Carl Franklin Hostetter is 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 These encompass ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', along with his legendarium that remained unpublished until after ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

computer scientist. He has edited and annotated many of J. R. R. Tolkien's linguistic writings, publishing them in '' Vinyar Tengwar'' and ''

Parma Eldalamberon Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

''.

Career

NASA

Carl Hostetter joined NASA as a computer scientist at its Goddard Space Flight Center in 1985. In the 1990s, he edited the proceedings of the Goddard Space Conference for some years.

Tolkien scholar

Hostetter is a

and key figure in the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. He has written numerous articles on the

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

of J. R. R. Tolkien's

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...

. He ran the scholarly mailing list Lambengolmor from 2002 to its closure in 2020. He is the editor of the Tolkien linguistics journals '' Vinyar Tengwar'' and ''Tengwestië''. By arrangement with

Christopher Tolkien Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father ...

, he edited and published a large volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's writings on his constructed languages in ''Vinyar Tengwar'' (in various issues between 1991 and 2007) and in ''

'' issues 11 (1995) to 22 (2015).

Reception

John S. Ryan, reviewing the 2000 collection '' Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth'' (edited by Hostetter 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 ...

) for ''VII'', called it a "luminous companion" to the 12 volumes of

's '' The History of Middle-earth'', and "clearly indispensable".} The book won the 2002 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies. The Tolkien scholar Douglas C. Kane, while welcoming the 2021 book '' The Nature of Middle-earth'', writes that Hostetter "appears to overstep his role as editor" by presenting the materials according to his personal point of view. In particular, Kane states that Hostetter wrongly applies Tolkien's remark that ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

'' was fundamentally religious and Catholic to the whole of the legendarium. Kane calls this contrary to

's editorial practice, and "a blatant statement of intent". Kane quotes

's remark that Tolkien's work reflects the two sides of his nature; the work can be seen both "as Catholic ndnot Christian."

Books

Middle-earth

; Edited * 2000 '' Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth'' (with

) Westport: Greenwood Press * 2003 ''Early Quenya Fragments / Early Quenya Grammar'' (with Bill Welden) Cupertino: The Tolkien Trust * 2005 ''The Collected Vinyar Tengwar'' (with Jorge Quiñonez) Crofton: Elvish Linguistic Fellowship * 2021 '' The Nature of Middle-earth: late writings on the lands, inhabitants, and metaphysics of Middle-earth'' (texts by J.R.R. Tolkien) Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Space science

; Edited * 1993 ''Space applications of artificial intelligence: Goddard Conference''. Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA * 1994 ''Space applications of artificial intelligence: Goddard Conference''. Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA * 1995 ''Space applications of artificial intelligence: Goddard Conference''. Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

References

External links

Carl F. Hostetter
at Tolkien Gateway
Carl F. Hostetter
at Goddard Space Flight Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Hostetter, Carl F Living people Middle-earth Year of birth missing (living people)