A Very Tolkien Birthday

This year I couldn't decide what I wanted for my big birthday present. I finally decided on the J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (Two Volume Box Set) by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull for a combined anniversary and birthday present. It looks great!

Vol. 1 is The Reader's Guide (not to be confused with The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by the same authors) which includes "comprehensive alphabetical entries on a wide range of topics, including a who's who of important persons, a guide to places and institutions, details concerning Tolkien's source material, information about the political and social upheavals through which the author lived, the importance of his social circle, his service as an infantryman in World War I -- even information on the critical reaction to his work and the 'Tolkien cult.'"

Vol. 2 is The Chronology. It "details the parallel evolutions of Tolkien's works and his academic and personal life in minute detail. Spanning the entirety of his long life including nearly sixty years of active labor on his Middle-earth creations, and drawing on such contemporary sources as school records, war service files, biographies, correspondence, the letters of his close friend C. S. Lewis, and the diaries of W. H. Lewis, this book will be an invaluable resource for those who wish to gain a complete understanding of Tolkien's status as a giant of twentieth-century literature."

I'm also really interested in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment edited by Michael Drout but don't want to spend $200, especially since Drout and the contributors are not happy with Routledge. Apparently Routledge did not incorporate the final round of editing, much to everyone's frustration. Even so, it looks like an outstanding resource, but I think I'll let my university library pay for this one! For more on the Encyclopedia read Drout's story of its imperfections, visit Squiretalk or Squire's Reader's Diary.

I'm looking forward to my summer vacation so I can enjoy my new books!

A Very Tolkien Christmas

Ná merye i turuhalmeri! (Merry Christmas!)

I am very pleased with my two LotR-related Christmas gifts: A Gateway To Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings by David Salo and The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.

A Gateway To Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is by David Salo, one of the language consultant for Jackson's films and moderator of Elfling (the Elvish Linguistics mailing list, dedicated to the study of Tolkien's languages). I am thrilled with this book because it puts everything I want to know about Sindarin in one place. (I don't yet own all of the HoMe books, so this is really handy.) In addition to all the linguistic history and analysis, which are sometimes over my head, the book has lots of practical info: pronunciation, syntax, extant texts, a glossary, a list of Sindarin names, etc. It's expensive but a valuable source to scholars who want to better understand this language which influence so many words in LotR.

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies for 2006 and I've been dying to read it ever since! The authors claim their goal was to keep this book shorter than LotR and the manage to do so, but just barely. I haven't read much yet, but it looks very informative. The first thing I did was look up passages that relate to my paper on Frodo's Elvish air but they didn't mention any of the things I noticed. As all scholars know, it's simultaneously thrilling and terrifying to discover that no one has published anything on your topic! Even so, this book looks like a great resource!

I'm just disappointed that the new semester starts Jan. 8, giving much less time off than I'd like to spend with my new books!

Tolkien Audio Collection

I bought myself a Christmas present: The J.R.R. Tolkien Audio Collection. I have it on cassette and was going to put this CD version on my Christmas wish list when I realized it was easier to buy it for myself than to try to explain it my family! ("No, not the audio books, the audio collection...")


This collection features J. R. R. T. reading bits from LotR and Christopher reading selections from Silm. If you follow the link to Amazon, this work is described as abridged but it includes more than my old cassette version! The quality of some of the recordings (made in the 50s) isn't great but that's a minor complaint. It's worth the inconvenience to hear J. R. R. T. himself reading. A bonus: the set includes the unpublished poem "The Mirror of Galadriel," which was edited out of LotR.

I highly recommend this CD for anyone who like the audio books or is interested hearing J. R. R. T.'s interpretation and pronunciation.

Builder Tries to Evoke Middle Earth

This article was in our Sunday paper: Builder tries to evoke Middle Earth.







I want to live in this subdivision! The hardest part would be deciding what I'd want my house to look like: Bag End, Rivendell, Edoras, or Minas Tirith. OK, Minas Tirith wouldn't work, but it would still be a tough decision.

This is the first subdivision I've ever heard of that has its own web site: The Shire Subdivision in Bend, Oregon. Cool, eh? Just image what it must cost though!

Tolkien Audio Books in iTunes

Just found this on the Tolkien Library web site: J.R.R. Tolkien Audio Book Catalogue just added to iTunes (28.09.06).

If you've never listened to these, you are in for a treat. I can't recommend them highly enough!

Pre-Order The Children of Hurin

Tolkien News and the Tolkien Library have more info about The Children of Hurin and you can pre-order it on Amazon (UK only, so far). No news on when you can pre-order it on US Amazon.

The Children of Hurin

More news on Children of Hurin from the Mythsoc Yahoo Group:

Tolkien News has announced that the Tolkien Estate has launched it own official website. Although the site is still under construction it does confirm the 2007 publication date for The Children of Hurin. It will contain artwork by Alan Lee, and a map and editorial notes by Christopher Tolkien.