Dr. Brian Butcher will give a talk on how these two brilliant classic authors met, discovered their common love for mythical tales, pledged to bring such stories into the mainstream of public readership, and had a profound influence on each other’s works and person. Dr. Butcher will distinguish between formal and informal allegory; reveal the authors’ shared three interrelated commitments to romanticism, reason, and Christianity; and compare and contrast their unequal mutual esteem.
Lewis’s debt to Tolkien is that if he had not known Tolkien he would not have written The Chronicles of Narnia; Tolkien’s debt to Lewis is that if he had not known Lewis he would never have finished The Lord of the Rings. Paradoxically, we have Tolkien to thank for Narnia, and Lewis to thank for Middle Earth. Such are the benefits, the power, and the glory when two great minds collude.
Alma Mater Society of Queen's University
L’Université Queen’s est située sur les terres traditionnelles des peuples Haudenosaunee et Anishinaabe.