John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 37

The New Arrival: Edith Bratt biography

 So, this week's new addition to the books in my office is THE GALLANT EDITH BRATT: J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S INSPIRATION by Nancy Bunting and Seamus Hamill-Keays (Walking Tree Press, 2021).

This comes as the latest entry in what seems to be a new and promising branch of Tolkien scholarship: biographies not about Tolkien himself but about people who were important in his life, to round out his milieu. First there were the two books (booklets, really) about his aunt, Jane Neave. Then the full-length biography about Fr. Francis Morgan, his guardian (originally in Spanish but since translated into English). And now this new book about his wife, Edith Bratt Tolkien.

I haven't had time yet to give this one more than a glance, but even that's enough to raise some questions that I'll want to read the biography to answer. 

First, this biography ends around the time its subject was thirty. But Edith Tolkien lived to be eighty. Did nothing of interest or importance happen to her after around 1918? That seems, at the mildest, unlikely.

Second, Carpenter is harshly treated. The authors may have a good reason for that, but I've beginning to think that maybe it's time to call an end to Carpenter-bashing. 

 Third, the book seems to bog down at one point over the question of whether Tolkien knew Sanskrit (I'd say yes) and whether it was an important influence on him (I'd say no --certainly not as much as, say, Gothic).

Looking forward to reading the thing and seeing if I learn the answers to these and other questions.

--John R.

--current reading: "The Mirror of Galadriel"

"[The trees] stood up in the twilight like living towers 

. . . amid their ever-moving leaves countless lights 

were gleaming, green and gold and silver"

Little Naveen (The Cat Room 10/8-21)

Thanks to Lisa and to our driver (Rick?), this morning we went from a single solitary v. lonely kitten (NAVEEN) to a roomful of kittens, nine in all, all between the ages of three and six months old. I don’t think it’ll be long before they find homes.

While Lisa got the room ready for the pending new arrivals, I took little Naveen out for a walk. He was too small for even our smallest harness so I used the collar and short leash. He behaved himself but was clearly at a loss as to the point of the exercise, so I mostly just carried him around and let enjoy some new sights and sounds.  I later sounded out BONNIE & BUBBA, who were more interested in smelling and playing with the leash than in letting me get it on them, so little N. remained the day’s only walker.
Of the new cats, the bonded black panthers Bubba and Bonnie were the most persistent in wanting out into the room, so despite Naveen’s mews of protest at having to go in, they got out into the room and played for a good long time. Bubba did more playing and Bonnie more exploring, but both enjoyed themselves. Bubba is definitely a predator who loves to drag toys away. At one point he went shopping, taking a tour of the room’s various toys and picking the one he wanted to play with. Afterwards they also set up a steady protest over being put back in their cage, sparked I think by Naveen’s repeated cries from the cage below.  There were growls, and hisses, and some swatting, mostly from him (Bubba) directed to her (Bonnie), but it looked like mostly crabbiness, not aggression.
The only other cat who came out for any significant amount of time was sweet little tuxedo cat SUNSHINE. He liked being carried, and games so long as they weren’t too energetic, and most of all just being out. Once he’d been out for a while he carried out a cautious exploration of the entire room, getting his bearings I think. A very endearing little cat.
The other bonded pair, Siamese RAZ and panther MATAZ, preferred to stay in and cuddle each other. Very deeply bonded, those two. Late in the shift I was able to pull first Raz and then later MaTaz out for a little time being held, or climbing on the cat-tree. They didn’t play much, but they purred loudly when I reached in and spent some time petting them in their cage, both before and after their time out. 
The final three I didn’t interact with much: PURPLE and MAGENTA and FUSHIA. Two stayed cuddled together in the big cage’s window, comforting each other in this strange new place. The third (the yellow cat) went in his little cat-cave as soon as I had it set up for him and stayed there all through the shift. He would purr loudly when I reached in and petted him (as did the other two when I petted them without making them move) but showed no inclination to come out. Think they’ll be more willing to come forth once they get used to the room, and us, and their new location and situation in general. 

—Thanks again to Lisa for getting all the name cards and information folders sorted out for the newcomers.
—John R. 

