Apparently there is some confusion floating around about Michael Drout’s involvement in the forthcoming publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s…
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Apparently there is some confusion floating around about Michael Drout’s involvement in the forthcoming publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf translation by Chris Tolkien.
(Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary will be published on May 22. You can pre-order your hardcover copy now from Amazon by going here
Tolkien scholar John Garth previews the forthcoming publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf and outlines why the Professor’s expertise with the Anglo-Saxon epic means this new book is to be highly anticipated. Click through the read more link at the bottom to access the complete essay.
Continue reading “JRR Tolkien’s Beowulf translation: bring on the monsters”
If you’ve never visited the Tolkien Collection or are unaware of the contents of the archive, this two-part report from Tolkienist and Norse mythologist Dr Karl Seigfried documents just some of the literary treasures it holds. Continue reading “A field trip to the Marquette University Tolkien archives”
It’s the film project that many of us fear we may never see. Yet surely, with time, all may be possible. In this article, Rud the Spud takes a look at how a trilogy based on Professor Tolkien’s The Silmarillion might be constructed – should such a project ever come to fruition – and discusses whether or not it could possibily live up to the Professor’s massive collection of stories. Continue reading “How would ‘The Silmarillion’ fare as a film trilogy?”
Tolkien scholar and researcher John Garth writes about how the roots of Tolkien’s Middle-earth made their first public appearance exactly 100 years ago (plus a few days). It’s not in the form you might expect — but it is quite fascinating.
by John Garth
Tolkien’s Middle-earth began in 1914. That may come as a surprise, considering The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954–5 and even The Hobbit appeared no further back than 1937. But the fact is that before and beneath those two books there already existed a huge foundation of creative work: the vastly ambitious cycle of stories that became The Silmarillion, as well as annals, cosmographical description, poetry, illustrations, maps and, of course, several invented languages and writing systems.
The first identifiable fragment of Middle-earth emerged on 24 September 1914, when Tolkien (pictured here in June) was staying as a guest at his aunt’s Nottinghamshire farm. War had just broken out in Europe, the whole world seemed in ferment, and Tolkien set foot on the path he would follow for the rest of his life. But we’ll come to that in due course.
Today, 26 January 2014, is the 100th anniversary of the first known public reading of Tolkien’s epic prose. It’s not what you might expect: there are no cavalry charges here, nor mythological monsters, nor swordplay. These are the official minutes of a college meeting – a session of Stapeldon Society, the body of undergraduates attending Exeter College, Oxford.
What’s a Tolkien fan to do when the extended cut of There and Back Again has come and gone after the holiday season of 2014? With the rights for his other books held by the Tolkien Estate,
it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing further adaptations anytime soon. But over the past couple of days, we’ve been hearing rumblings of a new project in the works that will take a look at the Professor’s life – focusing on his time in college and in the Great War, as well as how his works were influenced by those experiences. Continue reading “J.R.R. Tolkien biopic in the works!”
