The literary legacy that members of the Tolkien Estate want to protect

By:  Brian Tither

Introduction

I think that the reason why some members of the Tolkien Estate have sued Saul Zaentz and its subsidiaries over JRR Tolkien’s literary legacy is because of their overriding concern for protecting that legacy above all else. In particular I think that this is the intention of Christopher and Priscilla Tolkien, the surviving children of Tolkien. And as a former student of Tolkien’s academic speciality in Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic in New Zealand I personally support this intention after being frustrated at The Hobbit production being only valued for the other Hollywood productions and tourist dollars that it may bring into New Zealand. I am also frustrated at the way a lot of the people involved in the production seem to only value it for its enhancement of their individual film projects.

The literary legacy of JRR Tolkien

Tolkien was the Professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford University in the years that Christopher and Priscilla and their deceased brothers John and Michael were children and Tolkien would come home and tell them stories based on the literature that he was teaching at Oxford. This came from Old Icelandic texts like Voluspa, which describes the rise and fall of Midgard, the Old Icelandic Middle-earth, where Tolkien got his names for his Dwarves, and The Saga of the Volsungs, where Tolkien got his ideas for Bilbo’s encounters with Gollum and Smaug from the God Loki taking off Andvari the Dwarf a ring which causes problems for its bearers and Sigurd’s slaying of Fafnir the dragon, which are supplemented by similar things in the Old English poem Beowulf. This was also supplemented by Tolkien getting his ideas for Beorn, which translates as ‘warrior’ from Old English and as ‘bear’ from Old Icelandic, and Bilbo Baggins, which translates as ‘dweller in a dwelling in a bag’ from Middle English and ‘dweller with a sword from ones in a bag’ from Old English, from characters such as Bodvar Bjarki, which translates as ‘the bear warrior’, and Hott Hjalti, which translates as ‘the small sword hilt’, from The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, where Hott’s parents are described as living in what appears to be a house built in a hole in the ground.

Given that the name Hott and the Old English word holbytla for ‘hole-builder’ conflate together as hobbit, which means ‘small hole-builder’, and given the oral tradition that developed between Tolkien and his children, it is easy to see how Tolkien took it a step further with his children and got them to help him with creating a story from him one day writing down the words: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit’. And from there the story developed as an oral tradition between them until Tolkien decided to write it down in a manuscript and this was published as The Hobbit some years later after he happened to show it to someone who recommended that he got it published. Then he wrote The Lord of the Rings, in which he referred to the mythology, later published as The Silmarillion, that he had been creating since before his children were born, while incorporating a character that he and his children devised from a doll that they owned, which they named Tom Bombadil.

The legacy of the Tolkien Estate

But the story of his children’s involvement did not stop there because Tolkien consulted Christopher on virtually every turn of The Lord of the Rings as he wrote it, while Christopher went on to become a university lecturer in Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic as well. Then when Tolkien passed away he had Christopher appointed as his literary executor and charged him to complete The Silmarillion, which Christopher did. And he also appointed him with John, Michael and Priscilla to take care of other estate matters as well.

This included taking care of matters regarding his selling off the film rights to the books to Saul Zaentz, which Tolkien did to cover the high inheritance taxes that the books accrued upon his death, all which grew out of his experiences with being swamped by the royalty taxes that he had to pay due to the sale of the books from the popularity that he did not anticipate for them. And this included the estate ensuring that Saul Zaentz and its subsidiaries did not step out of parameters that were set by Tolkien to protect the literary legacy of his works, which by implication stretched into his academic speciality to the original texts where he got his ideas from that have no copyright on them. And this experience grew out of seeing what Walt Disney did to the works of the Grimm’s Brothers the latter who Tolkien had a particular affinity for because the Grimm’s brothers also created philological principles, which Tolkien applied in his academia and works. Hence Tolkien did not want to see tangible things like this in his works being turned into intangible things like theme parks, which by implication extends into things like video games and gambling outlets such as slot machines.

And there is a need to protect this literary legacy if this literature is not to become something only valued by the money that people might make out of it at the expense of accessing that literature to many. And one of the things that I have been perturbed about as a student of Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic is experiencing both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit productions consulting linguistic and Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic experts for the purpose of developing the movies without considering how such expertise comes from the collective intellectual property of teachers and students in these specialities, even though such intellectual property was strangely fused with Hollywood action movie conventions in the films. And possibly this is why The Hobbit movies have so far not had such experts promoting them like The Lord of the Rings movies had, which probably made it expedient for the first trilogy of movies to be nominated for Oscars in categories like Best Director and Best Film, which they won on the third movie, while the second trilogy so far has not received any such nominations.

