A Tolkienian Mathomium Achieves 15th Place on Top Hundred Best Sellers List
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“A Tolkienian Mathomium” Achieves 15th Place on “Top Hundred Best Sellers” List
During its first week of availability to the public, “A Tolkienian Mathomium” achieved 15th place on Lulu.com’s “Top Hundred Best Sellers” list.
Bloomington, IN — “A Tolkienian Mathomium” by Tolkien scholar Mark T. Hooker–most famous, perhaps, for his application of comparative translation to the study of Tolkien–has climbed to 15th place on Lulu.com’s “Top Hundred Best Sellers” list for the week of 05/22/2006 - 05/28/2006. Hooker’s monograph is a collection of his articles on various aspects of Tolkien’s Legendarium, both previously and never-before published in approximately equal measure. All of the articles in the book have been reviewed and revised in the light of the newly available materials in “The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion,” (Hammond & Scull, Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
The word “mathomium” in the title is a freshly coined Latin word for a place where mathoms are kept. It is based on a Tolkiennym (mathom) that has been so well received that it has been included in the “Oxford English Dictionary.” Tolkien’s resuscitation of old words, his creation of new words and even new languages is one of the things that many of his readers find fascinating. The meaning of the word mathom is explained in some detail in the first article of “A Tolkienian Mathomium.”
Other articles examine: the etymology of the place name ‘Stock,’ the possible origins of the hydronym ‘Lune,’ the meaning and translation of the name “the Bounders,” Tolkien’s use of the word ‘Garn!’, reflections of the writings of Dickens and Haggard in Tolkien’s work, Tolkien’s application of the feigned-manuscript topos, and the possible significance of the types of wood used to make Gandalf’s staff, to name but a few. The “Preview” of the book viewable on Llyfrawr’s web site (www.lulu.com/Llyfrawr) includes the full “Table of Contents,” a copy of the article on mathoms, and one of the illustrations by James Dunning. The book is only available from Llyfrawr at their web site.
About the Mathomius: Hooker’s articles on Tolkien have been published in English in “Beyond Bree,” “Para Nölé,” “Translating Tolkien” and in “Tolkien Studies;” in Dutch in “Lembas” (the journal of the Dutch Tolkien Society) and in Russian in “Palantir” (the journal of the St. Petersburg Tolkien Society). He has presented papers at a number of MythCons (the premier conference on J.R.R. Tolkien in North America) and at a ‘Lustrum’ of the Dutch Tolkien Society. This summer he will present a paper on “The Russian Hobbit Knock-offs” at MythCon XXXVII (4-7 August) in Norman, OK. He is the author of “Tolkien Through Russian Eyes” (Walking Tree, 2003), “The Military Uses of Literature” (Praeger, 1996) and “The History of Holland” (Greenwood, 1999). He has also written on the Harry Potter vs. Tanya Grotter controversy.
About Llyfrawr, the academic imprint of CV&M. “Llyfrawr” is a Welsh word meaning “wizard.” It is based on the root “Llyfr” (book), which can be found in French as “livre” (book), and in English in “library.”
ISBN: 978-1-4116-9370-8