John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 137

Tolkien's Shopping List (and a new poem)

So, thanks to Jason Fisher for sharing the news that a London auctionhouse is about to auction off a previously unknown poem by JRRT ("Aredhel went forth in blossom white"). It's a fascinating little piece which retells part of the story of The White Lady, sister of Turgon and Fingon. From the promising and evocative opening reproduced on the auction-house's website, I hope Tolkien continued the poem elsewhere and that this quick draft of the first stanza and a bit more isn't all we have of it.  Still, even if that's the case, we now have more of it that we did before, and its very existence draws attention to a free-spirited figure who unfortunately plays only a small role in the events of THE SILMARILLION.

And, on the back, we get a quick to-do list. Tolkien-bashers have facetiously been talking about "Tolkien's shopping list" for years: now they'll finally get to see how much we Tolkien fans (who are legion) will pay for it. Plus, of course, an unpublished and previously unknown poem. I know I'd love to own it if I had that kind of money.

And if you do have that kind of money, the auction is scheduled for next Thursday, at one o'clock, in Bloomsbury (London); their estimate is that it'll go for between four thousand and six thousand pounds.

Here's the link:


http://www.bloomsburyauctions.com/cms/pages/lot/36158/445

--John R.
Today's song: "Where is the Walrus?" (Alan Parsons Project)

The Cat Report (W. 11/5-14)

Tuesday night's adoption of DIVA/Gracie (go, Diva!), plus Wednesday night's adoption of the kittens FUCHSIA and WYSTERIA, leaves us with just three cats left unadopted in the cat-room: BUXTER, MAEBE, and little CLOUD.

The kittens were still very much in evidence, though, when I was there yesterday morning: their motto was we're kittens and we're out, and the older cats all coped with this flurry of activity by going high (Maebe, Buxter) or laying low (Cloud). The later strategy, of Cloud's hiding back in the corner in a nice little nest she made by the laundry hamper, particularly intrigued the kittens, who kept going back time after time to check on her and see if she was still there. Maebe started out on the cat-stand by the cabinet but later shifted herself up to the cagetops, where she did some serious snoozing in the cat-box up there; not even the kittens tearing back and forth up there disturbed her.  Buxter settled in her favorite spot atop the cat-stand by the door, where she luxuriated in my giving her a good, long, deep backscratch. She also enjoyed the string game, and showed a real enthusiasm for the soft pink blanket, coming down from her perch to stand on it and do her paws up and down, purring all the while.
Maebe was also interested in the string game while still on the cat-stand; she put such things behind her when she went up high to settle down to some serious sleeping.
Little Cloud showed real progress since last week: a week ago (10/29) she'd been cowering at the back of her cage. Two days later she let me pet her but really, really didn't want to have to come out of her safe territory (the cage). And now this Wednesday (11/5) she came up to the front of her cage and paraded before I even opened the door, let me pick up and carry her, welcomed being petted, and even went for a short walk (beware her wanting to go under shelves, and the speed with which she makes a dash with that goal in mind). She even cried when I put her back in her cage at noon and had to leave for the day. Think she'll quickly become a very sociable cat, at least with people. I'm surprised sometime at how small she is: she and the kittens are about the same length.
As for the kittens, they played with each other all morning. I forgot to bring their favorite mouse-on-a-stick game, but they made do nicely playing with the little plastic eggs, which went skittering as well as any ping-pong balls could have done. Their favorite, though, was the old yarn-and-chain game, which they pursued with vigor. At one point they found and ate some wet catfood that'd been left up on the cagetops, presumably since the night before; by the time I noticed what they were up to it was too late to stop them. And as before they had no interest in being picked up or petted until they crashed around 11, then welcomed being petted while they slept like only tired kittens can. 

Lots of visitors, some of whom said they'd adopted from Purrfect Pals in the past, and at least one who shares my love of small black cats. One woman had forgotten her cat's pre-adoption name but mistook a photo of Kaspar for him, so that's what he looks like (aside from having a notch out of one ear). Before my time, I think: sound familiar to anybody?  Another had a bonded pair named Tig and Tag, but I'm not sure if those were their original names or not. We also had lots of visitors, cat people who wanted to pet and make much of our cats (which the cats enjoyed), plus a fair number of families that viewed the cats from outside. One woman had a blind cat who's twenty-one and a deaf cat who's seventeen, so clearly she's doing something right.

