1904: Tolkien, Trauma, And Its Anniversaries, Nancy Bunting

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

A controversial speculative reading of J.R.R. Tolkien’s early years with his mother Mabel and brother Hilary. Applying our current understanding of childhood trauma and its later effects, definitions of abuse, and knowledge of the history of childrearing to a close reading of underused material from Hilary’s memoirs and Ronald’s artwork, among other documents, Bunting proposes a far less rosy picture of Tolkien’s early childhood than usually seen. However, statements from Tolkien’s official biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, hint at a great deal of suppressed material; it’s possible this interpretation may turn out to be closer to the truth than one might expect …

Reviews, Nicholas Birns, Joe R. Christopher, Catherine Coker, Janet Brennan Croft, Mike Foster, Jon Garrad, Crystal Hurd, Yvette Kisor, Jeremy Larson, Laura Lee Smith

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The Collected Poems of C.S. Lewis: A Critical Edition. Edited by Don W. King. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North. G. Ronald Murphy. Reviewed by Jon Garrad.

Anglo-Saxon Community in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Deborah A. Higgins. Reviewed by Yvette Kisor.

Surprised by the Feminine: A Rereading of C.S. Lewis and Gender. Monika B. Hilder. Reviewed by Laura Lee Smith.

Arda Inhabited: Environmental Relationships in The Lord of The Rings. Susan Jeffers. Reviewed by Jeremy Larson.

Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis. Abigail Santamaria. …

Notes, Seona Ford, Joe R. Christopher

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

An obituary of long-time Mythlore advisory board member and Sayers scholar Barbara Reynolds, who was closely associated with Dorothy L. Sayers. An anniversary appreciation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; attempts to analyze its literary staying power.

Tolkien's Philological Philosophy In His Fiction, Sherrylyn Branchaw

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Reading of several key passages in Tolkien’s works that tie back to and illustrate his deepest-held philosophical beliefs about philology. Among other examples, pays particular attention to Gimli’s speech about the Glittering Caves of Aglarond and to Faramir’s failure to understand the warning implicit in the place-name Cirith Ungol due to the drift of linguistic meaning over time.

The Lost Letter: Seeking The Keys To William's Arthuriad, John D. Rateliff

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Mythcon 47 Guest of Honor address. The Arthuriad is dense with allusion and the reader often has a sense of missing much that goes on below the surface; as it happens, the reader is not wrong to be confused. Rateliff finds the keys that unlock this poetic sequence à clef in a relatively unknown letter Williams wrote in answer to a list of questions on the Arthuriad from C.S. Lewis, in the “gynecomorphical map” drawn to Williams’s personal specifications which served as endpapers to the poetry, and in Williams’s private life as revealed in letters and memoirs, in particular to …

"A Wilderness Of Dragons": Tolkien's Treatment Of Dragons In Roverandom And Farmer Giles Of Ham, Romuald I. Lakowski

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

An exploration of Tolkien’s depictions of dragons in his stories for children, Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham. Draws on “On Fairy-stories,” the Beowulf lecture, the Father Christmas letters, and a little-known “Lecture on Dragons” Tolkien gave to an audience of children at the University Museum in Oxford, as well as source Tolkien would have known: Nennius, The Fairy Queene, and so on.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Noms De Guerre: The Power Of Naming In War And Conflict In Middle-Earth, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Considers named weapons, noms de plume and other personal name changes, place name changes. Un-naming is seen as both a political strategy and a key tactic of in Sauron’s arsenal.

Tales Of Anti-Heroes In The Work Of J.R.R. Tolkien, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Considers two stories which seem uncharacteristically anti-heroic in comparison to the rest of Tolkien’s legendarium—the story of Túrin Turambar, and in particular, the portrait of the failed marriage of Aldarion and Erendis in “The Mariner’s Wife” and its ecological implications.

Hearkening To The Other: A Certeauvian Reading Of The Ainulindale, Cami Agan

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Applying literary theory to authors whose works interest us is “a kind of play that attunes us to the interior movements, voices, and processes” of their work. Analyzes the Ainulindalë using the literary-historical theoretical framework of Michel de Certeau as a way of understanding how the inhabitants of Arda, not just the readers outside the world, comprehend how they are situated in their history, and what this says about Tolkien’s understanding of history.

Magical Genders: The Gender(S) Of Witches In The Historical Imagination Of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Lian Sinclair

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Fruitfully explores the similarities between Pratchett’s theory of narrative causality and the gender theories of Butler and Foucault; all deal with an urge to fit gender performance into an established story. Pratchett’s witches engage in a balancing act between the gender expectations of their society and their own quests for agency and power.

"Because I'M A Girl, I Suppose!":Gender Lines And Narrativeperspective In Harry Potter, Melanie J. Cordova

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Explores one of the interesting challenges in reading the Harry Potter series: the reader must eventually face the fact that Harry is not a totally reliable narrator or viewpoint character, especially as far as the female characters closest to him are concerned. Hermione especially suffers from his “teenage boy myopia.”

