Mallorn (journal)

From Tolkien Gateway
This article is about the Tolkien Society's academic journal. For the tree, see Mallorn.
Mallorn
Mallorn60.jpg
Latest editor: Luke Shelton
Website: Mallorn at the Tolkien Society website
Publication Information
Publisher: The Tolkien Society
Released: October 1970 - present
Frequency: Annually
Format: A4 stapled paperback
Pages: up to 64
ISSN: 0308-6674

Mallorn is a literary and academic journal published annually by The Tolkien Society. It is the sister publication of Amon Hen.

History[edit | edit source]

Mallorn was founded in October 1970 as the successor to Vera Chapman's Belladonna's Broadsheet to be the magazine of The Tolkien Society. However, due to the difficulty in producing Mallorn regularly, its functions as a bulletin to Society members were moved to the new publication of Amon Hen (the first issue was known as Henneth Annûn); this enabled Mallorn to fashion itself into the more scholarly publication that exists today.[1]

Content[edit | edit source]

[Mallorn] considers reviews, comment, scholarly articles, original poetry, artwork and original fiction (excluding fan fiction). Unsolicited material is welcome
Mallorn, no. 46, Autumn 2008, p. 3

Although the description of potential articles has little changed over the years, Mallorn's focus has traditionally been on scholarly articles. There has been recent criticism from Society members that both poetry[2] and academic articles are being "ostracised" under the new editor.[3] Gee does not refute this by saying that he is reluctant to publish poetry because he does not see himself as a competent judge, therefore the publishing of poetry is "extremely unlikely",[4] however, he has since "relented" and publishes poetry based on whether he likes it or not.[5]

Due to publishing limitations, Gee also recommends that scholarly articles should be "shorter and more accessible" (unless they are "truly stellar pieces of scholarship") in order to fit in more articles which appeal to a broader range of membership.[3] In his third issue as editor, Gee re-iterated that articles should be shorter (maximum of 4,000 words for a commentary piece; 1,000 words for a review), and that he would not be publishing serialisations.[5] Gee's rationale is:

The publication landscape has been changed by the very welcome appearance of Tolkien Studies. This has set a new and generally high standard for Tolkien scholarship, challenging Mallorn to raise its game. However, Tolkien Studies means that Mallorn doesn't have to take the entire world of Tolkien scholarship on its shoulders, and can discover for itself a new freedom to broaden its scope, and become a more entertaining and accessible publication of which Society members can be justifiably proud.
—Henry Gee in Amon Hen, no. 211, May 2008, pp. 28-9

List of Mallorn editors[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

References

  1. Christopher Kreuzer, "Double Century: Amon Hen - An Updated History" in Amon Hen, no. 200, July 2006, pp. 29-36
  2. Letters in Amon Hen, no. 210, March 2008, p. 31
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Letters" in Amon Hen, no. 213, September 2008, p. 20
  4. Letters in Amon Hen, no. 211, May 2008, pp. 28-9
  5. 5.0 5.1 Henry Gee, "The ode goes ever on" in Mallorn, no. 47, Spring 2009, pp. 4-5
The Tolkien Society
President: J.R.R. Tolkien · Vice-president: Priscilla Tolkien · Chair: Shaun Gunner
Topics History (Letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society) · Archives · Awards · Enyalië · Smials · Tolkien to the World · Tolkien fandom
Chairs Vera Chapman (1970) · Keith Bridges (1970-1973) · Hartley Patterson (1973-1974) · Jonathan Simons (1974-1984) · Brin Dunsire (1984-1988) · Alex Lewis (1988-1992) · Amanda Fingleson (1992-1996) · Chris Crawshaw (1996-2008) · Matthew Vernon (2008-2009) · Sally Kennett (2009-2013) · Shaun Gunner (2013-present)
Annual Events Birthday Toast (3 January) · Tolkien Reading Day (25 March) · AGM and Springmoot (April) · Seminar (July) · Oxonmoot (September)
Conferences Oxonmoot (annual, 1974-present) · J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1992) · Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On (2005) · The Return of the Ring (2012) · Tolkien 2019 (2019)
Publications Journals Belladonna's Broadsheet (1969-1970) · Mallorn (1970-present) · The Tolkien Society Bulletin (1970-1971) · Andúril (1972) · Amon Hen (1972-present) · Quettar (1980-1995)
Books An Extrapolation on The Silmarillion (1975) · The Trees, the Jewels and the Rings (1977) · Tolkien in Oxford: The Tolkien Society Guide (1978) · The Tolkien Society Songbook (1985) · Tolkien and Romanticism (1988) · Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1995) · The Oxonmoot Songbook (1997) · The Filking Songbook (2001) · The Tolkien Society Guide to Oxford (2005) · Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference (2008) · Tolkien 2005 Souvenir Book (2009) · Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012 (2016)
Peter Roe Books 1. Some Light on Middle-earth (1985) · 2. Leaves from the Tree (1991) · 3. The First and Second Ages (1992) · 4. Travel and Communication in Tolkien's Worlds (1996) · 5. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 1 (1997) · 6. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 2 (1998) · 7. Tolkien, the Sea and Scandinavia (1999) · 8. The Ways of Creative Mythologies (2000) · 9. Tolkien: A Mythology for England? (2000) · 10. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 1 (2000) · 11. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 3 (2001) · 12. Sindarin Lexicon (2001) · 13. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 2 (2002) · 14. Tolkien: Influenced and Influencing (2005)· 15. Freedom, Fate and Choice in Middle-earth (2012) · 16. Journeys & Destinations (2015) · 17. Death and Immortality in Middle-earth (2017) · 18. Poetry and Song in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2018) · 19. Tolkien the Pagan? (2019) · 20. Adapting Tolkien (2021) · 21. Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien (2022) · 22. Tolkien and Diversity (2023)