Forgot one thing I forgot to include in the last (composite) Cat Report: when I was in Friday last week I decided to mix things up and so moved the cat-stands around. This interested and pleased the cats greatly, though it made it hard for me to get around in the room (so I put them all back in their usual places before I left at noon). Gracie/Diva was particularly fond of the cave I made for her by draping a blanket over part of the cat-stand closer to the cabinet, turning the middle-sections into a blanket-cave from which she could see out but others cdn't easily see in.

It's been such an amazing month for adoptions. Here's hoping Buxter and Maebe's turns come soon.
--John R.

Me, on Dvd (THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG extras)

So, yesterday the extended edition of THE HOBBIT movie two, THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, came out. I had some trouble finding a copy, having to make two stops and eventually to settle for BlueRay rather than the DVD I'd have preferred. I was not only eager to watch the extended edition itself, particularly the new and expanded (and, in at least one case, re-edited) scenes, but I was curious to see the extras.

You see, I'd been flown down to L.A. (my first time ever visiting that vast city) this summer, where I'd been interviewed about THE HOBBIT by the folks making a documentary to go on the dvd as one of the extras. I was much impressed with their professionalism, and the degree to which they'd done their homework, and in general found it an interesting and enjoyable experience.

Still, that didn't mean any of the resulting footage wd necessarily be included in the final piece. They have a lot of Tolkien scholars to choose from, and any bits from me might well end up on the cutting room floor.

Turns out, though, that quite a lot of it made the final cut. Here's a shot Janice took last night of it playing on our tv.









My contribution is mostly in the dragon piece; I'm impressed how they've woven together lines by Shippey, myself, and John Howe to form a coherent narrative. So far I've only caught one gaff, where I say 'the saga of Bothvar Bjarki' where I shd have said 'the story of Bothvar Bjarki, part of the saga of Hrolf Kraki'. As gaffs go, I can live with it; much less embarrassing than Langland/Gower. 
More later, when I've had a chance to watch the whole extended edition all the way through, as well as all the documentaries and extras.
--John R.today's song: "I'll Be Your Shelter"current reading: extended edition of ATB, prehistory of Egypt book.

The Cat Report (10/22, 10/24; 10/29, 10/31)

So, while I was away in the Midwest, there was plenty of activity in the cat room. The bonded pair CASTLE and WINDSOR came and went and are now happily settled in their new home. The other new arrivals were Cher's four (mostly black) kittens: WYSTERIA, FUSCHIA, LILAC, and ZENNIA, two of which (Lilac and Zennia) were adopted right away, before my return. The other new arrival was DIVA (who, as a fellow volunteer observed to me, really out to be called Gracie): a smooth-furred grey cat who gives the impression of bulging at the seams.

So the cat population when I got back was good girl MOLLINI, the sisters BUXTER and MAEBE, plus the kittens FUSCHIA and WYSTERIA, plus DIVA-Gracie. I was particularly glad to see Mollini again, who I think I finally figured out: she hated being picked up, and much preferred if I made a path for her to leap from small stand to big stand to her own cage (or vice-versa). She'd become the one cat who really likes to hang out near the door, so she got that territory all to herself (aside from encroachment by the kittens). Buxter and Maebe went to their usual spots (atop the cat-stand by the door and to the cagetops, respectively); Gracie was much worried at being surrounded by all these cats and gravitated towards the middle-levels of the cat-stand by the cabinet. At one point she became interested in going into the cabinet herself, but her leap (not v. far) fell short, and she wentcrashing to the floor. Didn't seem hurt, but also didn't try leaping again. Poor Diva.

And of course there was much activity by Wysteria and Fushia, chasing balls, tearing up rolls of paper towels, chasing feathers, stalking that little red light from the laser pointer, chasing ping-pong balls, pouncing on string,and of course chasing each other. Their favorite toy, bar none, seemed to be the mouse-on-a-stick, which they would catch, bite down on, and then drag away to a spot where they could concentrate on biting it properly. They're natural-born mousers, I'd say -- one of them even figured out how to unhook the 'mouse' from the line, making it easier for them to carry their trophy around.  Cute as they are, they don't seem to want to be picked up or cuddled, but when they finally crash around noontime they welcome being petted, stretching and purring with approval.