The valuation of the legacy in New Zealand

Meanwhile, as I said above, The Hobbit movies have been only valued as a means to bring more Hollywood productions and tourist dollars into New Zealand and it has been seen by people involved in the production as only a means to develop their individual film projects. The latter was made clear to me in October 2010 when allegedly there was industrial action going on which was allegedly having Warner Brothers considering moving the production elsewhere. The impression I got then from such individuals was that if the production went offshore it would severely jeopardise their projects, which was enhanced to me by someone who spoke at The Hobbit rally, which occurred a few days before Warner Brothers decided to keep the production in New Zealand. This person referred to how The Lord of the Rings production created a community of filmmakers, which has left me the impression that this community has been dependent on both that and The Hobbit production for its existence.

Consequently I have decided that I will only support the film projects of individuals involved in these productions if they demonstrate to me sufficient appreciation for the intellectual property that was drawn on for these productions. And for me the benchmark that has been set for that is that shown to me by a prominent New Zealand Maori writer, some of whose works have been turned into films, who supported the teaching of Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic at the New Zealand university that he used to work for. He also left me with the impression that the term ‘Middle-earth’ should not be used as a means for cultural groups to promote their culture to gain tourist dollars without acknowledging the culture that Middle-earth comes from as Tolkien acknowledged and intended it, who said Middle-earth was a use of the Middle English middel-erde, which derived from the Old English Middangeard and is thus related to the Old Icelandic Midgard.

Meanwhile, universities have had to cut their Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic courses even when they have had a reasonable number of students doing them due to a reallocation of university funding from a government who has used The Hobbit production so far for political gain. And I think that this is abysmal given the free promotion that The Lord of the Rings movies got from the New Zealand experts in these specialities through public lectures that they delivered like other experts in the specialities in other places in the world on the release of each movie, which if it had of been picked up on by The Hobbit production might have meant that the media surrounding the movies would have been less focussed on the apparent lack of material in the first Hobbit movie and the technology used, which not all the movie viewers were happy with.

The actual legacy in New Zealand

Also, for the New Zealand world premiere of the first Hobbit movie such experts could have highlighted how it was part of New Zealand’s culture and heritage that our education system produced Kenneth Sisam, a graduate of both Auckland and Oxford Universities, who was Tolkien’s New Zealand born tutor when Tolkien first started learning these specialities. Sisam introduced texts to Tolkien that Tolkien said that he had previously never heard of before, which included the Old English poem Crist, which had words in it translated as: ‘Hail Earendil, brightest of angels/ above the middle-earth sent unto men’. This led to the first draft of the poem of Earendil the mariner that Bilbo sings in Rivendell the night before the Council of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, which, in turn, Tolkien wrote after his first year of having Sisam as his first tutor, which was the beginning point of his legendarium.

In addition, these New Zealand specialists could have also highlighted how Tolkien alluded in his valedictory address, when retiring from being Professor of English language and literature, to the contribution that New Zealanders (and Australians) made to the Oxford School of English and the close contest which he had with Sisam for Professor of Anglo Saxon. The latter was also referred to in an interview just before the first Lord of the Rings movie’s release with an English born former lecturer in the speciality at a New Zealand university who was at Oxford when Tolkien was Professor there at the time the book was published who said that most undergraduates thought that Sisam should have been Professor.

Conclusion

This lecturer also told my classmates and me that the undergraduates at Oxford formed the basis for the Hobbits in Tolkien’s legendarium, them being derived from the undergraduates living in study groups with a tutor and a servant called a scout who looked after their personal needs assigned to each group. That is, Frodo Baggins and his cousins were based on the undergraduates, Bilbo Baggins on the tutor and Samwise Gamgee on the scout. And hence, whereas The Hobbit was something derived by Tolkien from his telling of stories to his children based on his academia, The Lord of the Rings was derived from his actual teaching of that academia. And I experienced an evolved version of that at university from a former PhD graduate of Oxford who got some of her Bilbos to teach Sams like me our letters like Bilbo does for Sam in the book. And according to one of those Bilbos my classmates and I are the envy of many who learn these letters around the world for having had this lecturer as a teacher, which is a sure foot in the door for any of her Frodos into universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. And it is such legacies that Christopher and Priscilla Tolkien are concerned with protecting knowing full well that without it their father’s legendarium would not even exist.

