Please read my previous blog entry for a description of The Mythopoeic Society, and for both the
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award Winners
Inklings Studies Award Winner 2014
Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, ed. by Jason Fisher
Jason Fisher, ed.
Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2011)
The publisher’s description at Amazon
Source
criticism--analysis of a writer's source material--has emerged as one of the
most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien
drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as
how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers' appreciation. This set
of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology
for proper source criticism and provides practical demonstrations of the
approach.
Paperback:
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Myth and Fantasy Studies Award Winner 2014
Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North by G. Ronald Murphy
G. Ronald Murphy, Tree
of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013)
The publisher’s description at Amazon
At the heart of the mythology of the
Anglo-Scandinavian-Germanic North is the evergreen Yggdrasil, the tree of life
believed to hold up the skies and unite and separate three worlds: Asgard, high
in the tree, where the gods dwelled in their great halls; Middlegard, where
human beings lived; and the dark underground world of Hel, home to the
monstrous goddess of death. With the advent of Christianity in the North around
the year 1000, Yggdrasil was recast as the cross on which Christ sacrificed
himself. G. Ronald Murphy offers an insightful examination of the lasting
significance of Yggdrasil in northern Europe, showing that the tree's image
persisted not simply through its absorption into descriptions of Christ's
crucifix, but through recognition by the newly converted Christians of the
truth of their new religion in the images and narratives of their older faith.
Rather than dwelling on theological and cultural differences between Christianity and older Anglo-Scandinavian beliefs, Murphy makes an argument internal to the culture, showing how the new dispensation was a realization of the old. He shows how architectural and literary works, including the Jelling stone in Denmark, the stave churches in Norway, The Dream of the Rood, the runes of the futhark, the round churches on Bornholm, the Viking crosses at Middleton in Yorkshire and even the Christmas tree, are all indebted to the cultural interweaving of cross and tree in the North. Tree of Salvation demonstrates that both Christian and older Northern symbols can be read as a single story of salvation.
Rather than dwelling on theological and cultural differences between Christianity and older Anglo-Scandinavian beliefs, Murphy makes an argument internal to the culture, showing how the new dispensation was a realization of the old. He shows how architectural and literary works, including the Jelling stone in Denmark, the stave churches in Norway, The Dream of the Rood, the runes of the futhark, the round churches on Bornholm, the Viking crosses at Middleton in Yorkshire and even the Christmas tree, are all indebted to the cultural interweaving of cross and tree in the North. Tree of Salvation demonstrates that both Christian and older Northern symbols can be read as a single story of salvation.
Hard cover:
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2014 Finalists for the Mythopoeic Scholarship Awards
Inklings Studies Finalists
(winner) Jason Fisher, ed., Tolkien and the Study of His Sources:
Critical Essays (McFarland, 2011) *
Mark Atherton, There
and Back Again: J.R.R. Tolkien and
the Origins of the Hobbit
(I.B. Tauris, 2012)
(I.B. Tauris, 2012)
Publisher’s Description
"Even the
smallest person can change the course of the future." The prophetic words
of Galadriel, addressed to Frodo as he prepared to travel from Lothlórien to
Mordor to destroy the One Ring, are just as pertinent to J. R. R. Tolkien’s own
fiction. For decades, hobbits and the other fantastical creatures of
Middle-earth have captured the imaginations of a fiercely loyal tribe of
readers, all enhanced by the immense success of Peter Jackson’s films: first
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now his newest movie, The Hobbit. But for
all Tolkien’s global fame and the familiarity of modern culture with Gandalf,
Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, the sources of the great mythmaker’s own myth-making
have been neglected.
Mark Atherton here
explores the chief influences on Tolkien’s work: his boyhood in the West
Midlands; the landscapes and seascapes which shaped his mythologies; his
experiences in World War I; his interest in Scandinavian myth; his friendships,
especially with the other Oxford-based Inklings; and the relevance of his
themes, especially ecological themes, to the present-day.
Robert Boenig, C.S.
Lewis and the Middle Ages (Kent State Univ. Press, 2012)
Publisher’s Description
In C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages, medievalist Robert Boenig explores Lewis’s personal and professional engagement with medieval literature and culture and argues convincingly that medieval modes of creativity had a profound impact on Lewis’s imaginative fiction.
