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The Bright Sword And Its Sharpness: Swords, Symbolism, And Medievalism In The Lord Of The Rings, Gavin S. Davis

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

Swords are paradoxical objects that hold in tension both aesthetic beauty and repulsion, and how one goes about resolving this paradox has much to say about one’s personal ideology. This paper investigates Tolkien’s representation of swords in The Lord of the Rings as ideologically loaded objects with shifting symbolic significance between the cultures of Rohan, Gondor, and Hobbits. These changes in significance produce three kinds of medievalism, shaped by differences in their interaction the cultural imagination of the medieval sword. Through the Rohirrim, Tolkien provides a medievalism of spectacle—an idealized world of valor to be marveled at from the safe …

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Beowulf: Rowling’S Beowulfian Allusions, Analogues, And Inversions, Mark-Elliot Finley

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

In this essay, I suggest Rowling’s Goblet of Fire literarily echoes the Old English epic poem Beowulf, while simultaneously updating the medieval epic to reflect the novel’s place within the modernized, Christian-influenced fantasy tradition. While cursory popular links have been made between the Old English epic with Rowling’s novel, this essay presents a sustained dialogue between Beowulf and Goblet of Fire. Both heroes engage in one-to-one combat (Beowulf with Grendel and Harry with Voldemort), venture into an unknown watery abyss (Beowulf diving into Grendel’s mother’s underwater cave and Harry rescuing Ron and Gabrielle from the merpeople in Hogwarts’s …

Pandemic Mythmaking: Covid-19 And Mythological Symbolism In Indian Folk Art, Ishani Anwesha Joshi, Sathyaraj Venkatesan

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

Through a comprehensive analysis of Durga Bai Vyam’s “Samura Manthan” and Rupsona and Bahadur Chitrakar’s “Corona Rakshasa,” this article aims to investigate how mythological stories and themes have been used in the Indian context in folk art during the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation will offer insights into how artists have leveraged mythological symbolism to infuse their works with richer layers of meaning, thereby engaging readers in a deeper exploration of the pandemic’s impact on society and the human psyche. By close-reading the aforementioned paintings, this study aims to illustrate the evolving visual representation of cultural narratives …

Feasting At The Threshold: Eucharistic Eroticism And Homonationalism In Diane Duane's The Tale Of The Five, Taylor Driggers

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

Diane Duane’s ongoing fantasy series The Tale of the Five (1979–present) is set in a world marked by constant bodily transgressions and surprises, where a human and dragon can occupy the same body and become lovers and a one-night stand can bring one face-to-face with God. This essay will argue that Duane’s series articulates eroticism in a manner comparable to Linn Marie Tonstad’s (2016) queer re-visioning of transubstantiation and bodily and spiritual transformation through the Eucharist. Acts of eating and drinking serve to highlight how characters’ pansexual, polyamorous relations with each other and the love of the Goddess spill over …

Modelling The Fear Of God In C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles Of Narnia, Brett Roscoe

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

This article employs insights from cognitive approaches to literature to study how The Chronicles of Narnia evoke a religious affect known in the Christian tradition as the “fear of the Lord.” It first does what Guillemette Bolens calls a "kinesic analysis" of the books, focusing on the gestures, movements, and facial expressions related to the fear of Aslan, and then it interprets this fear in the context of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy, a book C. S. Lewis claims had a large influence on him. Lewis, like Otto, was concerned with religious experience, specifically with how his …

The Liberty To Bind Oneself: Chesterton And The Oath Of Fëanor, Matthew Mckenna

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

This paper does two things. First, it reads the oath of Fëanor in The Silmarillion through the lens of Chesterton’s philosophy of oaths, and suggests that Tolkien was speculatively influenced by Chesterton on this topic. It accomplishes this by an exposition of Chesterton’s philosophy of vows followed by an in-depth exposition of the oath of Fëanor throughout The Silmarillion. Its thesis is that the oath of Fëanor works according to the mode of Chesterton’s philosophy of oaths, that is, the oath compels the oath-taker to act. Viewing the oath of Fëanor through the framework of Chesterton’s philosophy of oath …

The Middle-(Un)Man Of Desire: A Girardian Reading Of Perelandra, Clinton Manley

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

The French polymath René Girard presents a compelling argument that all desire is mimetic. According to Girard, we don’t actually know what we want; instead, we imitate the desires of others. These models of desire act as mediators, indicating what objects or ways of being are worth pursuing. For Girard, desire exists in this middle place between a subject, a model, and an object. He famously argues that all great literature leverages an awareness of mimetic dynamics; the greater the work, the more mimetically perspicacious the author.

