Wendell ---

Thanks very much for posting this!

Most of what one finds about this on Google News are right-wing commentators
indignant that the Devil can quote Scripture, but here is a link to the full
text:

http://blog.newsok.com/politics/2012/02/02/president-barack-obama-speaks-at-nati\
onal-prayer-breakfast/

-- Ernie


--- In mythsoc@yahoogroups.com, WendellWag@... wrote:
>
> Obama quotes C. S. Lewis at National Prayer Breakfast yesterday.  You  can
> find the news story various places by Googling.  This is the quotation  from
> the speech: “Christianity has not, and does not profess to have, a detailed
>  political program. It is meant for all men at all times and the particular
>  program which suited one place or time would not suit another.”  This is
> fairly close to what Lewis wrote in the second paragraph of the third
> chapter of Book 3 of Mere Christianity (with a couple of  dropped phrases and
a
> dropped sentence), which is as follows: “The second thing  to get clear is
> that Christianity has not, and does not profess to have, a  detailed political
> program for applying 'Do as you would be done by' to a  particular society
> at a particular moment.  It could not have. It is meant  for all men at all
> times and the particular program which suited one place or  time would not
> suit another.”
>
> Wendell Wagner
>

Twyla Tharp's new full-length ballet based on George MacDonald's "The Princess
and the Goblin" will have its premiere performance Feb. 10-19 by the Atlanta
ballet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/arts/dance/twyla-tharp-creates-the-princess-an\
d-the-goblin-ballet.html

Greetings!

And welcome to my newsletter for February, 2012! Please feel free to forward
this to anyone you think would be interested in keeping up with me! To receive
these newsletters regularly, please drop me an email or subscribe online from my
website (http://www.JefMurray.com ) or at:
http://groups.google.com/group/Mystical_Realms . Notices of events and items of
interest are at the bottom of this email.


Pitchers ===============

IMPORTANT! I will soon be repatriating my Middle-earth themed paintings and
sketches currently held in the UK. As a result, I would like to offer my UK and
European friends a unique opportunity to purchase some of these items before
they leave the continent.

Effective immediately, and continuing until midnight on Mardi Gras (February
21), we are holding a one-time-only half-price sale of all framed and unframed
paintings and sketches currently held by ADC Books (see www.adcbooks.co.uk).
Please note that the sale includes all 10"x16" and smaller canvasses in the ADC
Books catalog as well as all unsold framed and unframed sketches, including
original sketches for Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary
Tolkien. The sale also includes a few wooden "cutout" dragons!

Please take a look at the ADC Books catalog. If you have a question about a
work, please don't hesitate to contact Andy Compton directly at
andy@... or phone 07785-110512. If you are unable to reach Andy, feel
free to contact me and I should be able to help.


Ponderings ==============

The bell on the front door of the shop rang. The Dwarf peered through the
curtain separating the storefront from his workspace.

"Ah, it's only you," he said.

Eyebrows bristled over a broad nose and his beard was shot through with strands
of silver. He pushed aside the drapes and emerged from behind the jewelry
counter.

The tall visitor smiled and bowed. "Yes, only me."

Gabriel wore an oilskin riding coat that was spotted with melting snowflakes.
Outside the jeweler's window, flocks of white flakes surged through the streets,
softening the hard edges of the dingy downtown door stoops. Two sparrows huddled
on the lamppost just outside the shop door.

"What do you want this time?" asked the Dwarf. "You know I have no new Mithril
trinkets; they are too dangerous to harbor. And I can't imagine you've come to
purchase a Valentine's Day gift...."

Gabriel smiled, but the jeweler showed no indication that he had attempted a
joke.

The Dwarf looked past Gabriel and scowled. The tall man turned and saw a young
woman approach the doorway. She hesitated as she glanced inside, and then turned
away.

"Were you expecting someone?" asked Gabriel.

