Tolkien and His Sources

Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays
Edited by Jason Fisher

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6482-1
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8728-8
notes, bibliography, index
240pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $40.00


About the Book
Source criticism--analysis of a writer’s source material--has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers’ appreciation. This set of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology for proper source criticism and provides practical demonstrations of the approach.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Preface
Jason Fisher 1

Introduction: Why Source Criticism?
Tom Shippey 7
Source Criticism: Background and Applications
E. L. Risden 17
Tolkien and Source Criticism: Remarking and Remaking
Jason Fisher 29
The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia
Nicholas Birns 45
Sea Birds and Morning Stars: Ceyx, Alcyone, and the Many Metamorphoses of Eärendil and Elwing
Kristine Larsen 69
“Byzantium, New Rome!” Goths, Langobards, and Byzantium in The Lord of the Rings
Miryam Librán-Moreno 84
The Rohirrim: “Anglo-Saxons on Horseback”? An Inquiry into Tolkien’s Use of Sources
Thomas Honegger 116
William Caxton’s The Golden Legend as a Source for Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Judy Ann Ford 133
She and Tolkien, Revisited
John D. Rateliff 145
Reading John Buchan in Search of Tolkien
Mark T. Hooker 162
Biography as Source: Niggles and Notions
Diana Pavlac Glyer and Josh B. Long 193

About the Contributors 215
Index 219


About the Author
Jason Fisher is an independent scholar specializing in J.R.R. Tolkien, the Inklings, and Medieval Germanic philology. He is also the editor of Mythprint, the monthly publication of The Mythopoeic Society, and has written for Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, Beyond Bree, North Wind, Renaissance, and other publications.

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media

Edited by Audrey L. Becker and Kristin Noone 

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6170-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8725-7
notes, bibliographies, index
234pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $35.00

About the Book
Examining how we interpret Welshness today, this volume brings together fourteen essays covering a full range of representations of Welsh mythology, folklore, and ritual in popular culture. Topics covered include the twentieth-century fantasy fiction of Evangeline Walton, the Welsh presence in the films of Walt Disney, Welshness in folk music, video games, and postmodern literature. Together, these interdisciplinary essays explore the ways that Welsh motifs have proliferated in this age of cultural cross-pollination, spreading worldwide the myths of one small British nation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Re-Imagining Wales
AUDREY L. BECKER and KRISTIN NOONE 1
Celtic Studies and Modern Fantasy Literature
C.W. SULLIVAN III 9
“The Rough, Savage Strength of Earth”: Evangeline Walton’s Human Heroes and Mythic Spaces
KRISTIN NOONE 18
Branwen’s Shame: Voicing the Silent Feminine in Evangeline Walton’s The Children of Llyr
NICOLE A. THOMAS 30
Disavowing Maternity in Evangeline Walton’s The Virgin and the Swine: Fantasy Meets the Social Protest Fiction of the 1930s
DEBORAH HOOKER 42
“An Age-Old Memory”: Arthur Machen’s Celtic Redaction of the Welsh Revival in The Great Return
GEOFFREY REITER 61
Magical Goods, “Orphaned” Exchanges, Punishment and Power in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi
SUSANA BROWER 81
The Hand at the Window: Twm Siôn Cati, the Welsh Colonial Trickster
JONATHAN EVANS and STEPHEN KNIGHT 91
An Irregular Union: Exploring the Welsh Connection to a Popular African-American Wedding Ritual
TYLER D. PARRY 108
Constructing Myth in Music: Heather Dale, King Arthur and “Culhwch and Olwen”
MEGAN MACALYSTRE 130
Torchwood’s “Spooky-Do’s”: A Popular Culture Perspective on Celtic Mythology
LYNNETTE R. PORTER 140
Everyday Magic: Howl’s Moving Castle and Fantasy as Sociopolitical Commentary
CAROLYNN E. WILCOX 160
Loosely Based: The Problems of Adaptation in Disney’s The Black Cauldron
JEFF HICKS 171
We’re Not in Cymru Anymore: What’s Really Happening in the Online Mabinogi
CLAY KINCHEN SMITH 182
Temporality, Teleology and the Mabinogi in the Twenty-First Century
AUDREY L. BECKER 195

Further Reading 213
About the Contributors 219
Index 221


About the Author
Audrey L. Becker is an assistant professor of English literature at Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. She writes on the intersection between Renaissance literature and cultural studies.  

Kristin Noone is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Riverside; her dissertation links medieval romance, fantasy fiction, and popular culture studies. She publishes academic articles on fantasy and medievalism as well as short fantasy fiction.

Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville.

C.W. Sullivan III is Distinguished Professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies

Corporate Medievalism

Corporate Medievalism
Studies in Medievalism XXI

Edited by Karl Fugelso

Details

First Published: 19 Jul 2012
$90.00

13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843221
Pages: 208
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medievalism
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
Details updated on 27 Nov 2011

Academia has never been immune to corporate culture, and despite the persistent association of medievalism with escapism, perhaps never has that been more obvious than at the present moment. The six essays that open the volume explore precisely how financial institutions have promoted, distorted, appropriated, resisted, and repudiated post-medieval interpretations of the middle ages. In the second part of the book, contributors explore medievalism in a variety of areas, juxtaposing specific case studies with broader investigations of the disciplines' motives and methods; they include Charles Kingsley's racial Anglo-Saxonism, Jessie L. Weston's Sir Gawain and the treatment of women in medievalist film. The book also includes a spirited response to previous Studies in Medievalism volumes on the topic neomedievalism.

