John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 171

The Hobbit EMPIRE

So, Thursday the new (December) issue of EMPIRE magazine arrived from England (think it'll be out over here later this month). This is their special HOBBIT issue, and it was well worth waiting for. They have a special section on THE HOBBIT that runs more than sixty pages, with lots on the cast, the director, the three-film decision, etc. etc. etc. Looks to be really nicely done.

Best of all, from my point of view, is a section on Tolkien himself, and an overview of how he came to write the book. I was interviewed for this, along with Boyens and Shippey, who provides the best description of 'philology' I've ever seen: "language archaeology". Only a little of what I said actually made it in; I think I'm much less quotable than a good source for background -- e.g., I'm pleased to see that they've drawn on my reconstruction of the stages in which Tolkien wrote the book; nice to see my arguments get more widely disseminated.

Even Tolkien lovers who are not so keen on the movies might want to pick up this issue, because it prints a previously unknown picture of Tolkien (p. 106-107).* It's a great photo, one of the best I've seen of him, and clearly taken near the end of his life: outdoors (I think on the grounds of Merton, right next to the old city wall), wearing his glasses (rather unusual for a JRRT photograph), and holding a book (ATB, so the image is definitely post-1962**)

I understand that there will be web extras posted at Empire Online once the issue's officially out over here, so there's also that to look forward to.

For now, I'll be enjoying skimming through this issue, trying to avoid spoilers, and coming to grips with the fact that after all this waiting the film itself is really almost here. With any luck I may even be able to keep all thirteen dwarves straight by the time the film opens.

--John R.
current reading: MURDER IN THE DARK by Margaret Atwood [1983]


*unknown to me, at any rate, and I try to keep up with these things, even before the days of Dr. Blackwelder's TOLKIEN PORTRAITURE.

**I'd guess 1971-73

The Book of Phobias and The Book of Ishness

So, one really interesting book Bijee showed me during our recent visit to Trout Lake was an art book illustrated by one John Vassos, someone I'd never heard of who turned out to be a really important industrial designer of the 1920s through 1950s. If you've seen 'futuristic' furniture or household items from that era, there's a good chance they're by him. Apparently he even designed the look of one of the first commercial tv sets. Anyway, in 1931 he produced a very weird limited edition book called simply PHOBIA. Each spread therein featured a full-page greytone illustration of a phobia.

Now, since phobias are abstract, the goal of each picture is to suggest the state of mind a person suffering from that phobia would have, and express the fear and turning away that accompanies all phobias. Being an acrophobic myself, I can testify that the results are strange and disturbing and fascinating, all at the same time.


While the original book is fairly rare, it turns out there's a recent Dover reprint. But for those who just want to see what the art looked like, here's the link to a website that has most if not all of the book's contents posted:

http://www.codex99.com/illustration/111.html


Two thoughts:


--Being a Tolkienist, I was reminded of Tolkien's somewhat earlier attempt (which Vassos cd not have known about, since it was never published*) to portray abstract states in some of his early artwork, in the pieces he collectively named THE BOOK OF ISHNESS. Some of these pieces have been published in Wayne and Christina's JRRT: ARTIST AND ILLUSTRATOR, but I don't think all of them appear there (cd be wrong about that). While Tolkien's style is nothing like Vassos's, some of Tolkien's topics in pieces like BEFORE, AFTERWARDS, WICKEDNESS, EERINESS, UNDERTENISHNESS strike similar themes, while GROWNUPISHNESS is more light-hearted and THOUGHT reminds me of Sime; it wd have fitted nicely into one of Dunsany's early books (which we know Tolkien was v. fond of).
--Also, being something of a Cthulhuist, if there is such a word, I thought what a good game prop a copy of PHOBIA would be in a CALL OF CTHULHU campaign; it wd do v. well as an example of a Mythos book, disturbing in subtle ways so that just being exposed to its images underminds yr grip on sanity just a little.
--JDR
current reading: EMPIRE magazine December issue

Tolkien Day at Trout Lake

So, for the holiday weekend we got to go down to Trout Lake, to the High House by the Little White Salmon River, just north of the Columbia River Gorge and south of Mt Adams, to visit for a few days with our friend Bijee.* We'd been planning to do so for months, but a whole string of events conspired to defer the trip each time (including, most regrettably, the death of our co-host Don in April). Good to have finally gone; her High House is one of the nicest spots I've ever visited for working, or visiting, or just hanging out.