The bad news from this week was that the man who adopted BOOGIEMAN last year (Sept. 2013 I think it was) came by in great distress, saying that Boogieman (or 'Bugle Boy' as he'd renamed him) was in failing health, losing weight rapidly and beginning to have trouble walking with the back legs. Sad to say that the vets Cher put him in touch with were unable to help and he died on Tuesday (the 28th). Poor Boogieman. He was one of our most memorable cats, along with his partner in belly-up snoozing outside the room Mr. Moreo. I'm glad he had that year and more of a home of his own before the end.



The next week, the week of Halloween, brought good news to our longest-serving-cat, Mollini, who finally got adopted (the evening of October 24th), after having been here in the cat-room since May.  I'll really miss her, but I'm so glad she's got a home now. I'm sure she's already sitting on the couch next to her new people, teaching them The Rules.

The other great good news was that my pal KABOODLE has also been adopted (as of I think Monday the 27th). He was one of my favorites of all the cats who've passed through the cat-room in the past five years or so; I'd gladly have adopted him if we weren't already at our limit. I felt bad for him when he had to go back to the main clinic for health problems and have been checking the website from time to time to see if he'd gone back on the adoptable list but not seen his name appear. Turns out there was someone else who'd made a connection with him, who'd been checking for his name weekly, and who went and promptly adopted him as soon as he was pronounced good to go. I'm sorry not to have had the chance to see him again, but I'm so glad he finally has that long-awaited home (having waited the better part of a year; according to my notes, he arrived at the Tukwila cat room in early January, and has been up at the main shelter since April).

The main event of this week was the new arrival, CLOUD, a young (maybe a year old, maybe less) pale orange mama cat with an injured eye. I don't think she can see anything out of the left eye, and I think that makes her skittish -- certainly she hisses at the other cats when she notices them, but somethings doesn't seem to know they're there, or how close they are.  The first day (W. 10/29) she cowered in her cage so I didn't force thing, straightened up around her, and generally tried to put her on her ease. By Friday (Halloween) she clearly felt safer and came up requesting attention, ate a little, and actually came out on her own and explored a little. She's still definitely no fan of the other cats, but perhaps she'll reach a live-and-let-live agreement with them soon.

As for the others, BUXTER and MAEBE had  a quiet day in their respective spots. Gracie explored the steps but decided that rather than stepping off onto the cagetops she'd go back down, backwards. As usual when a cat decides to climb down backwards, it didn't work for her as well as she'd hoped. Luckily I intervened and got her down safely. The kittens did better, and one of them quite liked having a route up to new and interesting territory.

No walks for anyone, since Buxter no longer seems to enjoy them and she was the only cat among our current crop I could persuade to go on walks -- Gracie makes a concerted dive to hide under the shelving, the kittens think the leash is a diabolically clever plot of some sort, Maebe yowls despairingly, and Cloud has seemed too spooked already to risk it.

It was good to hear that Moanie and Joanie, who I remember as kittens, are doing well and to see pictures of them as full-grown (and rather beautiful) cats. The only other news of note was that Ginsu's owner came by; said she'd adopted him about five years ago and he's doing fine.

--John R.

Bombadil arrives!

So, my copy of the new extended edition of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM BOMBADIL has now arrived*, and I'm glad to say it's an appealing little book. It's a small-sized hardcover, a little shorter and a little wider than a standard mass market paperback (or, to put it another way, about the same size as a cd jewelcase, only a little taller).  There's a lot of material here -- new editorial introduction giving the history of the volume, a reprinting of the entire contents of the 1962 book, an extensive section of commentary reprinting earlier versions of the poems, three pages in tengwar, the all-too-brief fragment of the Bombadil story, and the third, previously uncollected Bombadil poem, along with another (non-Bombadil) poem they suggest might be a precursor to it.

I haven't had time to read carefully all the way through it yet, so here are some first impressions

(1) I was wrong is saying this was a Hammond & Scull volume, like ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR, THE ART OF THE HOBBIT, and the LotR READER'S COMPANION. Instead, it's a Scull & Hammond volume, like ROVERANDOM, the FARMER GILES OF HAM extended edition, and the two volume JRRT COMPANION & GUIDE.

(2) The Story of Tom Bombadil is indeed very short, only three paragraphs long, a mere 262 words -- most of which is devoted to setting the scene in the days of King Bonhedig, long before the days of Arthur. What little we do have is interesting because of its unexpected parallels to the opening of FARMER GILES, and for its contribution of another of Tolkien's invasion sequences; it'll be interesting to compare the one here with that in Tolkien's notes for THE LOST ROAD and also those glimpsed in notes and outlines to THE BOOK OF LOST TALES (esp. in the story of Eriol/AElfwine).

