Things have been so busy over the past weeks that I completely forgot to post notice of another article appearing in print. The Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Mythlore — a peer-reviewed journal of Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and mythopoeic literature — has my article “The Myths of the Author: Tolkien and the Medieval Origins of the Word Hobbit” (pages 129 to 146 for those following along at home).
Any publication is fun, of course, but this one is a bit more special. Here’s what the editor, Janet Brennan Croft, has to say about it in the issue’s editorial (p. 4):
A mixed bag is a fitting term for our last entry, in which Michael Livingston leads us on a linguistic journey into the origins of the words hobbit and Baggins and their surprising relations to one another. (Livingston has scored a rare double trifecta with this issue; this is his third Mythlore article [see also #95/96 and #105/106], and Brett Carter joins two of his other students, Noah Koubenec [#113/114] and Melissa Smith [#99/100], as Mythlore authors.)
It is a pleasure to get my own work into print, but it is even more exciting to see my students succeed. That I get to share space on a table of contents with one of them is a thrilling treat that I hope to repeat!