Tolkien and His Editors
Call for Papers for the 20th DTG Tolkien Seminar
(11-13 October 2024 at RWTH Aachen, Germany)
Paper requirements
Tolkien, in paratextual parts of his main work The Lord of the Rings, introduced himself as the editor and translator of the Red Book of Westmarch. A similar conjecture can be found in Farmer Giles of Ham, which comes with a scholarly preface and purports to be the translation of a medieval manuscript. These rather playful examples should be set alongside the real-world editors of Tolkien’s works. In his will, Tolkien made his youngest son Christopher (1924-2020) his ‘literary executor’ with “full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto” (official copy of Tolkien’s will, 23 July, 1973). Until his death (16 January 2020), Christopher actively fulfilled his role as ‘literary executor’ and edited and made available to a wide audience countless texts from Tolkien’s estate – and thus strongly influenced the perception and understanding of the works already published during Tolkien’s lifetime. Above all, The Silmarillion (1977), which he edited and, as was established in retrospect (Kane 2009), was heavily modified by him, had a major influence on Tolkien research.
In addition to the central figure of Christopher Tolkien, who could have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024, the roles of the editors Stanley and Rayner Unwin, the biographer Humphrey Carpenter (Biography; Letters), the student and later colleague Alan Bliss (Hengest and Finn), the daughter-in-law Baillie Tolkien (The Father Christmas Letters) or the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship should also be examined.
The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to explore the various questions and problems posed by the publication of Tolkien’s work.
Possible starting points for presentations would be:
- Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as ‘co-author’ of Tolkien’s work
- Censorship and restriction: the search for the ‘true’ Tolkien biography
- Tolkien’s posthumous academic work
- The publication of the works on the Elvish (and other) languages
- Access to and handling of Tolkien’s manuscripts and notes in the Bodleian and the Marquette
Seminar and entry informations
The 20th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format at the RWTH Aachen from 11-13 October 2024.
Interested applicants are requested to send a short synopsis (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance in person or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 31 May 2024:
DTG Conference Scholarship
This year the DTG will also award a conference scholarship for junior researchers in the field of Tolkien studies.
The following specifications apply:
- Applicants must be students, PhD candidates, or PostDoc researchers with (at the time of application) no more than one academic publication in the field of Tolkien studies, and be no older than 35 years.
- Applications, consisting of a brief CV and a short presentation of any Tolkien-related research or other activities, can be submitted together with the abstract for the conference presentation.
- The Board of Editors of Hither Shore, in consultation with the Board of the DTG, awards the scholarship. The Board of Editors of Hither Shore decides about the acceptance of submissions for the conference independently, so that applicants who did not succeed in securing a scholarship may still be invited to present their paper at the conference.
- The scholarship is meant to cover all travel- and accommodation expenses connected to the conference, as well as the conference dinner costs, up to but not exceeding 500 Euro. The scholarship holders are reimbursed after the seminar and once the receipts have been submitted. Each scholarship holder receives a certificate of achievement.
- The scholarship holders are to submit their papers for publication in Hither Shore. They undergo the same peer-review process like all other submissions.
Selected publications on the topic:
- Carpenter, Humphrey. 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien. A Biography. Paperback edition 1995. London: HarperCollins.
- Carpenter, Humphrey (in conversation with Lyndall Gordon). 1995. “Learning about Ourselves: Biography as Autobiography.” The Art of Literary Biography. Edited by John Batchelor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 267-279.
- Fliss, William M. and Sarah C. Schaefer et al. 2022. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript. Second edition. Milwaukee, WI: Haggerty Museum of Art.
- Kane, Douglas Charles. 2009. Arda Reconstructed. The Creation of the Published Silmarillion. Bethlehem PA: Lehigh University Press.
- McIlwaine, Catherine (ed.). 2018. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth. Oxford: Bodleian Library.
- McIlwaine, Catherine (ed.). 2018. Tolkien Treasures. Oxford: Bodleian Library.
- Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. 1981. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin. Reprinted by Houghton Mifflin (Boston), 2000. Revised edition 2023.
- Unwin, Rayner. 1999. George Allen & Unwin. A Rememberancer. Ludlow: Merlin Unwin Books.
