This is the first of three episodes on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to be released in the course of the next several months. Focusing here on The Fellowship of the Ring, our hosts discuss the first leg of Frodo's journey into darkness, paying special attention to Tolkien's prose style, his modernism, his commitment to a truly magical realism, and his penchant for the weird and the tragic.

Image: "Lothlorien" by Tessa Bronsky, via Wikimedia Commons.

References

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Algernon Blackwood, English writer

Weird Studies, Episode 204 on “On Fairy Stories”

Peter Jackson (dir.), The Lord of the Rings

Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea

Friedrich Nietzsche, History in the Service and Disservice of Life

Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel

Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives

Carl Jung, The Red Book

Lord Dunsaney, The King of Elfland’s Daughter