Brian lives in Wellington New Zealand on the main drag to both Victoria University where he was he was taught Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic at undergraduate level by an Oxford University PhD graduate and the Embassy Theatre where the red carpet rolled out for all New Zealand premieres for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. He goes under the pen name of Brian Boru, which refers to his family descent from a famous Gaelic warrior-king of a millenium ago called Brian Boroimhe who is part of a Gaelic literary canon that he also wants to study.

MAKING SENSE OF THE LATEST TOLKIEN LAWSUIT

By Douglas C. Kane

INTRODUCTION

As most here probably know, there is yet another litigation winding its way through the U.S. federal court system related to Tolkien’s Middle-earth subcreation.  This follows numerous past law suits and legal scuffles, including efforts by both the Tolkien Estate (the entity charged with protecting Tolkien’s literary legacy) and Middle-earth Enterprises (a division of the Saul Zaenz Company, which owns the film rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and related rights, the exact scope of which is at the heart of this current litigation) to prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of the names, characters, places, and other material that they each respectively (and sometimes competingly) claim legal control over.  It also includes several past lawsuits against New Line, one by Peter Jackson himself, and others by actors and other individuals involved with the Lord of the Rings films who claimed that they were not paid the compensation that they were contractually due for their efforts on those films.  And, of course, it included the big one, the lawsuit by various individuals and entities related to the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien’s publisher against New Line alleging that the film company had failed to pay the royalties that it was due from the wildly successful films pursuant to the original agreement by which Tolkien had first sold the film rights, which was finally settled for an undisclosed (but clearly large) sum in September 2009.  That litigation was particularly of interest to fans of Tolkien and of Jackson’s Middle-earth films because, in addition to being about large sums of money, it also included a threat by the plaintiffs to stop further production on the films based on The Hobbit.  The settlement of that case removed that threat, and the current litigation does not threaten the productions in any direct way.  But it does have potentially dramatic long term ramifications regarding the future of the Tolkien-related universe.  The other big difference between this litigation and the previous Tolkien versus New Line case is that, unlike in that case in which it was all about whether New Line had failed to meet its legal obligations, in this case the two sides have competing claims against each other, each claiming that the other has acted in bad faith and infringed upon their rights.  The determination of who is right will go along ways towards defining what that future will be like.

The Claims

The lawsuit was initially filed on November 19, 2012 by the Tolkien Estate and related entities, as well as the publisher, Harper Collins and related entities (together referred to as “plaintiffs”, against Warner Brothers, New Line, and related entities (together referred to as “WB”) and most particularly Saul Zaentz and his Middle-earth Enterprises (usually referred to as “Zaentz” and together with WB referred to as “defendants”).  Interestingly, Christopher Tolkien is not a named plaintiff this time, but his sister Priscilla is, as a trustee of the Tolkien Trust. There is also entity entitled Fourth Age, Ltd., which was not a party to the last suit (it was actually formed in November 2011, well after that suit was settled). Although court records related to the lawsuit do not reflect this, according to U.K corporate records this entity actually changed its name on February 21, 2013, to Tolkien Estate, Ltd. Its directors include Tolkien family members Baillie Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, Priscilla Tolkien, Simon Tolkien and Michael George Tolkien, as well as the Tolkien Estate attorney, Steven Andrew Maier.

Unlike the previous lawsuit, which alleged that New Line breached the original agreements selling the film rights by failing to make the royalty payments that those agreements require, the main complaint this time is copyright infringement.  There are two main activities that plaintiffs claim defendants infringe upon rights that plaintiff assert they still hold: (1) Lord of the Rings themed slot machines; and (2) online and downloadable video games. The basis of the claims is that the original agreement in which the film rights were sold only granted limited merchandising rights that cover “personal property that can physically be purchased,” and that these activities exceed the scope of those limited merchandising rights. The plaintiffs also claim that Zaentz has been infringing trademark rights. These disputes have been brewing for a long time, but apparently were brought to a head when one of the Estate’s attorneys received a “spam” email advertising the Lord of the Rings slot machines. Plaintiffs claim they have engaged in settlement discussions since 2010, to no avail, and that Zaentz has instead indicated that he intends to expand the merchandising.

