Eala
Earendel engla beorhtast
Ofer
middengeard monnum sended
[“Hail,
Earendel, brightest of angels,
over
middle-earth to men sent.”]
--Christ I (formerly, The Christ of Cynewulf)
Now
we must praise the Guardian of Heaven,
the might of the Lord and His purpose of mind,
the work of the Glorious Father; for He,
God Eternal, established each wonder,
He, Holy Creator, first fashioned
heaven as a roof for the sons of men.
Then the Guardian of Mankind adorned
this middle-earth below, the world for men,
Everlasting Lord, Almighty King.
the might of the Lord and His purpose of mind,
the work of the Glorious Father; for He,
God Eternal, established each wonder,
He, Holy Creator, first fashioned
heaven as a roof for the sons of men.
Then the Guardian of Mankind adorned
this middle-earth below, the world for men,
Everlasting Lord, Almighty King.
--Caedmon’s
hymn (trans. Kevin Crossley-Holland)
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is one of the most
popular works of imaginative literature of the twentieth century. This
course seeks to understand its appeal by situating Tolkien's creation within
the context of Tolkien’s own work as both artist and scholar alongside its
medieval sources and modern parallels. Themes to be addressed include the
problem of genre and the uses of tradition, the nature of history and its
relationship to place, the activity of creation and its relationship to
language, beauty, evil and power, the role of monsters in imagination and
criticism, the twinned challenges of death and immortality, fate and free will,
and the interaction between the world of "faerie" and religious
belief.
Course
requirements
1. Read all required
readings on the syllabus and come to class prepared to participate in the
discussion.
2. Post two
reflections (900-1200 words each) on the course blog following our class
discussion for that day. Reflections
must be posted within 48 hours of our class discussion (by Wednesday at 1:30pm
for Monday discussions; by Friday at 1:30pm for Wednesday discussions). These reflections will be worth 35% of your
final grade. For days on which you are
responsible for reflections, you should read the recommended readings as well
as the required.
Blog address: http://tolkienmedievalandmodern.blogspot.com.
3. Comment
(about 200 words each) on at least five
blog posts for five different discussions/class days (different from the
days on which you post your reflections).
Blog comments plus attendance and
discussion in class will be worth 20% of your final grade.
4. Final
project worth 45%. This project will
be due on Wednesday, June 4 for graduating seniors, Wednesday, June 11 for all other students.
A description of the final project can be found at the end of the
syllabus. You should begin work on this
project as soon as possible.
Books
Available for Purchase at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of
the Rings (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004) [=LotR]
________,
The Silmarillion, ed.
Christopher Tolkien (New York: Del Rey, 1985).
________,
Letters, ed. Humphrey Carpenter with Christopher Tolkien (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2000; first published 1981) [=Letters].
________, Unfinished Tales,
ed. Christopher Tolkien (New York: Del Rey, 1988).
________,
The Lost Road, History of Middle Earth [=HME] 5, ed. Christopher Tolkien
(New York: Del Rey, 1996).
________,
Sauron Defeated, HME 9, ed. Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1992).
________, The Tolkien Reader (New York: Del Rey, 1966).
________, Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (New York: Del Rey, 1980).
Verlyn Flieger, Splintered Light:
Logos and Language in Tolkien's World, rev. ed. (Kent: Kent State University
Press, 2002).
T.A. Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a
New Mythology, rev. ed.
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003).
All other readings are available
on e-reserve, Chalk or in Regenstein Library.
For readings from LotR, references
are given by book (not volume!),
chapter and page number. The page numbers are those from the
Houghton Mifflin editions available for purchase and on reserve in
Regenstein. You are free to use any
other edition, but you should make sure that your reading follows the sections
in the syllabus.
Reading
and Discussion Assignments
March 31 Tolkien as Scripture
Tolkien, “Mythopoeia” (handout)
Map of Middle-earth in the Third
Age (handout)
April 2 Fantasy and Fairy Tale
Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories,” and
“Leaf by Niggle,” in The Tolkien Reader.
________, LotR, bk. I, chap. 7 (pp. 129-32): “The upper wind settled…green
stockings.”
________, Letters, nos. 109, 199, 215.
Recommended:
Humphrey
Carpenter, Tolkien: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977), pp.
89-99 (“Lost Tales”), 111 (1925-1949 (i)).
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 21-31.
Tom
Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 266-77 (“Autobiographical allegory I: ‘Leaf by
Niggle’”).