In My Desk

So, several months ago I took the first stab at straightening up my office (which still has a long way to go) and the top drawer of my desk. Last week I made another effort that turned up some things I'd been looking for for quite some time. And last night I gave it another go, aimed at the middle and bottom drawers. Things I turned up include candles and matches, many little scraps of paper, some interesting rocks, a letter from a nun, cat-treats (some of which Tarkus and Tyburn tested to see they were still good), lots of pens and some pencils, and this (see above):

I'm pretty sure I bought this at one of my visits to the Wade Center. I had clearly put this aside in hopes of at some point re-assembling it. But looking at it now, years later, I've concluded it's a lost cause. So, alas, out the door.

The quote on the mug, by the way, reads 

"Daybreak is a never-ending

glory . . . getting out of bed is

a never-ending nuisance."

The logo identifies it as coming from The American Chesterson Society, a group I've never belonged to. Based on other things it was found with suggests that it became an x-mug around 2013, so I probably got it a few years before that.

--John R.

---current reading: "The Bridge of Khazad-dum"

"What an evil fortune!" [muttered Gandalf]

"And I am already weary."

My Newest Publication (Obit for Richard)

So, this month began with my newest publication, a piece I wish I'd never need write at all: a memoir of my friend Richard West, one of the all-time greats when it came to Tolkien scholars and a close friend of almost forty years (he was Best Man at our wedding). 

I'd recently written about how much I enjoy visiting Milwaukee because it's a chance to see old friends. One of the sad things about visits to Milwaukee is that in addition to getting together with friends I'm also strongly reminded of friends who are no longer with us. Taum Santoski of course, and also Jim Pietrusz, the most dedicated reader I've ever known, and now Richard.  

For the past few years I've visited Marquette twice a year for research trips of from one to four weeks each, And during each of those trips Richard wd take the morning bus over from Madison one day. We'd meet up for lunch and walk down to Miss Katie's diner,* then spend the afternoon pursuing our own researches at the Archives. As the time for the six o'clock bus back to Madison neared I'd walk him down to the bus station (just as years earlier he or one of the other Univ.Wisc.Tolk.Soc members had walked me back from their meeting room to the Madison bus stop for the last bus to Milwaukee), the two of us talking up a storm the whole way. I'll miss those visits, and those talks. And reading the eventual published results. Richard was also a dedicated participant in a long running series of Tolkien symposiums; the fellowship from this will continue but diminish by this absence. 

 

He loved Tolkien scholarship 

and cats 

and the company of like-minded scholars, 

Old English and Old Norse literature, 

and C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, 

folk dancing,  

and of course Perri.

Here's a link to the journal's site: my memoir for Richard is in Volume XVIII

https://wvupressonline.com/journals/tolkien_studies

--John R.

*sometimes joined by Bill Fliess, Marquette Archivist, or Stephen Sullivan, an alumni of TSR from before my time and fellow Alitterate who happened to be Richard's cousin. 

Drought Over: Time for Flood Warnings

 Well, that was quick.

The long hard drought we struggled with all summer --the kind of drought that kills trees and does other permanent damage -- is now over. How do I know? Because yesterday they activated the Flood Warning system

--John R.

Alert Sent On: 10/01/2021 11:19:44 AM PDT

This is a system test.

No river flooding is occurring in King County at this time. As a subscriber, you will receive automated phone calls, emails and/or text messages when certain flood conditions exist. The type of message you receive – and for which rivers – depends on how you set up your flood alert account.

To make changes to your account or to learn more, visit the King County Flood warnings and alerts website www.kingcounty.gov/flood or call 206-477-4727. To unsubscribe from all Flood Alerts, reply to this email using “unsubscribe” in the subject field.

If you live or work near or in a floodplain, remember to be flood ready this fall!

The Cat Room

It was good to get back into the Cat Room yesterday. After more than a month away it was a roomful of cats I didn’t know (nine in all: four cats and five kittens). A good day for cat walking.
ARIEL and LUCETO, our pair of beautiful tortoiseshells, had the first walk. Janice helped me get the blue harness on the dark torbie (Luceto?) to start with but afterwards at the end of the walk  I wasn’t able to open the snaps and had to pull the harness off over the cat's head. Luckily she’s  a fairly low-key cat and didn’t object. Next up the orange torbie (Ariel?) had her turn with the collar. She too did very well. Beautiful, beautiful cats.
The other fluffy pair, ZOEY and SIMBA, each had a turn on the leash; like the others two they spent their time exploring all the cat-trees up and down near the cat-room all the way over to the niche between the cat room and the fish. Both pairs had to deal with dogs passing by that got closer than I was comfortable with but fortunately the cats stayed calm and the dogs were well behaved. I’d put that down as ‘wary of dogs’ and recommend they not be adopted to a household with a dog.
The three two-month kittens, Naveen and Ariel and Tiana were shyer than I expected. They were shy of being picked up or of my approaching them but on their own they played and explored and hide and pounced as kittens should. Toys that had a little distance also got the many-toed thumbs up. Naveen had an admirer who wanted to adopt him then and there: I showed her the Q-code and encouraged her to send in a query to Arlington right away, which I think she did.
The two three month kittens: McGhee and Zora, our little black panthers, were independent and full of energy: they loved just about every game that was offered to them. McGhee rode on my shoulders at one point. He got a short walk at the end of things, during which I discovered that he knows the rules but just thinks they don’t apply to him. 


