Profs and Pints Online presents: “Where Middle Earth Met Narnia,” a look at how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis together invented the genre of modern fantasy, with Hal Poe, professor of faith and culture at Union University and author of a three-volume C.S. Lewis biography.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

When J.R.R. Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes between 1954 and 1955, bookstores and libraries did not know where to put it. Not fitting neatly into established categories of books, it often landed in the still-new section devoted to science fiction. Tolkien had so much trouble writing his groundbreaking masterpiece that, he later acknowledged, he could not have completed it without the encouragement of C.S. Lewis, whose assistance might have extended even to suggesting the basic plots of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as well.

Come learn about the fascinating relationship between two authors whose imaginations produced works that captured ours. The speaker, Hal Poe, is a scholar of literature and religion who drew rave reviews with the Profs and Pints Online talk on Edgar Allan Poe that he gave in October.

Tolkien and Lewis became friends through their shared love of Norse mythology, but they came at their work from distinct intellectual backgrounds and perspectives.

Lewis received a classical education that involved mastery of Greek and Latin along with the great literature and philosophy of those cultures. In his reading, he had fallen in love with the great story/plot of the medieval period in which the hero journeys against great adversity to the end of the world for the great cause and then returns a changed person.

Tolkien, on the other hand, was a philologist who had focused his education on how language works. His great private work involved creating his own mythology of an imaginary place he called Middle-Earth. He began working on his mythology during World War I, and, like all good Norse mythology, all of his stories ended in disaster, destruction, desolation, and death.

Join us as we explore how Lewis taught Tolkien the story/plot of “there and back again.” We’ll look at how their relationship played out, including the complication that was Tolkien’s hatred of Lewis's Narnia stories. You won’t need to step through a wardrobe or sneak past orcs to take part in the fun. Just be in front of a computer screen, maybe with a pour of mead or a plate of Turkish delight.

Profs & Pints Online: Where Middle Earth Met Narnia