Mythlore articles from September 2008

Mythlore archives from September 2008

Editorial.(Editorial)
September 22, 2008... We regret that we must begin this issue of Mythlore by marking the passing of Pauline Baynes, illustrator par excellance of both Narnia and Middle-earth. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull provide us with a brief appreciation of her life and...

In memoriam: Pauline Baynes.(Obituary)
September 22, 2008... PAULINE BAYNES, WHO DIED ON AUGUST 1, 2008 at the age of eighty-five, was one of the most talented artists of the twentieth century. She was also shy and reserved, allowing the quality of her work to speak for itself, and as a result hers was...

Reconstructing Arda: of Feanor and the Unchaining of Melkor.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... ALTHOUGH J.R.R. TOLKIEN IS BEST KNOWN for having written The Lord of the Rings (and to a lesser extent, The Hobbit), The Silmarillion [Silm.] is arguably his most important work. He began working on the stories that provided the basis of what...

Gandalf and Merlin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Adoption and Transformation of a Literary Tradition.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... IN A 1954 ESSAY, DESIGNED ORIGINALLY to provide an index of names for The Lord of the Rings, (1) J.R.R. Tolkien introduces Gandalf as the least of the Istari, the messengers from Valar: [L]ast came one who seemed the least, less tall than...

Dragons and serpents in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series: are they evil?(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... ONE OF THE GREAT PLEASURES of reading the Harry Potter series stems from the numerous mythological and literary references that J.K. Rowling has included in her magical universe. Rowling's amazing ability to merge these cultural allusions with...

Time and J.R.R. Tolkien's "Riddles in the Dark".(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... THOMAS D. HILL NOTED in a Review of English Studies essay titled "Saturn's Time Riddle: An Insular Latin Analogue for Solomon and Saturn Lines 282-91" that the riddle Bilbo was able to "answer" only by a stroke of luck was likely to be familiar...

So far from the shire: psychological distance and isolation in The Lord of the Rings.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... TOLKIEN'S EPIC TALE THE LORD OF THE RINGS follows the journey of Frodo Baggins as he travels away from the safety and familiarity of his home in the Shire to fulfill the almost impossible mission of destroying the powerful One Ring. Along with...

The blade against the burden: the iconograpgy of the sword in The Lord of the Rings.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... IF ONE CONSIDERS THE TERM "ARTIFACT" in relation to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, several thoughts spring to mind. First and foremost is the way in which his work has been regarded as cultural artifact, born out of his generation's experience...

A single leaf: Tolkien's visual art and fantasy.(J. R. R. Tolkien)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... IN HIS ESSAY "ON FAIRY-STORIES," Tolkien formulated ideas about fantasy and myth-making that are founded on the primacy of language and narrative art: "The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are in our world coeval" ("On Fairy-Stories"...

The non-dead in John Dickson Carr's The Burning Court.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... I enjoyed The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr more than the novels of [Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham]. There is a tinge of black magic that gives it a little of the interest of a horror story, and the author has a...

Fair Lady Goldberry, daughter of the River.(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... "Come, dear folk!" she said, taking Frodo by the hand. "Laugh and be merry! I am Goldberry, daughter of the River." (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings [LotR] I:7, 121) CRITICS HAVE TAKEN J.R.R. TOLKIEN TO TASK for the paucity of female characters...

Investigating the role and origin of Goldberry in Tolkien's mythology.(J. R. R. Tolkien)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2008... DISCUSSING TOM BOMBADIL IN A LETTER, Tolkien explains: "As a story, I think it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation already exists) [...] even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as...

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens In The Imagination Of C. S. Lewis.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... PLANET NARNIA: THE SEVEN HEAVENS IN THE IMAGINATION OF C.S. LEWIS. Michael Ward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. xvi + 347 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-19-531387-1. THE THESIS OF MICHAEL WARD'S PLANET NARNIA can be stated briefly: C.S....

Owen Barfield: Romanticism Comes of Age: A Biography.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... OWEN BARFIELD: ROMANTICISM COMES OF AGE: A BIOGRAPHY. Simon Blaxland-de Lange. Forest Row, Sussex: Temple Lodge, 2006. 352 pp. $45.00. ISBN-10: 1 902636 77 5; ISBN-13: 978 1902636 77 1. THIS, THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH BIOGRAPHY of the most...

Arthurian Writers: A Bibliography Encyclopedia.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... ARTHURIAN WRITERS: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. Ed. Laura Cooner Lambdin and Robert Thomas Lambdin. Westport, Connecticut and London: The Greenwood Press, 2008. xxiii + 402 pp. $95.00. ISBN 978-0-313-34682-8. GIVEN HOW UBIQUITOUS AND...

Hunting The Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... HUNTING THE UNICORN: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF RUTH PITTER. Don W. King. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2008. Hardcover. xviii + 342 pp. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-87338-947-1. RUTH PITTER, BESIDES BEING AN EXCELLENT POET, was a friend...

Inside Language: Linguistic and Aesthetic Theory In Tolkien.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... INSIDE LANGUAGE: LINGUISTIC AND AESTHETIC THEORY IN TOLKIEN. Ross Smith. Berne and Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2007. ISBN 978-3905703061. Softcover. 154pp. $16.20. IN THIS SLIM VOLUME, ROSS SMITH intends to provide "the general reader...

The Voice of the Heart: The Working of Mervyn peake's Imagination.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... THE VOICE OF THE HEART: THE WORKING OF MERVYN PEAKE'S IMAGINATION. G. Peter Winnington. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2006. Hardcover: xiii + 290 pp.-55.00. ISBN 13-978-1-84631-022-5. G. PETER WINNINGTON'S THE VOICE OF THE HEART is...

Tolkien On Fairy-Stories.(Book review)
September 22, 2008... TOLKIEN ON FAIRY-STORIES. J.R.R. Tolkien. Expanded edition, with Commentary and Notes by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-0007244669. Hardcover. 320pp. 16.99 [pounds sterling]. WITHIN...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
September 22, 2008... A GOOD FRIEND RECENTLY PASSED ON TO ME a copy of an article from the Fall/Winter 2007 edition of Mythlore, Eric Seddon's piece "Letters to Malcolm and the Trouble with Narnia: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Their 1949 Crisis." This is without...