(3)  "The Dragon's Visit" is indeed unfortunately omitted from this expanded edition (as well as "Kortirion among the Trees", which is much less of a loss). The good news is that "Once Upon a Time", the third and final Bombadil poem, is indeed included, along with another (non-Bombadil) poem they suggest might be a precusor to it. I'm dubious both on the merits of the latter and its connection between the two, but still it's good to have another Tolkien poem reprinted where it'll be more accessible to more people.

(4) In the matter of "Fastitocalon" and "Cat", they do indeed preserve the second (revised) sequence but fix two references in Tolkien's Preface so that they now each refer to the correct poem respectively. They were not able to restore the flames to the picture of Fastitocalon, but this is because they reprint all the incidental art within the body of the original book here in black and white.

(5) They describe [p. 20] the original dustjacket as having depicted the mariner from "Errantry"; I have always assumed this is the narrator of "The Sea-Bell". Not only does he and his ship lack any of the panoply so prominently featured in "Errantry" but he actually holds in his hand the sea-shell that awakens the sea-longing in "The Sea-Bell" (he's also incidently sailing past a bell in the sea, ringing on a buoy).

(6) One minor piece of errata: they say [p. 24] that three of the poems Tolkien recorded in 1967 were not used on the Caedmon record POEMS AND SONGS OF MIDDLE EARTH and "were issued only in 2001" as part of the JRRT AUDIO COLLECTION. In fact, "The Sea-Bell" is included on the 1967 Caedmon record. It's omitted from the track listing on the back of the album cover, but does appear on the label of the record itself. I only caught this because I've had this record for years, and sometimes still dig it out and play it (I'm not part of the 'vinyl revival; I just kept all my old records and still listen to them on occasion); this recording has long been a great favorite of mine: one of Tolkien's best readings of what I consider to be his best poem.

More to come: I'll try to do a quick wrap-up final impression piece once I've read all the way through the highly informative treasure trove that is the commentary and notes.

--John R.
yesterday's song: "Cool Night" by Paul Davis
currently reading: THE SHADOW OF REICHENBACH FALLS and ATB expanded edition



* I was going to say, fresh from England, but actually it was mailed from Fife -- and took less time to get here than many of the books I order from the US branch, amazon.com

Book Group (CARNACKI THE GHOST-FINDER)

So, a small turnout Sunday for Mithlond -- Gyda, Ramon, Jason, Chris and Andy not being able to make it left us with  just four people:  Yvette our host, Allen, Janice and myself. Despite that, we had a good meeting, having all read at least some of the stories, and had a good discussion. One thing we'd already become aware of is that the order in which you read the stories can have a big effect.

For example, I was reading a hardcover (the 'Mycroft and Moran' Arkham House edition), in which the first story is "The Thing Invisible", the one about the haunted knife, while Janice (and Yvette) were reading it on the Kindle, in which the first story is "The Gateway of the Monster/Whistling Room".

The two sequences are as follows:

BOOK: "The Thing Invisible", "The Gateway of the Monster", "The House Among the Laurels", "The Whistling Room", "The Searcher of the End House", "The Horse of the Invisible", plus the three added stories: "The Haunted Jarvee", "The Find", and (last and among the least) "The Hog".

e-Book: "The Gateway of the Monster", "The House Among the Laurels", "The Whistling Room", "The Horse of the Invisible", "The Searcher of the End House", "The Thing Invisible", "The Hog", "The Haunted Jarvee", and "The Find"


This matters because Hodgson carefully manipulates the reader's expectations in the Carnaki stories. In some stories, there's no ghost: the haunting was faked (though the danger may still be real). In others, the ghost is all too real and, more often than not, deadly. And in one story there's both a faked haunting and, as revealed in the climax, a real horror as well. In the arrangement of stories in the book, Hodgson carefully gives a sequence that keeps the reader guessing; in the Kindle arrangement the reader is thrown into the deed end from the get-go.  That Hodgson was wise to keep his readers guessing is amply shown by the Ash-Tree Press volume of Carnacki pastiches, NO. 472 CHEYNE WALK [2002] by A. F. Kidd and Rick Kennett. I tend to enjoy a good pastiche (such as Cannon's SCREAM FOR JEEVES, Harrison's EXPLOITS OF THE CHEVALIER DUPIN, or even Sheila Hodgson's THE FELLOW TRAVELLERS), but in the Kidd-Kennett collection every story follows the same pattern, all the ghosts are real, all are thwarted in much the same manner, and the reader is never left in any doubt that Carnacki will win through.