The Middle Ages affected Lewis in different ways. Early in his life he found medieval narrative compelling, sharing his love for it with others and first experiencing the intense spiritual longing he termed “joy” through his engagement with it. He went on to build a successful career as a scholar who was, as he put it, “chiefly a medievalist.” His creative writing not only evokes the Middle Ages but also adapts the medieval technique of appropriating and altering prior texts as a means of generating new stories. Understanding Lewis’s creative appropriation of previous sources is essential for a full assessment of his achievement as a creative writer.
For Lewis, the medieval was above all a place where he encountered the spiritual. It was through the medieval in its mode of Norse myths, particularly those involving the Norse god Balder, that he experienced “joy.” He delighted in hunting this joy through medieval books, like those of Malory or Chaucer, and also through more modern works that evoke the Middle Ages, such as the prose romances of William Morris. Among the works of devotion and spirituality that Lewis continually read toward the end of his life were the medieval classics The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis and Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich. The medieval for Lewis was a place where he could—and did—encounter God.
Using Lewis’s private correspondence, scholarly books and articles, and creative writing, Boenig charts Lewis’s involvement with all things medieval, demonstrating the importance of the Middle Ages in any assessment of Lewis’s literary achievements.
Hardcover:
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Alister McGrath, C.S.
Lewis—A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet (Tyndale House, 2013)
Publisher’s Description
ECPA 2014 Christian Book Award Winner (Non-Fiction)!
Fifty years after his death, C. S. Lewis continues to inspire and fascinate millions. His legacy remains varied and vast. He was a towering intellectual figure, a popular fiction author who inspired a global movie franchise around the world of Narnia, and an atheist-turned-Christian thinker.
In C.S. Lewis—A Life, Alister McGrath, prolific author and respected professor at King’s College of London, paints a definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis. After thoroughly examining recently published Lewis correspondence, Alister challenges some of the previously held beliefs about the exact timing of Lewis’s shift from atheism to theism and then to Christianity. He paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet for our times.
Fifty years after his death, C. S. Lewis continues to inspire and fascinate millions. His legacy remains varied and vast. He was a towering intellectual figure, a popular fiction author who inspired a global movie franchise around the world of Narnia, and an atheist-turned-Christian thinker.
In C.S. Lewis—A Life, Alister McGrath, prolific author and respected professor at King’s College of London, paints a definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis. After thoroughly examining recently published Lewis correspondence, Alister challenges some of the previously held beliefs about the exact timing of Lewis’s shift from atheism to theism and then to Christianity. He paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet for our times.
Kindle:
Corey Olsen, Exploring
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)
Publisher’s Description
"An admirable and thought-provoking consideration of the underlying themes of The Hobbit, following the there-and-back-again progress from its famous first line on through to Bilbo's return home at the story's end." -- Douglas A. Anderson, author of The Annotated Hobbit
The Hobbit is one of the most widely read and best-loved books of the twentieth century. Now Corey Olsen takes readers deep within the text to uncover its secrets and delights.
Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a fun, thoughtful, and insightful companion volume designed to bring a thorough and original new reading of this great work to a general audience. Professor Corey Olsen takes readers on an in-depth journey through The Hobbit chapter by chapter, revealing the stories within the story: the dark desires of dwarves and the sublime laughter of elves, the nature of evil and its hopelessness, the mystery of divine providence and human choice, and, most of all, the transformation within the life of Bilbo Baggins. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a book that will make The Hobbit come alive for readers as never before.
Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a fun, thoughtful, and insightful companion volume designed to bring a thorough and original new reading of this great work to a general audience. Professor Corey Olsen takes readers on an in-depth journey through The Hobbit chapter by chapter, revealing the stories within the story: the dark desires of dwarves and the sublime laughter of elves, the nature of evil and its hopelessness, the mystery of divine providence and human choice, and, most of all, the transformation within the life of Bilbo Baggins. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a book that will make The Hobbit come alive for readers as never before.
