Mythgard Institute Scholars Group discussion

Could someone tell me which of our required texts contain “The History of Eriol or Ælfwine”? (My google-fu is failing me, and I haven't received all my books yet.)

Also, is the “Letter to Milton Waldman” listed the preface in The Silmarillion, titled, "From a letter by JRR Tolkien to Milton Waldman, 1951"? Or is there a fuller version of the letter somewhere?

The Book of Lost Tales 2 (Tolkien) has it in as the final chapter. It is available as an ebook on Amazon and iBooks if you have access to them.

An slightly abbreviated version of the letter to Milton Waldman is available in the volume of Tolkien's letters but the fullest version is the one printed in the later editions of The Silmarillion.

I own The Silmarillion, so I hope this version of the letter is acceptable in terms of the required reading. (Maybe this is a good question to ask Dr. Olsen during orientation.)

I think it will be as the foreword to The Silmarillion (2nd ed) Christopher Tolkien states that he has taken the opportunity to correct some of the minor errors that had appeared in the parts that had been used in the Letters of Tolkien, remove some of the footnotes and that the fullest version of the letter is the one in The Silmarillion.

But do ask him tonight and let us know.

A group of us (including Andrew, Penny and myself) who have completed several of Dimitra Fimi's online courses on Tolkien and fantasy literature, established a discussion board on the UWIC Facebook page for the reading of Tolkien's History of Middle-earth series. We got through the first two books and have started on the Lays of Beleriand when we've hit a hiatus in being able to keep up with the reading - too many courses taking our attention away from the series!

But there is a page of discussions on the chapter "The History of Eriol or Ælfwine" (https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?ui...), which might prove useful.

Thanks for the link, Sandy! But the Book of Lost Tales 2 isn't on our reading list, unless I'm really missing something.

Corey said in the orientation this evening was that there will be some readings that are posted as PDFs. So maybe “The History of Eriol or Ælfwine” will be one of those. I didn't ask him specifically because it didn't seem the right time. When I asked a question regarding the first paper, it seemed a little off-topic for the generalized nature of the session. Hopefully all will become clear soon.

"The History of Eriol and Ælfwine" is the last chapter of The Book of Lost Tales Book 2. Sorry for not being clear about that when I first replied.

It could be one of the PDFs he'll provide for the course as it's only a small part of the book and not one that he's listed on the booklist.

Hey All

Might be jumping ahead a bit but there is also an excellent article by Verlyn Flieger about the Eriol and Aelfwine chapter of BOLT and you can read it at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tolkien_...

Thanks, Andy

Andy,

That article by Verlyn Flieger is a good one and I am glad that, for once, it and all the other essays in Tolkien Studies Vol I are freely available to download.

S

Yes used it several times in my paper for Dimitra's Fantasy Before and After Tolkien course which was on the role of portal fantasy in Tolkien's works - waiting for the feedback with trepidation!!

A

So am I. Hopefully my essay will have been okay as I'm conscious that I missed masses outvto get it within the word limit+ .

Sandra

Oh come on don't you 2 start at least you are arts trained. I don't know I want to know my mark. At least I learnt something.

XX P

Sandi wrote: "The Book of Lost Tales 2 (Tolkien) has it in as the final chapter. It is available as an ebook on Amazon and iBooks if you have access to them.

An slightly abbreviated version of the letter to Mil..."

Sandi wrote: "The Book of Lost Tales 2 (Tolkien) has it in as the final chapter. It is available as an ebook on Amazon and iBooks if you have access to them.

An slightly abbreviated version of the letter to Mil..."

I asked Professor Olsen about the "Eriol..." one, and he said taht it'd be given to us electronically through Moodle.

Oh, that's good to know. Then I can annotate it as I refuse to highlight passages in my hard copies of the books.

My problem, as well. I had to cut my paper nearly in half to stay within Dimitra's word limit. I was curious to know what everyone wrote about, and maybe even read some of the papers if people felt like sharing. Anyone gotten their grades yet from the summer course?

Kris, no, I've not got my grade yet from Dimitra. I did the cosmogony essay, looking at Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin. Pullman's Dark Materials hit the cutting room floor, as did several other aspects of creation mythologies. I'm only hoping that I made the right decision about which bits to keep and what should be abandoned.

Sandi wrote: "Kris, no, I've not got my grade yet from Dimitra..."

Sounds interesting! Save the Pullman material for a future project. I contrasted the shadow-selves in A Wizard of Earthsea, Phantastes, and Peter Pan. I chose to trim each section down; I couldn't part with any of those 3 works.