"No," said the Dwarf. "That's my secretary. She's a fool and worse than useless,
but she knows better than to interrupt me if I'm speaking with a customer. You
aren't a customer, though, are you?"

"No, my friend, I'm not. I've come to ask you a favor."

"I don't do favors. I'm a businessman, not a charity."

"I've come to hire you for a service, then."

The jeweler scowled once more, but turned around and motioned for Gabriel to
follow him back behind the curtain. Gabriel recognized the oilcloth-covered
table and the cabinets in the darkened workshop. As usual, tiny pairs of pliers,
hammers, and rolls of silver and gold solder lay haphazardly on the table
surface; the only light came from an ancient oil lamp that swung from the
low-beamed ceiling.

The Dwarf perched upon a high stool and motioned for Gabriel to take a seat. He
did so, and then surveyed the jeweler's face closely. The Dwarf avoided his
gaze, and looked down at the tabletop, pushing a golden chain he had been
working on out of the light.

"Mistrustful still, I see," said Gabriel.

"The world is full of fools and dastards, and even if you aren't exactly like
other men, I've no more reason to trust your motives than anyone else's," the
Dwarf said. "Plenty of people hate me and my kind; why should I give them any
opportunity to take more advantage than they already do?"

Gabriel frowned. "But, Dvalin, surely over your many years you've encountered
some who gained your trust?"

"Yes, I have. And every one of them betrayed it. But�we've been through all of
this before�"

"Yes, we have," said Gabriel, shaking his head, "And I'm sorry for you. Short of
a miracle, I can think of no way to help you overcome the bitterness you feel
toward the outside world."

"I don't need your help, and I don't need your pity!" growled the Dwarf, "and if
that is the `service' you wanted from me � to become a soft-hearted fool like
yourself � than save your pennies, your piety and your platitudes. I've no use
for any of them!" Dvalin glared at Gabriel and made as if to rise from the
table.

"No, no. Stay! That is not the `service' I sought; put your mind at ease. And
hear me out."

Dvalin remained seated.

"I have a different request to make, one I think you alone are trustworthy
enough to fulfill." Gabriel reached into the pocket of his coat. He withdrew his
hand and stretched it out, into the light.

In his palm lay a silver ring bearing a large, dark stone. It glittered in his
hand. "This is Linya."

"Not Mithril," said Dvalin, eyeing the ring closely.

"Can you tell so quickly?"

Dvalin didn't answer, nor did he reach out to take the ring. "Tell me what you
know of it before I touch it. Nothing you carry, I'll wager, would be entirely
safe for anyone else to handle."

Gabriel laughed. "That is your professional experience speaking, and you are not
unwise in your caution. Linya is not safe. But neither is she malignant. She is
incapable of causing harm; indeed, Linya can bring only good to her bearer."

"Not one of the Great Rings," the Dwarf said, looking up. "I know all of their
devices and ornaments, and this one is new to me. Can you assure me that it will
cause me no harm to touch it?"

"It will do nothing to you unless you place it on your finger. Go ahead, look as
closely as you'd like."

Dvalin gingerly plucked the ring from Gabriel's palm and screwed a jeweler's
loupe into his eye. He studied the surface of the ring closely, and then gasped
when he glimpsed the stone.

"Sapphire!" he exclaimed, "an exquisite stone! A natural gem, yet with such
color!!"

Astonished, he removed the loupe and turned the ring over in his hand. "Such a
piece would be worth a fortune on the open market, even if it had no�other
qualities. There is some ornamentation, but not the emblem of its maker;
delicately made and of fine workmanship, but of simple silver. You know its
history�?"

"Indeed, I do, but we have not the time for that long tale. I came to ask you to
hold the ring for me. Where I am traveling I do not wish to expose Linya to
danger. Can you keep her safe until I return?"

"Untouched?"

Gabriel smiled. "I knew you'd be curious about her�powers. Let me just say that
I expected you would be unable to resist trying the ring on. But, I cannot
predict the consequences other than to say she will not harm you. That is
different, of course, from saying that she will not change you."

