Mad Theory of the Week

As I re-read The Hobbit this summer for class, I was struck by the resemblance between the Carrock and this landmark in England:


This is Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. It's a hunk of rock that sticks up (kind of like a hill with a flat top) in the middle of what was once a flooded, marshy area. This is maybe important, because many people believe that the Tor, which used to be more-or-less surrounded by water until the marshy plain around it was drained, is the Isle of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. It's in about the right place in England, has the right geography (an island), and the Welsh Ynis Avalon translated to "Isle of Apples." Somerset is a major apple and cider producing area.

So if this is a reference to the Tor, why? Why bring up King Arthur here, when we're about to meet Beorn, the most Old Norse character in Tolkien?

See you all in class.

Battle of Maldon

Hi, everyone! Keep going on the interesting comments in the first post (now below this one). I wanted to give you a link with a little more background on the historical Battle of Maldon. You can see a map of the probable location of the fight at the Battle of Maldon site. You can also see photographs of the causeway in the "Site images" link to the right on the Battle of Maldon page.

Welcome to ENGL 443

Hi, everyone! Welcome to the course blog for ENGL 443, The Writings of JRR Tolkien. I will post links and announcements here for the course. Let's get some practice with using a blog!

Turgon's Bookshelf will give you some idea of the books currently published on Tolkien. Go to the page, and look over at the box on the right. That lists his previous posts, many of which are reviews. I'm not necessarily recommending him as a reviewer, but you can use this as a quick overview of recent work.

For now, let's try commenting on a blog post to respond to it. Comment on this post and tell me what you read this summer (not necessarily by Tolkien) that you recommend to your classmates! Clink on the "comments" link below the post to get to the comment page. If you do not have a blogger account, please set one up now.