April 7 “Sources” I: Fragments
and Elf-friends
Tolkien, Smith of Wootton Major.
________,
“The early history of the legend,” and “The Lost Road: iii. The unwritten chapters,” HME 5.
________, LotR, Prologue:
“Note on the Shire Records” (pp. 14-16); bk. I, chap. 3 (pp. 78-85): “The song
ended…dreamless slumber”, chap. 9 (pp. 157-61): “Frodo jumped up…talk to you
later’”; bk. IV, chap. 8 (pp. 711-14): “In a dark crevice…head in my lap.’”
________, Letters, nos. 131,
203.
Verlyn Flieger, “The Footsteps of Aelfwine,” in Tolkien’s
Legendarium: Essays on The History
of Middle-earth, eds. Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter (Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000), pp. 183-97.
Recommended:
Charles
Noad, “On the Construction of the Silmarillion,” in Tolkien’s Legendarium,
eds. Flieger and Hostetter, pp. 31-68.
Verlyn
Flieger, A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Road to Faërie (Kent: Kent
State University Press, 1997), pp. 227-53 (“Pitfalls in Faërie”).
Shippey,
Author of the Century, pp. 296-304
(“Autobiographical allegory 2: ‘Smith of Wootton Major’”).
________,
Road to Middle-earth, pp. 271-80.
April 9 “Sources” II: Language
and Dreams
Tolkien, “The Lost Road:
i. The opening chapters; ii. The Númenórean chapters,” HME 5.
________, The Notion Club Papers,
part 1, HME 9, pp. 155-211.
________, LotR, bk. I, chap.
5 (p. 108): “When at last…noise of thunder”, chap. 7 (pp. 125-28): “Before
long…logs are contented”, and chap. 8 (pp. 140-44): “When he came…towards the
south”; bk. II, chap. 7 (pp. 360-66): “One evening Frodo…Let us go!’”; bk. VI,
chap. 7 (p. 997): “Well here we are…falling asleep again”, and chap. 9 (pp.
1029-31): “Then Elrond…he said.”
________, Letters, nos. 24,
163, 180, 213, 257.
Recommended:
Flieger,
A Question of Time, pp.
61-88, 117-41 (“Strange Powers of the Mind,” “Where the Dream-fish Go”).
Shippey,
Road to Middle-earth, pp. 289-331.
April 14 NO CLASS
April 16 Style: Poetry vs.
Prose, High vs. Low, Westron vs. English
Tolkien, “Lay of Leithian,” Cantos III and XIII, in Lays of Beleriand, HME 3, ed. Christopher Tolkien
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), pp. 171-181, 294-304.
________,
LotR, bk. I, chap. 11 (pp. 191-94):
“I will tell you a tale…The story ended”; bk. II, chap. 2 (pp. 239-71, entire),
chap. 4 (pp. 315-18): “The Company spent…or the Ring”, chap. 8 (pp. 377-78):
“Yet as is the way…name Elbereth”; bk. III, chap. 6 (pp. 507-9): “The morning
was bright…doorwardens will keep them”; bk. V, chap. 3 (pp. 802-5): “So it was
that amid…waned in every heart”; bk. VI, chap. 5 (p. 963): “And before the
Sun…ways of the City”; Appendix F.II: “On Translation” (pp. 1133-38).
________, Letters, no. 165, 171, 190, 193.
Ursula LeGuin, “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie,” in The Language of
the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Susan Wood, rev. ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 1989, pp.
78-92.
Shippey, Author of the Century, pp. 68-77 (“The Council of
Elrond: Character Revealed”).
Recommended:
Tolkien, “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil,” in The Tolkien Reader
Brian
Rosebury, Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon (New York: Palgrave, 2003), pp. 89-133 (“Fiction and Poetry,
1914-1973”).
Eric
Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of
Reality in Western Literature, trans. Willard R. Trask (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1953), pp. 143-173 (“Adam and Eve”).
April 21 History & Time;
Nature & Place
Tolkien, “Farmer Giles of Ham,” in The Tolkien Reader.
________, LotR, Foreword to
the Second Edition; Appendices A: “Annals of the Kings and Rulers,” B: “The
Tale of Years,” and D: “The Calendars.”
________, The Notion Club Papers,
part 2, Nights 62-65, HME 9, pp. 222-33.
________, Letters, no. 53,
151, 183.
“The
Ruin,” in The Keys of Middle-earth:
Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien, eds.
Stuart D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp.
133-43.