"Change me? How?"

"That I cannot say. The ring's power varies with each new master, and she brings
different gifts to each bearer."

"But, is the ring safe to keep? Is it stolen? Or is anyone seeking for it? I
will not put myself in danger for anyone's sake!"

"No, no, my friend. No one even knows that Linya exists in our day. And all who
have worn her in the past are no longer living."

"Then they were killed by the ring?!" The Dwarf put Linya back on the table and
shrank away.

"Not at all! They all died natural deaths � and happy ones, I might add. It is
just that knowledge of Linya and her maker has faded, and those who inherited
her never understood her virtues. Indeed, none of them even tried on the ring.
And I doubt if she was ever written of in the ancient texts; as you observed,
she is not one of the Great Rings."

"How long do you want me to keep her?"

"Until I return. More than that I cannot say."

"And if I am not here when you return? You know I often move shop."

"I will be able to find Linya, regardless of where you take her. All I ask is
that you keep her safe and guard her closely in the meantime."

"I will, of course, charge a fee upon her safe return to you."

"Of course. I will leave the fee entirely to you, and it can be whatever you
deem just, up to the value of the ring itself."

Dvalin looked at the ring, then slyly back up at Gabriel, then again at the
ring. The oil lamp sputtered above them and in its flickering flame, shards of
ultramarine and cobalt light flashed from deep within the ring's stone.

"Done. I'll keep her. But, aside from the fee, I may want a favor in return some
day."

"Certainly." Gabriel smiled. "If you wish it."

The two rose and returned to the storefront. Gabriel bowed to Dvalin, bid him
good evening, an then left the shop, disappearing into the thickening snow.

Dvalin stood behind the counter with the ring clenched in his fist, frowning as
pedestrians hurried by. He recognized most of those who passed his shop window:
many owed him money for jewelry or repair services; others he considered cheats,
only interested in gouging him for the tools and materials he needed for his
work; still more were competitors whom he considered grasping and unscrupulous.
His secretary, too, he mistrusted, even though she had been with him for several
years and had always done her best to please him.

"Too nice," he muttered aloud. "She isn't paid enough to fawn the way she does."

He looked at Linya. "Might as well get this over with," he said, slipping the
ring onto his finger.

He felt nothing but a slight tingling sensation. He looked around him. The
storefront had not changed, nor had his reflection altered in the mirror behind
the counter. The hands on the store clock still read 5:30. Outside, the snow
thickened further, but now dusk was falling.

He was about to take the ring off again when he saw a figure approach the shop
door. It was his secretary. She peered inside, and seeing him alone, she gently
opened the door and stepped out of the storm. She looked at him, shivering.

"For heaven's sake, Cailie, get over to the stove before you catch cold!"
Dvalin's voice startled both of them. Cailie's eyes grew wide, but she quickly
stepped toward the wood stove that heated the room.

"Give me that coat," Dvalin said, stepping toward her. She looked alarmed, but
slid out of her coat and handed it to him. He hung it on a peg near the stove so
that it could dry.

Dvalin turned back toward his secretary. She seemed suddenly small to him, and
vulnerable. She was still shivering. He had never paid her much attention, but
now he noticed how the cold had colored her cheeks, and how thin she appeared.

"Have you had anything to eat today? While you were out?" he asked.

"N-n-n-no�." She said, still shaking. "And�and I'm so s-s-orry I was g-gone for
so long�."

"Don't mind that. But for heaven's sake, girl," he said, shaking his head.
"You're as thin as a rail. I can't afford to have you die of starvation on me."

He rummaged in the back room and returned with a loaf of bread, some cheese, and
a bottle of red wine. He placed them on the counter near her.

"Here, eat something and have some wine. It will warm you up."

