Sacnoth's Scriptorium

And, while I'm still on upcoming Tolkien conferences, it looks like next year I'll be able to make it to the 10th Annual Tolkien at the University of Vermont (Burlington). I've heard good things about this gathering for several years now, but never been able to make it before; this coming year, I gather their planned focus is going to be on THE HOBBIT. Here's a listing of their schedule for this current year, when their focus had been Tolkien's Bestiary:

While I'm at it, I shd mention another upcoming Tolkien conference I only found out about at Kalamazoo, at Gerald Hynes' presentation (in the session re. SIGURD & GUDRUN). While I won't be able to go to it, it sounds and interesting one: THE FOREST & THE CITY, being held at Trinity College, Dublin this September (the 21st-22nd). I remember going to Trinity College during the week I spent in Dublin researching my dissertation on Lord Dunsany in 1987.*

So, now that it's been officially announced, I can talk about an upcoming Tolkien conference to be held next spring in Valparaiso, Indiana.

So, early tomorrow morning I'm off to attend this year's Tolkien track at the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo.

So, yesterday's mail brought my author's copy of TOLKIEN AND THE STUDY OF HIS SOURCES: CRITICAL ESSAYS (formerly 'The Bones of the Ox', taking its cue from Tolkien's Cauldron of Stories in OFS), edited by Jason Fisher, which includes my essay "SHE and Tolkien, Revisited".* This is a re-casting and expansion of my v. first scholarly essay, which appeared in MYTHLORE as far back as the summer of 1981. I was glad to be asked to revise this piece, which seems to get cited a lot over the years. We have so much more material available to us now than then (e.g., LETTERS of JRRT, the HME, the Scull-Hammond chronology), but my basic premise still held, I think, and it was good to be able to include more evidence in support of my conclusions. And it was interesting to revisit a piece written so long ago (thirty years) -- my style and also I think my critical acumen have both evolved over that time.

So, the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo has now posted their 2009 Schedule. And as usual there're a goodly number of Tolkien presentations among them. Since the entire list is so huge (over six hundred sessions), I've gone through and extracted the Tolkien events. I may not have gotten them all, but this shd represent most of this year's offerings. Some Tolkien-themed papers appear on panels that aren't themselves Tolkien-centric, so I've marked these with an asterisk (*) to help them stand out at a quick glance.

My own event is rather modest: I'm taking part in the Roundtable discussion of the new Flieger-Anderson edition of ON FAIRY-STORIES (Sat. May 9th at 1.30 pm), as one of seven panelists. But the number of well-known Tolkien scholars attending is impressive: Doug Anderson, Verlyn Flieger, Marjorie Burns, Richard West, Jared Lobdell, &c.

In case anyone out there is on the fence mulling over whether to attend this year, here's the link to the entire schedule

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html

And here's the mini-schedule I put together of the Tolkien Track.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo 2009

Th. 5/7, 1.30pm
Session 80
Studies in Old English Literature and the Medievalism of J. R. R. Tolkien
Sponsor: Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea
(MEMESAK)
Organizer: Minwoo Yoon, Yonsei Univ.
Presider: Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., Troy Univ.
Not All That the Authorities Have Said Is True: Questioning Some Notes Made by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson on Beowulf and The Wife’s Lament
Sung-Il Lee, Yonsei Univ.
The Presentation of Female Characters in Beowulf
Dong-Il Lee, Hankuk Univ. of Foreign Studies
* Loss and Lateness in The Lord of the Rings
Minwoo Yoon

Th. 5/7, 1.30pm
Session 109
Medievalisms at War I
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Society for the Study of Popular Culture
and the Middle Ages
Presider: Carl James Grindley, Hostos Community College, CUNY
Richard the Lionheart in Films and Television about the Third Crusade
Lorraine Kochanske Stock, Univ. of Houston
Contextualizing King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942): The Matter of Britain as World War II Propaganda
Michael A. Torregrossa
* “A Sport and an End”: Militarism in Tolkien’s and Jackson’s Versions of The Lord of the Rings
Mary R. Brown, Univ. of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Patterns of Violence, Decay, and Redemption in Filmic Beowulfs and Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s Cidade de Deus (2002)
Aaron Mercier, Ohio State Univ.