Contributors: Harry Brown, Henrik Aubert, Helen Brookman, Pamela Clements, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Jil Hanifan, Michael R. Kightley, Felice Lifshitz, Lauren S. Mayer, Brent Moberley, Kevin Moberley, E. L. Risden, Carol L. Robinson, M. J. Toswell, J. Rubén Valdés Miyares

Contents
1 Editorial Notes
2 Lives of Total Dedication? Medieval and Modern Corporate Identity
3 Reincorporating the Medieval: Morality, Chivalry, and Honor in Post-Financial-Meltdown Corporate Revisionism
4 Medievalism and Representations of Corporate Identity
5 Knights of the Ownership Society: Economic Inequality and Medievalist Film
6 A Corporate neo-Beowulf: Ready or Not, Here We Come
7 Unsettled Accounts: Corporate Culture and George R.R. Martin's Fetish Medievalism
8 Historicizing Neumatic Notation: Medieval Neumes as Cultural Artefacts of Early Modern Times
9 Hereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism
10 From Romance to Ritual: Jessie L. Weston's Gawain
11 The Cinematic Sign of the Grail
12 Destructive Dominae: Women and Vengeance in Medievalist Film (Felice Lifshitz) (abstract)
13 Neomedievalism Unplugged
14 Notes on Contributors

CFP Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends at PCA 2012

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends (download PDF)

at the 42nd  Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference

April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for papers and panel proposals on all popular treatments of the Middle Ages or
Arthurian Legend from any period and in any medium. We will consider all proposals for
papers, but we especially encourage abstracts on the following for this year’s conference:

Arthurian themes in Dragon Age I and II 
Harry Potter and medievalism
The Lost finale and the Holy Grail
Medievalism in Martin’s Game of Thrones
The Mists of Avalon after 30 years
New Camelots: Camelot on Starz and the BBC’s Merlin
Paranormal romance and medievalism
Robin Hood

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and papers must keep to a reading time of 15
minutes (approximately 7-8 double spaced pages). Be sure to include your full name,
affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address on your abstract, not just in
the email. Email submissions are preferred.

Deadline: December 15, 2011
Send submissions to Amy Kaufman at: kaufmana@mtsu.edu
or mail to:
Amy S. Kaufman
Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU Box 0070, 1301 East Main Street
Murfreesboro, TN  37132-0001

Please note: Membership in the PCA is required for participation. Membership forms and more
information about the conference are available online at www.pcaaca.org.

CFP ICoM 2012

Call for Papers (download the CFP)

27th International Conference on Medievalism 

Hosted by Kent State University Regional Campuses 

(October 18-20, 2012)

THEME: Medievalism(s) & Diversity

Deadline: June 1, 2012

Conference Theme: Is there diversity in medievalism? How has medievalism represented diversity of religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, gender,...? How have medievalist works supported issues concerning equity and inclusion? How have medievalist works oppressed and suppressed? Are there elements of bigotry and discrimination? What about human rights as a medieval concept, as a contemporary concept? Media to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: novels, plays, films, art works, the Internet, television, historical works, political works, comics, video games. Angles to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: race, gender, sexuality, disability/ability, religion, corporation and/or class, nationality, human rights, political correctness, marginalization, anti-marginalization tactics, rewritten codes, rewritten ideologies, re-affirmed codes, re-affirmed ideologies.

Conference Location: Nestled on 200 beautiful acres, yet only minutes from the hustle and bustle of The Strip and Westfield Belden Village Mall, Kent State University at Stark provides a quiet, serene and picturesque setting for students and the community to enjoy. With rolling hills, a pond, walking trail, and a Campus Center and Food Emporium, it is located in Jackson Township, just five minutes from the Akron-Canton Airport and easily accessible from Interstate-77.

Publication Opportunities:
Selected papers related to the conference theme will be published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism.


Deadline: June 1, 2012
Please send paper and/or session proposals to either
Carol Robinson (Conference Chair) or to Elizabeth Williamsen (Conference Assistant Chair).

Carol L. Robinson, Conference Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Trumbull
4314 Mahoning Avenue, NW
Warren, Ohio 44483
EMAIL: clrobins@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

Elizabeth Williamsen, Conference Assist. Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Stark
6000 Frank Avenue, NW
North Canton, Ohio 44720
EMAIL: ewilli46@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

ICoM 2011

With apologies for cross-posting:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism recently convened its 26th International Conference on Medievalism at the University of New Mexico under the general theme of Medievalism, Arthuriana, and Landscapes of Enchantment from 21-22 October 2011. The complete program can be accessed at http://ims.unm.edu/sim/.