Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Fantasy And Faith: Lewis And Tolkien On Magic In Fantastical Literature, Zion Lang

Senior Honors Theses

Despite biblical warnings against the occult, Christian authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien incorporated many kinds of magic into their works of fantasy. These authors had an orthodox view of the occult, but they also believed that fantasy magic differs from the esoteric: its purpose is imaginative, rather than power-seeking, and it is usually part of the imagined laws of the fantasy world. Lewis focused on the mythic side of fantasy and included more ambiguous magic. Tolkien focused on fantasy as eucatastrophic fairy tale, and his works include somewhat divine supernatural forces. Nonetheless, both authors saw fantasy …

I Am Guillotine, Nathanael Joseph Williams

Fiction MFA Theses

63 years after the Mad War, an exchange of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, a twelve-year old girl wakes up on a train. She has no memory of where she comes from or who she was before the train, but when it stops, there is no doubt that she is now a slave. Brought to the town of Bludgeonburg in chains, she is sold off, along with a boy named Mohawk, to a man named Aabrax as a pit slave. The odd are firmly against Aabrax, and Gilly is not expected to survive, but by a stroke of luck, she …

Harry Potter And The Myth Of Milennials: Identity, Reception, And Politics By Priscilla Hobbs, Dominic Nardi

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

No abstract provided.

Art And Enchantment: How Wonder Works By Patrick Curry, N. Trevor Brierly

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

Patrick Curry has written extensively on Tolkien, art and enchantment, and Art and Enchantment is his most academic in nature on these subjects, and the most fully developed and detailed. Curry describes and analyzes both enchantment and disenchantment. He focuses on art, artists and artistic movements and whether they might be more, or less, conducive to enchantment. In particular he notes that modernism is largely hostile to enchantment.

Mapping A Sense Of Humor: Narrative And Space In Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels By Daniel Lüthi, Susan Moore

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

No abstract provided.

Harry Potter And Resistance By Beth Sutton-Ramspeck, Douglas Charles Kane

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

No abstract provided.

Potterversity: Essays Exploring The World Of Harry Potter Edited By Kathryn Mcdaniel And Emily Strand, And The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, And Beyond: More Essays On The Works Of J.K. Rowling Edited By Lana Whited, Liam Butchart

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

No abstract provided.

Mimetic Theory & Middle-Earth: Untangling Desire In Tolkien’S Legendarium By Matthew J. Distefano, Curtis Gruenler

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

Matthew Distefano’s friendly volume extends considerably the conversation about resonances between two twentieth-century literary giants, J. R. R. Tolkien and René Girard. Distefano not only clarifies essential aspects of Tolkien’s work by reading it through the lens of Girard’s mimetic theory but also, through his particular interest in how Hobbits provide models of positive mimetic desire, highlights, extends, and one might even say enacts aspects of Girard’s theory that are easily overlooked.

Tolkien’S Cosmology: Divine Beings And Middle-Earth By Sam Mcbride, Phillip Fitzsimmons

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

Sam McBride writes the following in his Introduction to Tolkien’s Cosmology: Divine Beings and Middle-earth “Exploring Tolkien’s legendarium will show the cosmological structure of Middle-earth, but also reveal moments in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when the metaphysical impacts the physical.” (p. x) The book delivers on its promise to show the reader places within the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings likely to be influenced by spiritual beings who are described in The Silmarillion and the other volumes of the Legendarium. McBride’s book gives the reader a convincing description of the divine …

Weaving Wikipedia’S Middle-Earth Web, Ian F. Alexander

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

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy writing has become extremely popular, and has been extensively studied by scholars. Part of the demand for information on the subject is met by Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia with a large readership. I have extended its coverage of Middle-earth subjects to more than 200 Good Articles, divided roughly equally between in-universe subjects such as “Aragorn” and more scholarly subjects such as “Heroism in The Lord of the Rings”. Each article is required to stand alone as a notable topic in its own right, as demonstrated by its citations to reliable sources. Other sites like Tolkien Gateway …

St. Jack’S Experiment House For Juvenile Delinquents: Responding To Aslan’S Breath By Matthew Dickerson, Gabriel C. Salter

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

Matthew Dickerson raises an important point in his latest book "Aslan's Breath: Seeing the Holy Spirit in Narnia" that Lewis offers a theologically problematic example of combating evil when his heroes terrorize the bullies at Experiment House at the end of The Silver Chair. Exploring Dickerson's point, and particularly how Lewis pairs vengeance with saitre in this scene, challenges readers to see that Lewis' work for children is often more transgressive than it appears, not unlike the concerns raised about Roald Dahl's vengeful punishment scenes. Extending the popular Dahl vs. Lewis discussion shows how they both may be read as …

"Better To Reign In Hell": Ambivalence And Orcs In The Lay Of The Children Of Húrin, Matthew Thompson-Handell

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

A remarkable passage in Tolkien's incomplete Lay of the Children of Húrin, describing the Orc-band after its capture of Túrin, provides an echo of Milton's assembly of fallen angels in Book I of Paradise Lost. The description of the Orc-band also hints at the kind of ambivalence which has often been ascribed to Milton's portrayal of Satan. This in turn provides a connection with recent work on humanity in Tolkien's depiction of the Orcs.

Interview With Professor John Mckinnell Concerning Tolkien’S Lectures On Beowulf, Łukasz Neubauer

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

Professor John McKinnell attended his classes on Beowulf as a student in the early 1960s. The interview sheds more light on Tolkien as a lecturer.