Constructing Lothiriel: Rewriting And Rescuing The Women Of Middle-Earth From The Margins, Karen Viars, Cait Coker

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the presence and absence of female characters in Tolkien, in the Peter Jackson films, and in fanfiction, paying particular attention to a “footnote character,” Lothíriel, and what the body of fanfiction built around her brief mention as the daughter of Imrahil and wife of Éomer reveals about reader engagement with Tolkien’s texts.

Notes, Nancy Martsch, Janet Brennan Croft, Edith Crowe, Richard West

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Notes and Letters

Notes

• Thiepval Ridge and Minas Tirith. Proposes a specific source for certain imagery associated with the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. By Nancy Martsch

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• In Memoriam: Terry Pratchett in Mythlore. A listing of Terry Pratchett’s appearances in Mythlore as the subject of articles. By Janet Brennan Croft

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• In Memoriam: Tom Loback in Mythlore. A listing of artist Tom Loback’s appearances in Mythlore as illustrator or author. By Janet Brennan Croft and Edith Crowe

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Letters

• Corrects and expands on items in his Mythcon Guest of Honor speech (“Where …

St. Jerome's Narnia: Transformation And Asceticism In The Desert And Beyond The Wardrobe, John Gavin

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Compares “two exercises in Christian myth-making”—C.S. Lewis’s Narniad and The Life of Paul the Hermit, the earliest work of the ascetic St. Jerome. Both are entertaining, and even whimsical at times, and feature communication with intelligent animals and a restoration of Paradise. Both also feature characters who model the value of asceticism and the solitary contemplative life.

Isn't It Romantic? Sacrificing Agency For Romance In The Chronicles Of Prydain, Rodney M.D. Fierce

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Addresses the vexed question of Princess Eilonwy’s gesture of giving up magic and immortality to be the wife of Taran and queen of Prydain. Was it a forced choice and a sacrifice of the capable and strong-willed girl’s agency and power, or does it proceed logically from her depiction throughout the series?

Reviews, Emily E. Auger, Janet Brennan Croft, Mike Foster, Melody Green, Crystal Hurd, Eric Rauscher, Andrew Stout, Robert T. Tally, Jr.

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Christianity and the Detective Story. Ed. Anya Morlan and Walter Raubicheck. Reviewed by Melody Green.

The Shamanic Odyssey: Homer, Tolkien, and the Visionary Experience Robert Tindall with Susana Bustos. Foreword by John Perkins. Reviewed by Emily E. Auger.

Gaining a Face: The Romanticism of C.S. Lewis. James Prothero and Donald T. Williams. Reviewed by Crystal Hurd.

The A-Z of C.S. Lewis: An Encyclopedia of His Life, Thought and Writings. Colin Duriez. Reviewed by Andrew Stout.

Under The Mercy: Charles Williams & The Holy Grail. Robert Peirano. Reviewed by Eric Rauscher.

Tolkien and the Modernists: Literary Responses to the Dark New …

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The majority of articles in this issue of Mythlore have to do with a selection of female characters in fantasy and their issues of agency, visibility, relationship, and gender roles.

Brienne Of Tarth And Jaime Lannister: A Romantic Comedy Within Hbo's Game Of Thrones, Inbar Shaham

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

“Romantic comedy” is not a genre whose conventions one would readily associate with the television series Game of Thrones, but this article makes a case for the evolving relationship between Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister as an intrusion of the “green world” of spring and summer into the bleak winter of the show. The unconventional ways in which both characters perform their genders are part of the interest and challenge of this relationship.

Tolkien Sidelined: Constructing The Non-Combatant In The Children Of Hurin, Victoria Holtz-Wodzak

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Gives close attention to Morwen, Niennor, and Aerin, comparing them to Éowyn before she rode to battle and to Tolkien’s own mother Mabel and wife Edith. Also considers the situations of several male characters unable to or uninterested in serving in war, particularly Sador, Gwindor, and Brandir, and Tolkien’s own experiences on being sent home to England with trench fever.

Tolkien's Dialogue Between Enchantment And Loss, John Rosegrant

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the tension between the theme of loss underlying so much of the content of The Lord of the Rings, and the enchantment of the form of the work; the balance between the two generates a melancholy beauty that brings readers back to the book over and over again. Tolkien’s own biography is used as an example of this balance of loss and enchantment playing out in real life.

Chaoskampf, Salvation, And Dragons: Archetypes In Tolkien's Earendel, Tibor Tarcsay

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Study of world-wide mythical archetypes in relation to Tolkien’s Eärendil. Lays out a broad array of evidence attesting to a complex of characteristics associated with a mythical morning-star character, chief among them an association with water, horses, boats, constellations, being a messenger or herald, and monster-slaying, particularly of monsters associated with chaos.