Fr. 5/8, 3.30pm
Session 375
Teaching Tolkien (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College
A roundtable discussion with Leslie A. Donovan, Univ. of New Mexico; Keith W. Jensen, William Rainey Harper College; Christopher T. Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont; Sharin Schroeder, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities; James I. McNelis, III, Wilmington College Ohio; Paul D. Nygard, St. Louis Community College–Florissant Valley; and Deidre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.

Fr. 5/8, Evening Session (7:00 p.m.)
Session 375
Gaming Neomedievally (A Festive Workshop and Poster Session)
Sponsor: Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization (MEMO)
Organizer: Carol L. Robinson, Kent State Univ.–Trumbull
Presider: Carol L. Robinson
Gothic Elements in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PlayStation 3
Morgan Ankrom, Kent State Univ.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) Guilds, Community, and Spectacle Samples
Kevin A. Moberly, St. Cloud State Univ., and Brent Addison Moberly, Indiana Univ.–Bloomington
Quest for Glory: Becoming the Knight Errant
Shaina Edmondson, Univ. of Texas–Arlington
Arthurian Apocalypse: Dark Age of Camelot
Lauryn S. Mayer, Washington and Jefferson College
Music and Culture(s) across Time: Samples in Sid Meier’s Civilization IV
Karen M. Cook, Duke Univ.
Virtually Medieval: World of Warcraft Reconsiders the Middle Ages
N. M. Heckel, Univ. of Rochester
* Neo-Tolkien Neomedieval Gaming
Pamela Clements, Siena College
The Neomedieval Hero: Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (for the PlayStation 3)
Brad Philips, Kent State Univ.


Fr. 5/8, Evening Session (7:30 p.m.)
Tolkien Unbound: Readers' Theater Performance
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.-Commerce
Presider: Robin Anne Reid
Songs for the Philologists
Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar; Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, Univ. of Texas-Austin; Faye Ringel, United States Coast Guard Academy; Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California-Santa Barbara; Merlin DeTardo, Independent Scholar; Deirdre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.; Michael Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.; Jennifer Culver, Univ. of Texas-Dallas; and Amy Amendt-Raduege, Independent Scholar.
Baldor's Saga
John Wm Houghton, Hill School; Sandra Ballif Staubhaar; Faye Ringel; Bradford Lee Eden; Merlin DeTardo; Edward L. Risden, Univ. of California-Santa Barbara; Robert F. Tredray, Independent Scholar; Dean Easton, Choate Rosemary Hall School.

A cash bar will be available.


Sat. 5/9, 10a.m.
Session 400
The Children of Húrin
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Mary R. Bowman, Univ. of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Lack of Counsel, Not of Courage: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Critique of the Heroic Ethos in The Children of Húrin
Richard C. West, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Through Morgoth’s Eyes: Truth in Wartime
Faye Ringel, United States Coast Guard Academy
The Shadow of My Purpose: Gnosticism and the Strands of Fate in the Narn i hin Húrin
Brian Walter, St. Louis College of Pharmacy
Tolkien’s Women in The Children of Húrin
Victoria Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.



Sat. 5/9, 12:00 noon
Tolkien at Kalamazoo Business Meeting

Sat. 5/9, 1:30p.m.
Session 450
Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar, and Verlyn Flieger, Univ. of Maryland
A roundtable discussion with Jennifer Culver, Univ. of Texas–Dallas; Deanna Delmar Evans, Bemidji State Univ.; Dimitra Fimi, Cardiff Univ.; Sandra Hordis, Arcadia Univ.; Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.; John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar; and Ted Sherman, Middle Tennessee State Univ.

