Syllabus

UNIT I: Origin Stories as Points of Orientation ~ Myth, Folklore and the Great War

Week 1: Introducing the Inklings and Course Content

TUES (02-JAN-18)                     (no classes today)

THURS (04-JAN-18)

Course Overview and Brief Introduction to the Inklings

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Inklings:

Week 2: Tolkien’s Reading, Reading Tolkien: Defining “Myth,” Fairy-Stories and Anglo-Saxon Origins

The purpose of this week is to consider the definition of “myth” in the context of Tolkien’s historical and cultural present; the secondary source readings are intended to provide some background on Tolkien’s contributions to Anglo-Saxon and Medieval scholarship at Oxford. We will then apply some of the concepts that we’ve learned to one of Tolkien’s fairy-stories from Tales from the Perilous Realm. 

TUES (09-JAN-18)    Laying the Foundations, or a Brief Introduction to Tolkien’s Scholarship

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Kathryn (Kate) Ney, Andrew (A.J.) Reimer

Required Reading:

Secondary Readings:

  • Verlyn Flieger, “There would always be a Fairy-Tale: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Folklore Controversy,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, edited by Jane Chance (UBC Library online)
  • Jane Chance, “The Critic as Monster: Tolkien’s Lectures, Prefaces, and Forward,” in Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England (UBC Library online)

THURS (11-JAN-18)  Applying the Concepts, or Considering Tolkien’s Fairy-Story Realm in “Farmer Giles of Ham”

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Valen Tam, Daphne de Grandpre

Required Reading:

Secondary Readings:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Leaf by Niggle,” in Tales from the Perilous Realm (PDF uploaded on Connect and Google Drive in the “Week 02” folder),  you can also find the audiobook here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H7AdiinKWY 
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Smith of Wootton Major,” in Tales from the Perilous Realm (PDF uploaded on Connect and Google Drive in the “Week 02” folder)
  • Matthew Dickerson, “The Ecology of Ham, Niggle’s Parish, and Wootton Major,” in Ents, Elves and Eriador: the Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien (UBC Library online)

Week 3: Tolkien’s Silmarillion: Tolkien’s Cosmology and Comparative Mythologies

The purpose of this week is to consider Tolkien’s Silmarillion in comparison with other mythologies; the secondary source readings are intended to provide some background in terms of Tolkien’s scholarship, as well as his antecedents. We will consider the elements of “creation-myths” and “origin-stories,” and discuss what these cosmologies might reflect about the political, social, or cultural realities of their creators. Such contexts might include the events of WWI-WWII, an emerging environmental consciousness, as well as the concepts of race, gender, art, and technology.

TUES (16-JAN-18)    Opening with a Bang: Eru Ilúvatar’s Creation of Arda, the Valar and Maiar

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Andrew (A. J.) Reimer, John Wragg

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Ainulindalë,” “Valaquenta,” and “Quenta Silmarillion 1-4” in The Silmarillion

THURS (18-JAN-18) Morgoth, Fëanor and the Problem of Good and Evil in Middle-Earth

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Kienan Burrage, Marcy Nelson

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Quenta Simarillion 5-10” in The Silmarillion

Secondary Readings for this Week:

  • Course Hand-Out Package: “Satan, the Silmarillion, and Symphonic Re-Imaginings of Creation Stories,” uploaded to Connect and Google Drive in the “Week 03” folder
  • Jane Chance, “The Creator of the Simarils: Tolkien’s ‘Book of Lost Tales,” in Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England (UBC Library online)
  • Matthew Dickerson, “Varda, Yavanna, and the Value of Creation,” Ents, Elves and Eriador: the Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien (UBC Library online)
  • Bradford Lee Eden, “The ‘Music of the Spheres’: Relationships between Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and Medieval Cosmological and Religious Theory,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, edited by Jane Chance (UBC online)
  • Gergely Nagy, “The Silmarillion: Tolkien’s Theory of Myth, Text, and Culture,” in A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien (UBC Library online)

Week 4: Tolkien’s Silmarillion: Romance, Mortality and Inter-textuality in Tolkien’s Mythos

The purpose of this week is to consider Tolkien’s attitudes towards fate (wyrd, cyninges dom) and mortality, and to contemplate how the comparative fates of the Elves (Vanyar, Noldor, Teleri, Sindar), the Dwarvish clans of Nogrod and Belegost, as well as the fate of Men, the Second People, might have been informed by Tolkien’s experiences in war and his attitudes towards racial difference. In light of this week’s guest lecture in the English Department on “Race, White Supremacy and the Middle Ages,” as led by Dr. Adam Miyashiro (not required to attend, but recommended), I have also suggested some articles specifically on Tolkien’s “anthropology.”