By contrast, there's much more ingenuity and variety in the original Carnacki stories (six in the original book published in Hodgson's lifetime, nine in the Arkham House and subsequent editions)*: the fact that Carnacki confesses to having been terrified at times during his investigations, only to sometimes later discover he'd worked himself up and the horror was of his own imagining; there's an honesty to that that's appealing. And the mix of real and faked hauntings has a verisimilitude: it stands to reason that not every case a ghost-hunter undertakes will uncover a genuine ghost.  Perhaps the thing that most makes them stand out is Carnacki's use of cutting edge technology, like his Electric Pentagram and later his Prismatic Circle. In this he resembles Bram Stoker. Reading DRACULA today it's easy to miss how tech-savvy his heroes are, employing such then-modern devices as the telegraph, shorthand, and especially Dr. Steward's Dictaphone to solve the case. Stoker even uses an airplane in a daring rescue as the climax in another of his novels, THE LADY OF THE SHROUD, published just six years after the Wright Brothers' first flight.


*of these, three additional stories, "The Hog" is an inept re-write of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS, "The Haunted Jarvee" is a so-so reuse of the plot-line from THE GHOST PIRATES, and "The Find", the best of the lot, a non-horror tale of ratinocination, perhaps hinting at a direction the series might have taken had the War not intervened.  For years there were doubts about the authenticy of all three, given Derleth's history as a forger.

Probably the biggest revelation to me was Yvette's pointing out that Dodgson, the narrator, was probably a play on Hodgson, the writer; I'd always assumed it was some sort of tribute to Lewis Carroll. That's one of the reasons I love book groups: those times when someone else read the same book I did and got something out of it I didn't which enhances my own reading.


As for the gathering itself, Yvette and James (our co-host) topped off their hospitality with hot cider and most excellent go-off-the-diet-worthy little bite-sized fruit tarts. Better yet, Max (Maximillius) the cat was disposed to be agreeable, not just showing a good deal of interest in the string game but completely eviscerating the little furry mouse tied to one end of the string; later he discovered the cat-nip tea-bag in my satchel and gave himself up to uninhibited indulgence. More surprising, we got to see shy Maya, who came out and took care of what spilled catnip Max had missed, so mellowed out that she actually let me pet her a little. Add to that a friendly encounter with the neighborhood cat when we arrived, and it was a three-cat visit.


Next month our book is something entirely different:  THE SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinett Kowal, which seems to be another of those works that blends Jane Austen style character-interaction romance with fantasy. Wrede and Stevermer pulled it off with SORCERY AND CECELIA (perhaps because they refrained from too closely coping Austen, simply using her as inspiration rather than a template), while Galen Beckett failed with his MRS QUENT (which came across as an unblended pastiche of Austen, Bronte, and early Dickens --in sequence, not blended into a coherent whole). Here's hoping Kowal has better luck.



--John R.
just finished: FOREIGN DEVILS (a DOCTOR WHO novel featuring Thomas Carnacki)
just started: THE SHADOW OF REICHENBACH FALLS by John R. King (a Holmes/Carnacki crossover)
yesterday's song: RED RUBBER BALL by The Cyrkle
today's song: '65 LOVE AFFAIR by Paul Davis

Book Group

So, a small turnout Sunday for Mithlond -- Gyda, Ramon, Jason, Chris and Andy not being able to make it left us with  just four people:  Yvette our host, Allen, Janice and myself. Despite that, we had a good meeting, having all read at least some of the stories, and had a good discussion. One thing we'd already become aware of is that the order in which you read the stories can have a big effect.

For example, I was reading a hardcover (the 'Mycroft and Moran' Arkham House edition), in which the first story is "The Thing Invisible", the one about the haunted knife, while Janice (and Yvette) were reading it on the Kindle, in which the first story is "The Gateway of the Monster/Whistling Room".