One change from previous visits is that since our last time there the new dog had morphed into a no-longer-new dog plus mostly grown puppy. Both are really big dogs, as was the third dog she was watching for a few days while his owners were away, plus the neighbor's dog who just liked to come over and hang out with the others. Add the little dog with an attitude, and you had an interesting pack dynamic. I spend lots of time with cats, so it was interesting to watch dogs sometimes obeying and sometimes pushing the rules.

While we were there, Bijee arranged a Tolkien Day (for Sunday night, November 11th), where some friends, some neighbors, and some people from her book group all came over. Bijee and I both did brief presentations on THE HOBBIT. She did an interesting talk about some of Tolkien's sources and how he used them.  For my own part, I considered talking about ideas Tolkien had for THE HOBBIT that he wound up not using, or perhaps a brief run-down of how Tolkien came to write the book. Then Janice reminded me that Peter Jackson is not the first to attempt to recast THE HOBBIT into the style of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: that wd be Tolkien himself.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the Gollum chapter; the Gollum story as we know it now being very different from what Tolkien first wrote, and published. Thereupon I read out two pages from Tolkien's first draft,** starting with Gollum's failure to answer Bilbo's last question to their parting after Gollum shows Bilbo the way out. It went pretty well; wanted something that didn't require specialist knowledge but did assume you were more or less familiar with the story.

It was a fun evening, and all in all a great visit. I'm already looking forward to next time, and hoping we can soon repay the favor.


Three things that conversation with Bijee convinced me I shd probably add to MR. BAGGINS sometime when I get the chance:

--a little more on THE MARVELLOUS LAND OF THE SNERGS, which I passed lightly over since it had already gotten a good treatment in Doug's ANNOTATED HOBBIT;

--a bit about Morris's ICELANDIC JOURNALS, which seem to have provided some 'local color' for the early stages of Bilbo and company's travels, particularly with the ponies; and

--John Buchan, whose undoubtedly contributed some to the 'Inn at Bree' scenes in LotR but whose retired grocer Dickson McCunn also may have contributed something to Bilbo as reluctant adventurer, a stay-at-home suddenly out on the open road and finding that he thrives on adventure.



--JDR
current reading: THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF MR. ANDREW HAWTHORN AND OTHER STORIES by John Buchan (short story collection)


*better known in Tolkien circles as Marjorie Burns, author of the excellent PERILOUS REALMS, as well as many essays and articles.


**(H.o.H.160-161)

The Cat Report (W. 11/14-12)

A (mostly) quiet morning in the cat room, starting off with some walks and ending with (almost) everybody lounging about, snoozing and occasionally being petted and much admired by visitors.
Congr. to SeeConnie and the kittens. We're now back up to a full house with the arrivals of LEMURA, MARIE, and little GOBLYNN.
QUIBBLE had a quiet day, sleeping in her cage until lifted out so I cd clean it, then sleeping curled up small atop the little cat-stand by the door until I eventually put her back. I'm so glad to hear last night that she's been adopted -- I'd begun to fear she's so quiet she'd be overlooked. And while being as patient as possible she really wasn't happy in the cat-room, so glad to know she's headed for a home where I hope she'll receive much pampering.
GABRIELLE, our little black fluff twist-tailed princess who's also going to a home of her own today was doing her victory lap: first a little walk, then much petting and cuddling, then lording it atop the cat-stand by the door. There was much purring anytime I petted her; v. satisfactory for all concerned. I'll miss her, but I'm very glad she'll have a home of her own, probably by the time I post this.
Mr. NIKO was terrified of coming out of his cage and even worried over letting me clean and straighten up around him. Then, once he was convinced all that was over, it was like flipping a switch: seconds after having scratched me (nothing serious) for moving his blankets around he was purring and head-butting and wanting attention -- so long as it was in his safe place. Poor Niko: he certainly doesn't put his best foot forward on the 'adopt me! adopt me!' front.
I wasn't aware that MARIE was a celebrity, having never heard of John Bartlett's video record of her kittens' fostering (I'll have to go back and check it out). That explains a PetsMart employee's telling me she was famous. No idea what may have become of her special quilt. She's certainly a sweet cat: confident and friendly, who enjoyed exploring the room and picking out the spot that suited her best -- which turned out to be the mid-level of the cat-stand by the door, under Gabrielle and above Tarah (see below). Between her fame and her winning personality, she shd find a home quickly.
Mr. BROTHERS has certainly cemented his position of The Boss; he goes wherever he wants and does whatever he wants, ignoring all the other cats as he goes by. Still find it hard to believe he's the oldest cat there: certainly doesn't act like it. Next to exploring he loves catnip best, especially if you put it in a box and there's some things he needs to dig through to get at it. He also enjoys being Up High, and doesn't mind climbing past other cats to get there (much to their alarm).    Did have one unpleasant incident late in the morning: he went into Tarah's cage, apparently not knowing that she was in there behind the overhanging blanket. When he did discover her, there was a great to-do: much hissing and growling and swatting. He came out about the time I got there (having been on the other end of the room), then went back in and swatted at her some more. I made him leave and closed the door for her, and he quickly calmed down. Don't know what that was all about; v. unlike him, I thought.

