English Language and Literature Commons^™

Troy And The Rings: Tolkien And The Medieval Myth Of England, Michael Livingston

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

Asserts that, far from abandoning his early grounding in the classics upon discovering Northern mythology and languages, Greek and Roman motifs remained an important element of Tolkien’s “soup” and he used them in many ways in The Lord of the Rings. Livingston pays particular attention to themes, characters, incidents, and Mediterranean history that have roots in The Iliad. Family structure is one place where we can see convincing parallels, with Boromir as an asterisk-Hector and Faramir as an asterisk-Paris, rewriting the deficiencies in their source-characters as Gondor is the history of Troy re-written.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Fanfiction, And "The Freedom Of The Reader", Megan B. Abrahamson

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

Student paper award, Mythcon 2013. Abrahamson makes a particularly convincing case for the validity of fanfiction by applying Tolkien’s own statements about the “dominion of the author,” the “Cauldron of Story,” and subcreation to the issue. Discusses Tolkien’s experiences with early fanwork and his own use of sources as an author.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.

Listening As Heroic Action In L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Cara-Joy Steem

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

Examines the theme and spiritual functions of listening in the third Murry family novel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet: as participation in an interconnected universe, as embracing humility, as a witness to cosmic community, and as a sacrificial act. Connects these ideas to her larger theological and interpersonal themes.

The Hobbit And The Father Christmas Letters, Kris Swank

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

Traces the mutual influences of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the letters he wrote to his children in the person of Father Christmas. Similar themes in Roverandom and The Book of Lost Tales are also discussed. She tracks the development of several motifs that appear throughout, like irascible wizards, playful elves, invented languages, impudent bears, and fireworks.

How Trees Behave-Or Do They?, Verlyn Flieger

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

Flieger takes as her departure point a passage on tree-spirits in one of the manuscripts for “On Fairy-stories,” and considers the development of Tolkien’s ideas about more-or-less enspirited trees throughout his oeuvre. Begins with the earliest appearance of Old Man Willow in the Tom Bombadil poems, progressing through his maturation as an idea in The Lord of the Rings. Pays special attention to Treebeard and the Huorns, and ends with the birch tree in Smith of Wootton Major.

Tolkien's Devices: The Heraldy Of Middle-Earth, Jamie Mcgregor

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

Studies a set of images Tolkien deploys with great skill to represent essential thematic elements of the opposition between forces of the Alliance and the Enemy. These include the organic and natural symbols of Gondor, Rohan, Dol Amroth as opposed to the Eye of Mordor and White Hand of Isengard. McGregor’s observations on Saruman’s choice of imagery are particularly valuable in showing how Tolkien revealed the wizard’s attempts to play both sides even at the symbolic level.

Theological Reticence And Moral Radiance: Notes On Tolkien, Levinas, And Inuit Cosmology, Catherine Madsen

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

Madsen pulls together three exceedingly disparate elements—the theology of loss and obligation of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas; the way the Inuit peoples of the Arctic regions relate to the hardships and challenges of their physical and spiritual worlds; and incidents of self-sacrifice in Tolkien—into a challenging and rewarding whole.

Fairy Elements In British Literary Writings In The Decade Following The Cottingley Fair Photographs Episode, Douglas A. Anderson

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

Scholar Guest of Honor, Mythcon 2013. Explores the effects of the Cottingly fairy fraud on British literary fantasy. Authors discussed include Gerald Bullett, Walter de la Mare, Lord Dunsany, Bea Howe, Kenneth Ingram, Margaret Irwin, Daphne Miller, Hope Mirrlees, and Bernard Sleigh. Anderson also offers some speculations on the effects of the controversy on Tolkien’s early development as a writer.

Reviews, Damien Bador, Gregory Bassham, Joe R. Christopher, Janet Brennan Croft, Hugh H. Davis, Melody Green, Holly Ordway, Robert T. Tally Jr

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

The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings. Abigail E. Ruane and Patrick James. Reviewed by Robert T. Tally Jr

Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings. Anne Marie Gazzolo. Reviewed by Damien Bador.

