![]() "To do the course I wanted to do, I had to write lectures and do the research." ![]() "When I began teaching this, I went to the library to check out all the books I could find on Tolkien, of which there were maybe four, and three of them were poorly written," Chance said. When Chance's first began teaching Tolkien as a course for Lovett College, she discovered the dearth of scholarship on Tolkien. They think it is children's literature and not worthy of any kind of study." "I thought, `This is really great stuff.' I had always denigrated it as so many people do. "I decided to read it myself and couldn't put it down," she said. Martin's Press, 1980) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power" (Maxwell Macmillan Press, 1992).Ĭhance first read Tolkien at the urging of a colleague at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the author of numerous books including two on Tolkien: "Tolkien's Art: A `Mythology for England'" (Macmillan Ltd., 1979 reprinted by St. Eliot's "Waste Land," and excerpts from George Orwell's "1984."Ĭhance has been teaching Tolkien at Rice since 1975. The class reading list includes titles such as Tolkien's letters, "Beowulf," T.S. They read a lot more than "Rings," which is about 1,400 pages long. Tolkien was a serious scholar, Shippey said, "and the most influential philologists of his time, and the most efficient transmitter of ancient stories to the modern world."Ĭhance's students quickly learn about that serious scholar. "When we talk about escapism and the ivory tower, it is not the fantasy writers who are in the ivory tower," Shippey said, "it is the literary critics." Lewis, George Orwell and later Joseph Heller in "Catch-22," all in their own way tried to make sense of the most pressing dilemma of their time-war or evil, said Thomas Shippey, the Walter J. One of the driving forces behind Tolkien's writings was the horror of modern, industrialized warfare, which he experienced firsthand in 1916 as a first lieutenant during the first battle of the Somme, during which 20,000 British soldiers died the first day of the four-month battle.Īlong with Tolkien, war veterans such as C.S. "You can see Tolkien writing out of response to World War II, Hitler and Nazis trying to take over the free world." "Tolkien raises many ethical and moral dilemmas that are similar to Joseph Conrad's `Heart of Darkness' or those in a Graham Greene novel or any modern novel that involves characters grappling with difficult questions," Chance said. Not so, says Jane Chance, professor of English and a medievalist, who teaches English 318, a course devoted to studying the works and influences of Tolkien. Some even view Tolkien, the South-African-born writer who died in 1973, as something of a cult figure who cannot be taken seriously. ![]() In part, that is because of the popularity of the "Ring" trilogy, which sold more than 3 million copies in the United States between 19. Some critics consider Tolkien's works to be children's literature and trivial. Oh, and they have large feet, and a well-groomed Hobbit combs his toes.įrodo Baggins, a Hobbit from the Shire, is the hero of Tolkien's epic-like fantasy about the struggle between good and evil. " They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements." ![]() Tolkien's famous Hobbit to pop up in a Rice University classroom.įrodo, for those who have never heard tales from beyond the hedges, is the most famous Hobbit who ever lived.Īccording to Tolkien, the author of the three-volume "Ring" trilogy, "Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people more numerous formerly than they are today. When people were sporting "Frodo Lives" bumper stickers on VW Beetles and toting copies of "The Lord of the Rings" in backpacks during the late '60s, they probably never expected J.R.R. ![]()
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