The Counter-Claims

On January 18, 2013, Zaentz and WB each responded to the lawsuit by, in addition to denying the allegations, filing counterclaims for declaratory relief and for damages for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing inherent in all contracts under U.S. law. They each subsequently filed amended counter-claims on March 11, 2013. These claims are essentially based on the argument that by filing their lawsuit, plaintiffs breached the implied covenant by repudiating the agreement granting the rights to defendants. Defendants cite correspondence going back to 1996 in which Harper Collins and the Estate’s attorney concede that Zaentz has the right to online video games based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps most interesting, they cite a September 2010 “regrant” agreement in which the Estate confirms the rights held by Zaentz, and licenced to Warners/New Line. That must be the agreement that was referred to in Entertainment Weekly back in October 2010, in which Jackson was quoted as saying that one of the issues causing the delay in beginning production on the Hobbit films was negotiations with the Estate over rights issues. The interpretation of what that agreement actually says and means is clearly at the heart of this dispute.

The damages claim is based on the allegation that they entered into the “regrant” agreement in September 2010, and then the Estate immediately started complaining about actions that (at least in Zaentz and WB’s opinion), they had just agreed Zaentz and WB could do.  They assert that this “repudiation” of the agreement has prevented them from entering into “license agreements for online games and casino slot machines in connection with The Hobbit — a form of customary exploitation it previously had utilized in connection with the Lord of the Rings trilogy — which has harmed Warner both in the form of lost license revenue and also in decreased exposure for the Hobbit films.”

To quote Richard:

The way to find the texts in the languages of Middle-earth was difficult. First of course was the careful and watchful hearing in the cinemas. Richard traveled far from Poland to Ireland to watch the movie 2 weeks before the Polish premiere. The first results were published thanks to the work of Miriam “Niranare” Simon of the German forum Mellyn Lammath and Cerebrum of the Hungarian website Parf-en-Ereglas. Then the international community of the Tolkien linguists with Helge K. Fauskanger (of Norse Ardalambion) and Andrew Higgins (of Elfling list) helped to find the detailed explanation of David Salo’s conlang forms.

The dialogues, together with lyrics and inscriptions, in the languages of Tolkien were created for the movies by David Salo, an American linguist. Richard’s analysis is a work in progress, continually updated based on suggestions from fans contributed via comments to his blog-style posts, and the results of his work on The Hobbit thus far can be found as follows:

• Analysis of the Sindarin dialogues.
• Analysis of the Quenya, Khuzdûl/Neo-Khuzdûl, and Orkish/Gundabad dialect of the Black Speech dialogues.
• Analysis of the lyrics in the soundtrack can be found here and here.
• Analysis of the runic inscriptions (scroll down to the section titled INSCRIPTIONS).

The analyses of the dialogues, lyrics and inscriptions in the Lord of the Rings films can be found at Elvish.org.

Elendilion.pl is also famous for the investigation of the oldest ancestry of the Tolkien family. This family name emerges for the first time in the mediaeval sources of the German Order in Prussia, in small village in today’s Poland, Tołkiny, cf. http://www.elendilion.pl/2010/02/02/tokiny-in-warmia-a-nest-of-the-tolkien-family-ii/

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Wishing all of you a safe and happy New Year! May the best of your 2012 be the worst of your 2013. Cheers All from grammaboodawg and Kelvarhin

When I was eight I fell in love for the first time. Miss Arnell was a supply teacher who stepped in to replace the grumpy, crabby Mrs Rogers.

I didn’t know it was love back then; I was just eight and keen on Action Man and climbing trees. What I do know is that I couldn’t wait to see her, and when I did my heart would skip a beat. She was a breath of fresh air and every time I went home I longed to see her again. I relished every moment with her and craved her attention. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and still do.

[Read More]

This afternoon the “Return of the Ring” event, held by the Tolkien Society at the University of Loughborough from 16 to 20 August, ended. In programming it, the organizers sought to bring together academic studies of “the Professor,” fan activities, and figures from entertainment—the latter being represented by Brian Sibley and others active in various adaptations of Tolkien’s work. With as many as seven separate panels and activities competing with each other in some time slots, there was something for all interests and some tough decisions about which ones to attend.

My own inclinations being more toward the academic, I can report more on the lectures and panels than on the Masquerade or the classes on Tengwar, costuming, and other skills appropriate to Middle-earth and its fans. Even there I can only mention the highlights briefly.