Sat. 5/9, 3:30p.m.
Session 498
In Honor of Tom Shippey: J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Next Century? (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: John William Houghton, Hill School
A roundtable discussion with Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar; Marjorie J. Burns, Portland State Univ.; Verlyn Flieger, Univ. of Maryland; Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College; and Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College.

Sun. 5/10, 8:30p.m.
Session 552
Tolkien’s Revisions and Contradictions
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara
Revising Éowyn: Reading and Rereading Éowyn’s Mind
Mary Faraci, Florida Atlantic Univ.
The Words of Húrin and Morgoth: Microcosm, Macrocosm, and the Later Legendarium
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
Discrepancies, Divergences, and Etymological Forks in the Road
Eileen Marie Moore, Cleveland State Univ.
Who Are the Real Elves? The Noldor in The Book of Lost Tales and The Silmarillion
Janice M. Bogstad, McIntyre Library, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Sun. 5/10, 10:30p.m.
Session 585
Tolkien’s Poetry and Song
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Anne Reaves, Marian College
“That was the first Hebung”: Tolkien’s Modernist Metrics in Formalist Garb
John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville
Musical References and Allusions in Tolkien’s Published Poetry
Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara
“He chanted a song of wizardry”: Words with Power in Middle-earth
Benjamin S. W. Barootes, McGill Univ.
Songs of Long Estrangement: The Poetry of Melancholy in The Lord of the Rings
Robert F. Tredray, Independent Scholar


Sun. 5/10, 10:30p.m.
Session 598
Beowulf as Children’s Literature II
Organizer: Bruce D. Gilchrist, Bishop’s Univ.
Presider: Marijane Osborn, Univ. of California–Davis
* The Giants of Beowulf, Tolkien, and Lewis: Meeting in the Middle
John Edward Damon, Univ. of Nebraska–Kearney
Grendel, Beowulf, and Little Johnny: Translating Ancient Evil and Good for Post-Modern Young Readers
Christopher E. Crane, United States Naval Academy
* “Beowulf: A Tale of Blood, Heat, and Ashes”: A Children’s Beowulf for the Tolkien Generation
Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College

So, it was exactly a year ago today that I gave the 2007 Blackwelder Tolkien Lecture at Marquette. It was and remains a great honor, for which I'm very grateful, and I'm immensely pleased that my talk is to be published next year.

I had hoped to be able to make it to Marquette again so as to attend this year's lecture, but as it turns out I've done too much travel already this year (including the recent unexpected sojourn in Montana) to be able to manage another trip to the Midwest. Which is all the more pity, since it looks to be a good one; the Speaker this year is Matthew Dickerson, who is mainly known for having written FOLLOWING GANDALF [2004], one of a group of books on Tolkien from a theological point of view that came out several years ago, and more recently co-authoring (with Jonathan Evans) ENTS, ELVES, AND ERIADOR: THE ENVIRONMENTAL VISION OF JRRT [2006]. The latter, which seeks to place JRRT in a tradition of Xian environmentalism, got a scathing review from Patrick Curry, who himself had written what was previously the most well-known book on Tolkien and environmentalism (DEFENDING MIDDLE-EARTH [1997]) -- but that's a review mainly notable for its constant complaints that Dickerson and Evans didn't quote from him enough.

The title of Dickerson's talk is to be "Beyond Romanticism: J. R. R. Tolkien's Practical Agrarian Romance"; it'll be presented at Marquette University library at 4 o'clock on Thursday, October 23, 2008. It's described on the library website as follows:

"Professor Dickerson will explore one element of Tolkien's comprehensive ecological vision expressed in his Middle-earth legendarium: the agrarianism of the Shire, and its contrast in the industrialized agriculture of Sauron and Saruman. While Tolkien's works might be dismissed as mere romanticism--idyllic fantasy with no implications to our world--the talk will defend a claim that the underlying ecology in these works is fundamentally practical (at many levels)."

here's the link:

http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2008/Dickerson.html

If someone who does live in the area makes it to the lecture, I'd enjoy hearing about how it goes.