Looking astonished, Cailie slowly sat down behind the counter and began eating.
Dvalin watched her for a moment. What was it she reminded him of? He recalled a
featherless sparrow he had once found lying helpless on the ground, so many,
many decades past, when he was a boy. He had fed it bits of bread and milk until
it had fledged and flown away.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked, looking up fearfully.

The question startled Dvalin. A scarcely-recognized emotion swelled within his
breast, and as his eyes filled with tears, it occurred to him that he had never
said so much as a kind word to Cailie before; he had always been too busy, too
mistrustful, or too angry about some perceived grudge that he was nursing.

"I�I just want to make sure you're alright. What with the snow and all�" he
stammered.

He felt ashamed and looked down at his hands on the counter. Then he saw the
ring, still on his finger. And he remembered Gabriel's words: "She is incapable
of causing harm; indeed, Linya can bring only good to her bearer." He wondered�.

"Are you warmer now, my dear?" he asked her, hesitantly.

"Yes. Thank you. I'm much better now." And Dvalin continued to watch her as she
ate, her pale fingers like the beak of some tiny hatchling, pecking at the
morsels of bread and wine.


Prospects ===================

�      I am delighted to announce that I will be appearing as a guest speaker
and presenter at the Bram Stoker Centenary Conference at the University of Hull
and in Whitby, England, April 12-14. Whitby, as many of you may know, features
prominently in Stoker's classic horror novel, Dracula. The conference theme is
"Bram Stoker and Gothic Transformations". I was invited as a guest of the
university to present on my illustration work for Gothic novels, particularly
"The Magic Ring" by Fouque, as well as on two new republished Gothic works
including one by Bram Stoker himself. More information can be found at:
http://www2.hull.ac.uk/fass/english/events/conferences/bram_stoker.aspx

�      The Middle-earth Network ( http://middleearthnetwork.com ) continues to
be the "Go To" place for news about Middle-earth-related and Narnia-related
events and for discussions on its social network, http://mymiddle-earth.com/ .
Plus, the site has just been revamped with improved functionality and the
opportunity to create your own Blog webpage, absolutely free! Along with
podcasts with folks of interest to Middle-earth and Narnia fans, there are
contests, articles of interest, pointers to intriguing websites, etc. If you're
not a member yet, you're missing out on a great community of artists, musicians,
and general lovers of Tolkien and Lewis!

�     The Return of the Ring 2012 (see http://www.returnofthering.org/) will be
a huge Tolkien-themed conference and gathering at Loughborough University on
16-20th August, 2012. I am an invited guest at the event and am looking forward
not only to sharing my paintings and sketches, but also to participating in
panels and presentations. You can book reservations now online.

�     Tolkien biographer Joseph Pearce and I collaborated on an EWTN TV special
on J.R.R. Tolkien that is now available on DVD. The production includes dozens
of my illustrations of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and it focuses on the
Catholicity of Tolkien's magnum opus. You can order the a DVD of the show at: 
http://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/TOLKIEN+S+LORD+OF+THE+RINGS+A+CATHOLIC+WOR\
LD+VIEW/shop.axd/ProductDetails?x=0&y=0&keywords=Pearce+Tolkien&edp_no=22609

Since my earlier post created such a stir here, I figured I should post a link
to the review in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/arts/dance/twyla-tharps-the-princess-and-the-g\
oblin.html

--- In mythsoc@yahoogroups.com, davise@... wrote:
>
> Twyla Tharp's new full-length ballet based on George MacDonald's "The Princess
and the Goblin" will have its premiere performance Feb. 10-19 by the Atlanta
ballet.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/arts/dance/twyla-tharp-creates-the-princess-an\
d-the-goblin-ballet.html
>

Following this link, and belatedly checking out the one you'd posted previously,
i thought it a fascinating account of how they'd tried to adapt a work from one
genre (Victorian children's fantasy) to another (modern ballet). The
explanations for what they changed, and why, and what they took pains to keep,
and why, were really interesting -- to me, at least (e.g., shifting the main
character from a young girl to a young adult because a teen dancer cdn't execute
all the difficult maneuvers required by the part). Although I have to admit I'd
thought Twyla Tharp was a country singer, not a distinguished dancer and
choreographer, and was thrown by the statement that it was set to music by Franz
Schubert, which I misread as their saying Schubert had set MacDonald's piece to
music (which chronologically didn't make sense). Finally realized they were just
adapting music by Schubert as suitable for the era they wanted to evoke.

