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24th November 2016: Laughter in Middle-earth published

Laughter in Middle-earth Walking Tree Publishers are proud to announce the publication of a new book Laughter in Middle-earth: Humour in and around the Works of JRR Tolkien. This collection of nine papers is edited by Thomas Honegger and Maureen F. Mann.

"It is precisely against the darkness of the world that comedy arises, and it is best when that is not hidden."

With these words Tolkien replied to Rayner Unwin's comments upon first reading Book 1 of Lord of the Rings. Rayner had not commented on the comedy of Book 1 but on the overpowering effect of "the struggle between darkness and light", as he put it, and that omission disappointed Tolkien. If this was the response of Tolkien's famous first reviewer, it is not surprising that academic studies have also tended to ... [read more]

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=126 )

24th August 2016: About Edward S. Louis

The Monster Specialist Edward S. Louis, author of The Monster Specialist has launched a website presenting this and his other books,as well as two entertaining blogs.

The website is edwardslouis.com

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=125 )

24th August 2016: Call for Papers, Music and Middle-earth


In 2010, Walking Tree Publishers published a volume, Music in Middle-earth in conjunction with Edition Stein und Baum (Musik in Mittlerde).

A follow-up volume with the same topic and the title Music and Middle-earth / Musik und Mittlerde will be published by the above mentioned publishing houses in English and German in 2018.

A call for papers for this book has been published and can be read here.

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=124 )

24th August 2016: Call for Papers, Tolkien Conference 2017

A call for papers has been published for the 2017 Tolkien Conference. This can be downloaded here.

The conference will be held in Augsburg University (Germany) from 27 to 29th October 2017

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/conference/17_augsburg.php )

17th July 2016: Pre-publication offprints (update)

Earlier this year, we made available three chapters of our forthcoming volume Humour in and around the Works of JRR Tolkien. These papers have since undergone some updates and corrections, and two further further papers made available.

The documents presently available are:

NEW Chapter 2
A Fountain of Mirth: Laughter in Arda
Alastair Whyte
[-> download]

NEW Chapter 3
Mirth’s Might: The Tenacity of Humour in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Jennifer Raimundo
[-> download]

Chapter 4
Plain Ignorance in the Vulgar Form: Tolkien's Onomastic Humour in Farmer Giles of Ham
Łukasz Neubauer
[-> download]

Chapter 5
"This of course is the way to talk to dragons": Etiquette-Based Humor in The Hobbit
Laura Lee Smith
[-> download]

Chapter 6
Strategies of Humour in The Stupid Ring Parody
Sherrylyn Branchaw
[-> download]

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=122 )

26th April 2016: Tolkien Conference Jena

Just a reminder that the Tolkien Seminar is taking place in Jena, Germany from 6th to 8th May 2016. For more information, please consult this page on the Deutsche Tolkiengesellschaft website.

Tolkien’s Philosophy of Language

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/conference/16_jena.php )

26th April 2016: Pre-publication offprints

The digital revolution seemingly knows no bounds, and although we at Walking Tree Publishers remain dedicated to the print medium, we have decided to also test the waters of digital distribution.

How will these digital releases fit into our portfolio? We are presently preparing the paper publication of a volume entitled Humour in and around the Works of JRR Tolkien. However, with some papers long ready and awaiting publication whereas others are still in progress, we have decided to make some of the completed papers available in the interim.

These documents are presently available for free download. This system may change at some point in the future.

Presently available are:

Chapter 4
Plain Ignorance in the Vulgar Form: Tolkien's Onomastic Humour in Farmer Giles of Ham
Łukasz Neubauer
[-> download]

Chapter 5
"This of course is the way to talk to dragons": Etiquette-Based Humor in The Hobbit
Laura Lee Smith
[-> download]

Chapter 6
Strategies of Humour in The Stupid Ring Parody
Sherrylyn Branchaw
[-> download]

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=120 )

8th December 2015: Book reviews in Beyond Bree


Reviews of two of our books have been published in recent editions of Beyond Bree:

- Christopher MacLachlan, Tolkien and Wagner: The Rind and Der Ring (read as pdf)
- Patrick Curry, Deep Roots in a Time of Frost: Essays on Tolkien (read as pdf)

Beyond Bree is the newsletter of the Tolkien Special Interest Group of American Mensa. Subscriptions are open to all lovers of Tolkien's Middle-earth, Mensan and non- Mensan alike. For more information on Beyond Bree, please visit http://www.cep.unt.edu/bree.html

The reviews are reproduced on this website with kind permission.

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=119 )

23rd August 2015: Tolkien Conference 2016 - Call for Papers

Tolkien's Philosophy of Language

The topic of the 2016 Tolkien Conference will be "Tolkien's Philosophy of Language". The event will be held in the University of Jena from 6-8 May 2016. The Tolkien Conference is an annual event co-organized by Deutsche Tolkiengesellschaft and Walking Tree Publishers. A call for papers has been published. Read more here (pdf) or on the website of Deutsche Tolkiengesellschaft.

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/conference/16_jena.php )

7th July 2015: Representations of Nature in Middle-earth published

Representations of Nature in Middle-earth Walking Tree Publishers are proud to announce the publication of a new book Representations of Nature in Middle-earth. This collection of nine essays is edited by Martin Simonson.

Tolkien's portrayal of nature in Middle-earth has been interpreted in a variety of ways, often depending on the context of the reading. Some have seen Middle-earth and its potential destroyer, the Ring, as an allegory of the European continent under the threat of the atomic bomb, while others have embraced it as an artistic expression of the Green movement's agenda in the face of industrial abuse. Some have read nature in Tolkien's work in terms of myth and religion; yet others take the exhaustive descriptions of the physical environment as a sign that Middle-earth itself ... [read more]

(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=117 )

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