Given Girard’s theory, we would expect the greatest fantasy authors to erect their …

Divinity And The Void In Chinese And Thai Translations Of The Ainulindalë, Eric Reinders

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

This article treats Chinese and Thai translations of the opening lines of the Ainulinalë, not to evaluate their fidelity to the original, but to explore the surplus meanings inherent in those languages. From a close reading of the first line emerge several new variations, including a new reading of the name Eru in Chinese, and a changed linguistic register of the Thai version. In each case there is some attempt to resolve the paradox of Eru as primal deity and Tolkien’s use of lower-case “he”—which one would expect to be “He.” Lacking capital letters, the Chinese and Thai translators use …

An Aspirational Cultus? Tolkien Fandom At The Borders Of Belief, Tom Emanuel

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

This paper draws upon fan studies, sociology of religion, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation to theorize the religious implications of Enyalië (Quenya: remembrance), the emotionally charged graveside memorial which closes the U.K. Tolkien Society’s annual gathering in Oxford. Employing a framework of religion as sacred worldbuilding, the author argues that Enyalië is best understood as the “secondary liturgy” of the “secondary faith community” that is Tolkien fandom. The paper concludes that Tolkien’s fiction, his community of devoted fans, and the lineaments of religious ritual have combined, in Enyalië, to produce a fan practice which troubles the boundaries …

No Ragnarök, No Armageddon: Pagan And Christian Interpretations Of The Lord Of The Rings, Matthew Thompson-Handell

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

Critical responses to The Lord of the Rings from its publication up to 1981 (the year in which The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien was first published) often considered pagan and Christian elements in the work. To the extent that pagan and Christian views were opposed to each other, such opposition is grounded to a greater extent in the ambiguity present in The Lord of the Rings (at least in terms of its theology or world-view), than in any contradiction in the work. The distinction between ambiguity and contradiction is important, especially in the context of the significance of contradiction in …

Editorial, Janet Croft

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

No abstract provided.

International Section Ethics Committee, David Levine, Amy Bowers, Antonia Iragorri, Tiffany Comprés, Roland Potts

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Private International Law, Houston Putnam Lowry

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Africa, Tereza Garcia André, Anne Bodley, Mankah Fombang, Sara Frazão, Laverne Lewis Gaskins, Tyler Holmes, Momodou Manneh, Mary Musoni, Flora Mweseli, Yaa Boatemaa Ohene-Bonsu, Ivan Ojakol, Ricardo Alves Silva, Tania Tossa

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Women's Interest Network, Christine Korper Ed., Hannah Alderks, Marie Elena Angulo, Erica Burgos, Michela Cocchi, Estafanía Díaz González, Angela M. Gallerizzo, Dolly Hernandez, Margaret Kamm, Dana Katz, Julie King, Sierra Paola, Vanessa Romero Rocha, Aina Serret, Sandhya Taneja, Lisa Wolf

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Litigation, Aaron Marr Page, Jonathan I. Blackman, Carmine D. Boccuzzi, Theodore J. Folkman, Phillip B. Dye Jr., Matthew D. Slater, Howard S. Zelbo, Igor V. Timofeyev, Charles A. Patrizia, Joseph R. Profaizer

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Law, Andrew Boyle, Beth Farmer, Timothy Franklin, Melissa Ginsberg, Leila Sadat

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Courts & Judicial Affairs, Sara L. Ochs, Paula Henin, Paola Patarroyo, Haydee Dijkstal, Ira Trako, Kabir Duggal, Chloë Fletcher, Alexander Witt, Marc Weitz

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Arbitration, Sergey Petrachkov, Daryna Hrebeniuk, Oksana Karel, Jeffrey Rosenthal, Katerina Wright, Keara A. Bergin, Christopher P. Denicola, Brendan Clancy, Patrick Roche, Marcus Walsh, Caoimhe Clarkin, Peter Ashford, Kate Felmingham, Antonio Canales, Marianne Chao, John Cooper, Michael P. Daly, Mercedes Fernandez, Carla Gharibian, Melissa Stear Gorsline, Haifeng Huang, Elie Kleiman, Annie Leaks, Fernando F. Pastore, Maria I. Pradilla Picas, Iris Sauvagnac, Cristina Perez Soto, Johannes Willheim, Joyce Fong, Christina Nitsche, Dan Perera, Anthony Lynch, Héctor Scaianschi Márquez, Preeti Bhangnani, Eric Lenier Ives, Fernando Navarro, Tom Pearson

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Anti-Money Laundering, Albert Janet