TARAH was her usual quiet self, mostly keeping herself to herself but appreciating a little petting now and then. She's coming out much sooner now, and definitely has a favorite place beneath the cat-stand near the door. Aside from the incident where Mr. Brothers went after her, I'd say she had a good morning. She even came back out on her own later on. I'll have to make time to play with her more next week, now that she's feeling more at home in the cat-room. 

CLAIRE , our little buzz-cut white fluff squeaker, is quite the flirt; the only thing she loves more than attention is more attention. She enjoyed the top of the basket, and being petted thereon, and purring. Much admired by onlookers. Someone asked a question I cdn't answer, so I'll pass it along: what happened to her fur? Obviously it's been shaved, except for her head and legs and tip of her tail, but why?
Mr. ASHWYN has taken to wailing when Brothers gets close, or when he thinks Brothers might get close, or when he thinks some other cat might be sneaking up on him. Accordingly after his morning catnip he enjoyed being atop cat-stand #2, where he was up above it all. He also explored the cage-tops a little, but came back to the cat-stand. In-between he was atop the cabinet messing with the bag of catfood up there; it was not until later that I discovered he'd actually gnawed a hole in the back and helped himself to a little appertif. Taped it back up best I cd, which was not v. well. People continue to be amazed at how big he is. Wish I cd get him to walk, the better to let him show himself off, but the attempts so far haven't proved a success (he's just too scared of being out in that great big store). 

LEMURA is a sweet cat who has opted out from all the drama. She's decided the rondel beneath cat-stand #2 was a nice spot, so she claimed it. Came out and explored from time to time, but each time went back to her new favorite spot. Enjoys attention and doesn't seem to mind being around other cats.
little GOBLYNN is not just polydactyl but our third kink-tail cat (Gabrielle, Marie, Goblynn). She loves to explore and doesn't mind being petted; I held her at one point and she quickly began to doze off. But her favorite thing in the world is a roll of paper towels, especially if it's on its side on the bench, where she can tear into it proper and teach it who's boss. I'll have to try her with the laser-game next time.

Health Concerns: Goblynn was drooling for no apparent reason. At first thought she'd thrown up but no, it was just two long strands of saliva hanging down on either side. Happened two or three times at mid-morning; seemed fine before and after.   Gabrielle wheezed at one point: sounded v. much like an incipit hairball. Also, she used her dirt-box (pooping) just before I left; I cleaned it up but forgot to record it in the intake/output book.   Lemura had peed outside the box. Since she'd mostly peed in it, think this was a simple miss.
--And that's about it for this week--John R.