--JDR

So, belatedly, here's the rest of my Medieval Congress report -- drafted before I left for the Midwest (again) at the end of May, but not posted due to spotty internet access while away and then back-burnered since we got back.


The next day, Friday the 9th, we got off to a late start (which helped offset my lingering jet-laggedness and general lack of sleep from staying up late each night talking). In early afternoon, we went to the Children of Hurin panel, a roundtable featuring Richard West, Faye Ringel, Romauld Lakowski, Elizabeth Crowll, and Vickie Wodzak.

Unfortunately, attending this meant I missed two other Tolkien papers which were part of other sessions scheduled at the same time: Hae Yeon Kim's "The Language of Evil: Visible Signifiers in LotR", which sounded quite interesting [part of the "Medieval Lit. & Film" session], and also Stephen Meyer's "Soundscapes of Middle-earth: The Question of Medievalist Music in Peter Jackson's LotR Films" [part of the "Late Medieval to Modern Medievalism" session].

These were followed in the next session (3.30 Friday afternoon) by the
Style & Re/Vision in Tolkien: panel, made up of Vickie Wodzak's "Widdershins Revising: Tolkien's Revision Strategies in Narrative", Romuald Lakowski's "Smaug & Glaurung: The Difference of Dragons", and Steve Sams' "Understanding Exile as an Element of Tolkien's Anglo-Saxonism"; there was to have been a fourth paper, Alexander Bruce's "A Consideration of Tolkien's Spelling Beorhtnoth", but this was cancelled. Of these, I naturally found the one on Tolkien's dragons right up my alley, and started what I expect to be an ongoing discussion with Lakowski after the session.

Opposite all this was another promising session that I had to miss, called "Anglo-Saxon Studies in Memory of Stephen O. Glosecki II", consisting of Jn Edward Damon's "Grendel's Kin: Myths of Man-Eating Giants", Jn D. Niles' "Beowulf & the 'Grendel' Charters: A Nativist View", and Yvette Kisor's "Totemic Reflexes in Tolkien's Middle-earth". I heard afterwards from a friend who attended it that the whole session was good, and given my interests I particularly regret missing the piece on Grendel and the Giants.

That evening (starting at 7pm) came a full-cast performance of The Battle of Maldon by Edward L. Risden -- not a translation of the Old English poem but a modernist re-interpretation; the person who played the smart Viking ("you go first") was particularly good, as was the English warrior who kept insisting that he was not THAT Godric. This was followed immediately by a two-person reading of Tolkien's "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth", accompanied by a small choir of four or five people to do the monks' chanting and voice of Cnut at the end. Just before the play was the only time I saw Shippey at the conf., but unfortunately did not get to do more than say hello; I would have liked to congratulate him on his retirement.


The next day, Sat. May 10th, was the last full day of the conference.
The Tolkien events started off with Religions & Philosophies in Tolkien as the morning session, but unfortunately I wound up going to the wrong building and so had to cross a fair amount of the campus (down a hill, through a pleasant bit of woods, and across a lake which had the only swans I've ever seen; all in all a wonderful if mistimed walk). Thus I arrived too late for Scott Vander Ploeg's "Tolkien's Consideration of Heresy in LotR", though I did get to hear Bradford Lee Eden's "Worthy of Reincarnation? Worthy of Death? Tolkien's Changing Viewpoints".

This was followed by a walk to yet another building, where some fruitless attempts on my part to access e-mail was followed by the Tolkien Lunch. This is the annual business meeting of the Tolkien at Kalamazoo folks, where they propose session topics to submit to the Congress organizers for the next year. All in all, think the meeting came up with some pretty good topics; I'm particularly pleased at the proposed Saturday evening entertainment, since I suggested it.

