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Tolkien scholars to discuss 'Lord of the Rings'
Andrea
Lynn , Humanities Editor
(217) 333-2177; a-lynn@illinois.edu
12/5/01
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In
anticipation of the Dec. 19 release of the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s
classic, "The Lord of the Rings," local Tolkien scholars will
gather on Friday (Dec. 7) to consider some of the more academic aspects
of the work.
The panel discussion on "The Medieval Sources of Tolkien's ‘Lord
of the Rings' " is set for 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Lucy Ellis Lounge
of the Foreign Languages Building, 707 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. The
panelists will be Thomas Shippey, English, St. Louis University, author
of "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" and "Road
to Middle-Earth" and a former colleague of Tolkien at Oxford; and
Robert Barrett and Alfred Siewers, both in the UI English department.
The event, which is sponsored by the new UI Program in Medieval Studies,
is free and open to the public.
According to Siewers (pronounced SEE-verz), who teaches the Tolkien
course at the UI, the popularity of "The Lord of the Rings"
is "partly a mystery: It's a big book filled with obscure references,
and it's fairly anti-technological, although many of its biggest fans
are cybertechies.
"But it's also a text that recreates a sense of a whole fantasy
world with layers of history, languages and issues of heroism, good,
evil, romance, etc. Yet all of this is grounded in important ways: in
a fairly realistic narrative style, in landscapes that purport to be
a way-prehistoric Europe, in plot themes and characterization and lore
drawn from real medieval tradition, and with heroes – the hobbits
– who are kind of English-style Everymen but with furry feet. So,
there are many points of connection between Tolkien's elfin realms and
the ‘real’ earth."
Because "The Lord" draws on ancient traditions and transmits
them to modern readers, it acts, in a way, as "a substitute religion
to non-believers and as a reinforcer of faith to the faithful. That's
why it counts hippies, techies, evangelicals and preppies among its
loyal fans."
Tolkien really knew his stuff, according to Siewers.
"He studied how stories worked in ancient tradition, he thought
a lot about the interaction between mythology and religion and narrative
in relation to the human soul, and he wrote what he described as a Catholic
story, which isn’t religious, and a mythology for England, which
isn't irreligious."
The book, Siewers said, was such an oddity when it first emerged that
publishers didn't know what to make of it. Still, it became "the
grandfather of modern fantasy writing, and also was voted by Amazon.com
customers in 2000 as 'the book of the millennium.' This, despite the
fact that a lot of academic types continue to pooh-pooh it."