Here’s hoping they all find good homes, sooner rather than later.
—John R.

Question: do we really have two cats (of different generations) with the same name? Or as seems more likely have I gotten my notes muddled on this point?
UPDATEAnd today came the word that those beautiful affectionate tortoiseshells have been adopted. — JDR

 

Back in Kent

 So, it's good to be back in Kent after a long (four week) research trip spent in the Marquette Archives. Once again my work focused mainly on fine-tuning the Map of the Manuscript I've been working on for about four years now. This schematic shows the sequence in which every draft of every chapter of THE LORD OF THE RINGS was written, making it much easier to navigate between the vast amount of material in Marquette's collection.  I made a lot of little fixes (and some not so little). As usual I learned a lot: it's impossible, for me at any rate, to spend any amount of time with the manuscripts without thinking of some project I'd like to work on, if only there were time.

And of course I enjoyed being back in Milwaukee. I've been away from the area twenty years now but still have a lot of friends in the area, some I got to see (which I enjoyed) and some I didn't manage to sync up with (hoping for better luck next time). Plus I got to visit the cat cafe twice, ordered out from my favorite Milwaukee restaurant (and trying out several I hadn't been to before), got some frozen custard, had a few long walks around the East Side, visited a bookstore famous for its cats, only to discover its longtime cat had died just two week before. No C.o.C. game in The Walnut Room, but then  my visit did fall during GenCon.

And now after the better part of a week spent settling back in it's back to work on the current project Monday. 

---John R.

--current reading: A KNIFE IN THE DARK.

--PORIUS by J. C. Powys

Six Books

Here's a question about staying power. 

WATERSHIP DOWN has been out nearly fifty years now. THE LORD OF THE RINGS is more popular than ever after more than sixty years.

So, of the books listed below, which do you think will stand the test of time and still be read twenty, thirty, forty years from now?

 

Ben Aaronovich—The Rivers of London series

 

Susanna Clark—Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell

 

Suzanne Collins—The Hunger Games

 

Jonathan Howard — Johannes Caball, Detective;  'Jonathan Caball and the Blustery Day' and other stories (uncollected)

 

Daniel O'Malley—The Rook

 

Philip Pullman Northern Lights.

--John R.

--current reading: "A Long-Expected Party"

--last day at Marquette 

Radio Adaptation of LUD-IN-THE-MIST

So, thanks to Doug A. for the news that BBC4 is broadcasting an audio-drama of Hope Mirrlees's highly respected but seldom read LUD-IN-THE-MIST (1926), one of the great classic fantasy novels. Here's a link:
http://file770.com/tag/joy-wilkinson/
and here's another with more detail, including that Neil Gaiman will be doing a cameo. How Hitchcockian of him.
https://scifibulletin.com/2021/09/21/visit-lud-in-the-mist-for-halloween/

History suggests (WRINKLE IN TIME, DARK IS RISING, EARTHSEA) that adapting fantasy is a tricksy business and prone to disaster.
On the other hand, I’m more hopeful for their ability to do a radio play than a film adaptation. And  it’ll raise her profile and introduce some people to her book, which is all to the good.

So I’ll be looking forward to it but trying to keep from getting my hopes up too much.

—John R.
--current reading: many parts of LotR and the LotR-relevant portions of HME (esp. Vol. V).

Monsters of the Id? (Milwaukee downtown art)

 

So, here's something new since my last visit to Milwaukee: a statue on  Wisconsin Avenue east of the river that I can only describe as a local variant of Jonny Quest's monsters of the id.

Or maybe that just holds for those of us who were part of that show's original audience (and thus scarred for life).

--John R.