Welcome to Litsy!

It was a particularly stinky week IRL but there was still joy to be found.
1. While walking in the woods, I ran into someone I knew, and we noticed this sweet little flower next to the path.
2. The library held Tolkien Reading Day event with the editor of the tagged book.
3. The PetSmart cashier and I were both singing along with Bruno Mars on the PA.
4. I had shepherd‘s pie with Impossible “meat,” and it was delicious. ⬇️
#5joysfriday

This is a lovely little book, covering Kilby's stay with the Tolkiens in the summer of 1965, invited by JRRT to give him "editorial and critical assistance", and an impetus to focus on his authorial task at a time when age and the distractions of a fame to which he was ambivalent combined with a natural dilatoriness and a tendency for his interests to be "Like butter that has been scraped over too much bread". His personal impressions of ?

Next up, a memoir of Kilby's summer assisting JRRT with his Silmarillion materials, after which he was asked to read the manuscript prior to publication. Kilby's book was published 1976, the year before The Silmarillion, so his impressions will be personal & unaffected by its general & critical reception.
Kilby was an Inkling scholar, with several academic books about Tolkien, Lewis and the others, so I'm also expecting it to be well-considered.

Chiasmus: a figure of speech in which the grammar of two parallel phrases is inverted

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords #FellowshipOfTolkien #MedievalTolkien

From “Speech and Silence in The Lord of the Rings: Medieval Romance and the Transitions of Eowyn”

#FellowshipOfTolkien #MedievalTolkien

After finishing The Fall of Arthur this morning, I pulled this book from my shelf this evening. In the introduction, the description of this essay relating Eowyn to a female medieval knight seemed a perfect complement to my earlier reading. It‘s a truly interesting analysis of Eowyn‘s character development from court lady to acting lord of Rohan to shield maiden and finally to wife and healer.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #MedievalTolkien

Post 1/2: When I read ”Of the Flight of the Noldor” now after reading the History of Middle-Earth (HoME), I always miss the actual inclusion of the oath of Fëanor and his sons. Reading the words feels so much more dramatic than only a narrative description. So, I‘m sharing two versions. This is the version from the tagged book.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion

This is a perfect #Jolabokaflod gift! I‘ve had this book of essays about women in the works of Tolkien on my wish list for quite a while and am looking forward to at least choosing one of them to read later this evening while also enjoying some delicious Dove truffles. Thank you to @Light_of_Aether for a great gift and to @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing this wonderfully festive swap!

#JolabokaflodSwap

I‘ve got two words to share today. This one is actually from the Lord of the Rings Reader‘s Companion rather than LotR itself. Tolkien explains in a letter how Frodo‘s actions at the Crack of Doom had been foreshadowed or adumbrated earlier in the story.

#WeirdWords #WeirdWordWednesday #LotRChapterADay #FellowshipOfTolkien

Not many notes for this chapter, just a lap full of pets who don‘t think I should get up to finish this morning‘s housework or get ready to leave for church.

#LotRChapterADay #FellowshipOfTolkien #CatsOfLitsy #DogsOfLitsy