{"id":31016,"date":"2009-01-20T22:55:48","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T03:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=31016"},"modified":"2009-01-20T22:55:48","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T03:55:48","slug":"wasatch-gnostic-society-2009-winter-lecture-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2009\/01\/20\/31016-wasatch-gnostic-society-2009-winter-lecture-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Wasatch Gnostic Society – 2009 Winter Lecture Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lance Owens<\/strong> writes: In Salt Lake City, Utah we have a major series of Tolkien lectures coming up in Feb and March 2009. We would appreciate it if you could add notice on your page. <\/p>\n

Wasatch Gnostic Society – 2009 Winter Lecture Series<\/em><\/strong>
\nJ.R.R. Tolkien: An Imaginative Life<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Land of Fairy Story is wide and deep and high…. In that land a man may (perhaps) count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very mystery and wealth make dumb the traveler who would report….The fairy gold (too often) turns to withered leaves when it is brought away. All that I can ask is that you, knowing all these things, will receive my withered leaves, as a token at least that my hand once held a little of the gold.\u201d\u2013 Tolkien, draft manuscript of \u201cOn Fairy Stories\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien has emerged as one of the most important and enduring literary figures
\nof the twentieth century. His masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, possesses an intriguing
\nquality of “depth” and veracity that has evoked a sense of wonder in three generations
\nof readers. Those qualities have made it one of the most-printed and most-read books
\nin history.<\/p>\n

Most of his fans know that Tolkien was a philologist and professor of English language
\nat Oxford. But very few readers appreciate the intensely with which he explored the
\nbeauty and perils of his imaginative world before ever starting down the road that led
\nfrom the Shire to Mount Doom \u2013 a decade long labor of writing the LOTR, begun by Tolkien in 1937<\/p>\n

This series of the three lectures will examine the broad span of Tolkien’s life and work
\nwith special focus on Tolkien\u02bcs experience of his imaginative gift. The lecturer, Dr. Lance
\nOwens is a physician in clinical practice. He lectures frequently on subjects related to
\nmythology, creative imagination and psychology. His last series of talks on Tolkien were
\npresented at the Bruchion Center in Oslo, Norway.<\/p>\n

Location and Times:
\nGore Business Auditorium, Westminster College
\nTuesdays, February 10, 2009
\nTuesday, February 14, 2009
\nTuesday, March 17, 2009<\/p>\n

All lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be held on the Westminster College campus, in
\nthe Gore Business Auditorium, 1840 S 1300 E, Salt Lake City, UT (The Gore School
\nof Business faces 1300 East between 1700 South and Downington Avenue — note that
\ndue to current construction, on-campus parking can by difficult).
\nAdmission is $10 per lecture, or $25 for the three lecture series.
\nVisit our website for more information and to pre-register: www.gnosis.org\/tolkien<\/a><\/p>\n

Lecture Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lecture I: The Discovery of Faerie
\nTuesday, February 10, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 1914 while still a student of philology at Oxford, Tolkien began exploring an
\nimaginative dominion he named “Faerie”. His creative excursions started with the
\ninvention of imaginary languages. But as the languages evolved in depth and
\ncomplexity, he discovered his linguistic meditations were opening upon a very strange
\npanorama. The languages were not just \u201chis invention\u201d, but became native tongues of
\nthe Elves. And Elves had many stories to tell; their languages came replete with myth
\nand poetry.<\/p>\n

In the trenches of the Great War, amid the horrific battle of the Somme in 1916, and
\nthen in hospital for over a year after, Tolkien turned to the task of recording the
\nlanguages, history and legends of the Elves. These initial creative visions, recorded in
\nseveral private journals collectively titled \u201cThe Book of Lost Tales\u201d, are the foundation for
\nhis later creative writing. In this first lecture, we will consider Tolkien\u02bcs discovery of the realm of Faerie.<\/p>\n

Lecture II: There and Back Again
\nTuesday, February 24, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By 1938 Tolkien had been exploring the world of Faerie for over two decades. He had
\nrecorded in prose and verse hundreds of pages of legends, setting them in English,
\nancient Anglo-Saxon, and in Elvish tongues. He called this creative activity his \u201csecret
\nvice\u201d, a private matter shared only in small part with a few close friends.
\nPublication in 1937 of a little volume written casually for his children, The Hobbit,
\nbrought Tolkien first public recognition. After the success of The Hobbit, his publisher
\nwas eager for more tales of Hobbits, but apparently uninterested in the vast corpus of
\ncreation already stacked in his study \u2013 it was simply too strange, too arcane.
\nAt this critical juncture in his creative life \u2013 stuck with a Hobbit company at the Prancing
\nPony in Bree, and struggling to see the direction his new literary journey would take \u2013
\nTolkien delivered his celebrated lecture \u201cOn Fairy Stories\u201d at St. Andrews University.
\nWith the help of this seminal essay on the creative imagination, we will examine the
\nmiddle-years of Tolkien\u02bcs life.<\/p>\n

Lecture III: Tolkien and the Imaginative Tradition
\nTuesday, March 17, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late in life as he contemplated his years of work and journey in the land of Faerie, a
\nrevealing and very personal myth came to Tolkien: Smith of Wootton Major. The short
\nstory is a thinly veiled testament to the gift Tolkien had received, and the treasure he
\nnow passed on to others.<\/p>\n

Tolkien understood his creative gifts and inclinations were unusual. Though rare, they
\nare not however entirely unique. In this final lecture, we will consider Tolkien\u02bcs place in
\nthe Western imaginative tradition.<\/p>\n

Suggested Readings:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography
\nJohn Garth, Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth
\nVerlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson, Tolkien on Fairy-Stories
\nWayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
\nLesser known works by Tolkien that will be discuss:
\nThe Book of Lost Tales Part 1 (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 1)
\nThe Book of Lost Tales Part 2 (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 2)
\nLeaf by Niggle Smith of Wootton Major<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lance Owens writes: In Salt Lake City, Utah we have a major series of Tolkien lectures coming up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,36,153,192,35,38,148,149,37,152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-fotr-book","category-tolkien-life","category-events-lectures","category-lotr-books","category-rotk-book","category-hobbit","category-lotr","category-ttt-book","category-tolkien"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t