THE HOBBIT TAROT

THE HOBBIT TAROT, just released, is by the same people who did THE LORD OF THE RINGS TAROT fifteen years ago: Peter Pracownik (artist) and Terry Donaldson (accompanying booklet), with even the same publisher: U.S. Games Systems, who publish an amazing variety of tarot decks, from the classic Rider-Waite tarot (which started the modern tarot tradition*) to my personal favorite, the Morgan-Greer tarot (which makes a great Deck of Many Things, for those playing classic ADandD 1st edition, as well as interesting bookmarks).
Having looked through the deck quickly and read some (but by no means all) of the booklet identifying the characters on each card, explaining the symbolism of details (much of it non-Tolkienian), and giving it divinatory significance, I have to say I'm disappointed. Some of the art is nicely done (the ones the box, front and back, for example, is among the best in the set) but many of them have a kind of plastic look to me.
The art's also inconsistent from card to card: for example, Smaug appears on both major arcana XV (The Devil), in which he destroys Laketown, and XVI (The Tower), in which he lays waste the mountainside. But in one he's portrayed as a winged serpent, completely legless, while in the other he has arms and legs, just as Tolkien described (and showed) him; XXI (The World) shows him with legs again. Similarly, the pictures of Gollum on cards X (The Wheel of Fortune) and XII (The Hanged Man) show a strikingly different figure.  And just to confuse things, Gollum reappears twice more, on card XVIII (The Moon) and the Six of Cups, in both of which he resembles the figure on X, not XII.  A little more consistency in how major characters appeared wd have been nice.
There too, sometimes the description of the card in the booklet doesn't match the art that actually appears on the card, as in XIII (Death), which shows the Great Goblin pierced by arrows, or when the description of card IX (The Sun) says "We see Mirkwood in the distance" and we don't. One of the worst offenders, XI (Justice), is said in the booklet to show Bilbo giving the Arkenstone to the Elvenking, while the card itself shows and entirely different scene, one that never appears in Tolkien's work: Bilbo and Thorin under a tree with a scale; Thorin is hushing Bilbo, while Sting and the Arkenstone lie in the foreground. All v. symbolic, no doubt, but not v. Tolkienian.
Finally, there are the non-Tolkienian elements, as when XVIII (The Moon) refers to the moon as "she", or when XVII (The Star) shows an eight-rayed star over a seven-sided septogram, or when Bungo Baggins is shown with a mustache. Also in this category is the card-back, which shows the One Ring in a pattern with twelve other rings and some tengwar --whereas there are of course twenty Rings of Power altogether, and it's hard to think of a combination that wd fit their pattern (ten in outer positions, surrounding two who are opposing the One).
The set occasionally brings in characters or events that don't actually occur in THE HOBBIT itself but are only known through THE LORD OF THE RINGS (e.g. Smeagol's murder of Deagol, who is here described as his brother). Perhaps the oddest reach is their feeling they had to include some female characters or images when there are no female characters in THE HOBBIT, aside from a mention of the (late) Belladonna Baggins. Their solution is to show Belladonna and Bungo on one card (VI. The Lovers), with Bag End in the background. 
Outside the Major Arcana, the four Queen cards of the various suits show more of their straining to get Tolkien's work to fit their pre-set pattern. The four figures they chose were 
1. The Queen of Cups: Goldberry bathing in a pool by moonlight, watched by Tom. Presumably this is the prelude to his capture of her; the booklet text, weirdly enough, suggests she might be pregnant -- in which case we have to wonder what became of the child over the next eighty-odd years.
2. The Queen of Wands: A lady of Laketown, displaying her wares (a basket of apples). The text suggests a tempress subtext, which seems unlikely given that her customer is a woman herself, apparently older than the apple-vendor.
3. The Queen of Swords: A warg howling at the Moon. The text says this is a female warg, howling for the loss of her kin in the Battle of Five Armies. Pretty far fetched, but there it is.
4. The Queen of Cups: Another lady of Laketown, this time sweeping the grass or reeds by the shore of the lake, daft as that sounds. 
So, too bad: cd have been great, but is neither faithful enough to Tolkien nor appealing enough as a set of images to pull the whole thing off.
I do have to say, though, that of all the things that have come out based on his works over the years, I think Tolkien would have been more upset by these two tarot decks than anything else -- cartoons, films, "pipeweed" smoking, hippy buttons, fan-fiction: the works. What next, the Necromancer's Ouija?
--John R.






*Rider was the artist, Arthur Waite (Charles Williams' mentor in the Golden Dawn) the occultist who came up with the symbology used and its interpretation.

