Tolkien’s Poetry (2013), edited by Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner

Tolkien’s Poetry (2013), edited by Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner. Book review by Andrew Higgins

Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) by Mark J.P. Wolf and Revisiting Imaginary World (2016) edited by Mark J.P. Wolf

Book review of Building Imaginary Worlds (2012) by Mark J.P. Wolf and Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2016), edited by Mark J.P. Wolf, reviewed by Andrew Higgin

A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Stuart D. Lee, reviewed by Andrew Higgins

Book review of A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien (2014), edited by Stuart D. Le

Parma Eldalamberon XXII (2015), by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of Parma Eldalamberon XXII (2015), by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Gilson and Arden R. Smit

Elvish Practitioners of the \u27Secret Vice\u27

In the course of his life Tolkien explored his thoughts and feelings on the role of language-invention in fiction in two key manifestos – his November 1931 talk \u27A Secret Vice\u27 and his 1954 O\u27Donnell lecture \u27English and Welsh\u27. But Tolkien not only used his mythology to illustrate how these theories and the four key characteristics he felt invented languages should have (sound-sense, structure, link to history/myth) but also embedded in the very narrative and discourse of his mythic texts examples of Elves using and being practitioners of his own theories on language. In this paper I will explore the text \u27Dangweth Pengolod\u27 (The Answer of Pengolod)\u27 to explore how Tolkien embedded his theories on language into the fabric of his world-building and showed how the Elves both practiced and enjoyed the same aesthetic pleasure in language invention that Tolkien did. I will also suggest that this text was meant by Tolkien to be part of the Elvish tradition that the mariner Aelfwine would read and transmit back to his own people to be the lost tradition of the English. Therefore by including this linguistically focused document in his enduring transmission framework Tolkien was embedding into the lost tradition of the English the very ideas of language invention that his own Elvish languages would come to reflect and practice

\u27Those Who Cling in Queer Corners To The Forgotten Tongues and Memories of an Elder Day\u27: J.R.R. Tolkien, Finns and Elves

Abstract Those Who Cling in Queer Corners To The Forgotten Tongues and Memories of an Elder Day\u27 J.R.R. Tolkien, Finns and Elves Dr. Andrew Higgins In this paper I will explore how several historic, literary and mythic associations of the Finnish people with elements of magic, the supernatural and the \u27other\u27 influenced J.R.R. Tolkien in imbuing the character and language of his own Elves with a similar quality of magic and \u27arresting strangeness\u27.I will explore several characterisations of the Finns, the People of Kalevala, Tolkien would have encountered in his early study of the Kalevala, several Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon texts as well as other characterisations drawn from more contemporary treatments of the supernatural elements of the Finns in Victorian and Edwardian sources.I will argue that the greatest influence of this connection can be see in two key elements of Tolkien\u27s mythology: first in Tolkien\u27s use of the Finnish language to create a phonetic sound-sense for his own invented language for the Elves of Qenya/Q(u)enya which would evoke a sense of \u27a forgotten tongue\u27. Secondly, in Tolkien\u27s early attempt to incorporate into his own mythology the character of the artisan Volundr, in his Anglo-Saxon characterization Weland, known to be both a son of a Finnish King and a \u27prince of Elves\u27 and who has survived to be one of the few known characters of the lost English mythology Tolkien was seeking to reimagine and repurpose. My paper will show how the literary constructions and mythic representations of the otherness and supernatural qualities of the Finns played its part in inspiring Tolkien to imbue his own Elves with a similar \u27queer\u27 and \u27strange\u27 quality in both their character, history and language who by the third age of Middle-earth did \u27cling in queer corners\u27 while remembering \u27the memories of an elder day\u27 until they were called back to Valinor

Tolkien\u27s A Secret Vice and \u27the language that is spoken in the Island of Fonway\u27

Note: I delivered a shortened version of this paper (entitled \u27Early Explorers and Practitioners of a shared \u27Secret Vice\u27) at the May 2016 International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan as part of the Tolkien and Invented Language Session

Modelling single line train operations

Scheduling of trains on a single line involves using train priorities for the resolution of conflicts. The mathematical programming model described in the first part of this paper schedules trains over a single line track when the priority of each train in a conflict depends on an estimate of the remaining crossing and overtaking delay. This priority is used in a branch and bound procedure to allow the determination of optimal solutions quickly. This is demonstrated with the use of an example. Rail operations over a single line track require the existence of a set of sidings at which trains can cross and/ or overtake each other. Investment decisions on upgrading the number and location of these sidings can have a significant impact on both customer service and rail profitability. Sidings located at insufficient positions may lead to high operating costs and congestion. The second part of this paper puts forward a model to determine the optimal position of a set of sidings on a single track rail corridor. The sidings are positioned to minimise the total delay and train operating costs of a given cyclic train schedule. The key feature of the model is the allowance of non-constant train velocities and non-uniform departure times

Identifying Virtues and Values Through Obituary Data-Mining

Because obituaries are succinct and explicitly intended to summarize their subjects’ lives, they may be expected to include only the features that the author finds most salient but also to signal to others in the community the socially-recognized aspects of the deceased’s character. We begin by reviewing studies 1 and 2, in which obituaries were carefully read and labeled. We then report study 3, which further develops these results with a semi-automated, large-scale semantic analysis of several thousand obituaries. Geography, gender, and elite status all turn out to be associated with the virtues and values associated with the deceased