Congratulations are in Order (THE JOURNAL OF TOLKIEN RESEARCH)

So, last week (Thursday?) I received word that the new online JOURNAL OF TOLKIEN RESEARCH has now launched, posting the first article* from their first volume at the following link:

http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol1/iss1/1/

It's good to see another venue for Tolkien scholarship, to join such journals as TOLKIEN STUDIES, MYTHLORE, MALLORN, VII, the JOURNAL OF INKLINGS STUDIES, et al. Unlike these more traditional publications, the JTR is electronic, with no print edition -- that is, as I understand it, it's more like a dedicated website than a print journal.  The editor is Brad Eden, organizer of the Tolkien track at Kalamazoo and also editor of two collections of Tolkien criticism: MIDDLE-EARTH MINSTREL (about music and Tolkien) and THE HOBBIT AND TOLKIEN'S MYTHOLOGY (which includes my own essay "Anchoring the Myth: The Impact of THE HOBBIT on Tolkien's Legendarium"). And the Review Editor is Doug Anderson, best known to Tolkien scholars for THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT and his work establishing the text of THE LORD OF THE RINGS but also widely published in fantasy and horror criticism (e.g. his anthologies of the works of Kenneth Morris and of Wm Hope Hodgson and, more recently, of Evangeline Walton**).

This being a new kind of format for a Tolkien journal,  it'll be interesting to see how that new model works, how often new pieces get posted, and the like. I hope they get a diverse and lively set of reviews up, since this is something I always enjoy in a journal (and find a prime source of suggested reading as well).   I also hope that at some point old issues cd be made available in shelf-able form for those among us who like our reference material within physical covers.

So, here's wishing them success in a new and interesting venture.

--John R.

*a look at elements of the Orpheus/Eurydice legend in the Luthien and Beren story.
**cf. his 'Tolkien and Fantasy' blog (http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/) and also the site Wormwoodiana (http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/), to which he is a contributor.