January 18, 2022

34. I Ain’t No Big City Philologist!

1 hour 4 minutes

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Tree and Leaf.

Published in 1964 in the UK and the following year in the US, Tree and Leaf

was Tolkien’s first major post-Lord of the Rings publication but was itself a

republishing of two earlier non-Middle-earth pieces: “On Fairy-Stories,” an

essay on the subject revised from a 1939 lecture and 1947 anthology, and “Leaf

by Niggle,” a short, explicitly religious story for a Catholic publication in

Anthologized and separately published since, they’re at once totally

separate but sometimes strangely complementary pieces that serve to illuminate

Tolkien’s interests beyond Middle-earth itself, while at the same time often

casting reflections back on it or suggesting how dominant his legendarium was

to his creative life and beyond. What makes “On Fairy-Stories” key as a way to

consider Tolkien’s overall creative aesthetic, even as it contains some of his

most dense, allusive prose? How does his framing of fairy-stories as not

simply being for children itself lead to other interesting conclusions about

not only children but other cultures? What makes “Leaf By Niggle” the closest

Tolkien ever got to C.S. Lewis’s fictional approach, but where also does it

differ? And how telling is it that once again Tolkien features an idealized

friendship – perhaps more – between men in his fiction?

Show Notes.

Jared’s

doodle.

(Kinda makes Ned think of the cover of Led Zeppelin

IV but not

really.)

Andy Serkis’s readings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the

Rings are quite

good indeed.

The Daily Mail photo

story – those are some lovely shots and the story’s cool too.

The Tolkien Society photo

announcement…and the

fallout.

Rosamund Pike has her way with a

pineapple.

Absolutely check out Costa Botes’s behind the scenes documentaries about Peter

Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Here’s Botes’s own memories about

it. As for the

films, as noted they’re on the original Blu-ray set and elsewhere but then

again it’s weird where they

might all turn

up.

Tree and Leaf, the most current version of

same. As noted, the two original pieces are also now available separately with

more material: On Fairy-Stories and Leaf By

Niggle.

Andrew Lang’s impact on the general field of fairy

tales and more remains pretty big. (The Andrew Lang Memorial

Lectures continue to the present day.)

Max Müller’s had his own

general scholarly impact too.

Our Smith of Wootton Major

episode.

The ancient Egyptian Tale of Two

Brothers.

We didn’t mention it in our discussion but Tolkien’s referencing of the

sophistication of supposedly ‘primitive’ people has a resonance with the

character of Ghân-buri-Ghân – check out our episode on

him.

If you want more on Carl Jung and how Joseph Campbell built off him, read

on.

The Juniper

Tree, as told

by the Grimms.

M. R. James – so great. A Thin

Ghost presents all the stories plus info on the

many adaptations over time, including Mark Gatiss’s recent adaptations for

the BBC.

R. L. Stine – also so great. The

Snowman is there for the reading.

Hayao Miyazaki – great great

GREAT again. A recent NYT

profile, and yes watch Ponyo. And

everything else.

The Dublin

Review,

the publication where “Leaf By Niggle” first appeared.

So you’re wondering about Purgatory

in a Catholic context…

CCD aka Confraternity of Christian

Doctrine.

Phantom Thread! Great film.

Very not-Tolkien.

The Great Divorce, That

Hideous Strength, Till

We Have Faces, there’s

plenty of C. S. Lewis out there.

Niggle and Parish, a fraught friendship but with more to it there. Here’s our

episode on friendship.

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By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett

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