Issue 003 | 28 February 2021
Welcome to the third newsletter
looking at the Tolkien-related news from the previous week and what is coming
up in the week(s) ahead.
Painting: “The Defense of the
Sampo” (1896) by Akseli Gallen-KallelaKalevala Day (Finnish Culture Day) – 28th February 2021
“It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me”
-- J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter (7 June 1955) to W.H. Auden on discovering Finnish
Tolkien, J.R.R., Carpenter, H. and Tolkien, C. (2006) The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins: London.
Today is the Finnish Culture Day, better known as Kalevala Day after the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. Tolkien discovered the epic poem as a schoolboy in Birmingham and taught himself Finnish. With the greater tale, Tolkien loved the Story of Kullervo, which he translated but never finished. But the hero of that story, Kullervo, became part of Tolkien’s own legendarium – it is the core of Túrin Turambar’s tale.
Reading
- BBC – “Kullervo: Tolkien's fascination with Finland”
- Discover Helsinki – KalevalaDay – “A Celebration of Finnish Culture”
- This is Finland - “Kalevala: TheFinnish National Epic”
- Finnish Literature Society -Kalevala
- The Forum (BBC) – “The Kalevala: the Finnish epic that inspired a nation”
(Tolkien is discussed about 37 mins in) - Wikipedia - Kalevala Day
- Tolkien Gateway - Kalevala
- Tolkien Gateway - Kullervo
- Clarendon House – “Tolkien and TheKalevala”
- Stonybrook University – “J.R.R.Tolkien and the Kalevala”
- Middle-earth Reflections – “Inthe Land of Heroes: Tolkien, Kalevala and Finnish”
LOTRO: Online chats with Standing Stone Games
Just a few notes:
- This is the last week of the Ill Omens event (ends 7th March 2021).
- The next big event will be the Spring Festival (starts 18th March 2021).
- The next quest pack, the Wildwood, is hopefully expected sometime in March.
The Kickstarter ends in 4 days! It has just hit, as of writing, an amazing £1,025, 982 (SEK 12,055,228) with 11,496 backers.
There have been quite a lot of chats with those involved with the project over the last week. Below are some of them.
Upcoming chats
Falenthal Greenleaf interview
with Francesco Nepitello (live at 14.00 GMT on 28th February 2021)
Previous chats
THE ONE RING™, Alien Operations Manual, Kickstarter Updates
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lpYjJOuS4Y (17 mins in)
Nerd of the Rings
Francesco Nepitello, designer of The One Ring RPG
Mostly Off-topic
The One Ring 2nd Edition: How Might It Play at the Table?
The One Ring Second Edition - Discussing The Kickstarter Campaign with Francesco Nepitello
This week two previous seminars have been made available in various formats – the Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2020 are available pre-order in printed form and the Tolkien Society Seminar #1 2021 can be watched now on YouTube.
Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings
of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2020
Release Date: 12 April 2021
Peter Roe Series XX
Tolkien Society February
Seminar 2021: Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien
Tolkien Reading Day - “Hope and
Courage”
Thursday 26th March 2021 –
online - free
The Tolkien Society and the Centre
for Fantasy and the Fantastic (University of Glasgow)
Each year the Tolkien Society marks the day the Ring was destroyed whilst also celebrating the life of J.R.R. Tolkien with an international day of reading. People are encouraged to read their favourite passages from Tolkien’s books. The theme this year is “Hope and Courage.”
You can book on one of three
sessions to suit you – morning, afternoon or early evening. Details can be
found on the link below:
Tolkien Society Seminar #2 “Tolkien
and Diversity”
Saturday 3rd and
Sunday 4th July 2021 – online - free
The next Tolkien Society Seminar
will be in July and is focusing on the theme of “Tolkien and Diversity.” There
is currently a call for papers, deadline is Friday 23rd April 2021. Details here:
- https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-society-summer-seminar/
- https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2021/02/call-for-papers-released-tolkien-society-summer-seminar-tolkien-and-diversity/
International Medieval Congress
Monday 5th to Friday 9th July
2021 – online - £120 (full) / £75 (concessionary)
Leeds University
The Tolkien sessions for the International
Medieval Congress have been finalised. Dr. Andrew Higgins it taking over
organising these from Dr. Dimtra Fimi. There looks to be some wonderful talks
lined up, Details can be found here:
- http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2021/02/eglerio-tolkien-sessions-at-leeds-imc.html
- https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2021/
The Immanent Grove:
Memorialising the achievements of the University of Glasgow’s Fantasy graduates
The talk given at the Centre
for Fantasy and the Fantastic (University of Glasgow) on 24th March 2021 is now
available to view on YouTube:
Details about the talk can be
found here:
The Guardian: “As a Black Lord
of the Rings fan, I felt left out of fantasy worlds. So I created my own”
A fascinating insight into how Namina
Forna sees the books she grew up loving.
Polygon’s Year of the Ring
It is the 20th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings and Polygon is celebrating:
Molly Knox Ostertag (@MollyOstertag)
and illustrating the unpublished Epilogue of The Lord of the Rings
Whilst reading “The History of Middle-Earth:
Sauron Defeated” Molly Ostertag discovered an unpublished epilogue written by
Samwise Gamgee in the Red Book. It inspired here to illustrate it.
- https://twitter.com/MollyOstertag/status/1361492489228623872
- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478819/chapters/72409524
Details of this epilogue featuring
Sam and his daughter can be found here:
- http://faculty.smu.edu/bwheeler/tolkien/online_reader.html
- http://faculty.smu.edu/bwheeler/tolkien/online_reader/TolkienEpilogue.pdf
Sam at 50!
Actor Sean Austin, who played Samwise Gamgee, hits 50 years of age on 25 February 2021. His friends created a video of birthday wishes (linked below). Happy Birthday Sean!
“Magic: the Gathering” goes to
Middle-earth!
In a surprise announcement,
Wizards of the Coast have announced that their collectible card game, Magic:
The Gathering will expand into “Universes Beyond.” This includes Warhammer
40,000 and The Lord of the Rings. They have teamed up with Middle-earth
Enterprises to do this. Details and Twitter reveals below:
- https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/magics-voyages-universes-beyond-2021-02-25
- https://twitter.com/wizards_magic/status/1364999695861305344
- https://twitter.com/MiddleearthEnts/status/1365001821593341953
More updates on this as we learn more.
Wade Centre: Author and book discussion
- Holly Ordway’s "Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle
Ages"
The Marion E. Wade Center (University
of Wheaton College, Illinois, USA) hosted a book launch on 26th February 2021.
Co-director David C. Downing and
Wade Archivist Laura Schmidt talked to author Holly Ordway about her new book, "Tolkien’s
Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages."
You can see this discussion here:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTyZJi2Eyjc
- https://www.wheaton.edu/academics/academic-centers/wadecenter/
No comments:
Post a Comment