Two Slightly Less New Arrivals

So, it's been two weeks since I picked up two more HOBBIT-related items, but having failed to mention them at the time (M. Oct. 29th), now seemed like a good time.

The first is yet another HOBBIT-themed book with a religious/philosophical/life-advice bent. This time, it's called THE WISDOM OF THE SHIRE: A SHORT GUIDE TO A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE, by Noble Smith. But right away a few things make it stand out. First off, it has a brief Foreword by Peter S. Beagle, who admits to having been "Tolkiened out" in recent years but says he's been stirred to re-reading THE HOBBIT and LotR again by reading Smith's little book. As with so many other of the new HOBBIT-themed books coming out, I've not yet read this one, but in this case I think I'll definitely be doing so at some point: Smith has a relaxed, easy-going tone that's appealing, and contrasts with the earnestness or snarkiness of some other recent efforts. And have to say I'm drawn by chapter titles like "Your Own Personal Gollum" and "Sleep Like a Hobbit". The book ends with "The Hobbit Test", where you get points for things like "You've named one of your pets after a Tolkien character"* (80 points) or "You know what J. R. R. stands for" (100 points), and finally with "Directions for Creating a Small Hobbit Garden" (he recommends "Try Purple or Red Dragon [carrot] varieties in honor of Smaug").


The second is THE HOBBIT TAROT, but I wound up writing so much about this that I'm going to separate it off into its own post.

--John R.


*hi, Feanor!

A Last Note on the Election

So, election over. Whew. Nice to see my candidate win the big one, and also to have Nate Silver vindicated for doing the math and calling them as he sees them.

Some disappointments, of course: here in Washington State the gay marriage and legalize marijuana measures passed, which is good,  but unfortunately the Tax Deadbeats and Loot Public Education ones did as well. Many state races were still too close to call for several days, which has become something of a tradition here in Wash. State; good thing Sam Reed was still in charge of counting the ballots this one last election. For a succinct scorecard on who won, see GRUBBSTREET (http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-political-desk-wrapping-up.html).

Having listened to right-wing talk radio some in the days before, it was even more fascinating in the days immediately after, as they parsed the defeat and looked to assign blame: an Obama get-out-the-vote operation, a timely or untimely hurricane (depending on yr point of view), negative ads (his, not theirs), a brutal primary, demographics. Most seem to think the last is the key, sometimes in apocalyptic terms -- as when one major Conservative tv host declared that White People, having just delivered 72% of the votes, were now the minority (apparently he's math-challenged and thinks 72% is less than 50%).

But the most fascinating of all is the story about the final hours of the Romney campaign. It turns out that he really didn't have a concession speech drafted, so convinced were they in his victory. Their internal skewed polls got things wrong, so much so that they were serious when they decided in the final week to go beyond the main swing states and into Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well, where the president's internal polls said the challenger was far behind (Nate Silver, for his part, had long since taken them off his list of swing states altogether). For an account of how the endgame played out when the Romney camp were caught off-guard by the actual turn of events, here's a behind-the-scenes CBS report:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57547239/adviser-romney-shellshocked-by-loss/ *


Think about that a moment: we almost had a president who does his research, whose people skew the results to get the answer they like, and who then acts upon that false information with such confidence that he gets his transition team going but doesn't bother to draw up any plan of what he'll do if this projected outcome turns out not to be the case, even to the point of having to ad-lib a concession speech. Translate that into, say, a stand-off with Iran and the prospects are chilling. I'm reminded of Douglas McArthur, one of the two legendary American generals to come out of World War II, reassuring Truman that there was no chance the Chinese wd intervene in Korea, and who was caught completely flat-footed when the Chinese did exactly what they said they'd do and came in waves across the Yalu River. A lot of people died as a result of the general's miscalculation, and when a few months later he made a second bad call and said the Chinese wd never use the Bomb if MacArthur's troops invaded China itself, although Chou En-lai said they most certainly would, Truman had to fire him.


In the event, the brief concession speech Romney gave was the classiest I've ever seen him; maybe for all his flubbs he shd have gone spontaneous more often (hey, it seems to work for Biden). Or maybe not: I was touched by a brief account  of Romney's day-after, when he said goodbye to campaign staff and, already stripped of Secret Service protection, drove off in the back seat of his son Tragg's car.  That is, until I read another account about how Romney staffers trying to get home in the early hours after the election night defeat found that their campaign credit cards had already been disabled. What a petty note to end on.