TUES (23-JAN-18)  Betrayal, Balrogs and the Wars of Beleriand: Fate, Race and Mortality 

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Louis Renard, Jameson Thomas

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Quenta Silmarillion 11-16” in The Silmarillion

Secondary Reading: 

  • Richard J. Whitt, “Germanic Fate and Doom in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion,” Mythlore 29, no. 1-2 (UBC Library online)

THURS (25-JAN-18)  Beren and Lúthien – Sacrifice, Resurrection and the Stolen Silmaril

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Justin Carless, John Wragg

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Quenta Simarillion 17-20” in The Silmarillion

Secondary Reading:

  • Richard C. West, “Real-World Myth in a Secondary World: Mythological Aspects in the Story of Beren and Lúthien,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, edited by Jane Chance (UBC Library online)

FRIDAY JANUARY 26: Check out the two guest lectures being offered by the UBC English Department. Discussion to follow, should anyone be interested and available to attend.

Secondary Readings, on Race and Tolkien’s Anthropology:

  • Rebecca Brackman, “Dwarves are not Heroes: Anti-Semitism and the Dwarves in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Writing,” Mythlore (UBC Library online)
  • Christine Chism, “Middle-Earth, the Middle Ages, and the Aryan Nation: Myth and History in World War II,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, edited by Jane Chance (UBC online)
  • Jonathan Evans, “The Anthropology of Arda: Creation, Theology and the Race of Men,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, edited by Jane Chance (UBC online)

12:00 – 1:00 PM BUCH TOW 599 Dr. Hilary Eklund, “Swamped: Wetlands and Mobility in the Early Modern Atlantic,” https://oecologies.com/conferences-colloquia/ 

3:00 – 4:30 PM BUCH TOW 599 Dr. Adam Miyashiro, “Race, White Supremacy and the Middle Ages,” https://www.facebook.com/events/154024552047118/

Week 5: Tolkien’s Silmarillion: Decline, Ruin and the Rings of Power

This week we will conclude our discussion of The Silmarillion and consider it in in the context of Tolkien’s legendarium. We will continue our discussion of doom, death, fate (wyrd, cyninges dom) and mortality, in conjunction with mankind’s capacity to control or change fate; specifically, we will be discussing the Turn episode, the power of naming, and the “call of the west.” The purpose of this week is to close our unit on Tolkien’s mythos, and to offer any final insights or parallels with The Lord of the Rings texts more generally.

TUES (30-JAN-18)    

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Louis Renard, Jameson Thomas

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Quenta Silmarillion 21-24” in The Silmarillion

Secondary Reading:         (no secondary readings for this day)

THURS (1-FEB-18)

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Justin Carless, Valen Tam

Required Reading:

  • J. R. R. Tolkien, “Akallabêth,” and “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”

Secondary Reading: (no secondary readings for this day; bring relevant selections from LOTR if so inclined)

Week 6: Inklings and the Arthurian Legend: Myth as History in Roger Lancelyn Green’s Arthur and his Knights

The purpose of this week is to consider the relationship between myth and history, particularly as it pertains to British and German nation-building during the early twentieth century; although Roger Lancelyn Green’s retelling of the Arthurian canon will prompt our discussion, I invite you to contemplate ways in which medieval icons and histories have similarly informed ideologies and propaganda up to the present day. Dr. Echard will be providing us with some examples, through which we can make these connections and think more critically about the material we study as Arts students.

TUES (06-FEB-18) Myth, Magic and Historical Fact: Meditating on Green’s Tales and the Arthurian Legend 

DISCUSSION LEADERS ~ Daphne de Grandpre, Kathryn Ney

Required Reading:

  • Selections from Roger Lancelyn Green’s King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (PDF on Connect)

Secondary Reading: (no secondary readings for this day)

THURS (08-FEB-18)   GUEST LECTURE BY DR. Siân Echard

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