After the business meeting, it was time for more papers, starting with the (Sat. 1.30pm) Tolkien's Monsters session, made up of Amy Amendt-Raduege's "The Wight Stuff, or, the Long Dark History of the Barrow-Wight", Samuel Unger's "The Redemption of Wraiths: On the Nature of the Nazgul", Deborah Sabo's "Orc Bodies, Orc Selves: Medieval and Modern Monstrosity in Middle-earth", and Kristine Larsen's "Shadow & Flame: Myth, Monsters, & Mother Nature in Middle-earth". A good session, with some thought-provoking observations.

This in turn was followed (3.30pm) by Tolkien & New Media, the last of this year's scheduled Tolkien events: Robin Reid's "The Crown of Durin & the Shield of Orome the Great: Spirituality & History in Jackson's LotR", Larry Caldwell's "Stern Vision, Earnest Evasion: Neomedieval Catholicism, Peter Jackson, & the Limitations of Popular Cinema", Anna Smol's "Oral Tradition & Performance in Transmedia Storytelling", and James Vitullo's "Cross Currents in Tolkien: Role-Playing and Board Game Influences on the Larger Tolkien Discourse Community". It was an odd feeling seeing the final presenter showing various roleplaying game releases I'd worked on to demonstrate various points.

And that brought an end to the formal events. There were more meals and good discussions with friends, on both Saturday and Sunday, and some serious pokes through the Book Room(s) that ran right up until they closed down. In short, an enjoyable weekend, well worth the trip for anyone seriously interested in Tolkien (and of course anyone interested in medieval literature of every possible description). I was glad to get to see and spend time with old friends (Doug, Richard, Deborah, Phil, Jan), to meet new folks (Merlin, Anna, Deidre, Romauld, Chris V., Robin Reid, and the gentleman who published TOLKIEN STUDIES, whose name I've unfortunately forgotten). I'm sorry not to have had time to visit with Shippey, or with Drout (whom I saw, but only for a minute or so as he was rushing from one place to another) -- perhaps another time -- but it was nice to see Shaun Hughes again after so many years.

In short: Highly Recommended.

--John R.


current reading: THE DETECTIVE FICTION REVIEWS OF CHARLES WILLIAMS, 1930-1935, ed. Jared Lobdell [2003]

So, hard to believe, but it's already more than half a year since I gave my Marquette lecture ("A Kind of Elvish Craft: Tolkien as Literary Craftsman"). My essay has now been accepted for publication, but in the process of revising it I cut out most of the opening section, which had been focused towards the oral presentation. Still, since I put a lot of work into it, and it's on a topic that means a lot to me, so thought I'd share it here. Enjoy.

Seventy years. It was almost exactly seventy years ago today* that Tolkien scholarship began, with publication of a short review of THE HOBBIT on October the 2nd, 1937 in the TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, followed up a few days later (on Friday October 8th) by an even briefer piece in the London TIMES by the same anonymous reviewer (in fact, Tolkien’s friend C. S. Lewis**). Certainly works in what we now think of as Tolkien’s legendarium had been critiqued before--the early Earendel poems by a rather baffled G. B. Smith in 1914 (Carpenter 75, Garth 64), the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’ and Lay of Turin by an equally puzzled Dickie Reynolds around 1926 (HME.III.3, HME.IV.11), and, more perceptively, the Lay of Leithian (the Beren & Luthien story) by an attentive and wholly sympathetic C. S. Lewis in 1929 (HME.III.150–151 & 315–329), the year before Tolkien began work on THE HOBBIT. But only with published commentary on a published work did the tradition of Tolkien criticism properly begin; a tradition that has continued, intermittently but in ever-growing volume, down to the present day.