T.H. White, The Once and Future King, bk. 4, chap. 3 (New York:
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1958), pp. 521-30 (“The Candle in the Wind”).
Recommended:
Tolkien, “The Later Annals of Valinor,” and “The Later Annals of
Beleriand,” HME 5.
________, “The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor,” in Unfinished Tales.
Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Atlas
of Middle-Earth, rev. ed.
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991).
Wayne
G. Hammond and Christina Scull, J.R.R. Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), pp. 35-65.
Shippey,
Road to Middle-earth, pp. 94-134
April 23 Language and Names
Tolkien, “Tale of Eärendil” in Book of Lost Tales, HME 2, ed.
Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), pp. 252-277.
________, The Notion Club Papers,
part 2, Nights 66-67, HME 9, pp. 233-53.
________, “The Lhammas," and
"The Etymologies,” HME 5.
________, LotR, bk. II, chap.
1 (pp. 232-38): “Frodo hid the Ring…Sleep well!’”; Appendix E: “Writing and
Spelling,” and Appendix F.I: “The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age.”
________, Letters, nos. 297, 347.
Voluspa (“The Seeress’s Prophecy”), in The Poetic Edda,
trans. Carolyne Larrington (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 3-13.
Recommended:
Tolkien, “English and Welsh,” in The Monsters and the Critics,
ed. Christopher Tolkien, pp. 162-97.
________, “Lowdham’s Report on the Adunaic Language,” HME 9, pp.
413-40.
Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, pp. 131-42 (“He had been inside
language”).
Flieger, A Question of Time, pp. 143-74 (“Travelers Between Worlds”).
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth, pp. 1-54.
April 28 The Music of Creation
Tolkien, “Ainulindalë,” in The
Silmarillion.
________, “Ainulindalë,” HME 5
________, “Ainulindalë,” HME
10, pp. 3-44.
________, Letters, no.
96.
Genesis 1-2; Job 38:1-7; John 1:1-18 [any translation or edition]
Jubilees 2:1-24 (ed. James H. Charlesworth, The
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), vol.
2, pp. 55-57.
Flieger,
Splintered Light, pp. 49-79,
87-95.
April 30 Creativity & Free
Will; Power & Beauty I
Tolkien, “Valaquenta,” in The
Silmarillion.
________, “Quenta Silmarillion,” chapters 1-13, in The Silmarillion
________, Letters, nos. 52, 153, 156.
Augustine, City of God, bk. 12, chaps. 1-3, trans. Henry Bettenson,
with Introduction by John O’Meara (New York: Penguin, 1984), pp. 471-474.
Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, chap. 2 (New York:
Harcourt Brace, 1941; New York: Harper Collins, 1979), pp. 19-31 (“Image of
God”).
Recommended:
Flieger, Splintered Light,
pp. 81-86, 97-126.
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth,
pp. 223-70.
May 5 Creativity & Free Will; Power & Beauty II
Tolkien, “Akallabêth,” in The Silmarillion.
________, “The Drowning of Anadûne,” HME 9, pp. 357-75.
________, “A Description of the Island of Númenor,” in Unfinished Tales.
________, “The Palantíri,” in Unfinished
Tales.
Augustine, City of God, bk. 12, chaps. 22-28, trans. Bettenson, pp. 502-509.
Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, chap. 7, pp. 93-107 (“Maker of All Things,
Maker of Ill-things”).
Recommended:
Tolkien, The Notion Club Papers,
part 2, Nights 68-70, HME 9, pp. 253-82.
________, “The Fall of Numenor,” HME 5.
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 127-30.
May 7 Creativity & Free Will; Power & Beauty III
Tolkien, LotR, bk. I, chap. 2 (pp. 46-64): "Next morning after a late
breakfast...burst into tears”; chap. 4
(pp. 86-88): “In the morning…said Pippin”; chaps. 11-12 (pp. 194-99):
"The story ended...took a wide bend northwards”; chap. 12 (pp. 212-15):
"The hobbits were still weary...and saw no more."
bk. II, chap. 1 (pp. 221-25 and 230-32): "You don't know much about even them...With that he fell fast asleep"; "The dark figure raised its head...Tell me all about the Shire!"; chap. 2 (pp. 242, 251-56, 265-71): "Then all listened while Elrond....gate of Moria was shut"; "Gandalf fell silent...so far as it has yet gone"; "There was a silence...shaking his head”; chap. 9 (pp. 392-93): "Nothing happened that night...out into a wide clear light”; chap. 10 (pp. 395-407): (entire chapter).