The two sequences are as follows:

BOOK: "The Thing Invisible", "The Gateway of the Monster", "The House Among the Laurels", "The Whistling Room", "The Searcher of the End House", "The Horse of the Invisible", plus the three added stories: "The Haunted Jarvee", "The Find", and (last and among the least) "The Hog".

e-Book: "The Gateway of the Monster", "The House Among the Laurels", "The Whistling Room", "The Horse of the Invisible", "The Searcher of the End House", "The Thing Invisible", "The Hog", "The Haunted Jarvee", and "The Find"


This matters because Hodgson carefully manipulates the reader's expectations in the Carnaki stories. In some stories, there's no ghost: the haunting was faked (though the danger may still be real). In others, the ghost is all too real and, more often than not, deadly. And in one story there's both a faked haunting and, as revealed in the climax, a real horror as well. In the arrangement of stories in the book, Hodgson carefully gives a sequence that keeps the reader guessing; in the Kindle arrangement the reader is thrown into the deed end from the get-go.  That Hodgson was wise to keep his readers guessing is amply shown by the Ash-Tree Press volume of Carnacki pastiches, NO. 472 CHEYNE WALK [2002] by A. F. Kidd and Rick Kennett. I tend to enjoy a good pastiche (such as Cannon's SCREAM FOR JEEVES, Harrison's EXPLOITS OF THE CHEVALIER DUPIN, or even Sheila Hodgson's THE FELLOW TRAVELLERS), but in the Kidd-Kennett collection every story follows the same pattern, all the ghosts are real, all are thwarted in much the same manner, and the reader is never left in any doubt that Carnacki will win through.



By contrast, there's much more ingenuity and variety in the original Carnacki stories (six in the original book published in Hodgson's lifetime, nine in the Arkham House and subsequent editions)*: the fact that Carnacki confesses to having been terrified at times during his investigations, only to sometimes later discover he'd worked himself up and the horror was of his own imagining; there's an honesty to that that's appealing. And the mix of real and faked hauntings has a verisimilitude: it stands to reason that not every case a ghost-hunter undertakes will uncover a genuine ghost.  Perhaps the thing that most makes them stand out is Carnacki's use of cutting edge technology, like his Electric Pentagram and later his Prismatic Circle. In this he resembles Bram Stoker. Reading DRACULA today it's easy to miss how tech-savvy his heroes are, employing such then-modern devices as the telegraph, shorthand, and especially Dr. Steward's Dictaphone to solve the case. Stoker even uses an airplane in a daring rescue as the climax in another of his novels, THE LADY OF THE SHROUD, published just six years after the Wright Brothers' first flight.


*of these, three additional stories, "The Hog" is an inept re-write of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS, "The Haunted Jarvee" is a so-so reuse of the plot-line from THE GHOST PIRATES, and "The Find", the best of the lot, a non-horror tale of ratinocination, perhaps hinting at a direction the series might have taken had the War not intervened.  For years there were doubts about the authenticy of all three, given Derleth's history as a forger.

Probably the biggest revelation to me was Yvette's pointing out that Dodgson, the narrator, was probably a play on Hodgson, the writer; I'd always assumed it was some sort of tribute to Lewis Carroll. That's one of the reasons I love book groups: those times when someone else read the same book I did and got something out of it I didn't which enhances my own reading.


As for the gathering itself, Yvette and James (our co-host) topped off their hospitality with hot cider and most excellent go-off-the-diet-worthy little bite-sized fruit tarts. Better yet, Max (Maximillius) the cat was disposed to be agreeable, not just showing a good deal of interest in the string game but completely eviscerating the little furry mouse tied to one end of the string; later he discovered the cat-nip tea-bag in my satchel and gave himself up to uninhibited indulgence. More surprising, we got to see shy Maya, who came out and took care of what spilled catnip Max had missed, so mellowed out that she actually let me pet her a little. Add to that a friendly encounter with the neighborhood cat when we arrived, and it was a three-cat visit.


Next month our book is something entirely different:  THE SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinett Kowal, which seems to be another of those works that blends Jane Austen style character-interaction romance with fantasy. Wrede and Stevermer pulled it off with SORCERY AND CECELIA (perhaps because they refrained from too closely coping Austen, simply using her as inspiration rather than a template), while Galen Beckett failed with his MRS QUENT (which came across as an unblended pastiche of Austen, Bronte, and early Dickens --in sequence, not blended into a coherent whole). Here's hoping Kowal has better luck.



