Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

The Sub-Creator And The Secondary World: Positioning The Hobbit In J.R.R. Tolkien’S Legendarium, William Thompson

Mythcon

Coming between his tales of the First Age and Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit occupies a curious middle position in his legendarium. The Hobbit is a children’s text, noteworthy for its lucky main character and its use of an often intrusive narrative voice, but the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and his thirteen companions allowed Tolkien to begin mapping his stories of the First Age onto a new narrative. Elrond, for example, the Master of the Last Homely House, and “one of those people whose fathers came into the strange stories before the beginning of History” …

Ursula Le Guin’S Universes, David Emerson, Brian Attebery, Eleanor Arnason, David Bratman

Mythcon

This panel will be discussing the relationships of the panelists to Le Guin’s work and to Le Guin herself. Is there an intersection between their work and hers? Did they meet her? If so, what it was like working with her? What is their best Le Guin story? What do they see as their most “Le Guinian” work and why. What are their favorite Le Guin works? What do they see as her most underrated work we should all go read?

Mythcon History Panel, Megan Abrahamson, Eleanor Farrell, Lisa Harrigan, Gary Hunnewell, Sylvia Hunnewell

Mythcon

“Mythcon Memories.” At this panel, Mythopoeic Society veterans will share their stories about Mythcons past. Attendees can learn about some of our more bizarre traditions, and who started them. We will discuss how Mythcon has changed over time and where it might be headed in the future.

From Page To Screen: Invented Language In George R.R. Martin’S And J.R.R. Tolkien’S Writings, And How They Are Used In Adaptations, Mareike Huber

Mythcon

In 2010, only a year before the adaptation of his fantasy novels would air, George R.R. Martin admitted that unlike J.R.R. Tolkien, whom he called a “linguist of rare talent” whose “astonishing feat of linguistic worldbuilding […] is never likely to be duplicated”, Martin himself only invents the words that he needs and does not “have a whole imaginary language” or languages “the way Tolkien did” (Martin 2010). In particular, when it comes to one of his ‘languages’, Dothraki, Martin said that he “did pepper the text with a few […] words” but generally relied on phrases like “[t]hey were …

Fanning The Flames Of Fanfiction: Examining The Usage Of Fanfiction Tropes In Rainbow Rowell’S Carry On, Declan Roberts

Mythcon

It was not so long ago, in literary history terms, that fanfiction was left to the periphery of methods of fan interaction with their favourite properties. Fanfiction’s status ranged from something to be derided to a crime punishable by lawsuits. However, this is no longer the case, and readers of fanfiction now have a plethora of websites where they can search through works for any tropes that they may want. Nothing highlights this new liminal space between accepted and unaccepted forms of fiction than the publication of Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On. Rowell’s text is an expansion on the fanfiction …

The Second Golden Age Of Children’S Fantasy, 1950-1980, Brian Attebery, H. M. Bouwman, David Lenander, Laura Krentz

Mythcon

The Rivendell Discussion with Brian Attebery this past January focused on chapter two of his Mythopoeic Scholarship Awarded book last year, Fantasy: How It Works, in which he discussed the parallels between Edward Eager’s fantasy story, Half Magic and Elizabeth Enright’s family story, The Saturdays. Attebery’s discussion raises all sorts of interesting questions about these literary forms and overlap, and we wandered into discussion of how too much of this great literature for children has already been forgotten, though it was formational for so many of our current Fantasy writers (along with that of the earlier First Golden Age). Books …

Our Dear Charles Williams: Tolkien’S Feelings About The Oddest Inkling, Sørina Higgins

Mythcon

At the zenith of the Inklings’s social and creative energy, Tolkien wrote a poem about “Our Dear Charles Williams.” It is a long poem—over three pages—full of praise, gentle teasing, and inside jokes. Many references may escape the casual reader or the Tolkien scholar who is less familiar with Williams’s works. Furthermore, the exact nature of the friendship between Tolkien and Williams has been frequently debated. In every friendship, loss is inevitable, whether through time, distance, conflict, or finally death. This is one such story. J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams were friends for about six years–from 1939 until Williams’s sudden …

Boromir’S Smile And Other Expressions Of Wartime Joy In Tolkien, Chip Crane

Mythcon

Boromir’s last words to Aragorn are, “I have failed.” But his final gesture as he dies a few seconds later is a smile. Between the two moments, generating this final expression, are Aragorn’s words reassuring Boromir that he has gained a victory and that Minas Tirith shall stand. What emotions are we to infer from this smile? Tolkien’s choice of this ending for one of his most complex characters touches on a larger theme of joy in the midst of the horrors of war in The Lord of the Rings and the legendarium of the Silmarillion. In this paper I …

Tolkien’S "The Homecoming Of Beorhtnoth": Manuscript Revisions And Faërian Dramas, Anna Smol

Mythcon

Although Tolkien’s biographer Humphrey Carpenter downplayed Tolkien’s interest in drama, a closer look at “On Fairy-stories” and at the manuscript drafts of the historical drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth” suggests that this verse play should be more widely recognized as a drama with the potential for stage production. The recent edition by Peter Grybauskas, which includes one of the earlier drafts of the play and Tolkien’s own recording of the drama, gives readers some new insight into the play’s development and suitability for performance. A closer examination of further manuscript drafts, particularly a recently acquired version now in the Brotherton …

Charles Williams Poetry Workshop, Eric Rauscher

Mythcon

This will be a group “close” reading of a couple of Charles Williams’s Arthurian poems. I will bring copies of the poems to pass out, and as a group (participation is encouraged but not required) we will read them in detail, parsing out meanings and sharing insights. What may seem obvious to one may be a revelation to another. We will also just enjoy the beauty of the poems by reading them out loud, the way they are meant to be heard. For those of you who have never been introduced to these poems, here is your chance. For those …

Our Flag Means Romance…Middle English Romance, That Is, Megan Abrahamson

Mythcon

Our Flag Means Death, a pirate romantic comedy released on HBO Max, has been discussed in terms of its mythopoesis by Sara Brown at OMS #3 (“Our Flag…Means Queer: Monstering the Majority Culture”), and has been studied as referencing Shakespearean motifs by Melissa Rohrer (“Sometimes the old tropes are the best tropes: Shakespeare and Our Flag Means Death”). In this talk, I showcase the Middle English and mostly Arthurian Romance elements we find in OFMD, particularly its episodic quest format, focus on homosocial bonds, and engagement with courtly love. Other minor motifs—such as a hero’s humble beginnings and …

Fantasy In The Anthropocene, Brian Attebery, Marek Oziewicz, Jack Zipes

Mythcon

“Fantasy in the Anthropocene” was inspired by the Fantasy Scholarship finalist from last year, edited by U of MN Prof. Marek Oziewicz, Prof. Brian Attebery and Prof. Teresa Dédinova, a unique collection of mini essays, stories, poetry and artwork. As its description puts it, “Fantasy and myth have long been humanity’s most advanced technologies for collective dreaming. Today they are helping us adopt a biocentric lens, re-kin us with other forms of life, and assist us in the transition to an ecological civilization.” With both Brian and Marek available for this discussion, joined by Prof. Jack Zipes, we want to …

“Giving Up Their Dead”: “The Homecoming Of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’S Son” And A Sleep Of Prisoners, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythcon

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son” (published in 1953, though substantially written by 1945) is perhaps studied more frequently for its critical apparatus (the introduction on the Battle of Maldon titled “Beorhtnoth’s Death” and the postscript on ofermod) and as a source for Tolkien’s thoughts on war and heroism than as an actual play to be performed. Recently Tolkien’s own recording of the play, performing both voices and including sound effects, became more widely available, encouraging us to consider it AS a play again. Christopher Fry’s A Sleep of Prisoners (1951) shares a number of characteristics with “Homecoming”—it …

Questioning Attebery’S ‘Bullseye’: Interviews With Young Readers Of Fantasy May Decenter The Lord Of The Rings, Luke Shelton

Mythcon

In 2018 and 2019, I interviewed young readers about their opinions of The Lord of the Rings (LotR) as a part of my Ph.D. thesis. Their ideas concerning the genre of the text destabilize Attebery’s use of it as a central point for the genre. Since these readers do not demonstrate a consensus that LotR is a work of fantasy, one is left to wonder if the idea of the fuzzy set proposed by Attebery is accurate when considering the lived experiences of readers. This leads to several questions about why these young readers have categorized the story the way …

The Year In Astronomy, Michael Kauper

Mythcon

This is a slide presentation by Michael Kauper about the developments in Astronomy over the past year, and suggestions of what to watch for in the sky over the next few months, a tradition at Diversicon.

Samwise And Sméagol: Narrative Shift And Personal Choice In The Two Towers, Jonah N. Echols

Mythcon

The middle sections of a story can afford readers opportunities to appreciate different aspects of a work than the beliefsuspending beginnings or resolution-providing endings. Professor Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is no exception. It is set in the “middle times” of his larger legendarium—the Third Age tension with Elves in exile and men guiding the world. Moreover, the middle portion of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, highlights a tension between free will and fate that underlies the entire narrative. Focalization via the characters of Samwise Gamgee and Sméagol draws the reader into that central tension. Specifically, …

The Year In Space Exploration, Ben Huset

Mythcon

This is a slide presentation by Ben Huset about the developments in space research and exploration over the past year, a tradition at Diversicon.

The Niggling Bandersnatch: Tolkien’S Revisionist Tendencies And The Canon Of Middle-Earth, Janet Brennan Croft, David Bratman, John Rosegrant

Mythcon

C.S. Lewis famously said of Tolkien in a 1959 letter that “you might as well try to influence a bandersnatch.” He continued by noting that Tolkien had “only two reactions to criticism: either he begins the whole work over again from the beginning or else takes no notice at all.” It’s pretty obvious he had a similar reaction to his own self-criticism – to noticing a loose end, or something that didn’t fit a changed cosmological theory, or a new addition to the legendarium that required a revision to the back-story. His reaction would be to niggle away at a …

In Media Res: Sam & Frodo On The Journey, Craig Boyd

Mythcon

In one of the more pivotal passages in Lord of the Rings, Sam makes a couple of insightful comments to Frodo in a way that transcends his earlier foolishness. In a kind of moral and philosophical epiphany he says, “It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. . . But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with …

Scholar Guest Of Honor Address, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon

Speech by Scholar Guest of Honor Brian Attebery

Mythcon participants are invited (but not required!) to take part in our opening festivities Saturday morning by wearing costumes or regalia and carrying banners in our procession to the Terrace Rooms in which our Opening Ceremonies and Scholar Guest of Honor Address will be held. Those wishing to take part in the Opening Procession should meet by 8:45 am inside the main hotel lobby.