bk. III, chap. 1 (pp. 413-20): (entire chapter), chap. 2 (pp. 424-26, 431-39): “They went in single file…the time as best we may!”; “With astonishing speed…Farewell!”, chap. 5 (pp. 496-501): "The companions sat on the ground...We will go where he leads.”
bk. II, chap. 1 (pp. 221-25 and 230-32): "You don't know much about even them...With that he fell fast asleep"; "The dark figure raised its head...Tell me all about the Shire!"; chap. 2 (pp. 242, 251-56, 265-71): "Then all listened while Elrond....gate of Moria was shut"; "Gandalf fell silent...so far as it has yet gone"; "There was a silence...shaking his head”; chap. 9 (pp. 392-93): "Nothing happened that night...out into a wide clear light”; chap. 10 (pp. 395-407): (entire chapter).
bk. III, chap. 1 (pp. 413-20): (entire chapter), chap. 2 (pp. 424-26, 431-39): “They went in single file…the time as best we may!”; “With astonishing speed…Farewell!”, chap. 5 (pp. 496-501): "The companions sat on the ground...We will go where he leads.”
bk. IV, chap. 1 (pp. 613-19): "Down the face of a precipice...a black silence”, chap. 5 (pp. 669-72, 679-81): “There was nothing… also much akin,” “You don’t say… Once is enough”, chap. 8 (pp. 703-7): "Gollum was tugging...that Mordor now sent forth,” chap. 10 (pp. 728-42): (entire chapter).
bk. V, chap. 4 (pp. 811-14 and 820-29): "So at length they came...Tomorrow's need will be sterner"; "Now the main retreat...Rohan had come at last,” chap. 7 (pp. 850-55): "When the dark shadow...followed Gandalf,” chap. 9 (pp. 878-881): "When the Prince Imrahil...if men desert it."
bk. VI, chap. 3 (pp. 933-47): (entire chapter).
________, Letters, nos.
66, 183, 186, 191-192, 246.
Ursula LeGuin, “The Child and the Shadow,” in The Language of the
Night, pp. 54-67.
Recommended:
Tolkien, “Of the Rings of
Power and the Third Age,” in The Silmarillion
________, “Mount Doom,” HME 9,
pp. 37-43.
Jane Chance, Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England, 2nd ed.
(Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001), pp. 141-183, 217-225 (“The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s Epic”).
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth,
pp. 135-76.
May 12 Monsters and Critics
Tolkien, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” in The Monsters
and the Critics and Other Essays,
ed. Christopher Tolkien (London; Boston: George Allen & Unwin, 1983),
pp. 5-48.
________, “Quenta Silmarillion,” chap. 21: “Of Túrin Turambar,” in The
Silmarillion
________, LotR, bk. IV, chaps. 9-10 (pp. 723-30) (Shelob)
________, The Hobbit, or There and Back
Again (originally published London: Allen & Unwin, 1937), chaps. 2
(trolls), 5 (Gollum), 8 (spiders), 12 (Smaug)
________, Letters, no. 183.
“Beowulf” [selections on monsters and the dragon]
Andrew Lang, “The Story of Sigurd,” The
Red Fairy Book (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967; originally
published London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1890), pp. 357-67.
Recommended:
Tolkien, “Narn I Hîn Húrin:
The Tale of the Children of Húrin,” in Unfinished Tales.
Kalevala, poems 34-36 (Kullervo), ed. Elias
Lönnrot, trans. Keith Bosley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999),
pp. 468-96.
Chance, Tolkien’s Art, pp.
12-47, 202-7 (“The Critic as Monster”).
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth,
pp. 86-93.
May 14 Jewels and Trees I
Tolkien, “Quenta Silmarillion,” chaps. 1, 7-8, 11, 24, in The
Silmarillion
________, “The Tale of the Sun
and the Moon,” in Book of Lost Tales, HME 1, pp. 174-197.
________, LotR, bk. II,
chaps. 6-8 (pp. 333-55, 372-78): “Alas! I fear we cannot…Gimli bowed low”, “The
Company was arranged…lands of exile name Elbereth.”
Exodus 28 [any translation or edition]
Revelation 21-22
“Pearl,” in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, trans. Tolkien.
