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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Poll: Are you with Sam “Elves, sir! I would dearly love to see them” Gamgee—there can never be too many stories about Elves? Or are you with Tolkien’s fellow Inkling, the long-suffering Hugo Dyson, said once to have exclaimed when presented with yet another Elf-story: “Oh, [redacted], not another Elf”? Tolkien spent his life writing about Elves—but do we even know what Elves are? In this episode, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown introduces the Elvish Question in English literature, taking us back to the Middle Ages to suggest why Tolkien was so fascinated with them—and why he found it so hard to stop writing about them. Special focus on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, for those who want to hear more about Ents.