Original Manuscripts of The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings are in Milwaukee: Exhibit Opens August 19
NASA Computer Scientist of Elvish Linguistic Fellowship will lecture; William Fliss is Archivist for the Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University,
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are the most famous fantasy novels in the world.
One of the most significant collections of Tolkien’s literary work – a dragon’s hoard worth – is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the archives of Marquette University.1
In 1956 Library Director, William Ready, recognized The Lord of the Rings as a masterpiece soon after its publication, long before the work and its author gained enormous popularity. After a relatively brief period of negotiation, an agreement was reached whereby Marquette purchased the manuscripts for 1,500 pounds (or less than $5,000). The first shipment of material arrived in 1957; The Lord of the Rings manuscripts arrived the next year.2
J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE ART OF THE MANUSCRIPT - Exhibition & Lectures at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University: 19 August - 23 December 2022
Marquette University's Raynor Memorial Libraries and the Haggerty Museum of Art collaboratively present the exhibition, J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE ART OF THE MANUSCRIPT3 focused on the work of author and artist J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), The exhibition considers Tolkien’s work through the lens of manuscripts, in terms of both the materials that Tolkien studied as a medieval philologist and the manuscripts that he created while developing his collected writings on Middle earth.
This exhibition illustrates how different aspects of the manuscript tradition found expression within Tolkien’s scholarly life and in his creative writing. Many of the 147 items in the exhibition have not previously been exhibited or published. The exhibition is accompanied by a 196-page hardbound catalogue that reproduces the complete object list and includes introductory essays by exhibition co-curators William M. Fliss, PhD and Sarah C. Schaefer, PhD.
Lectures & Events (Live & Online)
Thursday, September 8 and Friday, September 9, 2022
Virtual Symposium Mythical Pasts, Fantasy Futures: The Middle Ages in Modern Visual Culture
The visual and conceptual relationships between modern fantasy, popular culture, and the medieval era are a lively area of inquiry in a variety of cultural studies disciplines. They are also the focus of two current or upcoming exhibitions: The Fantasy of the Middle Ages (Getty Museum) and J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript (Haggerty Museum of Art). This online symposium brings together an interdisciplinary group of academics and museum professionals to examine how the Middle Ages appear in the contemporary imagination, and how its aesthetics have inspired a wide variety of media.
Thursday, September 22, 2022 (Hobbit Day!), 5 p.m. *Lecture Series*
Carl Hostetter will present Editing the Tolkienian Manuscript
Carl Hostetter is a computer scientist at NASA who has earned a reputation as one of the leading experts on J.R.R. Tolkien’s invented languages. He is a key member of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship4, an elite group of four Tolkien scholars whom the Tolkien Estate has entrusted with special access to the author’s unpublished linguistic manuscripts. These linguists have published extensively on Tolkien’s invented languages, including in Vinyar Tengwar, a peer-reviewed journal that Hostetter edits.5
Friday, September 30, 10 a.m. to noon
Tolkien Reading Gathering featuring The Hobbit
Friday, October 7, 5 p.m.
Our History in Manuscripts Performance by the Marquette University Chorus
Taking inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript and the Haggerty Museum of Art's collection of Spanish Antiphonals, the Marquette University Chorus will explore various choral styles throughout history.
Thursday, October 13, 2022, 5 p.m. *Lecture Series*
Holly Ordway will present Tolkien’s Faith and the Foundations of Middle earth
Her 2021 book Tolkien’s Modern Reading is a tour de force destined to become a classic in Tolkien studies. Ordway demonstrated that Tolkien, usually pigeonholed as a medievalist, was remarkably well-read in modern literature. Ordway’s current research project is a book-length treatment of Tolkien’s Catholicism, fitting for a Catholic, Jesuit university such as Marquette University.
Thursday, November 17, 2022, 5 p.m. *Lecture Series*
John Garth will present Whispering Leaves: How Tolkien’s Manuscripts Reveal the Secrets of His Creativity
Trained as a journalist, John Garth has gained an international reputation as a leading writer about J.R.R. Tolkien and a popular commentator on Tolkien’s works and life. His published works include the recent The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien (2020). His earlier masterpiece, Tolkien and the Great War (2003), is universally acknowledged as a classic in the field of Tolkien Studies. 6
All lectures will be held at the Haggerty Museum of Art and will be followed by a question and answer period. The lectures will be streamed for audiences that wish to attend virtually. Due to limited capacity, advanced reservations will be required and can be made here.
MARQUETTE University PURCHASED the Tolkien materials for about $4,900 in 1956 – a single handwritten letter by Tolkien sold for over $59,000 in 2021. “The Rings of Power,” a new series based on Tolkien’s work set roughly 1,000 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, cost about a billion bucks to create. 7
William Fliss, Archivist for the Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University
William Fliss, Archivist for the Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University,8 explains how Marquette University became the owner of the original papers and manuscripts written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Tea Krulos. A Massive Collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Manuscripts Is in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Magazine. August 15, 2022.
Marquette University. Raynor Library. The collection of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), professor of Old and Middle English language and literature at Oxford University, 1925-1959, contains the original manuscripts and multiple working drafts for three of the author's most celebrated books, The Hobbit (1937), Farmer Giles of Ham (1949), and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), as well as the original copy of the children's book Mr. Bliss (published in facsimile form in 1982). The collection includes books by and about Tolkien, periodicals produced by Tolkien enthusiasts, audio and video recordings, and a host of published and unpublished materials relating to Tolkien's life and fantasy writings.
J.R.R. TOLKIEN: THE ART OF THE MANUSCRIPT. Exhibition & Lectures at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University: 19 August - 23 December 2022.
Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (E.L.F.) is an international organization devoted to the scholarly study of the invented languages of J.R.R. Tolkien.The primary activity of the E.L.F. is carried out in the pages of its two print journals, Vinyar Tengwar (available by subscription ) and Parma Eldalamberon, and in its online journal, Tengwestië.
Hostetter is one of the most experienced students of Tolkien’s manuscripts. His ability to read and interpret Tolkien’s notoriously difficult handwriting is second to none. Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) entrusted Hostetter with editing his father’s last volume of published writings, released in 2021 under the title, The Nature of Middle-earth. Hostetter’s work is highly regarded by Tolkien scholars. His volume Tolkien’s Legendarium—co-edited with Verlyn Flieger—is considered one of the best collections of essays on the history of Tolkien’s secondary world.
Garth, who has made a special study of Tolkien’s manuscripts, will focus his lecture on a manuscript that is part of Marquette’s collection and has never previously been exhibited or published. He will demonstrate his renowned historical research skills by analyzing the manuscript and using it to tease out insights about Tolkien’s experiences during the Second World War.
Tea Krulos. A Massive Collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Manuscripts Is in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Magazine. August 15, 2022.
I am glad that Marquette is celebrating the Tolkien writings. They had such an impact on several generations of readers that they deserve to be remembered. I am not sure that recent generations are nearly so interested, but they certainly are an important part of our cultural history.
It should be said the way his manuscript was screwed around with to suit someone's arcane version of how it should be put together is a 'travesty' of modern literature. JRR would flip his wig if he knew.