Marbode of Rennes, “Lapidary of 12 Stones in Verse,” “Medical Prose
Lapidary,” and “Christian Symbolic Lapidary in Prose,” in Marbode of Rennes’ (1035-1123) De lapidus considered as a medical treatise, with text, commentary and C.W. King’s
Translation, together with text and translation of Marbode’s minor works on
stones, ed. John M. Riddle, Sudhoffs
Archiv Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Heft 20 (Wiesbaden: Franz
Steiner Verlag, 1977), pp. 119-129.
May 19 Jewels and Trees II
Tolkien, LotR, bk. I, chap. 2
(pp. 44-45): “Little of all this…whistling softly and thoughtfully”, chap. 6
(entire); bk. III, chap. 2 (pp. 441-43): “A little way beyond…rustle of the
wind”, chap. 4 (entire), chap. 7 (p. 541-42): “So King Théoden rode…none ever
came again”, chap. 8 (pp. 543-53): “So it was that…revenged upon the Orcs”,
chap. 9 (pp. 563-72): “They smoked in silence…I could sleep!’”
________, Letters, no. 241,
339.
“The
Dream of the Rood,” in Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1984), pp. 200-4.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” stanzas 1-21, 43-45, 71-74, 77,
80-101, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, trans. Tolkien.
Verlyn Flieger, “The Green Man, The Green Knight, and Treebeard:
Scholarship and Invention in Tolkien’s Fiction,” in Scholarship and Fantasy: Proceedings of The Tolkien Phenomenon, May 1992, Turku, Finland, ed. K.J.
Battarbee, Anglicana Turkuensia 12
(Turku, Finland: University of Turku, 1993), pp. 85-98.
May 21 Immortality and Death I: Elves and Men
Tolkien, LotR, bk. I, chap. 3
(pp. 78-85): “The song ended…dreamless slumber”, chap. 11 (pp. 190-94): “Down
in the lowest…The story ended”, chap. 12 (pp. 214-15): “But the pursuers…and
saw no more”; bk. II, chap. 7 (entire), chap. 8 (entire); bk. IV, chap. 5 (pp.
676-81): “After so long journeying…Once is enough’”; Appendix A.v: “The Tale of
Aragorn and Arwen” (pp. 1057-63).
________, “Quenta Silmarillion,” chaps. 17, 19, and 24, in The
Silmarillion
________, “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth,” HME 10, pp. 303-66 (esp. pp.
304-26).
________, Letters, nos. 43,
181, 200, 340
C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image:
An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1964), pp. 122-138 (“The Longaevi”).
Recommended:
Tolkien, “Laws and Customs among the Eldar,” HME 10, pp. 207-53.
________, “Aman,” HME 10, pp. 424-31.
________, “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn,” in Unfinished Tales
“Sir Orfeo,” in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo,
trans. Tolkien
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 131-46.
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth, pp. 55-65.
May 26: NO CLASS--MEMORIAL DAY
May 28 Immortality and Death II:
Men and Hobbits
Tolkien, LotR, Prologue 1-3
(pp. 1-10);
bk. I, chap 1
(entire), chap. 2 (pp. 44-45, 60-64): “Little of all this..softly and
thoughtfully”, “Frodo drew the Ring…burst into tears”, chap. 4 (pp. 86-88): “In
the morning…said Pippin”, chap 9. (pp. 149-50): “Bree was the chief…by all
accounts”;
bk. II, chap.
1 (pp. 226-27): “The hall of Elrond’s house…no sign of Strider”, chap. 10 (pp.
405-7): “Aragorn sprang swiftly…Land of Shadow”;
bk. III,
chap. 8 (pp. 556-59): “For a moment Théoden…Very polite’”;
bk. IV, chap.
3 (p. 638): “Sam said nothing…always helps’”, chap. 4 (pp. 652-55): “Gollum
disappeared…Go to sleep!’”, chap. 6 (pp. 685-90): “They peered down…proved
faithless’”, chap. 8 (pp. 711-16): “In a dark crevice…Not yet’”, chap. 10 (pp.
730-35, 740-42): “Shelob was gone…Mr. Frodo’”, “Sam reeled…by the Enemy.”
bk. V, chap.
1 (pp. 754-57): “The door opened…But sit now!’”, chap. 2 (pp. 776-77, 782-85):
“For a while…said Théoden”, “And while Théoden…evil enough”, chap. 3 (pp.
801-4): “The king turned…call me Dernhelm’”, chap. 6 (pp. 840-44): “But lo!
suddenly…sinews to his will”, chap. 8 (entire);
bk. VI, chap.