That said, even I couldn’t miss one group of guests: the French team La Compagnie du Dragon Vert (The Company of the Green Dragon). These young people, dedicated to reviving the crafts, costumes, and way of life of the Medieval era, pitched their white tents right outside one of the two main buildings in which the event was being held. Each day they gave demonstrations of archery, cookery, sword-fighting, arms and armor, and music. The photo shows an area devoted to embroidery and making wax candles.

My own paper was scheduled for the first afternoon (Thursday, August 16). The panel led off with a talk by Martin Barker, known to many TORn readers as the director of the “Lord of the Rings Audience Research Project” back in 2003-2004. He presented an interesting survey of the lingering ways in which Gollum has been referenced in public discourse in the years since the Peter Jackson film came out. I spoke about anachronisms in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, discussing how The Shire contains many objects and references appropriate to a rural region in the late Victorian era.

Immediately after our session ended, the opening ceremony was held in a large open atrium where the impressive art show was set up (featuring works by Cor Blok, Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, and others). This area also contained vendors selling books, jewelry, costumes, and all sorts of items relating to the film. During the ceremony, some of the prominent scholars present, including Tom Shippey (right), made brief statements from an upper story opening out onto the room. A completely unexpected treat was a video message from Peter Jackson, John Howe, and Alan Lee, projected on a wall and greeted with enthusiasm (see top).

No photographs were allowed in the art exhibition/vending area itself. Still, the van of René van Rossenberg, of the Tolkien Shop/Tolkienvinkel, was proudly sitting in the park lot outside, providing spectacular visual evidence of the activities inside (see bottom).

Friday morning began with a heavily illustrated triple lecture by Bob Blackham on “Tolkien’s Birmingham,” “Tolkien’s Oxford,” and Tolkien: The War Years.” These were lively summaries of Blackham’s books on these same subjects: The Roots of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Tolkien and the Peril of War, and Tolkien’s Oxford. An avid collector of old postcards and photographs, Blackham brought to life the era of Tolkien’s youth and showed photographs of those locations that still survive. I also particularly enjoyed Christopher Kreuzer’s lecture on “Colours in Tolkien,” an extensive look at color motifs and terms.

After lunch Charlie Ross presented his “One Man Lord of the Rings” to a packed house and loud applause. Other highlights of a packed day included a talk by Cor Blok, the artist whose work has graced the past two Tolkien calendars, as well as a book, A Tolkien Tapestry. Tolkien himself bought two of Blok’s paintings. It was a treat to see some of the originals in the exhibition, since they involve paint on textured paper. Tom Shippey spoke immediately after Blok, charming the audience as always with his humorous discussion of types of leadership in the Legendarium.

Saturday was also busy. With all the recent emphasis on decline and death in the Legendarium, it was pleasant to see a panel called “Tolkien and Fun.” In “The Significance and Place of Laughter in the Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien,” Charles Bressler took a quantitative approach, counting the number of times various characters and races are described as laughing. Maureen Mann looked at “Tolkien and Nonsense,” analyzing his use of the term “nonsense” and offering examples from Farmer Giles of Ham and other major work.

A panel on adaptations brought together the makers of three fan films: Kate Madison, director of Born of Hope; Chris Bouchard, making of The Hunt for Gollum, and Michal Kára of the Czech Republic, whose short “music video,” Niënor Níniel, was shown during the panel. They were joined by Constance G. Wagner, who worked on the London version of the stage musical of The Lord of the Rings, and Brian Sibley. Among the revelations was the fact that Madison and Bouchard both were sent warnings by Saul Zaentz’s Tolkien Enterprises (renamed Middle-earth Enterprises in 2010) and ended up signing agreements that allowed them to continue but forbade them to make further fanfilms based on Tolkien!

Michael Tolkien, grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, presented a talk on “Fantasy: delusion of wisdom?” He discussed his grandfather’s “On Fairy Stories” and illustrated it by readings from one of his own verse fantasies. The Tolkien family resemblance was obvious, and Michael was gracious in answering questions from the audience (including mine).

Late the same afternoon Verlyn Flieger, author of Splintered Light and other familiar titles, lectured on French influences on Tolkien. She began by taking Humphrey Carter to task for claiming that Tolkien was Gallo-phobic and proceeded with her usual thoroughness and clarity to show that dislike does not preclude influence. She pointed to the use of the term “aventure” in “On Fairy Stories” and declared that The Hobbit belongs to the tradition of French Romances.