And on the whole we have been fortunate. While there have been many bad books and misguided articles, from Edmund Wilson’s notorious ‘Oo Those Awful Orcs’ [1956] to more recent but equally inept examples we need not name, and many more inoffensive but unremarkable pieces, or interesting but flawed ones, there have been a number of superlative works, from Paul Kocher’s MASTER OF MIDDLE-EARTH (still after thirty-five years the best single-volume introduction to Tolkien’s work) through Tom Shippey’s THE ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH and AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY.

Indeed, in his recent review of the published proceedings from Marquette’s 2004 Tolkien Conference, Brian Rosebury conveys his sense that

". . . fairly gentle adjustments and additions are now being made to a generally accepted understanding of Tolkien’s art and thought. We are on the putting green of scholarship, as it were, rather than the fairway." --TOLKIEN STUDIES Vol. IV [2007], p. 282

Leaving aside his unfortunate metaphor, which suggests a coziness wholly at odds with the ongoing battles over the ultimate impact of the film adaptations upon Tolkien’s audience, or the continuing fratricidal struggle among Tolkien linguists, or even the exact role Tolkien’s faith did or did not play in his work, Rosebury’s remark suggests that we are now nearing the end of Tolkien scholarship: that little remains to say other than to add a few refinements upon an almost completed picture. Such a conclusion does not accord with my own impression of the field at all; in fact, I am reminded of the apocryphal story about the head of the U.S. patent office who supposedly predicted a century or so ago that there would soon be nothing left to invent; an anecdote invented solely to show that such a prediction would have been egregiously wrong.

And indeed, just the three years since the conference whose proceedings prompted Mr. Rosebury’s remarks have seen the publication of major works such as Verlyn Flieger’s INTERRUPTED MUSIC, which explains better than anywhere else just what it means to sit down and create a mythology; Marjorie Burns’s PERILOUS REALMS, which not only shows how Tolkien drew on a balance of both Norse and Celtic mythological elements but is the best analysis ever of Tolkien’s characteristic ambiguity; Christina Scull & Wayne Hammond’s J. R. R. TOLKIEN COMPANION & GUIDE, with its masses of biographical detail. And more work of comparable importance is on its way: an expanded critical edition of Tolkien’s most important essay, ‘On Fairy-Stories’, is due out soon, shortly to be followed by a collection of all Tolkien’s interviews, an important primary source never before gathered in one easily accessible place. Add to these the relatively recent advent of the journal TOLKIEN STUDIES [debuting in 2004] and the now well-established ‘Tolkien Track’ at the annual Medievalism Conference at Kalamazoo, which has produced several erudite volumes over the last four years,*** plus a number of active Tolkien websites, including the soon to be launched Tolkien Estate website, and I think you could make the case that we are in fact living in the Golden Age of Tolkien Studies, where we have a community of Tolkien scholars in regular touch with each other, constantly exchanging information and critiques of each others’ work, and increasingly beginning to collaborate on joint projects.

This is, I think, a development after Tolkien’s own heart . . .




*[Nt 1]This paper was originally delivered as the 2007 Blackwelder Lecture at Marquette University on October 4th, 2007.

**[Nt 2]Both these two brief reviews together total only a little over seven hundred words. In them, Lewis compares THE HOBBIT respectively to Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and to Grahame’s THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, praising Tolkien’s world-building. Lewis of course had the advantage of having been the first outside Tolkien’s immediate family to read the book back in February 1933, immediately upon its completion, and had more recently heard it read aloud to the writers’ group to which both men belonged (and indeed had co-founded), the Inklings. The first piece is reprinted in ON STORIES, ed. Walter Hooper [1982], pages 81–82, while Douglas Anderson quotes a goodly portion from the second piece in THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT [rev. ed., 2002], page 18.

***[Nt 3]The three volumes so far are TOLKIEN THE MEDIEVALIST, ed. Jane Chance [2003]; TOLKIEN AND THE INVENTION OF MYTH, ed. Jane Chance [2004]; and TOLKIEN'S MODERN MIDDLE AGES, ed. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers [2005].



