What Is Your Middle Earth IQ?
Are you an expert on the vast and timeless worlds crafted by Tolkien?
How to Read J.R.R. Tolkien
Michael Drout, a professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts believes that Tolkien’s immense and lasting popularity can be explained by a ‘perfect storm hypothesis.’
The Anglo-Saxon War-Culture and The Lord of the Rings: Legacy and Reappraisal
Considering the scarcity of the Anglo-Saxon influence in modern war-literature in general, one may wonder and stop by a work like The Lord of the Rings or Silmarillion, which few would be willing to categorise as serious war-literature.
Which Lord of the Rings character are you?
Some Tolkien fun – Which one of the nine members of the fellowship are you?
How Well Do You Know Gandalf?
Let’s see how well you know Middle Earth’s most powerful wizard.
A Song of Fantasy Traditions: How A Song of Ice and Fire Subverts Traditions of Women in Tolkienesque Fantasy
I will show how Martin is working against the tradition of marginalized female characters in the fantasy genre.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf published today
Nearly 90 years after he first made the translation, J.R.R. Tolkien’s version of Beowulf arrives at bookstores around the world today.
Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance
Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?
Returning the King: The Medieval King in Modern Fantasy
Tales of kingship in modern fiction, specifically in the work of Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) and George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), are similar to the medieval models, as kingship and the requirements of kingship were popular themes in medieval texts, including Beowulf and King Horn.
Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf coming out this spring
In 1926, J.R.R. Tolkien, who would later go on to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, completed his own translation of the Old English poem Beowulf. Eighty-eight years later that work is going to be published for the first time
Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
While the first film was mostly criticized for its divergences from the novel, in this second instalment they usually prove to be an improvement.
Imagination For Better Not Worse: The Hobbit in the primary classroom
The story of The Hobbit can be utilised to develop the concept of the Hero’s Journey, a persistent trope in oral and recorded literature and an archetype for virtually all human experience.
Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Bilbo’s Quest for Identity and Maturity
Notwithstanding the fact that The Hobbit was generally relegated to children literature, its individual layers should be scrutinised more profoundly because it may help the understanding of the human psyche.
Doing a PhD in Middle-earth
In this paper, I show how The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien can be viewed as an extended allegory for any challenging and arduous human endeavour, and in particular for tackling and completing a PhD.
The Bones in the Soup: The Anglo-Saxon Flavour of Tolkien’s The Hobbit
By reading The Hobbit from an Anglo-Saxonist point of view, we not only learn more about what inspired Tolkien to compose his narrative, we can also highlight the enduring value of studying his original sources.
If the name fits: names in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fiction
The nomenclature within Tolkien’s novels is very carefully done, taking into consideration attributes such as etymology, symbolism, and onomatopoeia. In some instances the author has drawn from Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, but most of his creations emerged from his own invented languages Quenya and Sindarin, the two main tongues spoken by elves.
The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien released today
The poem, using Old English alliterative meter and written in modern English recounts how Arthur was a British military leader fighting the Saxon invasion, and includes characters such as Guinevere, Lancelot and Mordred.
Androgynes, Crossdressers, and Rebel Queens: Modern Representations of Medieval Women Warriors from Tolkien to Martin
This was another stellar paper given at the Tales after Tolkien session. It was an intriguing look at the women of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and how each author portrays the mother and warrior characters of Galadriel/Cersi/Daenerys and Eowyn/Arya/Brienne. The paper examined the differences and problems posed by the portrayal of women in theses fantasy novels.
The Meaning of the Middle Ages: Fans, Authors, and Industry
This was a very enjoyable paper given on the topic of medievalism and the predominance of a European perspective in almost all fantasy literature. Young examined three authors who were moving away from the traditional telling of fantasy by subverting the typical pseudo-medieval narrative or by moving away from European cultures towards embracing Eastern, Aztec and other non-European worlds.
Oxford Tolkien Spring School launched
Organised by Oxford University’s Faculty of English Language and Literature where Tolkien taught for most of his career, the spring school is aimed at those who have read some of Tolkien’s fiction and wish to learn more.
Tolkien’s Cauldron: Northern Literature and The Lord of the Rings
Tolkien was a scholar of Old Norse literature and much of his work in the Lord of the Rings is informed by his knowledge of old Norse mythology, Eddic poetry, and saga. Tolkien’s use of these sources enriched this complex story of Middle-earth.
The Influence of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Masculinist Medievalism
Tolkien, unlike other influential critics or popular fantasy writers, shapes perception of the Middle Ages from both the top down and the bottom up.
Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
I’m here not to pander to the fandom, but be brutally honest as a Tolkien lover: The Hobbit was just not that good. In fact, dare I say it, *gasps!*, it wasn’t good at all.
The Hobbit; an unexpected theological journey
Dr Alison Milbank of the University of Nottingham’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies, offers her insights into J.R.R.Tolkien and his famous novel.
Why Study J.R.R. Tolkien?
In order to write a fantasy novel you have to commit to metaphysics – you have to create a world, that world has to have a certain consistency, it has to have ontology, what is being in that world, what is it ethics in that world – and Tolkien is particular interested in these metaphysical questions.