Odd that the article writer in both cases didn't seem to recognize the motif of
the main character's younger sibling(s) stolen away by the goblins as coming
from "Goblin Market" -- I wd have thought that's a far more well known piece
than the MacDonald.

Did love the idea of doing a ballet in which all the villains have tender,
stomp-able feet.

Thanks for posting the links, wh. I'd otherwise never have come across

--John R.


On Feb 13, 2012, at 1:55 PM, davise@... wrote:
> Since my earlier post created such a stir here, I figured I should post a link
to the review in the NY Times:
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/arts/dance/twyla-tharps-the-princess-and-the-g\
oblin.html
>
> --- In mythsoc@yahoogroups.com, davise@... wrote:
>> Twyla Tharp's new full-length ballet based on George MacDonald's "The
Princess and the Goblin" will have its premiere performance Feb. 10-19 by the
Atlanta ballet.
>>
>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/arts/dance/twyla-tharp-creates-the-princess-an\
d-the-goblin-ballet.html
>

"John Rateliff" <sacnoth@...> wrote:

>Here's a quick request for a fact-check. I'm listening to Michael Drout's
>lecture series OF SORCERERS AND MEN: TOLKIEN AND THE ROOTS
>OF MODERN FANTASY LITERATURE. So far I'm only about a quarter
>of the way through, and I'm finding it v. uneven.

I suspect sloppiness from speaking offhand.

>Query #1: Did Tolkien believe that his old mentor Joseph Wright (whom
>Drout keeps calling "Joseph Bright")

Possibly confusing his name with that of John Bright?

>had "lost his literary soul"? I know from a little online digging that this
>comes from one of Tolkien's YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES
>year-in-review pieces, but can find no indication at all that he felt this
>way about Wright.

The phrase is from the 1923 survey, p. 37, and the context is of Tolkien
praising a lecture by R.W. Chambers which shows "the bespectacled
philologist, English but trained in Germany, where he ... lost his literary
soul ... to be a bogey and duly laid," which I presume means a caricature
figure who does not actually exist.

The application to Wright comes from Carpenter, p. 134, who ignores the
context and takes "lost his literary soul" to be a reference to Wright's
books being rather dull to read.  Carpenter's phrase is "Tolkien was perhaps
thinking partly of Wright," which is speculative, but from there it seems to
have evolved into one of those settled fact-like statements.

>Query #2: Drout says the word "hobbit" occurs in medieval English, and
>that Tolkien took it from a book on the dialect of the Huddersfield
>district.
>This wd be Haigh's book, to wh. Tolkien wrote a foreword. I don't have a
>copy of this book, but I never heard that hobbit appears in it.

Surely not, or it would have been cited often, not least by you.

>I think Drout has confused Haigh's book, which we know Tolkien thought
>highly of, with Denham's mid-Victorian collection (THE DENHAM TRACTS),
>which does include the word "hobbit" but which there's no evidence Tolkien
>ever saw.

Surely.

John Rateliff wrote:

> Query #2: Drout says the word "hobbit" occurs in medieval English, and
> that Tolkien took it from a book on the dialect of the Huddersfield
> district. This wd be Haigh's book, to wh. Tolkien wrote a foreword. I
> don't have a copy of this book, but I never heard that /hobbit/ appears
> in it.

