vtboyarc writes: I am a student at Benedictine College in Kansas, I got this email today, and it is also posted on the college website. Here it is: “Benedictine College will host a special presentation on the famous Inklings English literary group of the early 1900s on Monday, Feb. 23. Mark Colin Havard will deliver his presentation, The Lewis and Tolkien I Knew: Memories of an Inklings Son, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the OMalley-McAllister Auditorium on the college campus. The event, sponsored by the English and Theology Departments, is free and open to the public. Continue reading “Inklings Talk at Benedictine College”

Lance Owens sends along word that the lecture ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: An Imaginative Life’ is now available online: A series of three lectures examining Tolkien and his imaginative experience is now becoming available online in audio and illustrated format. The lecture series runs from February 10 to March 17, 2009 at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. As the series is completed, all lectures will be made available for online listening and viewing. The first lecture is now available here. For more information visit gnosis.org/tolkien Continue reading “‘J.R.R. Tolkien: An Imaginative Life’ Lecture Online”

From AP and our friends at Houghton Mifflin: NEW YORK – An early, long-unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien is coming out. “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun,” a thorough reworking in verse of old Norse epics that predates Tolkien’s writing of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, will be published in May by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. According to Houghton, the book will include an introduction by Tolkien and notes by his son, Christopher Tolkien. J.R.R. Tolkien, whose fantasy novels have sold millions of copies, died in 1973. “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun” was written in the 1920s and ’30s, when the author was teaching at Oxford University.

LOS ANGELES — Members of “Lord of the Rings” creator J.R.R. Tolkien’s charitable trust won two victories in court Friday in their lawsuit against New Line Cinema claiming it is entitled to profits from the blockbuster trilogy. Trust officials allege the film company cheated them out of at least $150 million from the blockbuster movie trilogy based on the late British author’s books. The London-based Tolkien Trust filed its lawsuit Feb. 11, 2008. The most significant ruling for the Tolkien heirs during Friday’s status conference came when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones set a March 3 deadline for both sides to exchange documents. Deadline Issued to Produce Documents for LOTR Lawsuit

Work has begun on a new £3m adventure world in a Devon city park. The Hobbit-style playground, featuring different activity zones, is being built in Plymouth’s Devonport Park. The Highlands will have a playhouse, nest swing and toddlers’ carousel, while the Middlelands will include climbing ropes and a zip-wire. A youth pod for chilling out will be based in the Lowlands and a sensory garden will be planted with aromatic plants and herbs for adults. Ideas for the adventure world were put forward by parents, children, and local residents’ group, the Friends of Devonport Park (FDP). Work starts on Hobbit-style park

Lance Owens writes: In Salt Lake City, Utah we have a major series of Tolkien lectures coming up in Feb and March 2009. We would appreciate it if you could add notice on your page.

Wasatch Gnostic Society – 2009 Winter Lecture Series
J.R.R. Tolkien: An Imaginative Life

“The Land of Fairy Story is wide and deep and high…. In that land a man may (perhaps) count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very mystery and wealth make dumb the traveler who would report….The fairy gold (too often) turns to withered leaves when it is brought away. All that I can ask is that you, knowing all these things, will receive my withered leaves, as a token at least that my hand once held a little of the gold.”– Tolkien, draft manuscript of “On Fairy Stories” Continue reading “Wasatch Gnostic Society – 2009 Winter Lecture Series”