Further adventures in the history of Middle-earth

[fabiadrake]

Although I feel as if I post legendarium material on tumblr too often (much of it is fascinating!), I think perhaps my next read will be The Fall of Númenor.

I wonder if a Tolkien journal would accept an essay along the lines of “this is what I think this minor character is up to elsewhere”?

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

That depends on the journal. When I was in college, one of my professors had stacks of that stuff, and they all had different parameters. Some were about analyzing Tolkien's work, some were linguistic, some were literary analysis, many were a mix, and some were frankly fanfic written by professors. The latter two categories seem most likely to fit your idea. So in addition to looking for journals in the usual fannish places, you could also check university libraries near you -- someone is likely to be archiving whatever the current Tolkien academic journals are, and may also know which faculty are into that stuff so you could also ask them.

I did see some extrapolative articles back then, many of the format "If X, then W." They would start with information from the canon and then discuss what else must have happened in order for that to be true. These appealed to me because I write fanfic "derive in, extrapolate out." So it's a type of writing that has appeared in the field before.

Re: Thoughts

[fabiadrake]

Hmm, interesting, thank you! I wouldn’t say it’s fanfic because my conclusions are (trust me bro) extremely logical and thematically faithful, they just connect some dots that are not connected in any of Tolkien’s writings. (“Extrapolative” is probably a good description.) And if it were fanfic I’d just post it to AO3 and have done with it. The trouble is I’ve got delusions of grandeur and I’m tempted by the idea of a (bigger) soapbox.

I don’t know the usual fannish places for journals? I usually just see what academic journals I can find online. I'll try contacting a local university library and see how quickly they escort me from the premises.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I don’t know the usual fannish places for journals? <<

Mostly conventions; there is usually someone selling fanzines. Some fandoms have a central organization that lists fanzines. Some hobby shops have a rack of magazines and fanzines. The academic journals sometimes appear in these places, although they're a bit off on a tangent.

>> I usually just see what academic journals I can find online. I'll try contacting a local university library and see how quickly they escort me from the premises.<<

Tell the library staff that you are doing research, a one-sentence summary of your topic, and the category of academic journals you wish to locate. Even if that library only admits students and staff, there's a reasonable chance that a librarian will just tell you the information or where else you might find it. State or community colleges are more likely to have an open-access policy because they are taxpayer-supported. A handful of colleges have a Tolkien program of some sort and would be the best bet to have such journals, even if they aren't near where you live. Places like that are usually used to people calling in or visiting for research purposes. Special collections often have their own rules separate from the main campus library precisely because most libraries don't have that material, so folks have to share it.