     The dialect portrayed in Haigh's glossary does not have initial
H-, so _hobbit_ in that form would be impossible. There is no
entry _obbit_ either. (The only noun in OB- is "_[o-macron]bi_,
_[o-macron]buk_", glossed as "a hawby, or hawbuck, a simpleton,
country lout".)

	 Chivalrous greetings,

		 Beregond

Greetings, all!

Time's running out! After midnight on Tuesday, 21 February,
I will be repatriating my Middle-earth themed paintings and
sketches currently held in the UK. At that time, this
one-time-only half-price sale of all framed and unframed
paintings and sketches currently held by ADC Books
(see www.adcbooks.co.uk) will end.

    The sale includes all 10"x16" and smaller canvasses in the
ADC Books catalog as well as all unsold framed and unframed
sketches, including original sketches for Black & White Ogre
Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien. The sale also
includes a few wooden "cutout" dragons!

    Please take a look at the ADC Books catalog. If you have a
question about a work, please don't hesitate to contact Andy
Compton directly at a...@... or phone 07785-110512.
If you are unable to reach Andy, feel free to contact me and
I should be able to help.

A few of the canvases available include:

Barrel Rider
A Conversation with Smaug
Amon Hen
Eowyn
Ithilien
Beorn (as man and as bear)
Into the West
Lightning on Weathertop
Enthouse
Sam and Rosie
Entwash (Merry and Pippin)
The Watchers of Cirith Ungol
Est� the Gentle
Melkor
At the Foot of the Meneltarma
The Land of Gift
The Road Goes Ever On...

A few of the sketches available include:

River hobbits
Sam Proposes to Rosie Cotton
The Houses of Healing
Gondorian Bowman
A Conversation with Treebeard
Treebeard, Merry, and Pippin
Arwen
Black Rider
Eomer on Horseback
The Black Swan
Queen Beruthiel

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - Same, same, but different...

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - mmm... Fastmail...

<WendellWag@...> wrote:

>> I suspect  sloppiness from speaking offhand.
>
> I'm  not sure what you're saying here.  I've listened to seventy or so
> courses  on tape/CD over the past twelve and a half years, and I can say
> that no
> lecturer  speaks offhand in these courses.

Drout is anything but aloppy in his own scholarly writings.  Whatever other
professors do, not preparing every word beforehand and speaking off-the-cuff
from memory, rather than reading a script, would explain this.  Otherwise it
wouldn't.



"Larry Swain" <theswain@...> wrote:

>obobuk?  Beregond, is that right?  Just curious (with the o's
>being marked long.

Beregond wrote: "_[o-macron]bi_, _[o-macron]buk_", which comes out without
the macrons as "obi, obuk".  Two forms of the word, presumably.  (If there's
no initial H in the Huddersfield dialect, what's the dialect's name for its
own town?)

I'm sure you're right about James Bright being the name in Drout's mind, and
since he should have known Bright's identity easily, and known that Bright
was an American and therefore that much less likely to be confused with a
teacher of Tolkien's, that increases the likelihood that this was a verbal
slip made from speaking off the cuff.

WendellWag@... wrote:

>This tape is part of his output, and this sort of sloppiness doesn't speak
>well of him.  Making these sorts of mistakes on a course on tape/CD sounds
>to me like arrogance.  A lecturer is just as responsible for accuracy in
>his recorded lectures (for which he's paid well, incidentally) as for his
>scholarly papers.

I said "explain", not "excuse".


James Curcio wrote:

>People misspeak. Maybe I'm missing what the big deal is.

It's a big deal when it's speaking before the microphones for a prepared
recording.  When a movie actor flubs a line, they do it again.

As with typos and proofreading, sometimes a speaker does not always
realize they have misspoken a word or name. If they're the only person in
the room who might be aware of the error when considered objectively, who
is going to know to correct it?

Why not just email Michael and ask him? It's not like he's unreachable.