--John R.
just finished: FOREIGN DEVILS (a DOCTOR WHO novel featuring Thomas Carnacki)
just started: THE SHADOW OF REICHENBACH FALLS by John R. King (a Holmes/Carnacki crossover)
yesterday's song: RED RUBBER BALL by The Cyrkle
today's song: '65 LOVE AFFAIR by Paul Davis

The New ADVENTURES OF TOM BOMBADIL

So, here's a book I knew was coming but didn't know until a few days ago* that it was actually out (as of Oct. 9th): a new, expanded edition of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM BOMBADIL, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.  I've now ordered a copy, but it'll be a while getting here, since it has to come from the U.K.; as with so many other interesting new editions of Tolkien works, there seems to be no American edition, at least so far as I cd tell.

It seems from the descriptions that this not-quite-Fiftieth-Anniversary edition, like similar expanded editions of FGH, SWM, and OFS, includes the entire text of the original book plus ancillary material of great interest: the earlier versions of the poems where these are known to exist, such as "Looney" (better known as "The Sea-Bell") and "Firiel" (which became "The Last Ship"), not to mention the newly rediscovered original of "Shadow-bride". Of particular interest is the never-before-published "The Bumpus", which developed into "Perry-the-Winkle".

Best of all, Wayne & Christina print for the first time the prose fragment of what wd have been The Story of Tom Bombadil, had Tolkien continued it -- another of those "promising beginnings" as Tolkien himself called them that faltered after a few pages, like the sequel to FARMER GILES (similarly printed for the first time by Wayne & Christina in their extended edition of FGH).

Finally, this expanded edition of ATB adds the third Bombadil poem, "Once Upon a Time", a delightful little piece which seems to have been written just too late for inclusion in the original 1962 edition and instead appeared in print elsewhere a few years later.**  So far as I can tell, they've not included associated poems like "The Dragon's Visit" and "Kortirion Among the Trees", which Tolkien considered including in the 1962 volume but which were ultimately left out for one reason or another (presumably finding it too hard to reconcile them to the 'Red Book' conceit that unifies the otherwise disparate collection). This was particularly unfortunately in the case of "The Dragon's Visit", which is a good deal better than several of the poems which made it in (e.g., "Bombadil Goes Boating", "Princess Mee", "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon").

One thing I'm very curious to find out, and forgot to ask when I saw them this summer, is whether they've restored the original sequence of the poems Tolkien intended, or kept the revised sequence introduced by his publishers (w. Tolkien's permission) in the second printing (which is after all now of some fifty years' standing). In the original sequence, "Cat" is poem number eleven and "Fastitocalon" is poem number twelve; in the revised sequence, they switch places, so that "Fastitocalon" becomes poem number eleven and now precedes "Cat", which becomes poem number twelve.***

The chief significance of this is that Tolkien when refers in his Preface to poem number twelve . . .

No. 12 is also marked SG [=Sam Gamgee], though at most Sam can only have touched up an older piece of the comic bestiary lore of which Hobbits appear to have been fond" (ATB.7)

. . . he is referring NOT to "Cat" (the current poem number twelve) but to "Fastitocalon" (the original poem number twelve).

If they have not restored Tolkien's original ordering of the poems, then I'll be curious to see if they've changed the faulty reference in Tolkien's Preface, so that instead of "No. 12" it wd instead read "No. 11". And, though this is a lesser point, whether they've been able to restore the spot of color to the illustration of "Fastitocalon" (the tongues of flame from the fatal campfire) which was the root cause of the re-sequencing in the first place. We'll soon see.


Since the book itself's better than any description of the book, here's a link to what seems to be the amazon (.co.uk) listing for the expanded edition of this appealing little book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Tom-Bombadil-J-Tolkien/dp/0007557272/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414185714&sr=1-1&keywords=the+adventures+of+tom+bombadil

--John R, looking forward to the arrival of my just-ordered copy
current reading: still the Echo-Hawk (only forty pages to go!)


*thanks Doug

**WINTER'S TALES FOR CHILDREN, ed. Carolyn Hillier [1965], along with the revised version of "The Dragon's Visit"; both poems were reprinted a few years later in mass-market paperback by Lin Carter in THE YOUNG MAGICIANS [1969], one of the sixty-five books in Ballantine's Adult Fantasy Series.

***for the reasons why this occurred -- a discovery that I made, ironically enough, when examining Christina's copy of the first printing -- see my article, written in collaboration with Wayne, "'Fastitocalon' and 'Cat': A Problem in Sequencing", which appeared in the August 1987 issue of BEYOND BREE.

