Syllabus 2011

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.
--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.
3. Comment (about 200 words each) on at least five 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%.

REQUIRED BOOKS

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).
________, Morgoth’s Ring, HME 10, ed. Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993).
________, 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).

N.B. For readings from LotR, references are given by book (not volume!), chapter and page number.

READING AND DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENTS

March 28 Tolkien as Scripture
Tolkien, “Mythopoeia” (handout)
Map of Middle-earth in the Third Age (handout)

March 30 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 4 “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’”).
Shippey, Road to Middle-earth, pp. 271-80.

April 6 “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 11 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 13 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 18 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 20 The Music of Creation
Tolkien, “Ainulindalë,” in The Silmarillion.
________, “Ainulindalë,” HME 5
________, “Ainulindalë,” HME 10, pp. 3-44.
________, Letters, no. 96.

Genesis 1-2 [any translation or edition]
John 1:1-18

Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 49-79, 87-95.

April 25 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.

April 27 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 2 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. IV, chap. 1 (pp. 613-19): "Down the face of a precipice...a black silence”, 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 4 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 9 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 11 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 16 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 18: NO CLASS

May 23 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.

May 25 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.

May 30: Memorial Day, NO CLASS

June 1 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.

June 8 FINAL PROJECTS DUE BY 12NOON

June 8 The Spring 2011 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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