Kindle:
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Myth & Fantasy Studies Finalists
(winner) G. Ronald Murphy, Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross
in the North (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013) *
Umberto Eco and
Alastair McEwan, trans., The Book of Legendary Lands (Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2013)
Publisher’s Description
A fascinating illustrated tour of the fabled places in literature and folklore that have awed, troubled, and eluded us through the ages. From the epic poets of antiquity to contemporary writers of science fiction, from the authors of the Holy Scriptures to modern raconteurs of fairy tales, writers and storytellers through the ages have invented imaginary and mythical lands, projecting onto them all of our human dreams, ideals, and fears. In the tradition of his acclaimed History of Beauty, On Ugliness, and The Infinity of Lists, renowned writer and cultural critic Umberto Eco leads us on a beautifully illustrated journey through these lands of myth and invention, showing us their inhabitants, the passions that rule them, their heroes and antagonists, and, above all, the importance they hold for us. He explores this human urge to create such places, the utopias and dystopias where our imagination can confront things that are too incredible or challenging for our limited real world. Illuminated with more than 300 color images, The Book of Legendary Lands is both erudite and thoroughly enjoyable, bringing together disparate elements of our shared literary legacy in a way only Umberto Eco can. Homer’s poems and other ancient and medieval texts are presented side by side with Gulliver’s Travels and Alice in Wonderland; Tolkien shares space with Marco Polo’s Books of the Marvels of the World; films complement poems, and comics inform novels. Together, these stories have influenced the sensibilities and worldview of all of us.
Kindle:
Sandra J. Lindow,
Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development (Cambridge Scholars, 2012)
Publisher’s Description
Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development takes an original approach to Ursula K. Le Guin's work - speculative fiction, poetry and children's literature by considering her Taoist upbringing and then looking through the lens of moral development theorists such as Carol Gilligan and Mary Field Belenky and psychologists such as Lenore Terr and Jennifer J. Freyd. It is the most comprehensive approach to Le Guin's moral thinking to date. A particular emphasis is put on Le Guin's depiction of physical and sexual child abuse and its long term aftereffects such as post traumatic stress disorder. The focus throughout the book is on how morality develops through self-awareness and voice, how moral decisions are made and how Le Guin challenges readers to reconsider their own moral thinking This book covers all of Le Guin's major works such as The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Earthsea Series, Always Coming Home, The Telling and Lavinia, and it also looks in depth at work that is rarely discussed such as Le Guin's early work, her poetry, and her picture books.
Kindle:
Michael Saler, As If:
Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012)
Publisher’s Description Publication Date: December 8, 2011
Named One of the "Best Books of 2012" by the Editors of The Huffington Post Many people throughout the world "inhabit" imaginary worlds communally and persistently, parsing Harry Potter and exploring online universes. These activities might seem irresponsibly escapist, but history tells another story. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, when Sherlock Holmes became the world's first "virtual reality" character, readers began to colonize imaginary worlds, debating serious issues and viewing reality in provisional, "as if" terms rather than through essentialist, "just so" perspectives. From Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and Tolkien's Middle-earth to the World of Warcraft and Second Life, As If provides a cultural history that reveals how we can remain enchanted but not deluded in an age where fantasy and reality increasingly intertwine.
Kindle:
David Sandner,
Critical Discourses of the Fantastic, 1712-1831 (Ashgate, 2011)
Publisher’s Description
Challenging literary histories that locate the emergence of fantastic literature in the Romantic period, David Sandner shows that tales of wonder and imagination were extremely popular throughout the eighteenth century. Sandner engages contemporary critical definitions and defenses of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century fantastic literature, demonstrating that a century of debate and experimentation preceded the Romantic's interest in the creative imagination. In "The Fairy Way of Writing", Joseph Addison first defines the literary use of the supernatural in a 'modern' and 'rational' age. Other writers like Richard Hurd, James Beattie, Samuel Johnson, James Percy, and Walter Scott influence the shape of the fantastic by defining and describing the modern fantastic in relation to a fabulous and primitive past. As the genre of the 'purely imaginary', Sandner argues, the fantastic functions as a discourse of the sublime imagination, albeit a contested discourse that threatens to disrupt any attempt to ground the sublime in the realistic or sympathetic imagination. His readings of works by authors such as Ann Radcliffe, William Beckford, Horace Walpole, Mary Shelley, Walter Scott, and James Hogg not only redefine the antecedents of the fantastic but also offer a convincing account of how and why the fantastic came to be marginalized in the wake of the Enlightenment
Kindle:
GoodReads:
Please see the previous blog entry for the winners & finalists of the
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