Alan Garner’S Elidor: The “Anti-Narnian Fantasy”?, Laura N. Van Dyke

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

British fantasy writer Alan Garner has referred to his novel Elidor as "THE anti-Narnian fantasy," though he says this was done unconsciously. In this article, I explore why Garner positioned his work as the antithesis to C.S. Lewis's fantasy novels, and argue that in many ways it in fact complements rather than contradicts the vision Lewis conveys.

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 …

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 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 …

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.

Representation Of South Asians In U.S. American Children’S Picture Books, Eman A. Chaudhry

Senior Theses

One potential cause of racism against South Asian Americans in school could be the lack of authentic representation of South Asians in the media. A method to properly depict them is via children’s picture books, which can be used to explore different cultures within the classroom. I examined the current landscape of American children’s picture books that depict South Asians and found that the most authentic portrayals included characters embracing certain holidays or traditions. Additionally, I researched issues that affect the South Asian community, one of which includes the stigmatization of mental health. Drawing on my own experiences, I wrote …

One Morning, Ty Rea

Creative Writing Club Poetry

Short lyrical poem about love.

What Are The Games For?: The Hunger Games And Reality Tv, Audrey Perez

Senior Honors Theses

In Suzanne Collins’ series, The Hunger Games, a dystopian Capitol holds an annual televised gladiator-style competition in which child participants fight to the death. These Games function as a psychological tool of propaganda that influence both viewers and participants to sustain an oppressive government. Collins prominently explored the Games’ medium as a reality television show through the way it reinforces an ideology of oppression and control through visual messaging and emotional complicity to create division between classes of people. Real world reality TV also has ideological underpinnings that can negatively influence both viewers and participants through its depiction of a …

He Is The Master Of Wood, Water, And Hill: Is Tom Bombadil The True Key Keeper Of The Old Forest?, Noelia Ramos

Journal of Tolkien Research

Tom Bombadil, with his iconic singing―”Hey! Come merry doll! Derry doll and merry-o!―has captivated scholars worldwide, due to the enigmatic nature Tolkien intentionally left unexplained. This deliberate mystery has fuelled extensive debate, leading many to explore possible mythological and cultural frameworks that might decode Bombadil’s origins. Among these hypotheses, a Celtic interpretation has often been dismissed despite its potential relevance. This paper, thereby, seeks to analyse Bombadil’s function within the Old Forest and his interactions with the hobbits during their forest episode, presenting fresh insights into his role as a Celtic-inspired guide and druidic figure.

To support this analysis, primary …

Reading The Rainbow: Exploring Themes And Identities In Lgbtqia+ Picture Books, Amanda Melilli, Alicia G. Vaandering, James W. Rosenzweig

Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation shares an analysis of over 275 picture books featuring LGBTQIA+ identities, providing evidence that the depiction of queerness in children’s literature is complex and varied. Tools for defining narrative themes and LGBTQIA+ identities will be shared as well as data on queer characters with intersecting identities. By exploring the nuances of LGBTQIA+ representation in picture books, attendees will gain a better understanding of novel research inquiries into representation.

Returning To The Beginning Place: Le Guin’S Forgotten Anti-Fantasy Four Decades On, Timothy S. Miller

UKL: The Journal of Ursula K. Le Guin Studies

Ursula K. Le Guin's 1980 portal fantasy The Beginning Place has received a fraction of the critical attention that most of her other novels have attracted over the years. This short book's many enigmas, often structured by self-consciously Jungian symbolism, are best understood as operating in service not to a strict Jungian framework, but rather to a broader metafictional evaluation of fantasy and an articulation of Le Guin's own preferred approach to the reading and interpretation of fantasy. At times, The Beginning Place moves beyond meta-fantasy to become an anti-fantasy that does not shy from critiquing some dimensions of both …

Caedmon Records & The Power Of Youth: How Audiobooks Revolutionized Children’S Literature, Faihaa Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The first known spoken-word recording was introduced to the world by Thomas Edison through the invention of the phonograph. Originally intended for a visually impaired audience to read without exertion, the first known recording was a recitation of the English nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Edison himself. The inclusion of a children’s nursery rhyme since the genesis of such an invention has become significant in observing the rise and success of the audiobook industry and its direct impact in increasing literacy proficiency in children.

Interactions between children’s literature and the history of the audiobook have been many …

The 2024 Whippoorwill Award: Gathering Stories Of Indigeneity, Connection, And Belonging, Erika L. Bass, Michael J. Young, Alan Hoffman, Jacqueline Yahn, Monica Roe, Devon Brenner, Chea Parton

The Rural Educator

No abstract provided.

Queen's Pride: A Queer Reading Of Star Wars Character Padmé Amidala, Madeleine Loewen

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

Ever since Luke Skywalker and Han Solo first appeared onscreen together in 1977, LGBTQ+ Star Wars fans have harnessed the power of queer reading to write themselves back into a galaxy far, far away, despite Lucasfilm’s long-term disapproval of such practices. Nonetheless, there exists little scholarly literature on queerness in the franchise, and even less on the potentially sapphic characters. Queen Padmé Amidala, first introduced onscreen in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, proves a surprising—but no less salient—queer figure in Star Wars. From her intimate relationships with her handmaidens, to her experimentation with gender performativity, to her quiet yet …