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

South Asia/Oceania & India, Kavita Mohan, Amy Tolbert Harris, Aseem Chawla, Sumit Khadaria, Austin J. Pierce, Namrata Patodia Rastogi, Sanjay Notani, Arunabh Choudhary, Aditi Joshi, Amit Gupta, Mansi Kukreja, Vidhi Goel, Ronjini Ray

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Mexico, Kelsey Quigley, Christopher Munoz, Cesar Conde, John Walsh, Sara Maldonado, Judith Wilson, Pedro Fernando González Maldonado, Estefania Díaz González, Bruce Greenberg, Mariano Carrizo, Karen Andrea Ortega Cajiga, Vanessa Romero-Rocha, Susan Burns, Rene Alva, Ernesto Velarde

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

The Urgent Need For Environmental Literacy, Rose Olson

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Within my English 200 course I was taught not only how to write an Op-Ed essay, but how to write one effectively. Over the course of a few weeks my professor provided me with resources on the best way to structure essays of this sort and ways to enhance our writing for any audience to follow. Learning how to write about my own opinion on a topic, as well as encompassing research and educational aspects within the essay was very interesting and useful. Being able to write about something I am passionate about, express my opinion, and educate my reader …

The Lessons Behind The Bedtime Story, Rachel Roell

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This paper discusses the influence that picture books can have on perceptions of gender and societal expectations, first for children and later for adults. Elementary literature has become a controversial topic in recent years, as censorship has increased. There is a serious fear that children have ineffective and even harmful role models for their gender. I studied how picture books—for both young readers and the adults they will inevitably grow into—have lasting positive and negative impacts on how individuals perceive gender in relation to society and themselves. I evaluated scholarly sources, many of which involved studies that showed how children …

Exploring The Impact Of Echo Chambers On Modern American Polarization, Alex Burkhardt

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This submission is a research report I wrote for my English 198 class. The topic of the report was "Obstacles to the Common Good." I originally wanted to write about the impact of presidential debates on increased political polarization, but my research led me discover a much more pressing issue facing our nation. After months of careful research and peer review, I arrived at the final product which you see today.

Beauty And The Beast (1991) And La Belle Et La Bête (1946): Contrasting Views Of Womanhood Across Varying Cultural Climates, Maddie R. Dietrichs

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

In my english honors course, we are placed into different fairy tale "groups. My group was assigned Beauty and the Beast as the fairy tale we would be offering social commentary on for this essay assignment. I knew I wanted to primarily discuss gender and women's roles in my essay since Beauty and the Beast offers a lot of interesting avenues on what a woman's role is, particularly in the romantic and familial spheres. I chose two different film retellings of Beauty and the Beast for this paper. The first being La Belle et La Bete, a 1946 black and …

For All Mankind? Reading Race In Early American Science Fiction, 1836-1888, Ryan C. Snopek

Madison Historical Review

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, a new type of literature envisioned what the United States would look like in the far future. Now known as science fiction, three of these works - Mary Griffith’s “Three Hundred Years Hence,” George Tucker’s A Century Hence, and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward - are exemplary in how they reflect social concerns of their time, particularly in the construction of notions of race in America. Through the idea of science as a universal and rational ideal, these authors imagined a progressive, white future for the United States, in which science and progress are increasingly …

'No Nose Club': The Quackish Consumption Of Pox Care In Long Eighteenth-Century England., Sasha Jones

Madison Historical Review

(World History) This article explores the rise of non-institutional syphilis care in eighteenth-century England and the growing popularity of the barbershop as a centre of pox care among middle-class men. It argues that middle-class pox sufferers sought out the barbershop as a primary location of health care because of the invasive treatments offered by physicians at institutional centers of pox care – including those offered in private offices. The social stigma that was associated with syphilis also encouraged middle-class men to seek pox treatment at the barbershop, since its location in bustling downtown entertainment districts and its reputation as a …

Fighting On The American Color Line: How Black Masculinity And Identity Was Negotiated Through Boxing In The Jim Crow Era, Cameron Reid Ambroise-Sanscartier

Madison Historical Review

The early 20th century saw the meteoric rise of boxing as a lucrative business opportunity for both promoters and fighters alike and acted as one of the few business ventures that was accessible for both White and Black Americans. In the Reconstruction period, many former slaves or children of slaves found themselves stuck in a perpetual cycle of poverty performing menial labour not far removed from their previous lives as slaves; boxing provided a rare alternative for these men. Often dubbed “meal ticket fighters” some men fought merely to survive while others stood out as exceptions within this violent and …