The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007. Alissa Burger. Reviewed by Hugh H. Davis.

Plain to the Inward Eye: Selected Essays on C.S. Lewis. Don W. King. Reviewed by Holly Ordway.

Tolkien's Poetry. Ed. Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

The …

Of Spiders And Elves, Joyce Tally Lionarons

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

A stimulating look at the parallels and contrasts between imagery associated with spiders and Elves, especially female elves, in Tolkien’s legendarium, and how this imagery of light and shadow, spinning and weaving, climbing and descending, also underpins themes of sexuality and fertility in Middle-earth.

Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View Of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Josh B. Long

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

Addresses the perennial question of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dislike for C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, carefully analyzing numerous first- and second-hand accounts from biographies, interviews, and letters. A previously unpublished letter from Tolkien to Eileen Elgar adds a new and more nuanced element to our understanding of this issue.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Sub-Creation, And Theories Of Authorship, Benjamin Saxton

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

Tolkien is unfortunately underrated as a theorist in literary studies—in fact, alas, generally invisible to the mainstream. This essay draws attention to his ideas about sub-creation and allegorical “dominion” of the reader, contrasting Tolkien’s stated and implied theories with those of Roland Barthes, and elucidating Tolkien’s concern with “the delicate balance between authors, authority, and interpretive freedom.” Saxton draws on “Leaf by Niggle,” The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings for examples of Tolkien’s theories in action.

"The Inner Consistency Of Reality": Intermediacy In The Hobbit, Nicholas Birns

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

Especially concerned with Bilbo’s characterization, unusual in children’s literature, as middle-aged, but also addresses other issues of world-building and story structure that reinforce this motif of “starting in the middle”: maps, the sense of the past, racial characteristics and relations. Birns draws interesting contrasts with the Alice in Wonderland and Oz books.

Letters: A Narnian Clarification, Michael Ward

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

Responds to a critique that his Planet Narnia thesis does not take into account Lewis’s letter to Laurence Kreig; explains his “incremental plan” hypothesis.

Sméagol And Déagol: Secrecy, History, And Ethical Subjectivity In Tolkien's World, E. J. Christie

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

Uses the characters Sméagol and Déagol as jumping-off points to explore issues of secrecy, surveillance, propaganda, and censorship that were increasingly coming to the fore during World War I and the inter-war years. Although significant issues in their own right, these trends also point to a growing individual privileging of self-concealment and discretion over openness and intimacy, a process that dehumanized and eroded the social fabric. The Ring crystallizes these concerns into a single object, and Gollum’s relationship to it especially creates a tangle of themes of revealing and concealing. Also discusses Tolkien’s peculiar talent for “creation from philology” building …

"But Grace Is Not Infinite": Tolkien's Explorations Of Nature And Grace In His Catholic Context, Phillip Irving Mitchell

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

Adds to our understanding of Tolkien’s created theology and the place of Faerie in his sub-creation by examining contemporary real world theological debates which might have influenced his thinking, including discussions of the supernatural like Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis.

Reviews, Emily E. Auger, Carl Badgley, Nicholas Birns, Joe R. Christopher, Janet Brennan Croft, Troels Forchhammer, Scott Mclaren, Holly Ordway, Harley Sims

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

C.S. Lewis, Poetry, and the Great War 1914-1918. John Bremer. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

Collected Poems. Hope Mirrlees. Ed. and intro. Sandeep Parmar. Reviewed by Nicholas Birns.

Fantasy, Art and Life: Essays on George MacDonald, Robert Louis Stevenson and Other Fantasy Writers. William Gray. Reviewed by Scott McLaren.

C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages. Robert Boenig. Reviewed by Holly Ordway.

Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century: Essays on New Adaptations. Edited by Lynnette Porter. Reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft.

Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development. Sandra J. Lindow. Reviewed by Carl Badgley.

Hobbit Place-names: A Linguistic …

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.