--John R., wrapping up election 2012 thoughts. Now to get back to Tolkien!


*I shd point out that Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo.com is slightly skeptical; here's his take on things: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/11/shellshocked.php?ref=fpblg

The New Arrivals (three more books)

So, three more new books arrived on Wednesday, each part of the current HOBBIT boom. No time to read them yet or even describe them in detail, but wanted to note them before they get buried in the ongoing avalanche.

(1). THE CHRISTIAN WORLD OF THE HOBBIT, by Devin Brown

Given that the hobbit lived before the time of Christ, that his world wd be Xian is unlikely, to say the least. That said, so far as I can tell on a quick skim Brown does a good job of striking a reasonable tone and looking at what emerges from a consideration of the material, rather than trying to impose Xian doctrine or interpretations upon Tolkien's writings; he avoids one-on-one allegorical identifications of the kind that diminish so many books of this kind. The basic premise seems to be that Tolkien's Xianity was sublimated into the world, so signs of its presence will  not overt but subtle -- which is pretty much what Tolkien himself said. Despite the title, Brown* frequently draws in examples from LotR to make his points.
--Looks to be one of the better books of its kind; certainly well-written in any case, though can't know without reading it whether he makes his case. Cover blurb by Joseph Pearce and interior blurbs include ones by Shippey and a guy from HollywoodJesus.com


(2) THE HOBBIT AND PHILOSOPHY: FOR WHEN YOU'VE LOST YOUR DWARVES, YOUR WIZARD, AND YOUR WAY, ed. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson

This one hands down wins the award for 'best subtitle', and the editorial apparatus seems to have a nice, breezy tone throughout (the mini-bios in the back are in a section titled ' our Most Excellent and Audacious Contributors'). Nine years ago Bassham and Bronson put together a similar book (THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND PHILOSOPHY: ONE BOOK TO RULE THEM ALL) back at the time of the Peter Jackson movies; now they're doing another timed to match the release of the Peter Jackson HOBBIT. The seventeen essays here range from "'The Road Goes Ever on': A Hobbit's Tao" to "Tolkien's Just War" (looking at JRRT's ideas about 'just war' theory). I expect this book will have the virtue of not just being the same-old, same-old.
--I shd note that this book belongs to a series (series editor: Wm Irwin) of books like HARRY POTTER AND PHILOSOPHY, LOST AND PHILOSOPHY, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO AND PHILOSPHY, THE DAILY SHOW AND PHILOSOPHY, THE HUNGER GAMES AND PHILOSOPHY, et al.; a number of the contributors to this book have also contributed to earlier ones in the series.


(3) THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY: OFFICIAL MOVIE GUIDE by Brian Sibley.

With a Brian Sibley book, you pretty much know what you're getting: an eight-and-a-half by eleven sized book, heavy on photographs and relatively light on text. I got this in the hopes that I might actually be able to tell the dwarves apart by the time I go to see the movie, just over a month from now. This one is purely of interest to people who want to see the movie: a lot of pictures of actors in make-up and costume (with the occasional black-and-white photo of what they really look like beneath all that), some (relatively light) information about various places and items, and a quick look at the army of dedicated people who work so hard to achieve just the right effect. So, if you want to see, say, a six-page piece on Radagast or individual profiles of all the dwarves, this is your kind of book.   If you're not interested in the movies, might consider giving it a pass.

--John R.


*who's heretofore mainly been a Narnia guy, with books with titles like INSIDE NARNIA, INSIDE PRINCE CASPIAN, and INSIDE THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER

Glimpses of Helen Buckhurst

So, one of the people Tolkien gave an author's presentation
copy of THE HOBBIT to when it first came out in Sept. 1937
was Helen Buckhurst (her letter thanking him is now in the
Bodleian).* This is one of the many people among Tolkien's
friends and colleagues about whom we know relatively little.
But the little we do know is interesting; she is the probable
source for the trolls-turn-to-stone-in-sunlight motif in THE
HOBBIT, or at least the likely means by which such tales
reached Tolkien.**

