A Transcendent Wilderness: Andrew J. Graff’s Raft of Stars
In particular, Graff’s river is numinous. It’s the center of everything.
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Posts Tagged: JRR Tolkien
What to Read When You’re Grown-Up but Still Love Middle Grade Novels
J. Kasper Kramer shares a reading list to celebrate THE STORY THAT CANNOT BE TOLD.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #89: Isabel Greenberg
Isabel Greenberg is a London-based illustrator and writer. She studied illustration at the University of Brighton and has written for a variety of outlets including the Guardian, Nobrow Press, The National Trust, Seven Stories Press, and the New York Times. In 2011 she won the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica graphic short story prize. Her first graphic novel, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, […]
...moreNew(ish) Tolkien Book Coming in 2017
Beren and Lúthien, a Middle-earth story about forbidden love between an Elven woman and human man, based famously on Tolkien’s own love for his wife, is set to be published as its own title in 2017, on the 100-year anniversary since the two characters first appeared in a Tolkien story. The story is to be […]
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #29: Literary Bitches
All too often, it gets hurled at strong women like a boulder of hate tied up with a big red misogynistic bow.
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The Rumpus Interview with Minsoo Kang
Writer and historian Minsoo Kang talks about his new translation of The Story of Hong Gildong, a touchstone novel of Korea written in the 19th century.
...moreTwo Poems to Rule Them All
Two poems written by JRR Tolkien have been discovered in a school magazine from 1936. The school’s headteacher described the poems as “very atmospheric and imbued with an air of mystery.” They have been posted on the Guardian’s website.
...moreA World Without Hope
At Salon, Gerry Canavan compares the bleakness of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to the gain and loss of hope in Star Wars: Star Wars has always been, in the EU at least, a universe more or less without hope, that only looked hopeful to casual fans because they were looking too closely at just a very […]
...moreOur Literary Footpaths
Over at The Toast, Rebecca Turkewitz writes about the intersections between literary geography and the real, from Joyce’s Dublin and Tolkien’s Middle Europe to Faulkner’s Mississippi and Munro’s Ontario—how we explore these places by walking through pages, and how they map to our homes and street corners.
...moreYou’re Such a Gollum
A man is facing two years in prison after comparing Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Lord of the Rings character, Gollum. However, the judge in the case isn’t sure that the comparison is really an insult: The judge adjourned the case to February and despatched…two academics, two behavioural scientists or psychologists and an expert […]
...moreA Language By Any Other Name
“Conlang” is short for “constructed language,” which is just what it sounds like: a language that has been constructed… conlanging is an art as well as a science, something you might do for your own pleasure, as well as for the entertainment of others. From J. R. R. Tolkien to Esperanto and Game of Thrones, […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Growing Up Gaming
“Is this inclusive or exclusive?” he asked with a creased brow. “I don’t like the idea that we’re being treated as a joke.”
...moreMitchell Finds His Inner Tolkien
After reading from his forthcoming release Slade House at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, David Mitchell announced that he has created “his own version of middle earth.” Like Mitchell’s prior works, Slade House will incorporate various genres and points of view: I like to use genre as a tool, like style, structure or a character. Where does it say […]
...moreLanguage: “A Barometer of Society’s Health”
For the BBC, Hephzibah Anderson explores the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, two authors who invented languages to color their fictional worlds. In addition, the article considers how words created by novelists are adopted by contemporary culture: Language, as dystopian novels remind us over and over, is a barometer of a society’s health. […]
...moreWalking the Road Into Mordor
A Tolkien scholar writes about how he fought off a lawsuit from the Tolkien Estate: I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and put my research skills to work on my defense. Unfortunately, the case law was sparse. The only similar case I found was The Estate of S. Morgenstern v. William Goldman over the latter’s […]
...moreGenealogy of Hobbits and Hiawatha
Through his research for an article for the journal Tolkien Studies, John Garth believes he has discovered a surprising source text for several episodes from Middle Earth: Longfellow’s trochaic epic, “The Song of Hiawatha.” The dragon Smaug has long been associated with the hoard-dragons of ancient Icelandic sagas; Garth suggests that the particular manner of […]
...moreDisappearing Act
Invisibility has a long literary history, from science fiction, like in H.G. Wells’s Invisible Man, to fantasy, like in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Often, the difference is between methodology and motive. Wells focused on scientific accuracy to illustrate “the messy outcome of this collision between science and myth.” Tolkien employs invisibility as metaphor; the […]
...moreResurrecting a Monster
Forty-one years after his death, JRR Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf has been published by his son Christopher. Tolkien translated Beowulf early in his career, yet never published it. In the New Yorker, Joan Acocella speculates on the reason: Another possible explanation for Tolkien’s putting “Beowulf” aside—a theory that has been advanced in the case of […]
...moreNobody Tell Gollum About This
“Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.” It sounds like it comes from a fantasy novel, but it’s a real inscription regarding a real ring found in a Roman site in England. It did, however, inspire J. R. R. […]
...moreThe Art of The Hobbit
It turns out J.R.R. Tolkien also had a knack for doodling. While he wrote The Hobbit, he drew several illustrations, ten of which were included in the first printing of the book. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the soon-to-be Peter Jacksoned fantasy masterpiece tomorrow, The Art of The Hobbit is being released. The […]
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