Reviews

[Inanna]

Oh I agree with that (that it's pleasing for you & good for your book). I was just trying too figure out the chronology

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree that the whole thing seems a little loosey-goosey.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Just to finally close the loop on this, I just got confirmation that the token permission fee that my publisher and I agree to ask for was paid, and will be reflected in my next royalty statement.

Obviously, the money is not a big deal, but the principle is, so I'm glad it got resolved.

[Inanna]

That's good news, V

[Frelga]

Good news, V.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I had a chance to peruse the greatly revised and expanded edition of Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond's J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide and to my extreme shock I found that the revised article on The Silmarillion contains an extensive (four full pages!) discussion of Arda Reconstructed. Some may recall that Christina wrote (with Wayne's assistance) a pretty outraged review of the book after it came out, but this is a much more balanced discussion. It quotes extensively from other reviews of the book, Jason Fisher's review in MythLore, Nicholas Birns' review in Tolkien Studies, and Charles Noad's very extensive online review at the Scholar's Forum at the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza. They also quote from the comments that ‘Ælfwine’ (Carl F. Hostetter) cited with permission from the response by Christopher Tolkien to a sample of an early draft of Arda Reconstructed I sent to the Tolkien Estate right here in this forum (so The Hall of Fire now appears in what is probably the preeminent Tolkien reference resource in existence).

Overall, I am quite pleased (and very surprised) by this. I guess at this point I need to accept that I somehow managed to produce something of some significance in Tolkien scholarship.

[Primula Baggins]

You did! This is truly significant. You should be not just pleased but proud. And it really, really tickles me that HoF is mentioned!

I'll add that I'm enjoying this for a third reason, lesser but still important to me: Arda Reconstructed is the most significant scholarly book I've copyedited in my 31-year career, which includes at least a hundred of them.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That's very kind of you to say, if perhaps a biased.

[Inanna]

Wow. Congrats V!

[N.E. Brigand]

I had a chance to peruse the greatly revised and expanded edition of Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond's J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide and to my extreme shock I found that the revised article on The Silmarillion contains an extensive (four full pages!) discussion of Arda Reconstructed.

Wow! That is really cool.

(I have fallen quite out of touch with Tolkien scholarship for the past three years. I didn't even know about the Tolkien exhibit in Oxford until I read on David Bratman and then Scull and Hammond's blogs about their trips to attend the opening events.)

[Inanna]

And that exhibit is coming to NY in January!!!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm going to try to make it there if possible. Maybe I'll be able to finally meet you, Inanna!

(And N.E.B., I'd love to get to see you again!)

[Inanna]

*that* would be awesome.

[Impenitent]

For how long will the exhibition be in NY? Hoping, hoping it will still be there in the last week of April.

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Inanna]

Jan 25 to Mar 12 or so. . Maybe they will extend it...

https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/tolkien

[Impenitent]

Poopy. It'll be gone by the time we get there.

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Inanna]

POOPY??

[Impenitent]

It's my soft cussing go-to .

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Not a review, per se, but a very nice comment by Tolkien illustrator Ted Nasmith in an interview with youtuber "Nerd of the Rings". His comments about Arda Reconstructed are between 54:32 -> 55:22.

[Alatar]

I really enjoyed that, ended up watching the whole thing! Although Ted isn't my favourite of the three big Tolkien artists, a private commission would be pretty damn cool. I wonder how much they cost?