ANCHORING THE MYTH (My New Publication)

So, this week I got the good news about my latest publication, the volume THE HOBBIT IN TOLKIEN'S MYTHOLOGY: ESSAYS ON REVISIONS AND INFLUENCES, edited by Brad Eden, is now out.




My contribution is my keynote speech at last year's Valparaiso conference organized by Brad Eden, the essay "Anchoring the Myth: The Impact of THE HOBBIT on Tolkien's Legendarium", which chooses Tolkien's treatment of The Dwarves as a way to trace the (sometimes surprising) ways the older legendarium and THE HOBBIT interact. I spent a lot of time in THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT exploring that interaction, and writing this piece helped clarify my thinking on the issue, and the way Tolkien could have contradictory things going on in different parts of his overarching legendarium -- held in suspension, as it were, until and if he made a decision one way or the other.


The volume doesn't appear to be up on the McFarland website yet (where it'll be the most recent in what's now their eight volumes of Tolkien material, of which I've contributed to four*). However, you can find a link to its listing on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Tolkiens-Mythology-Revisions-Influences/dp/0786479604/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414015323&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=%22bradley+lee+eden%22+tolkien

The amazon listing doesn't give the table of contents, but fortunately that appears on Jason Fisher's blog:

http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2014/06/another-new-tolkien-collection-from.html


As you can see from the T.o.C., I'm in good company.** In fact, the best thing about seeing this book in print, aside from my own excitement about seeing another piece of mine out there where others can read it and react to it, is that now I get to read the essays by all the other contributors. So when my copy arrives it will immediately go to the top of the 'Read This Now' pile.
Many thanks to Brad for putting together the conference, inviting me to speak at it, coming up with the idea of this book, and seeing it through to fruition. 
Enjoy!
--John R.
current reading: TOLKIEN IN PAWNEE LAND (Echo-Hawk)current viewing: SCOOBY DOO, MYSTERY INCORPORATED
*PICTURING TOLKIEN, THE BONES OF THE OX ('Tolkien and the Study of His Sources'), TOLKIEN IN THE NEW CENTURY (the Shippey festschrift, both as a co-editor and contributor), and now THE HOBBIT IN TOLKIEN'S MYTHOLOGY
** something that can be said of everyone who shares space in a book with Verlyn Fleiger, who gave the other keynote speech.

Burrahobbits

So, last Thursday, the final night of our trip, we spent the evening with old friends: The Burrahobbits.*  Here's what Janice had to say afterwards (thanks to JC for permission to forward her post):


Burrahobbits Rule the book group world. Meeting 30 years and counting. Thanks to Jan Noble Long, Jeff Long, David Hoose, Georgie, Greg, and Pat for proving you can go home again. It was great seeing everyone again and picking up where we left off 17 years ago.


This is the book group I helped found, growing out of a continuing ed. class on Tolkien, that still has three of the original members in regular attendance all these years later, plus several other long-timers who came in later, and a cadre of new folks -- though by 'new' I mean people who joined after Janice and I moved to the Seattle area, seventeen years ago now, some of whom have been coming for years by this point. We kept coming ourselves even after we left Milwaukee, driving up from Delavan one night a month, and have kept in touch via email in the years since, though nothing is the same as being there.**  Thus we had a great time drinking tea (Jeff & Jan even provided Tupilo honey!), catching up, remembering deceased members (Jim and Sue), and discussing books good and bad we'd read over the years.  Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the evening, but it left me determined to keep in better touch with what they're reading and, when possible, to read along with their monthly choices.

All hail Burrahobbits!

--John R.




P. S. In the meantime, our current book group (Mithlond) is reading Wm. Hope Hodgson's CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER this month,*** if anyone in the Seattle area is interested in joining us. I'm enjoying re-reading the original stories -- the best of all the psychic detectives, in my judgment -- and also reading a collection of Carnacki pastiches by other hands (which are enjoyable enough but can't begin to compare to the original). I also have a Doctor Who novel featuring Carnacki and an e-book of Carnacki-meets-Holmes, which I may not have time to get to before the meeting this weekend. 




*originating as an independent group who have since become both a Mythopoeic discussion group and a Tolkien Society smial in addition to still being independently minded. The name comes from our vast amusement of Nicole Williamson's reading of the Troll scene on his record album giving a reading of THE HOBBIT.

**Just to give some idea of how important this group was in our lives, it's where Janice and I met. And we're not the only couple to come out of the group.

***as part of our longstanding tradition to read a horror or ghost story each October