--JDR

. . . by the NATIONAL REVIEW. You can listen to the ten-minute audio interview here at their NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE site:

www.http://radio.nationalreview.com/betweenthecovers/

This was recorded about a month ago; listening to it now, I'm grateful to find that I seem to be reasonably coherent and that either I avoided too many 'umm's or else they seamlessly edited them out. Having listened to some of the other interviews posted on the same site in preparation for my own, I'm inclined to credit this to John J. Miller's being a good interviewer. And they certainly cover a wide range of topics and authors, from Rbt E. Howard's CONAN to a new biography of Joseph McCarthy.

Most of what I say in the interview will be familiar to anyone who's read my book; I think the one point I stressed that I may have only mentioned in passing before is the degree to which THE HOBBIT marks an ambitious step in Tolkien's career as a writer. It is his first book-length work of fiction, more than twice the length of ROVERANDOM or the 1930 QUENTA. Only THE BOOK OF LOST TALES, or all Tolkien's previous work, is as long, and that was composed of many short tales linked by a frame story modeled upon Morris's THE EARTHLY PARADISE and, besides, left unfinished.

The one point in my book I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet in any of the reviews or discussions I've seen? My argument that, according to my reconstruction of the original outline for THE HOBBIT, the Battle of Five Armies was originally to take place not at the Lonely Mountain but on Bilbo's return journey, in the Anduin River valley between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. I suspect this is simply because that comes so many hundreds of pages into the book(s) that not that many people have made it that far yet. We'll see.

--John R.

Happy Belated Tolkien's birthday, all.

2007 was a big year for us, between finally completing and seeing published MR. BAGGINS and RETURN TO BAG-END, as well as making my first trip to England in thirteen years (and my first research trip in fifteen). 2008 also promises to be eventful, if somewhat more low key, as I absorb the research I did in Oxford and start sketching out the next project(s).

Thanks to all who sent in errata; I've passed along a list of corrections to the good folks at HarperCollins, who will be incorporating them into the forthcoming trade paperback edition, due out in March. This expanded edition will include Appendix V, which looks at whom Tolkien sent his author's copies of THE HOBBIT to, and the Addendum, some late material from 1965-66 that came to light too late for inclusion in the original edition. It's not many more pages, and I don't think any startling revelations are included therein, but I think folks will find these last few odds and ins interesting in and of themselves. More on this later.


Thanks also to the good folks at Houghton Mifflin, who pointed out to me a favorable review in the L. A. TIMES by Nick Owchar. My two favorite lines:

"Rateliff's labors have resulted in a rich treatment of the many changes, false starts and motivations behind Tolkien's storytelling choices."

and

"Rateliff's efforts have a paradoxical effect: Even as they demystify Tolkien and show us that there is no such thing as easy genius, they remind us that his willingness to endure numbing revisions to develop a nuanced story is even greater reason to revere him."

Needless to say, I've very pleased. The whole review can be found here:

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-owchar30dec30,1,6672345.story?coll=la-headlines-bookreview


I've also done a ten-minute audio interview that should soon be posted online in what is, for me, an unlikely forum; I'll provide the link once it's up.


Finally, here's another little piece I came across that supports the argument that MR. BLISS dates from 1932 or '33, not the late '20s. In the same illustration that shows Gaffer Gamgee, a character who entered the family mythology following the Tolkiens' holiday to Lamora Cove in Cornwall in the summer of 1932, one of the shops on the street is ALLBONE the butcher (MR. BLISS page 36). Given the otherwise unexplained appearance of the name Allibone-Baggins in the final chapter of the first draft HOBBIT (soon to be renamed the Sackville-Bagginses), I would now suggest that the 'allibone' element is probably another family joke, the significance of which is lost. In any case, as with all the elements from THE HOBBIT incorporated into the 1932 FATHER CHRISTMAS LETTER, the Allbone/Allibone parallel suggests that MR. BLISS might have been written around the same time (1932-33) as the conclusion of THE HOBBIT (January 1933).

