A lovely Christmas card this year with art from Soni Alcorn-Hender (aka Bohemian Weasel, https://bohemianweasel.com/ ) titled "Winter in Rivendell".

Amon Hen 274 (November 2018) is 36 pp., with the usual sections (editorial, short reviews of online articles about Tolkien, Tolkien Society announcements and event calendar, letters, committee meeting summary, smial reports) with longer articles on:

  • "Middle Earth Festival" (Sep 1-2 2018) event report by Lyn Wilshire
  • "Oxonmoot: A first-timer's perspective" by Jennifer Brooker
  • "Sir Walter Scott and the One Ring" by Sebastián Alejandro Freigero
  • "Fantastic Friendship" by Dr. Dan Call (on Tolkien and Lewis)
  • "A Fall of Heavenly Iron" by Martin Beech (on the use of meteoric iron for making weaponry in Tolkien's works)
  • "Tolkien and The Archers" by Quickbeam (on the radio soap opera)
  • Book review of 'The Sweet and the Bitter', Death and Dying in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Amy Amendt-Raduege (review by Michael Cunningham) [he recommends the book as a good introduction to the topic]

A thicker than usual issue, and lots of good content this time around. Many more smial reports than usual, and some good deeper articles.