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Recently Discovered Tolkien Poems
Obviously they’re not “undiscovered” if someone has just discovered them, but this is interesting news nonetheless:
Undiscovered poems written by J.R.R. Tolkien have been uncovered in an Abingdon school magazine from 1936.
The work of The Lord of the Rings author was found by the principal of Our Lady’s Abingdon school after searching through old copies of the school’s annual magazine.
Two poems were found titled The Shadow Man – an earlier version of Tolkien’s Adventures of Tom Bombadil – and a Christmas poem titled Noel.
The full text of both poems are to be found in the Oxford Mail story.
Listen to Tolkien Read (Snippets of) LOTR
Via Anna Green at mental_floss:
The written works of J.R.R. Tolkien are full of songs and poems that help build the mythology of Middle Earth. But while Tolkien’s songs are full of vivid imagery and exciting storytelling, it’s near-impossible to figure out what they were actually supposed to sound like. Fortunately, Tolkien himself knew, and he even recorded a few of the songs and poems.
The Elves of Middle Earth
Kate Horowitz of mental_floss has posted “7 Regal Facts about the Elves of Middle Earth” in honor of the anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien’s birth.
Sunday Inspiration: Tears
“You tried to give us the slip once before and failed, Frodo,” [Pippin] said. “This time you have nearly succeeded, but you have failed again. It was not Sam, though, that gave you away this time, but Gandalf himself!”
“Yes,” said Gandalf; “for it will be better to ride back three together than one alone. Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-Earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”
—J. R. R. Tolkien
A Map of Middle Earth with Tolkien’s Annotations
You never know what you’ll find tucked into an old book.
In the 1960s, the British illustrator Pauline Baynes was working on a color map of Middle-earth, the land of wizards, elves and, of course, hobbits. While she was drafting the map, she worked closely with J.R.R. Tolkien, who sent her a copy of a map from a previous edition of Lord of the Rings, covered in notes revealing details of Middle-earth.
Baynes tucked that map into her copy of Tolkien’s trilogy, where it stayed for decades, until, just recently, it was found at Blackwell’s Rare Books, reports the Guardian.
Tolkien’s Kullervo to Be Published
Via PBS:
A 1914 manuscript that formed the early basis for J.R.R. Tolkien’s works of epic fantasy will be widely published for the first time this summer.
“The Story of Kullervo,” which Tolkien wrote while at Oxford University, has previously only been published in the journal “Tolkien Studies: Volume 7.” It will be widely distributed for the first time in the U.K. on Aug. 27 and in the U.S. on Oct. 27.
The book follows the story of an orphan seeking revenge on the dark magician who killed his father. Tolkien based the book on the Finnish epic poem “The Kalevala,” which was published in English for the first time in 1888.
Are The “Real” Mines of Moria in France?
In 1916, a 24-year-old British soldier named J.R.R. Tolkien went off to fight in World War I. He was stationed near the village of Bouzincourt, took part in the nearby Battle of the Somme and writes about the area in his diaries.
Jeff Gusky, an explorer and photographer who maintains a site called “The Hidden World of World War I,” believes Tolkien may have visited Bouzincourt’s caves, places where hundreds of soldiers took refuge during the Somme — and that some of his impressions ended up in “The Lord of the Rings.”
Others aren’t so sure. At any rate, no one questions Tolkien’s experiences as a soldier during World War I had an influence on The Lord of the Rings. He once wrote in a letter that “The Dead marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme.”
The Language of Birds?
Silbo Gomero is a method of transposing the sounds of spoken Spanish into whistles. Arika Okrent at mental_floss explains:
The human voice can only carry so far, but a whistle can travel for miles. In the mountains and ravines of La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, a language of whistles has been used for centuries to transmit long distance messages with amazing accuracy.
The article goes on to explain that there are other whistle-languages known in other parts of the world.
In Ghanaian folklore, the mmoatia communicate by means of a whistling language, and whistling in the forest is a sure way to get their attention.
In the world of Taylor Smart, many fae are familiar with the language of birds—a detail I added in honor of The Hobbit, although Tolkien no doubt was inspired by Germanic mythology, where this ability comes up from time to time.
It would definitely be a handy skill to have, especially since you can rarely get a cell phone signal in faery-land.
Sunday Inspiration: Holding Evil in Check
Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
—Gandalf (via J. R. R. Tolkien)
Cutting The Hobbit Down to Size
It was only a matter of time. Someone has created a fan-edit of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy that slices the runtime roughly in half. As Rob Bricken suggests, this is a good first step in getting the material down to the length of a single movie!
Darrell J. Pursiful 