Sunday I opted for a coach tour of Oxford, since I had never seen any of the Tolkien-related places there, despite several visits to the city. The drive down and back was long enough to prevent us from stopping anywhere long. There was, however, a brief but moving visit to J. R. R. and Edith Tolkien’s grave, with a wreath-laying (below left) and singing of “Namárië.” We drove past the Tolkien residence. A walking tour of the university are took us past Exeter College, where Tolkien was an undergraduate, and on toward the Cherwell to see the Examination Schools and Merton College. A lunch at the Eagle & Child (“Bird & Baby”) pub, where the Inklings famously met, rounded out the short visit.

We were back in time for the 5:00 lectures. I opted for Benjamin Barootes’ “These Fading Days: Language, Loss, and Recovery in Tolkien’s Legendarium,” which was the “Christine Davidson Memorial Lecture.” It dealt with the waning power of language in the Legendarium, with an ingenious interpretation of Aragorn’s short coronation speech as a renewal of language’s force as the Third Age ends.

Monday was a half day, with papers including Zachary Rhone’s “English Elegies: Sources of Tolkien’s Mythopoeic Inspiration, a look at some of the timeless sentiments in “The Ruin,” “The Seafarer,” and “The Wanderer,” that Tolkien adapted for his own creative work; Jyrki Korpua’s “J. R. R. Tolkien’s Mythopoeia and the Familiarisation of Myth,” and Sara Brown’s “There’s No Place Like Home: Place, Protection and Belonging in Tolkien’s Legendarium.”

The closing ceremony saw much well-deserved praise and awards heaped upon the many volunteer organizers of the event. The Tolkien Society runs its annual Oxonmoot meeting, but larger events like “Return of the Ring” are scheduled only in special years—in this case, of course, the 75^th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. Many attendees, who toasted “The Professor” repeatedly in the course of the event, will be looking forward to the next occasion for such a celebration.

There will also be a Hobbit-style banquet, a metre-wide sponge cake in the shape of a dragon, lessons in writing names in Elvish, costumed masquerades and recreations of classic Tolkien scenes. “We want people who like the books to come and have a bit of fun,” said Shaun Gunner, trustee of the Tolkien Society and deputy chairman of the event.

Tolkien’s grandson, Michael, will also make a rare appearance. He will read out some stories of his own and take questions from the audience.

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Read more about the books in the BBC article and more about Michael Tolkien at www.MichaelTolkien.com.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”  — J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, S.A., on January 3, 1892.  He would eventually move to England, become an accomplished linguist and scholar, an Oxford professor and a beloved husband and father. While in his twenties, he began developing a series of stories that went on to become the rich, complex history of a place called Middle-earth: a world that millions would eventually visit, both on the written page and on the big screen, and come to love. TheOneRing.net raises a glass to “The Professor!” today, in honor of all the enjoyment and camaradarie his birth would lead to. Thank you, professor Tolkien!

And don’t forget, today is the annual Tolkien Society’s Birthday Toast to Professor Tolkien. For complete details on the toast, jump on over to the Tolkien Society’s website. [Tolkien Toast]

“The J R R Tolkien Estate has been made aware of a statement by ADC Publications concerning its cancellation of its proposed publication “Wheelbarrows at Dawn” by Angela Gardner and Neil Holford.

ADC’s statement suggests that the publication has been cancelled as a result of the Tolkien Estate’s threats to take court action preventing the release of the book.

As this statement is highly misleading, the Tolkien Estate considers it important that the true facts be clarified for those concerned.

The book in question was presented by ADC as a biography of J R R Tolkien’s brother Hilary. However, the publication included numerous personal letters from J R R Tolkien to his brother and from other family members that were reproduced virtually verbatim.

The copyright in these private, unpublished letters belongs to the Tolkien Estate. As the guardian of these rights and of the privacy of the Tolkien family, both of which it takes great care to protect, the Estate quite properly declined permission for the letters to be reproduced in this way.

However, the Estate made clear to ADC that it had no issue with the publication of the book providing the material in question – affecting only 20 pages out of a total of some 300 – was removed.

Although ADC’s response was to agree to this, what it then did in practice was to paraphrase the letters, something that had been made clear from the outset would not resolve the issue.

Despite the Estate’s devoting considerable resource to helping ADC, not least by suggesting specific editorial changes which would meet its concerns, ADC then announced the cancellation of the book.”