David C. Downing's Blog, page 15

In 1938 a German publisher wrote to Tolkien, asking if he was "Arish," meaning n...

In 1938 a German publisher wrote to Tolkien, asking if he was "Arish," meaning non-Jewish, as they wanted to publish a translation of THE HOBBIT, but did not publish works by Jewish authors. Tolkien replied, "I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people." He added that he was of German ancestry, but that if he received any further "impertinent and irrelevant inquiries" of this sort, then "a German name will no longer be a source of pride" (Letters, 37-38).


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Who's ready to see "The Lord of the Rings" epic on a 60-foot screen, accompanied...

Who's ready to see "The Lord of the Rings" epic on a 60-foot screen, accompanied by a 300-piece orchestra?


The Lord of the Rings In Concert
www.lordoftheringsinconcert.com
The Lord of the Rings In Concert - The Official Site

An Off-Broadway play pitting C. S. Lewis against Sigmund Freud becomes a surpris...

An Off-Broadway play pitting C. S. Lewis against Sigmund Freud becomes a surprising hit. Has anyone out there seen the play?


'Freud's Last Session' Prepares to Move Closer to Broadway
www.nytimes.com
Since July 2010 the Off Broadway drama "Freud's Last Session" has had a relatively long and financially promising run on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

INKLINGS Q & A: Where did Tolkien get the name for his orcs?A: Orc is from A...

INKLINGS Q & A: Where did Tolkien get the name for his orcs?

A: Orc is from Anglo-Saxon "orcneas," meaning hell-devil. The word appears in Beowulf and is also the source of our modern word "ogre."


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INKLINGS Q & A: Where did Tolkien get the name for his orcs?A: Orc is from Ang...

INKLINGS Q & A: Where did Tolkien get the name for his orcs?

A: Orc is from Anglo-Saxon "orcneas," meaning hell-devil. The word appears in Beowulf and is also the source of our modern word "ogre."


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Rumors of new Narnia films, The Magician's Nephew and then The Silver Chair...

Rumors of new Narnia films, The Magician's Nephew and then The Silver Chair...


Magician's Nephew in Development and Silver Chair in Script Stage? | Narnia Fans
www.narniafans.com
According to an unofficial source, but someone that seems to get a lot of facts correct and be in the know about many things, The Magician's Nephew is in

INKLINGS Q & A: What is unusual about Tolkien's story "Leaf by Niggle"? A: Thi...

INKLINGS Q & A: What is unusual about Tolkien's story "Leaf by Niggle"?

A: This charming story was written in only a few hours, soon after Tolkien woke up one morning in 1942. By contrast, Tolkien spent years, even decades, on most of his other tales. Also, the story is both autobiographical and allegorical (see Tom Shippey's book), two genres which Tolkien generally avoided.

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Some readers are surprised when Father Christmas shows up in C. S. Lewis's THE L...

Some readers are surprised when Father Christmas shows up in C. S. Lewis's THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, distributing gifts to the Pevensie children. But Narnia harkens back imaginatively to Lewis's own childhood, and this early photo of the young Lewis may suggest why Father Christmas makes a cameo appearance in LWW.


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A likely source of Old Man Willow: Tolkien used to take his children punting alo...

A likely source of Old Man Willow: Tolkien used to take his children punting along the Cherwell River near Oxford, and there was an old hollowed out willow tree so large the children could hide inside its cracks.


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INKLINGS Q & A: Why was Tolkien's best-selling book THE HOBBIT unavailable in bo...

INKLINGS Q & A: Why was Tolkien's best-selling book THE HOBBIT unavailable in bookstores for nearly two years?

A: In November 1940 the warehouse of Tolkien's publisher, Allen & Unwin, was hit in a bomb raid, destroying all remaining copies of the book. Due to paper shortages, the book was not reprinted until 1942. When most authors' books go out of print, they can't blame it on the Luftwaffe!