Fantasy Literature

A short talk on Susan Cooper. A short talk on Susan Cooper, whose children's fantasy literature books are often labelled as being part of the 'Oxford School'. The talk is by Tom Morcom, DPhil (Old Norse), Linacre College.

A short talk on Daoxuan and medieval Chinese fantasy. A short talk on Daoxuan and medieval Chinese fantasy by Nelson Landry, DPhil student at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.

An interview with Catherine McIlwaine on the Tolkien archive at Bodley and the exhibition of 2018 - Part 2 Interview with Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian. This second part deals with the 2018 exhibition itself, putting it together, and feedback from visitors.

An interview with Catherine McIlwaine on the Tolkien archive at Bodley and the exhibition of 2018 - Part 1. Interview with Catherine McIlwaine, the Tolkien Archivist, by Stuart Lee on the Tolkien archive at Bodley. Part one contains details about the history of the archive, its relationship to the collection at Marquette University, how the collection came to be at Oxford and what it contains.

This lecture is an introduction to J.R.R. Tolkien's third major work, 'The Silmarillion' (1977), and considers its lengthy development in numerous prose and verse texts over fifty years. This lecture offers a guided tour through the development of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Silmarillion' corpus, inclusive of The Silmarillion (1977) and the earlier versions of the same work published in the History of Middle Earth series (1983-1996). The most mythological and magisterial of Tolkien's major works, the 1977 Silmarillion (and its antecedents) gives the reader a very different experience and perspective than his more famous and widely read works, The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). A mythology in the true sense, the 'Silmarillion' corpus is peopled with gods and other preternatural beings and represents the earliest comprehensive work of Tolkien's imagination. Since it was begun in earnest in the middle of the First World War, one of the most turbulent periods in modern history, its tone is more sober and its events more tragic than those of his other classics, but its powerful messages of nobility in the face of defeat and courage in darkness resonate with the world events of the time in which it was produced.

An analysis of two forms that dominate fantasy literature. Prosimetrum, the alternation between verse and prose as a narrative form, was an extremely popular form of writing in the ancient and medieval world. This talk asks why prosimetrum has survived as a literary form in modern fantasy literature and explores how fantasy writers like Tolkien and Kay employ shifts between verse and prose to dramatic effect within their work.

Dr Katherine Marie Olley is the VH Galbraith Junior Research Fellow in Medieval Studies at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she is currently researching childbirth in Old Norse literature and society. She studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (BA Hons, MPhil) and received her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2019 for her dissertation on kinship in Old Norse myth and legend.

A short introduction to the writer Guy Gavriel Kay. An introduction to the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay, examining his development as a writer from his early high fantasy roots to his later more historically-inspired novels. The talk discusses the dominant themes in Kay’s work, from his reflections on the retrospective construction of history to his enduring fascination with the power of art.

Dr Katherine Marie Olley is the VH Galbraith Junior Research Fellow in Medieval Studies at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she is currently researching childbirth in Old Norse literature and society. She studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (BA Hons, MPhil) and received her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2019 for her dissertation on kinship in Old Norse myth and legend.

Monsters and evil in Tolkien Smaug the Golden, Sauron the Terrible, the Balrog of Moria... These are some of J. R. R. Tolkien's most remarkable antagonists, and few of us would disagree that, without them, his novels would not be the same. But what is the secret of their success as monstrous antagonists? Discover the answer in this twenty-minute podcast.

Rafael J. Pascual is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at CLASP: A Consolidated Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, an EU-funded project based at the Oxford Faculty of English Language and Literature. He is also a Junior Research Fellow at New College and a Lecturer in Early Medieval English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Granada (2014), with a dissertation on the dating and textual criticism of 'Beowulf', on the strength of which he gained a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University.

Carolyne Larrington introduces the writing of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Carolyne Larrington introduces the writing of Sylvia Townsend Warner whose first novel 'Lolly Willowes' (1926) is a feminist fantasy classic, and whose last collection of short stories, 'Kingdoms of Elphin' (1977) makes play with European fairy traditions. Townsend Warner has recently been rediscovered as one of the most important English women fantasy writers of the twentieth century.

A brief introduction to the writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Caroline Batten offers a basic introduction to author Ursula K. Le Guin's life, work, and lasting impact on the genres of fantasy and science fiction. This ten-minute lecture is based on a talk given at 'Here Be Dragons': The Oxford Fantasy Literature Summer School in 2018.

Caroline Batten is a doctoral researcher in Old English and Old Norse literature at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis is the first stylometric analysis of the Old English metrical charms, and her scholarship more broadly examines gender and sexuality in Old English and Old Norse texts in relation to magic and the supernatural, understandings of disease and the body, and performative speech. She earned her M.Phil from the University of Oxford and her B.A. from Swarthmore College, and currently teaches medieval English literature at Worcester College and St. John’s College, Oxford.