkien’s readers have been making private pilgrimages to Oxford; posing for photographs outside one of his residences; visiting the various colleges at which he studied, or where he later became a tutor and lecturer; paying their respects at his graveside, or even dropping in to ‘The Eagle and Child,’ one of his favourite pubs, for a drink. The tourist industry is now galvanising its resources and offering dedicated Tolkien Tours. In April this year Birmingham produced a new Tolkien Trail leaflet, which recommends visits to Sarehole Mill, Moseley Bog, the houses where Tolkien once lived, and the places he worshipped. This is an invaluable resource for those wishing to visit all the genuine sites associated with Tolkien in the area in which he grew up. However, a more pernicious aspect of tourism is also beginning to rear its head; locations which have only a tangential Tolkien connection, or in extreme cases with absolutely no link to the author are attempting to jump on the tourist bandwagon.

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Some months ago The Huffington Post produced a list of the 9 Best Trees in Literature in which they foolishly listed Ents. Following the news of the sad demise of one of Tolkien’s favoured trees, the pinus nigra in the Oxford Botanic Gardens, I have compiled a list of the the nine best trees in Tolkien’s works. (more…)

Mae Govannen

I was very excited earlier this week to take part in the last Mythgard Academy’s The Book of Lost Tales I class taught by Professor Corey Olsen.  Corey and I have been talking for some time now about doing a recorded session on the role of Tolkien’s languages in his legendarium. Tolkien’s early invented languages, especially Qenya and Gnomish/Goldogrin, are a major focus of my current postgraduate research study for my thesis ‘The Genesis of Tolkien’s Mythology’ so I was very honoured to take part in the excellent Mythgard Academy course, voted on by supporters of the Mythgard Academy.

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It has been just over two years since I published my last interview with a Tolkien scholar. I have always wanted to do more but the amount of time I had to put into each interview was considerable and my workload these past two years has been my largest obstacle to creating the kind of in-depth content I want to publish. I do my best with the questions that Tolkien fans ask but some days there just isn’t time to do any research, even for the briefest of questions.

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June 2014

All the usual disclaimers apply about newness, completeness and relevance (or any other implication of responsibility) 🙂

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