News: December 2014

In a recent article in The Guardian, John Garth has described hitherto unknown parallels between the death of Smaug in The Hobbit and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha.

The Matador Network has put up a parody of The Hobbit answering the question “What Bilbo’s journey would look like today” in 2014, rather than 2941 of the Third Age.

In an blogpost for the Guardian, writer Damian Walter argues that, despite Tolkien’s excellence, his stories are “profoundly conservative” fantasies that “mythologise human history”.

Oxford University have released a podcast featuring a discussion between Leslie Megahey, the director of the 1968 BBC documentary Tolkien in Oxford, and Dr Stuart Lee. Megahey talks about the film-making experience and what it was like to meet and interview Tolkien.

We would just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. – Thorin Oakenshield, The Hobbit Artwork: “Arrival at Bag End by Anke Eißmann.

Professor Tom Shippey and Nelson Goering will be teaching an online course with the Mythgard Institute on Tolkien and Beowulf. Classes for “Beowulf Through Tolkien, And Vice Versa” will run from 13 January to 3 April 2015.

In a recent article in The Guardian, John Garth has described hitherto unknown parallels between the death of Smaug in The Hobbit and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha.

Oxford University have released a podcast featuring a discussion between Leslie Megahey, the director of the 1968 BBC documentary Tolkien in Oxford, and Dr Stuart Lee. Megahey talks about the film-making experience and what it was like to meet and interview Tolkien.

The Matador Network has put up a parody of The Hobbit answering the question “What Bilbo’s journey would look like today” in 2014, rather than 2941 of the Third Age.

We would just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. – Thorin Oakenshield, The Hobbit Artwork: “Arrival at Bag End by Anke Eißmann.

In an blogpost for the Guardian, writer Damian Walter argues that, despite Tolkien’s excellence, his stories are “profoundly conservative” fantasies that “mythologise human history”.

Professor Tom Shippey and Nelson Goering will be teaching an online course with the Mythgard Institute on Tolkien and Beowulf. Classes for “Beowulf Through Tolkien, And Vice Versa” will run from 13 January to 3 April 2015.