This made it all the more interesting when I ran across Buckhurst's
name not once but twice in recent weeks. The first came in Wm
Ready's THE TOLKIEN RELATION (the first book-length
study of Tolkien), which I was skimming in preparation for my
Marquette talk. In his first chapter, where Ready is trying to put
together a brief biography on Tolkien from all-too-scanty infor-
mation,*** Buckhurst is given as the ultimate source for an anecdote
that reached him second-hand.  Here's the paragraph in question:

Helen MacMillan Buckhurst was an Oxford colleague of Tolkien's,
a godmother in his home. She was an Icelandic scholar, a lover
of Norse myth. Professor Katherine Ball of Toronto University
was a student of hers at Saint Hugh's during the twenties. Helen
Buckhurst told her that Tolkien, on his hospital bed after the war,
resolved to learn Language and the roots of it as his life's work,
and he did. Tolkien was a born teacher, too. Out of his healing 
time Tolkien came, ready to grow in his field.

The second Buckhurst-sighting came in a completely different
context. When reading a piece David Doughan had kindly sent
me about the history of women students at Oxford (thanks,
David!), part of my research in preparation for my upcoming
Kalamazoo piece, I was reminded about the JRRT/Mary Renault
connection. And, going back to the Renault biography David D.
quoted, which I'd read years ago, I found that right beside its
discussion of JRRT (whom Renault's roommate, Kasia Abbott,
remembered decades later as "darling Tolkien") came the following
glimpse of Buckhurst during her time at St. Hugh's, one of the
Oxford's women's colleges with wh. Tolkien was closely
associated (along with Lady Margaret Hall; he seems to have
had much less to do with Somerville, but that might just be
because of lack of surviving evidence):

   In December 1926 it was decided that an English Club 
should be formed with Miss Seaton as President. The other 
English tutor, Miss Buckhurst, gave the inaugural lecture, 
which FRITILLARY**** described as 'an amusing paper 
on Icelandic folklore', a subject very much of the moment 
in Oxford English circles since Tolkien had returned that 
term as the new Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of 
Anglo-Saxon. Although he would no longer be tutoring 
to the women of St Hugh's, they still had every reason to
be grateful for his return. He was a conscientious lecturer,
offering almost double the statutory hours in order to ensure
that his students, female as well as male, covered the entire
subject. Indeed, he was unusual in being notably sympathetic
to women undergraduates. 


--MARY RENAULT: A BIOGRAPHY, by David
Sweetman  [1993], p. 29 (the passage continues with
another page or two about Tolkien's importance in
shaping Oxford at the time)


Now I'm curious whether the centennial history of the college
mentioned by Renault's biographer***** might contain more
glimpses of Buckhurst, or indeed Tolkien. Worth following up
 on at some point. In any case, even given the scrappiness of
these two fragments, seemed worthwhile to share, since I'd
read them both, years apart, and never thought anything of
it, since this was before I knew who Buckhurst was. It's from
the accumulation and putting together of fragments that we
reconstruct what we can or lost eras.

--John R.




*according to Scull and Hammond's CHRONOLOGY (p.439),
she was also sent presentation copies of LotR in due course.
Although they don't include a separate entry on her in their
COMPANION AND GUIDE, she's mentioned several times
-- e.g., that she was Priscilla's godmother (Chr.150) and that
Tolkien directed her thesis, THE HISTORICAL GRAMMAR
OF OLD ICELANDIC (Chr.143).

**see THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT (2nd ed) p. 80-82, and
p. 110 in the revised one-volume edition of THE HISTORY
OF THE HOBBIT.  Perhaps it's fairer to say Buckhurst seems
to have drawn the motif to his attention and a few years later
the Icelandic au-pair girl have shown him that such stories
were still current, and still worked with a modern English
audience (his own children).

***and, it must be said, getting some things spectacularly wrong
--like saying Tolkien's mother and her sisters were missionaries
to the harem of the sultan of Zanzibar.  Who knows where that
came from.

