Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings

Tucker Carlson’s Insidious Influence

By Robin Bates | Published: August 11, 2021

Satirist Alexandra Petri wonders why Fox News’ Tucker Carlson aspires to no more than Hungary. Why not shoot for Mordor?

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Is a Fair Election Fight Still Possible?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2021

“Prince Caspian” has a fight that foregrounds the issues the U.S. confronts regarding free and fair elections.

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Tolkien’s Key to Entering the Internet

By Robin Bates | Published: December 6, 2020

A Stanford computer science student writes in to apply a “Lord of the Rings” passage to a vexed internet question.

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GOP Oath Breakers Inhabit Twilight World

By Robin Bates | Published: February 12, 2020

Only Romney honored his Senate oath in Trump’s trial, inviting comparisons with Thomas More & John Proctor. The other senator? Tolkien’s Dead Men of Dunharrow.

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Think of Trump Enablers as Wormtongue

By Robin Bates | Published: November 19, 2019

GOP legislators slavishly parroting Trump (and Putin) talking points in the impeachment inquiry reminds me of Wormtongue and Saruman.

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Beowulf Transcends Tolkien’s Racism

By Robin Bates | Published: October 10, 2019

“Beowulf” and “Lord of the Rings” have blind spots but they are transcendent works for all that.

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Fantasy Adventure, an Aid to Hiking

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2019

Monday Literary Hub has alerted me to an article on the importance of Lord of the Rings to long-distance hikers. According to a Rebecca Booroojian Outsider essay, many people have Lord of the Rings trail names (especially Gandalf), and inscriptions from the trilogy can be found in abundance. For instance, one will find everywhere Bilbo’s […]

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Fantasy and the Problem of Violence

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2019

Thursday Today I will be delivering the following talk as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning series, delivered in a venue that used to be my high school and where I spoke 50 years ago. It may sound strange to some of you that a literary scholar such as myself would talk about fantasy. Aren’t we […]

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Fantasy Keeps Dreams Alive

By Robin Bates | Published: February 21, 2019

Thursday In Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts (see here and here), I laid out the outlines of my first “Wizards and Enchantresses” class, which I’m currently teaching as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning Program. The first class I devoted to Merlin, the second will focus on Morgan Le Fay, the third will take up Shakespeare’s Prospero, […]

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