1 (pp. 910-14): “He was naked…won’t come’”, chap. 3 (entire); chap. 4 (pp.
950-54): “‘I am glad…very wine of blessedness”, chap. 5 (entire), chap. 8-9
(entire);
Appendix C:
“Family Trees.”
________, Letters, no. 5,
208, 214, 316.
Verlyn Flieger, “Frodo and Aragorn: The Concept of the Hero,” in Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best
of Tolkien Criticism, eds. Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), pp. 122-145.
________, Splintered Light, pp. 147-65.
Marion
Zimmer Bradley, “Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship,” in Understanding The Lord of the Rings, eds. Zimbardo and Isaacs, pp.
76-92.
Recommended:
Shippey,
Road to Middle-earth, pp. 65-86.
June 2 The Meaning of Life I:
Worship
Tolkien, LotR, bk. I,
chap. 3 (pp. 79, 84): “Snow white!...” “May Elbereth protect you!”, chap. 11
(p. 195): “O Elbereth!...”, chap. 12 (p. 198, 214): “…the name of Elbereth”,
“By Elbereth…”; bk. II, chap. 1 (p. 238): “A Elbereth…”, chap. 8 (pp. 377-78):
“Now the Lady arose…name Elbereth’”, chap. 9 (p. 387): “Elbereth Gilthoniel!”;
bk. IV, chap. 5 (pp. 674, 676): “They stood on a wet floor…” “Is it the
custom…?”, chap. 10 (p. 729): “Even as Sam himself crouched…Fanuilos!”; bk. VI,
chap. 1 (pp. 912, 913, 915): “the Lady’s glass…Elbereth, Elbereth…Gilthoniel, A
Elbereth!”, chap. 2 (p. 922): “Frodo sighed…untroubled sleep”, chap. 3
(entire), chap. 4 (p. 952): “The fourteenth of the New Year…”, chap. 5 (p.
963): “Sing now…”, chap. 9 (p. 1028): “A! Elbereth Gilthoniel!”
________, Letters, nos.
54, 89, 142, 183, 211-212, 250, 306, 310, 328.
Ancrene Wisse, Author’s Introduction and pt. 1 (“Devotions”),
trans. as The Ancrene riwle by M. B.
Salu, with an Introduction by Gerard Sitwell and a preface by J.R.R. Tolkien
(London: Burns and Oates, 1955), pp. 1-20.
Flieger, Splintered Light,
pp. 167-74.
Recommended:
Bradley
J. Birzer, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying
Myth: Understanding Middle Earth (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2003), pp.
xix-xxvi, 126-38 (“Introduction,” “The Nature of Grace Proclaimed”)
Shippey,
Road to Middle-earth, pp. 177-222.
June 4 The Meaning of Life II:
Cult
Tolkien,
LotR, bk. II, chap. 3 (pp. 273-74):
“Books ought to have good endings…”, chap. 7 (pp. 359-60): “It was Frodo…news
to him”; bk. III, chap. 1 (pp. 417-18): “For a while…So they ended”; bk. IV,
chap. 8 (pp. 711-14): “In a dark crevice…head in my lap’”; bk. V, chap. 6 (p. 849):
“We heard of the horns…”; bk. VI, chap. 4 (pp. 950-54): “‘I am glad…very wine
of blessedness.”
________, Letters, no. 206.
A.S. Byatt, Babel Tower
(New York: Random House, 1996), pp. 34-37, 315-19, 327-28, 370-71, 398-401,
450, and 611-17.
________, A Whistling Woman
(New York: Knopf, 2002), pp. 1-13.
C.S. Lewis, “Meditation in a
Toolshed,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter
Hooper (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 212-15.
Recommended:
Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A
Biography, pp. 213-18 (“ A big risk”), 259-60 (“The tree”).
A.S. Byatt, “Old Tales, New Forms,” in On Histories and Stories:
Selected Essays (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 123-50, 182-83.
…then
put on your costumes and come to
The Spring 2014 University of Chicago
Tolkien “Happening”
Additional
Resources (on Reserve)
Jane Chance, ed., Tolkien the Medievalist (New York:
Routledge, 2003).
________,
Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A
Reader (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004).
Wayne
G. Hammond, with Douglas A. Anderson, J.R.R.
Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography (Winchester, Eng.: St. Paul’s
Bibliographies; New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Books, 1993).
Richard
C. West, Tolkien Criticism: An Annotated
Checklist, rev. ed. (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1981).
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