Categories: CULTURE

The Catholic Culture Podcast: 101 – The Non-Reactionary Tolkien

Mar 29, 2021

J.R.R. Tolkien is commonly perceived as a reactionary who
totally rejected the modern world, and whose literary influences
began and ended with the Middle Ages. Holly Ordway’s new
book, Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the
Middle Ages, debunks that view of Tolkien’s life and
work.

Ordway begins with an invaluable critique of the sources of this
misconception, especially the official biography written by
Humphrey Carpenter, who admitted his own bias and desire to portray
Tolkien as an uptight fuddy-duddy.

She then proceeds to examine the works of modern literature we
know Tolkien read, gleaning insights about how he may have been
influenced either by acceptance or rejection of what he found in
those works. In this interview we focus on Tolkien’s reading of the
father of modern fantasy, William Morris, the adventure writer H.
Rider Haggard, the now-unknown religious romance John
Inglesant, and even literary modernists like James Joyce and
Roy Campbell, and realists like Sinclair Lewis.

Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_J46A7QhhQ

Links

Tolkien’s Modern Reading https://store.wordonfire.org/products/tmr

Daphne Castell interview with Tolkien https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/tolkien

Diana Glyer’s books on the Inklings:

The Company They Keep
https://www.amazon.com/Company-They-Keep-Tolkien-Community/dp/0873389913

Bandersnatch
https://www.amazon.com/Bandersnatch-Tolkien-Creative-Collaboration-Inklings/dp/1606352768

Some of the many books enjoyed by Tolkien mentioned in this
episode:

William Morris, The House of the Wolfings and The
Roots of the Mountains

H. Rider Haggard, She

Joseph Henry Shorthouse, John Inglesant

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland