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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As the Ainur sang the themes unfolded to them by Iluvatar, the greatest of their number, Melkor, or “he who rises in Might,” became impatient that Iluvatar took so little thought of the Void. Conceiving thoughts of his own, Melkor began to make a music of his own, troubling some of the Ainur, but drawing others to his theme. Soon there arose a great storm about Iluvatar’s throne, as the two musics strove against each other—until Iluvatar rose and incorporated Melkor’s discord into his own. What place did Melkor’s discord have in the story of Creation? Why did Iluvatar not simply strike Melkor down? In this episode, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown explores the backstory of the angels’ fall as it appears—and does not appear—in the Scriptures upon which Tolkien drew for his characterization of the Ainur. What does Melkor have to do with Satan? What role did the sons of God have in bringing wickedness to the world? And where does the Leviathan come in? —Aired February 27, 2021