Saturday, October 1, 2016

Tolkien Spotting, Perhaps (butter over bread)

So, somehow my name got added to the Casemate Books mailing list --probably from my having bought the CELTIC FROM THE WEST volumes from them at several past Kalamazoos (the most recent volume, III, arrived just a few weeks ago).

Anyhow, this means I get regular messages (about once a week) tempting me with a bunch of books that look interesting but which I doubt I'd ever read, given that they're well off my beaten track. But they're still worth a glance, just to get an idea of some of the interesting things people are working on out there. And occasionally I give in to temptation and buy one of their books (this is especially the case at their booth at Kalamazoo itself).

Recently there have been one or two that had Tolkienian applications, so I thought I'd share.

First off, there was the collection PREHISTORIC JOURNEYS, edited by Vicki Cummings.


http://www.oxbowbooks.com/dbbc/prehistoric-journeys.html?utm_source=Casemate+Academic+Subject+Emailings&utm_campaign=b362312dca-Oxbow_Bargains_9_279_26_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a8c3f9bf58-b362312dca-11464185&mc_cid=b362312dca&mc_eid=a67d29a6e8

The second essay therein has a v. Tolkienian title:
'Stretched thin, like butter on too much bread…': some thoughts about journeying in the unfamiliar landscapes of late Palaeolithic Southern Scandinavia,    by Felix Riede

Now, this is very similar to Bilbo's remark, trying to describe the effects of the Ring: 

'like butter that has been scraped over too much bread' (one volume LotR.32)

So, the question wd be: is this another example of Tolkien going mainstream -- so much so that apt titles for essay on Tolkien taken from quote in his books* is now being augmented by said titles being applied to essays which have nothing to do with Tolkien or his works? Or simply someone else using the same metaphor, with no implied connection to Tolkien at all?

--John R.
--still at Marquette.
--current reading: still THE QUEST FOR CORVO, with its slightly too-small print.

*I've done this quite a few times myself -- e.g. 'A Kind of Elvish Craft', 'And All The Days Of Her Life Are Forgotten', 'That Seems to Me Fatal' &c.


UPDATE:I've corrected 'Casement' to 'Casemate'.
SECOND UPDATE: I've also corrected 'break' to 'bread' in the title. Thanks to Robert for pointing that one out. --JDR


2 comments:

Robert said...

Is 'break' in the title an error also?

John D. Rateliff said...

Yes it is. Thanks for pointing that out; I've now corrected it. --JDR