You certainly won't want to miss today’s episode of Mythmakers where Julia Golding is meeting with Professor John Holmes from Birmingham University.

John has made a name for himself by giving performances of Tolkien's 1938 lecture on dragons, complete with the magic lantern slides discovered in the archives of Oxford's Natural History Museum. Today, John and Julia will go on to discuss the fantasy writers of the Victorian period, Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and Ruskin—all important influences on today’s modern fantasy, often mediated via Tolkien. In this discussion’s final lap, John talks about his work taking people into a very special forest—Ruskin Land—and researching their response to fantasy forests read in situ.

To learn more about Birmingham Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR), and to take a virtual tour of Ruskin Land, visit the links below:

https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/courses/52405/pages/cross-curricular-climate-change-education

https://www.thinglink.com/card/1803482248435991014

For more information on the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, our writing courses, and to check out our awesome social media content visit:

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(00:05) Exploring Tolkien's Dragons Lecture
(11:29) Exploring Tolkien's Creative Influence
(18:13) Exploring Influences on Tolkien's Fantasy
(30:57) Fantasy Authors' Shared Social Critique
(35:37) Enchanting Forests in Fantasy Literature