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Tolkien’s Exceptional Visit to Holland, Revisited: An Acquaintance with Maartje Draak
No full textThis note revisits J.R.R. Tolkien’s trip to the Netherlands, March 28-31, 1958, including his attendance at the Rotterdam Hobbit-maaltijd (“Hobbit Meal” or “Hobbit Dinner”), and afterwards. It focuses specifically on his interactions with Prof. Dr. Maartje Draak, a prominent Dutch Celticist. Although Prof. Draak is not mentioned in René van Rossenberg’s paper, “Tolkien’s Exceptional Visit to Holland: A Reconstruction” (Mythlore 1996), items from Prof. Draak’s archives at Utrecht University and an offprint paper she sent to Tolkien in 1959 allow us to recover Tolkien’s acquaintance with this important Dutch scholar, to enhance our picture of the famous Hobbit Dinner, and to provide insights into Tolkien’s personal reflections and professional relationships during this period
The Soldier’s Stigmata, Part I: \u3ci\u3eHabitus\u3c/i\u3e and Speaking of the Future Otherwise in Lois McMaster Bujold’s “The Borders of Infinity”
No full textThis article will explore the connection between Lois McMaster Bujold’s novella “The Borders of Infinity,” the Aristotelian theory of habitus as developed further in the letters of the Apostle Paul and by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and the four senses of interpretation of scripture first conceived in antiquity and later refined by medieval philosophers. Habitus as a durable disposition, state, or condition (Aristotle) is a structured and structuring social practice or set of social practices (Bourdieu) that Paul’s letters are described figuratively as armor or a garment (a “habit” or clothing, like that worn by priests, monks, and nuns). Moreover, habitus as Bourdieu defines the word generates new dispositions toward and socially defined possibilities for the future, which the Christian interpretative tradition is represented by anagogy, the component of the four senses that outline the possibilities that also outlines future possibilities for justice and salvation. In Bujold’s “The Borders of Infinity,” Miles appears in a prison camp set up by the Cetagandan Empire to free its prisons and create a resistance army to fight the Cetagandans. But he also bears the stigmata of a soldier, marks created by wearing combat armor. It declares his habitus, and his vocation as a solder who, like a Christian wearing the armor of God (as Paul would put it), is one who comes to liberate, to save, and to bring justice. He is therefore readily interpreted as a figure of Christ, or Messianic figure. But the novella puts this into question as the efficacy of the four senses is put into doubt, demanding that the reader ask whether Miles is the cause of a Messianic and Christian interpretation of his story, or its effect
December 2025
No full textSWOSU Wellness 5k Employee Massages 12/4 & 12/5 Flu Season Winter Crosswordhttps://dc.swosu.edu/wellness/1082/thumbnail.jp
Still Perilous, Still Fair: Perspectives on the Legacy, or How (not)Eowyn and (not)Galadriel Made the Magic Work
No full textAn informal and wide-ranging conversation between the co-editors of Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien will cover the genesis and development of the project and the pitfalls and traps for the unwary we encountered along the way. We\u27ll talk about the technicalities of our process as editors -- from developing the call for papers through choosing the cover art. And we\u27ll assess the influence the collection has had on subsequent scholarship, and the continuing significance of some of the work included
Grendel\u27s Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women\u27s Mythopoeic Revisions
No full textGrendel\u27s Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women\u27s Mythopoeic Revisions examines how twenty-first-century feminist adaptations and translations examine the significance and point of view of Grendel\u27s Mother, a character from the Old English poem Beowulf. In contrast to past views of Beowulf, especially in J.R.R. Tolkien\u27s influential essay on the poem, these women writers and scholars argue for the central role of Grendel\u27s Mother and give voice to her story. The paper discusses the main features of these adaptations, covering topics of narrative voice, borderlands, violence, and motherhood, and generally questions the concept of monstrosity as applied to Grendel\u27s Mother. The paper was delivered at the Online Midsummer Seminar, More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy, in August 2025
Interview with Professor John McKinnell Concerning Tolkien’s Lectures on \u3ci\u3eBeowulf\u3c/i\u3e
Full text linkProfessor John McKinnell attended his classes on Beowulf as a student in the early 1960s. The interview sheds more light on Tolkien as a lecturer
\u3ci\u3eArt and Enchantment: How Wonder Works\u3c/i\u3e by Patrick Curry
Full text linkPatrick Curry has written extensively on Tolkien, art and enchantment, and Art and Enchantment is his most academic in nature on these subjects, and the most fully developed and detailed. Curry describes and analyzes both enchantment and disenchantment. He focuses on art, artists and artistic movements and whether they might be more, or less, conducive to enchantment. In particular he notes that modernism is largely hostile to enchantment