Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings

A Brace of Tolkien Posts for his 131st Birthday (#TolkienBirthdayToast)

As J.R.R. Tolkien was born about 68,899,680 minutes ago, the Tolkien Society is once again raising a toast to the Professor on his birthday, 3 January 2022 (see here). After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in The … Continue reading

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A Brace of Tolkien Posts for his 130th Birthday (#TolkienBirthdayToast)

As J.R.R. Tolkien was born about 68,374,080 minutes ago, the Tolkien Society is once again raising a toast to the Professor on his birthday, 3 January 2022 (see here). After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in The … Continue reading

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Christmas With J.R.R. Tolkien: The Father Christmas Letters

My little 2015 piece on J.R.R. Tolkien’s funny and endearing Father Christmas Letters has had quite a spin around the internet this week. I cannot think of a better Christmas note for you, dear readers of A Pilgrim in Narnia, … Continue reading

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“The Once and Forgotten T.H. White: Lessons from Obscurity” by G. Connor Salter

Terence Hanbury White was one of the founding fathers of fantasy in the twentieth century, producing nearly twenty-five novels, including the beloved modern Arthurian retelling, The Once and Future King. Still, much of T.H. White’s life remains a mystery and … Continue reading

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Affirming Creation in the Lord of the Rings

Perhaps it isn’t that surprising that J.R.R. Tolkien’s books are so environmentally sensitive. Like Sam Gamgee, Tolkien loved things that grow and good tilled earth. He loved walks–long walks beyond his garden through English towns and villages and vast, untouched … Continue reading

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Why is Tolkien Scholarship Stronger than Lewis Scholarship? Part 3: Other Factors

As I have been chest-deep in academic works about C.S. Lewis and at least knee-deep in the same kinds of J.R.R. Tolkien books and articles, I conceived of a thought experiment. Without even glancing at my bookshelf, I can name … Continue reading

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Texmoot 2021 Call for Papers and Conversations (Feb 13th, 2021)

One advantage of our online environment is that we now have some options for attending conferences that we would otherwise miss. On Feb 6th, for example, is the free Urbana Theological Seminary online Tolkien conference, with guest speakers Carlie W. … Continue reading

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A Brace of Tolkien Posts for his 129th Birthday

To celebrate Tolkien’s twelfthty-ninth (or eleventy-nineteenth–a joke that expires this year) birthday on 3 January 2021, the Tolkien Society is once again raising a toast to the Professor (see here). After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in … Continue reading

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Tolkien’s “I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size)” in Context: A Note on Books and Their Authors (#hobbitday)

I don’t know that there is any more famous J.R.R. Tolkien quote than his claim to, in fact, be a hobbit. It’s really quite a delightful statement and worth quoting more fully: I am in fact a Hobbit (in all … Continue reading

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George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin”: The Animated Movie with a Note by ChrisC

C.S. Lewis once observed that with “every tick of the clock, in every inhabited part of the world, an unimaginable richness and variety of ‘history’ falls off the world into total oblivion.” It’s a somewhat cruel fate that’s familiar to … Continue reading

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