--JDR

So, two weeks from tonight is my first book signing for THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT, at 7pm at the University Bookstore on Tuesday Sept. 25th. We'll start with a reading, followed by a Q&A, then the signing itself. Please let people in the area you think might be interested know about the event, and drop in a line if you think you'll be able to make it.

Here's the official online schedule of the Univ. Bkstr's upcoming readings and signings, including the notice for my event:

http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/trade.taf?dept=attribute&category=events&par=trade&ttl=events&page=1

Hope I'll see you there.
--John R.

Current (re)reading: Neil Gaiman's STARDUST
Current anime: LE CHEVALIER D'EON

Today for the first time in a long time I took part in an online chat, hosted by a Tolkien-centric site as part of their celebration marking the release tomorrow of JRRT's THE CHILDREN OF HURIN. Despite a moment of panic when I thought I wouldn't be able to log on, it seems to have gone fairly well; it was a nice group of folks with some pertinent questions. I hope I was coherent in my replies; the mid-chat discovery that trying to type in a parenthesis deleted the whole sentence threw me a bit. Still, it was an enjoyable interlude, and utterly unlike proofing galleys, to which I returned once it was over. We may be able to do another one once my book is out; we'll see.

And in contrast with the internationalism of the online chat (where my worst problem was figuring out the time-zone differences on the schedule), tomorrow night brings a (more or less) local event: a group reading of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN at the University of Washington Bookstore's Bellevue branch (990 102nd Ave. NE), starting at 7 o'clock. We plan to attend, get a first glimpse of the new Tolkien, and maybe sign up to be among the volunteer readers. Here's hoping we see some familiar faces there.


current reading: SAVING MONTICELLO by Marc Leepson, THE CHINESE PARROT by Earl Derr Biggers.

It looks like I'll be taking part in an online chat tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. my time (17:00 GMT), assuming I'm able to log on (not being certain if my laptop is compatible with their system -- we'll soon find out). For the official announcement of the event, check this link:

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Children_of_Húrin_Release_Party

It's short notice I know, but hope you can join us.


In other news, I'm planning to attend a reading of passages from THE CHILDREN OF HURIN being held at the University Book Store in Bellevue on Tuesday night. According to the local paper, the event starts at 7 pm.

--JDR


current reading: SAVING MONTICELLO by Marc Leepson [2001]

. . . in Belgium.

With the official release date of MR. BAGGINS, Part One of THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT, now exactly four weeks away (Tues. May 8th), I've started getting interesting requests relating to the book. Some of these have been in the works for a while -- a possible book signing in Seattle, another in Milwaukee in connection with an event there, and even one in Holland (contingent however on my being able to make a side trip to Holland during my next research trip to England). Now I've been interviewed by TolkienLibrary.com, a Belgium-based website for collectors of JRRT's work that posts regular updates about new releases, such as the much-anticipated CHILDREN OF HURIN. They sent me a list of questions a while back, and I finally managed to get back to them with a set of answers; the results can be seen at

http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/history_of_the_hobbit.php

And, as if to underscore the internationalism of Tolkien's audience, today comes a query about the book from Poland. I've known for years from Gary Hunnewell's work that we Tolk Folk are everywhere, but it's one thing to see a list of fanzines, newsletters, and journals from abroad and another to have direct contact via e-mail with people who share my interest in Tolkien and THE HOBBIT but live not just thousands of miles away but on another continent. We may have finally realized the old dream of Tolk Folk everywhere to meet others who share our enthusiasm for the Professor and his works: everywhere you go, there we are.


current reading: IN THE COMPANY OF CROWS AND RAVENS by Seattle's own Jn M. Marzluff & Tony Angell [2005]

current audiobook: HIS EXCELLENCY: GEORGE WASHINGTON by Joseph J. Ellis [2004]