****FRITILLARY: 'the magazine of the Oxford women's colleges'
(Sweetman, p.25)

*****ST HUGH'S: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WOMEN'S
EDUCATION IN OXFORD, ed. Penny Griffin. [1986]

The Cat Report (Wend. November 7th, 2012)

A quiet day, overall, in the cat room, with eight cats (plus the two kittens who were off-site):

--little QUIBBLE, our adorable little Siamese, who's really not as old as she acts. Turns out Amy was right: she's more or less toothless, poor thing. Loves to sleep the day away atop one of the cat-stands (in this case, the smaller one near the door). 
--adorable little fluffy black twist-tail GABRIELLA, who went into the rondel under the cat-stand by the cabinet. But first she had a little walk, and some petting, and some grooming (she loves to have her fur combed). On her walk she discovered the huge soft bed-cushions at the far end of the little alley past the rest-rooms, and jumped right up one one and wanted to settle herself down for a nice long nap -- a little fluffy cat in the exact middle of a v. large cushion. Wd have made a great picture.
--matching her is our fluffy white newcomer CLAIRE, who loves attention and makes a great matched set with Gabriella (aesthetically; the two pretty much ignored each other otherwise). Not sure what happened to her fur, but at least it's growing back nicely. These two are really sweet and outgoing economy-sized cats. Gave her a short walk: she tried to figure out what that was all about. Think she'll enjoy being out and about once she gets used to it.*
In contrast to the sweetness and light with the girls, the boy-cats are feeling out territory and pecking order, mostly in a quiet way. Thinking about it, it's fairly rare to have as many boy cats as girl cats (an even split: four of each, or five apiece if we count the kittens). Given that, they're being pretty well behaved. Mr. ASHWYN very much considers himself the boss, with demands to be let out right away whenever anyone enters the room (to be fair, Gabriella and Claire are always willing to join him in demanding their rights to roam the room). He's claimed the cagetops as his special territory, and resents intruders therein. Not that it does him any good. His other favorite thing is a box I brought in with catnip in it. He's really too big for the box, spilling over in all directions, so it sways perilously to and fro while he's digging for catnip in it: at the risk of overusing the word, he was adorable. 
Unfortunately for him, Mr. BROTHERS is also v. interested in the box, and when Ashwyn jumped out he jumped right in and took over. Ashwyn came back and hovered menacingly, to no avail: Brothers simply ignored him and enjoyed a good buzz. They switched back and forth several times over the next hour or so, and finally had a show-down. Ashwyn advanced on Mr. Brothers, who instead of backing down advanced right back. This threw Ashwyn off; apparently he hadn't planned for his bluff not working. He retreated, making ever more menacing noises, which Mr. Brothers altogether ignored as he quietly advanced bit by bit. I managed to talk Mr. Brothers into going back into the box, and things cooled down, but I think Ashwyn's wd-be-boss position may have taken a hit and Mr. Brothers might be moving into that spot.
SEECONNIE , the youngest adult male in the room, had been watching all this from the safe distance of the top of cat-stand #2; a short while later when Mr. Brothers left the box for the cabinet-top, SeeConnie swapped places with him, so that SeeConnie wound up in the box and Mr. Brothers atop the cat-stand, where he got a good round of petting. Ashwyn didn't try to drive him off; think the was a little unnerved by the standoff with Mr.B. and didn't want to risk another blow to the dignity.  Hard to believe that Mr. Brothers is the oldest cat in the room (13); I wd have guessed Quibble. Guess he's just been well-treated until now and she must have had a hard life, gentle and sweet though she is.
The other two cats preferred to stay in their cages, so much so that I had to clean around them. Glad to see Mr. NIKO back with us. He was deeply worried I was going to take him out of his Safe Place, but once he became convinced this was not so he came to the front of the cage and purred and purred and purred. He ate while being petted; he even let me give him a belly rub. To my surprise, turns out he loves the gopher game. Left his cage-door open, but he didn't take the hint.
The other contender for shyest cat, TARAH, was similarly worried about what I'd do, but once her cage was all fixed up she relaxed a bit. Also left her cage door open, and to my surprise about a quarter till twelve she came out on her own and explored a bit near the door, settling down beneath cat-stand #1. I left bad making her go back inside so soon afterwards (she got maybe twenty or twenty-five minutes outside her cage), since think it did her good to come out on her own accord.
And that's pretty much it for the morning.
--John R.

*the other four out-and-about cats also had very brief walks but only Mr. Brothers looked like a potential walker.