Sarah

> WendellWag@... wrote:
>
>>This tape is part of his output, and this sort of sloppiness doesn't
>> speak
>>well of him.  Making these sorts of mistakes on a course on tape/CD
>> sounds
>>to me like arrogance.  A lecturer is just as responsible for accuracy in
>>his recorded lectures (for which he's paid well, incidentally) as for his
>>scholarly papers.
>
> I said "explain", not "excuse".
>
>
> James Curcio wrote:
>
>>People misspeak. Maybe I'm missing what the big deal is.
>
> It's a big deal when it's speaking before the microphones for a prepared
> recording.  When a movie actor flubs a line, they do it again.
>
>

 

Thanks, Beregond – I don’t own a copy of Haigh’s book myself, but if “hobbit” had been in it, I would have noticed when writing my paper on Haigh for Tolkien Studies.

 

Janet Brennan Croft

 

From: mythsoc@yahoogroups.com [mailto:mythsoc@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of "Beregond, Anders Stenström"
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 1:33 AM
To: mythsoc@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [mythsoc] "Joseph Bright" and Huddersfield hobbits

 

 

John Rateliff wrote:

> Query #2: Drout says the word "hobbit" occurs in medieval English, and
> that Tolkien took it from a book on the dialect of the Huddersfield
> district. This wd be Haigh's book, to wh. Tolkien wrote a foreword. I
> don't have a copy of this book, but I never heard that /hobbit/ appears
> in it.

The dialect portrayed in Haigh's glossary does not have initial
H-, so _hobbit_ in that form would be impossible. There is no
entry _obbit_ either. (The only noun in OB- is "_[o-macron]bi_,
_[o-macron]buk_", glossed as "a hawby, or hawbuck, a simpleton,
country lout".)

Chivalrous greetings,

Beregond

Thanks David, for the Carpenter quote. I shd have caught that one myself.

Thanks Anders, for the confirmation re. Haigh.  I see I'll have to save up and
get myself a copy of the Haigh.*

And thanks all for the comments and clarifications.


Everyone makes mistakes -- I still cringe from having written "Gower" when I
meant "Langland" in THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT (finally corrected in the new
one-volume edition), and remember Taum's once giving a lecture on Tolkien where
he mentioned THE LORD OF THE RINGS' having been illustrated by the Queen of
Sweden (he meant Denmark). For the record, though, Drout doesn't just say
"Bright" once but calls Joseph Wright that every time he refers to him --
including in phrases like "in Joseph Bright's GOTHIC GRAMMAR . . . ".  The Haigh
bit is much more serious, since he states something as a fact that isn't.

From everything I've seen, Drout is a careful scholar; that's what made these
and other slips surprising. I suspect he either didn't hold this audiobook to
the same standards as his written scholarship or (which is perhaps more likely)
these recordings may have been done in a rush, without time for fact-checking.

And, as I said, there's good stuff here as well. For example, Drout ends his
discussion of Tolkien's World War I experience by saying it's important to
remember that JRRT didn't come out of the war a shell-shocked broken man, or
emerge from his orphaned childhood lost in nostalgia to the extent that he was
unable to move on with his life: he fell in love, married, raised a family,
thrived in his chosen profession, &c.

--John R.


*and I'll have to name my next D&D character Obi Obuk.

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012, at 11:17 AM, [2]WendellWag@... wrote:



>>This tape is part of his output, and this sort of sloppiness
doesn't speak well of him.  Making these sorts of mistakes on a
course on tape/CD sounds to me like arrogance.  A lecturer is
just as responsible for accuracy in his recorded lectures (for
which he's paid well, incidentally) as for his scholarly papers.<<

But his other recordings, his scholarly output in books and articles, do
speak well of him.  Before judging him too harshly for these issues in
this lecture, a) with John, we all make mistakes and b) as for scholars,
I may not like a particular book or article that contains errors, but I
don't judge a scholar's entire output on a single article, lecture, or
even book.

Larry Swain
Chair, English Dept.
Bemidji State University

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