Bradford Lee Eden is a

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

, best known as a

Tolkien scholar The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his fantasy writings. These encompass ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', along with his legendarium that remained unpublished until after ...

Biography

Bradford Lee Eden was born in 1960. He has a degree in religion from the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

and a Ph.D. in Medieval Musicology from

Indiana State University Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

. He was Dean of Library Services at

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

, Indiana. He has written several books on

librarianship Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

. Eden is a

. He edits the open access ''

Journal of Tolkien Research The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his fantasy writings. These encompass ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', along with his legendarium that remained unpublished until after ...

''. He has edited two collections of scholarly essays on Tolkien themes, written several research papers, and contributed six articles to the 2006 '' J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia'', including on

Elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes " ...

and Music in Middle-earth. He was nominated for a 2011 Mythopoeic scholarship award for Inkling Studies.

Reception

Emily A. Moniz, writing in ''

Mythlore ''Mythlore'' is a biannual (originally quarterly) peer-reviewed academic journal founded by Glen GoodKnight and published by the Mythopoeic Society. Although it publishes articles that explore the genres of myth and fantasy in general, special a ...

'', calls Eden's edited collection of essays ''Middle-earth Minstrel'' "strong right out of the gate", with interesting and useful contributions, some of them "truly excellent", on such Tolkien research topics as linguistics, pedagogy, music, and alliterative poetry. She found

David Bratman David Bratman is a librarian and Tolkien scholar. Biography David Bratman was born in Chicago to Robert Bratman, a physician, and his wife Nancy, an editor. He was one of four sons in the family. He was brought up in Cleveland, Ohio and then i ...

's essay on music in Middle-earth a "marvelous survey" of a vast subject, spoilt by repeated complaints about Howard Shore's music for ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series: she wished that "the editorial pen ... had been slightly more ruthless." David L. Emerson, reviewing the edited collection ''The Hobbit and Tolkien's Mythology'' for ''Mythlore'', commented that while it was worth reading and contained "many noteworthy essays", it had been edited rather too timidly. Thus, Emerson writes, the editor should have asked authors to cut down on digressions, and should have assisted authors whose first language was not English to select the correct words when terms were being misused. Further, the pairs of juxtaposed essays by different authors contained too much repetition that "a more aggressive editor" could have fixed by discussion with the authors. The collection suffered, too, from only having access to the first of three Peter Jackson films of ''The Hobbit''; in Emerson's view, the editor should have waited until all were available.

Works

Books

* (2010) ''Middle-Earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien'' (edited).

McFarland McFarland may refer to: People *McFarland (surname) Places in the United States *McFarland, California, a city *McFarland, Kansas, a city *McFarland, Missouri, a ghost town *McFarland, Wisconsin, a village Other uses * USS ''McFarland'' (DD-237) ...

. * (2014) ''The Hobbit and Tolkien's Mythology: Essays on Revisions and Influences'' (edited). McFarland.

Essays

* (2018) "Music, Time, and Light in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and

Verlyn Flieger Verlyn Flieger (born 1933) is an author, editor, and Professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she taught courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature, and the works of J. R. R. Tol ...

: A Reflection" * (2019) "Sub-Creation by Any Other Name: The Artist and God in the Early Twentieth Century"

References

External links

Articles by Bradford Lee Eden
at Valparaiso University {{DEFAULTSORT:Eden, Bradford Lee Living people 1960 births Tolkien studies American librarians American musicologists