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A Tolkienian Mathomium is the first volume in a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, written by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker, most famous, perhaps, for his application of Comparative Translation to the study of Tolkien in his book Tolkien Through Russian Eyes.

Amazon.com says: "It is one of most unique set of essays on Tolkien I have read in the past 10 years. Some are about language and others about literature references. The book is attractive because each chapter is a unique essay. You don't need to commit yourself to a book-length essay. A second positive aspect is that the essays are written during the post-HOME (History of Middle Earth) era."

Pagination: xvi + 274, B&W illustrations, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Hobbitonian Cover

The Hobbitonian Anthology is the second volume in a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker.

An early review by The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza of the analysis of the origin of the name Tom Bombadil appearing in The Hobbitonian Anthology ranks it as “the best explanation yet of how the name Tom Bombadil came into being.”

Pagination: xviii + 268, B&W illustrations, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkien and Welsh Cover Art

Invited to enter the 2013 Competition for the Literature Wales Book of the Year Award.

Literature Wales Best Book of the Year Award

“I find the Welsh language specially attractive.”
 — J.R.R. Tolkien (L.218)

Tolkien and Welsh provides an overview of J.R.R.T.’s use of Welsh in his Legendarium, ranging from the obvious (Gwynfa—the Welsh word for Paradise), to the apparent (Took—a Welsh surname), to the veiled (Gerontius—the Latinizaton of a royal Welsh name), to the hidden (Goldberry—the English calque of a Welsh theonym).

Though it is a book by a linguist, it was written for the non-linguist with the goal of making the topic accessible. The unavoidable jargon is explained in a glossary, and the narrative presents an overview of how Welsh influenced Tolkien’s story line, as well as his artificial languages Quenya and Sindarin.

The study is based on specific examples of attested names, placed in the context of their linguistic and cultural background, while highlighting the peculiar features of Welsh, “the senior language of the men of Britain” (MC 189), that Tolkien found so intriguing. It supplements, rather than competes with Carl Phelpstead’s excellent Tolkien and Wales, which sidestepped the topic of the Celtic linguistics behind Tolkien’s work. Learn the Welsh stories behind Lithe, Buckland, Anduin, and Baranduin.

Pagination: xxx + 274, new B&W illustrations by James Dunning, maps, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkienaeum cover

Beware of Pirated PDF Copies of The Tolkienaeum

The Tolkienaeum is the third volume in a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker.

Pagination: xxx + 258, new B&W illustrations by James Dunning, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Iter Tolkienensis cover

 

Iter Tolkienensis is the fourth volume in a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker.

Pagination: xxxvii + 336, maps, illustrations, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkien and Sanskrit cover

Tolkien and Sanskrit is the fifth volume in a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's linguistic creations, focusing on The Silmarillion, by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker.

Much has been said of Tolkien’s use of Welsh, Old English, Gothic, Icelandic, Russian, Greek, and Latin. Little, however, has been said about Tolkien’s use of Sanskrit (Refined Speech), the great-great-…grandfather of all the languages above. This book is an analysis of the names on the ‘Silmarillion’ map that concludes that Tolkien’s names were based on the map of the valley of the River Indus, the river that put the “Indo” in the name Proto-Indo-European, a linguistic term for the *reconstructed common ancestor of the European languages, including Quenya and Sindarin.

Pagination: xlvi + 216, maps, illustrations by James Dunning, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkiennymicon Cover

The Tolkiennymicon
Τόλκιννῠμῐκόν:
Studies in Tolkiennymy;
or Searching for the Origins of Elvo-Indo-European in Tolkien’s Elvish Lexicon

  • Find out where the name Strider came from.
  • See the linguistic legerdomain behind the name Míriel.
  • Learn why Tilion is called ‘The Horned’.
  • Learn the story behind King’s Foil.
  • Look through the bones of the oxen in Tolkien’s linguistic soup.

Pagination: xliv + 256, maps, illustrations by James Dunning, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkiennymicon Cover

The Tolkienothēca
Τόλκινοθήκη:
Studies in Tolkiennymy;
or Searching for the Origins of Elvo-Indo-European in Tolkien’s Elvish Lexicon; With an Addendum to Tolkien and Sanskrit,
and a Lexicon of Elvish Month Names

  • Find out more about Tolkien’s knowledge of Sanskrit and of Indian (Hindu) myths
  • See the linguistic legerdomain behind the names Amalion, Manwë, Frodo, Morgoth, Melian, Lúthien, Nimloth, and Elwing
  • Explore the Irishness of Middle-earth
  • Learn how Tolkien's names of the months of the Elvish solar year are built on the scaffolding of the month names of the French Republican Calendar
  • uncover how the name Gaerys escaped into Middle-earth from a Breton legend
  • read about the olfactory and theological associations of the name Sauron.

Pagination: xliv + 308, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

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Tolkienian Glossology Cover

Tolkienian Glossology
Τόλκινική Γλωσσολογία:
Studies in Tolkiennymy;
Or a Study of the Primitive Elvish Vocabulary of
Tolkien’s Qenya Lexicon and Gnomish Lexicon from the Late 1910s, the Precursors of Quenya and Sindarin

Pagination: xl + 266, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

Translating The Hobbit Cover

Translating The Hobbit
Into Afrikaans, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Sorbian, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Yiddish

This study compares 36 translations of The Hobbit to the original. Since translation analysis begins with understanding the source text, this project will be of interest not just to translators, but also to present-day native-speakers of (American) English, as well as to English learners. Tolkien noted that: “A translation may be a useful form of commentary. ... a translator must first try to discover as precisely as he can what the original means, and may be led by ever closer attention to understand it better for his own sake.” Segments discussed were identified by reading individual translations in parallel with the original until a place was found that sounded strange. The other translations were then checked to see if any of them used the same approach. This technique allowed me to: see common misconceptions, learn how effective renditions were similar, and identify unique, insightful solutions to difficult problems.

Pagination: xviii + 270, bibliographic notes, Index, Trade Paper $14.95.

[J.R.R. Tolkien above from Christopher Tolkien’s “Preface” to his father’s translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo, Random House Worlds, 1979, p. viii.]

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