Carl Franklin Hostetter is a Tolkien scholar and NASA computer scientist. He has edited and annotated many of J. R. R. Tolkien's linguistic writings, publishing them in Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon.

Carl Hostetter joined NASA as a computer scientist at its Goddard Space Flight Center in 1985.^[1] In the 1990s, he edited the proceedings of the Goddard Space Conference for some years.

Hostetter is a Tolkien scholar and key figure in the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. He has written numerous articles on the linguistics of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.^[2] He ran the scholarly mailing list Lambengolmor from 2002 to its closure in 2020.^[3] He is the editor of the Tolkien linguistics journals Vinyar Tengwar and Tengwestië.^[4] By arrangement with Christopher Tolkien, he edited and published a large quantity of J. R. R. Tolkien's writings on his constructed languages in Vinyar Tengwar (in various issues between 1991 and 2007) and in Parma Eldalamberon issues 11 (1995) to 22 (2015).^[5]

John S. Ryan, reviewing the 2000 collection Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth (edited by Hostetter and Verlyn Flieger) for VII, called it a "luminous companion" to the 12 volumes of Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth, and "clearly indispensable".^[6] The book won the 2002 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies.^[7]

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 was fundamentally religious and Catholic to the whole of the legendarium. Kane calls this contrary to Christopher Tolkien's editorial practice, and "a blatant statement of intent". Kane quotes Verlyn Flieger's remark that Tolkien's work reflects the two sides of his nature; the work can be seen both "as Catholic [and] not Christian."^[8]

Edited

• 2000 Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth (with Verlyn Flieger) 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

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

• Carl F. Hostetter at Tolkien Gateway
• Carl F. Hostetter at Goddard Space Flight Center

v t e J. R. R. Tolkien
Bibliography Letters
Poetry and songs	Songs for the Philologists (1936) "Bagme Bloma" The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953) "A Walking Song" (1954) The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962) "Errantry" "Fastitocalon" "The Sea-Bell" "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" The Road Goes Ever On (1967) Bilbo's Last Song (1974) List of Tolkien's alliterative verse
Fiction	The Hobbit (1937) "Leaf by Niggle" (1947) The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945) Farmer Giles of Ham (1949) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) The Two Towers (1954) The Return of the King (1955) Tree and Leaf (1964) The Tolkien Reader (1966) Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
Posthumous fiction	The Father Christmas Letters (1976) The Silmarillion (1977) Unfinished Tales (1980) Mr. Bliss (1982) The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996) The Book of Lost Tales The Lays of Beleriand The Shaping of Middle-earth The Lost Road and Other Writings The History of The Lord of the Rings Morgoth's Ring The War of the Jewels The Peoples of Middle-earth Roverandom (1998) The Children of Húrin (2007) The History of The Hobbit (2007) The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009) The Fall of Arthur (2013) The Story of Kullervo (2015) Beren and Lúthien (2017) The Fall of Gondolin (2018) The Nature of Middle-earth (2021) The Fall of Númenor (2022)
Academic works	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925) "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925) "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929) "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34) "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934) "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936) "On Fairy-Stories" (1939) "On Translating Beowulf" (1940) Sir Orfeo (1944) Ancrene Wisse (1962) "English and Welsh" (1963) Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)
Posthumous academic	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975) Exodus (1981) Finn and Hengest (1982) The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983) Beowulf and the Critics (2002) Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014) A Secret Vice (2016)
Scholars	Writers Biographers Humphrey Carpenter John Garth Catherine McIlwaine Charles Moseley Popular authors Lin Carter Robert Foster Glen GoodKnight Michael Martinez J. E. A. Tyler Christian Stratford Caldecott Matthew T. Dickerson Colin Duriez Peter Kreeft Holly Ordway Joseph Pearce Fleming Rutledge Ralph C. Wood Literary critics Douglas A. Anderson Nicholas Birns Bradley J. Birzer David Bratman Janet Brennan Croft Patrick Curry Bradford Lee Eden Dimitra Fimi Jason Fisher Verlyn Flieger Michael Foster Nick Groom Wayne G. Hammond Randel Helms Thomas Honegger Charles A. Huttar Paul H. Kocher Stuart D. Lee Jared Lobdell Charles Noad John D. Rateliff Robin Anne Reid Christina Scull Amy H. Sturgis Anna Vaninskaya Richard C. West Elizabeth Whittingham Linguists Anthony Appleyard Helge Fauskanger Carl F. Hostetter Tom Loback David Salo Arden R. Smith Allan Turner Medievalists Marjorie Burns Jane Chance Michael D. C. Drout Jonathan Evans Vincent Ferré Gergely Nagy Tom Shippey Elizabeth Solopova Sandra Ballif Straubhaar
Related	A Tolkien Compass Family Francis Xavier Morgan Influences Artwork J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator Languages constructed by Tolkien The Inklings The Keys of Middle-earth Mythlore Mythopoeic Society Elvish Linguistic Fellowship Picturing Tolkien Tolkien and the Classical World Tolkien's impact on fantasy Tolkien and the modernists Tolkien Estate Tolkien fandom The Tolkien Society Awards Tolkien Reading Day Tolkien Studies Memorials Reception Tolkien research Works inspired by Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977, authorized biography) The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia Master of Middle-Earth Perilous Realms Tolkien and the Great War The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon Tolkien, Race and Cultural History Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' Tolkien (biographical film) Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album) Language and Human Nature The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary Understanding The Lord of the Rings