Professor Rachel Fulton Brown takes you on a journey through the creation of JRR Tolkien’s legendarium, from its origins in Tolkien’s conversations with C.S. Lewis about the power of myth to its realization in the stories of the Silmarillion. Extended version of the course that she teaches at the University of Chicago.
Episode guide: https://fencingbearatprayer.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-forge-of-tolkien.html
Syllabus and course blog: http://tolkienmedievalandmodern.blogspot.com/
Dr. Rachel Fulton Brown is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago, where she teaches courses on the history of Christianity, medieval European religious, cultural, and intellectual history, and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. She blogs as Fencing Bear at Prayer, and she lectures on Logos, Tolkien, and medieval history at UATV. The Dragon Common Room is her online classroom for training poets in the arts of the Christian imagination. She and co-creators KJ Crilly, Kilts Khalfan, and Mel Wiggin host the Mosaic Ark on her UATV Logos and History channel.
Website: https://www.dragoncommonroom.com
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“Yet I envy you,” Faramir told Frodo and Sam, “that have spoken with the White Lady.” “The Lady of Lórien! Galadriel!” cried Sam. “I wish I could make a song about her.” Who was this White Lady, and why was she so hard (as Sam insisted) to describe? Famously, as he told Tolkien after reading a typescript of The Lord of the Rings, Fr. Robert Murray, S.J., noticed that Galadriel bore a certain resemblance to the Virgin Mary, with which comparison Tolkien “of course” agreed: “I think I know exactly what you mean…by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded” (Letter 142). And yet, what was it about Galadriel that suggested to Fr. Murray and Tolkien a likeness to the Virgin Mother of God? In this episode, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown reads the images associated with Galadriel for hints as to her lineage in Tolkien’s Catholic imagination. Pro tip: Have your Bible to hand, but make sure it includes Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom.