Mythlore

17/04/2025

New issue is up!

Feasting at the Threshold: Eucharistic Eroticism and Homonationalism in Diane Duane's The Tale of the FiveTaylor Driggers

09/04/2025

MYTHLORE
A JOURNAL OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN, C.S. LEWIS, CHARLES WILLIAMS, AND MYTHOPOEIC LITERATURE

Issue 146 Volume 43, Number 2 Spring/Summer 2025
Editorial
Janet Brennan Croft
No Ragnarök, No Armageddon: Pagan and Christian Interpretations of The Lord of the Rings
Matthew Thompson-Handell
An Aspirational Cultus? Tolkien Fandom at the Borders of Belief
Tom Emanuel
Divinity and the Void in Chinese and Thai Translations of the Ainulindalë
Eric Reinders
The Middle-(Un)man of Desire: A Girardian Reading of Perelandra
Clinton Manley
The Liberty to Bind Oneself: Chesterton and the Oath of Fëanor
Matthew McKenna
Modelling the Fear of God in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia
Brett Roscoe
Feasting at the Threshold: Eucharistic Eroticism and Homonationalism in Diane Duane’s The Tale of the Five
Taylor Driggers
Pandemic Mythmaking: COVID-19 and Mythological Symbolism in Indian Folk Art
Ishani Anwesha Joshi and Sathyaraj Venkatesan
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Beowulf: Rowling’s Beowulfian Allusions, Analogues, and Inversions
Mark-Elliot Finley
Book Culture and Narrative in Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice
Maria Damkjær
The Bright Sword and its Sharpness: Swords, Symbolism, and Medievalism in The Lord of the Rings
Gavin S. Davis
Alan Garner’s Elidor: The “Anti-Narnian Fantasy”?
Laura N. Van D**e

Notes and Letters
Interview with Professor John McKinnell Concerning Tolkien’s Lectures on Beowulf, Łucasz Neubauer
“Better to Reign in Hell”: Ambivalence and Orcs in the Lay of the Children of Húrin, Matthew Thompson-Handell
St. Jack’s Experiement House for Juvenile Delinquents: Responding to Aslan’s Breath by Matthew Dickerson, G. Connor Salter
Weaving Wikipedia’s Middle-earth Web, Ian F. Alexander
What Will We Do with the Christmas Pudding?: Joy Davidman, William Lindsay Gresham, and “Christmas in the Workhouse,” G. Connor Salter and Clark Sheldon
“Perilous and Fair” in “A Bleak, Barren Land”: A Feminist Responds to Dylan Lee Henderson’s Essay, Robin Anne Reid

Reviews
J.R.R. Tolkien: A Very Short Introduction by Matthew Townend, Laura N. Van D**e
Tolkien’s Cosmology: Divine Beings and Middle-earth by Sam McBride, Phillip Fitzsimmons
Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald, annotated edition, Tiffany Brooke Martin
Mimetic Theory & Middle-earth: Untangling Desire in Tolkien’s Legendarium by Matthew J. Distefano, Curtis Gruenler
Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter, edited by Kathryn McDaniel and Emily Strand, and The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond: More Essays on the Works of J.K. Rowling, edited by Lana Whited, Liam Butchart
Harry Potter and Resistance by Beth Sutton-Ramspeck, Douglas C. Kane
Mapping a Sense of Humor: Narrative and Space in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels by Daniel Lüthi, Susan M. Moore
Art and Enchantment: How Wonder Works by Patrick Curry, N. Trevor Brierly

Briefly Noted:
Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials: Identity, Reception, and Politics by Priscilla Hobbs, Dominic J. Nardi
Magic, Magicians and Detective Fiction: Essays on Intersecting Modes of Mystery, edited by Rebecca Josephy, G. Connor Salter

13/01/2025

Proceedings volume for "Something Mighty Q***r" is now up on the website for free download!

Only a few Mythcon proceedings volumes have been published; after Mythcon III, presenters were encouraged to submit their papers to Mythlore instead. The Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings Series is designed to collect as many papers as possible from our focused, single-topic online seminars.

14/11/2024

Your friendly neighborhood Mythlore and Slayage Book Review Editor here!
Updated list as of 14 November 2024.

As always, contact me OFF-LIST at [email protected] (for Slayage) or [email protected] (for Mythlore) to express interest, rather than responding here; those who follow directions get first consideration!
Outside the US: Alas, postage rates for overseas shipping are now prohibitive and reviewers outside the US can only choose from the e-books below. If you are particularly interested in one of the print books, contact me and I can see if the publisher will provide me an e-copy to share with you, or ship a print copy directly to you.
Review deadlines for Mythlore are August 25 and February 25. Reviewer guidelines for Mythlore can be found at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/reviewer_instructions.pdf.
Review deadlines for Slayage are May 1 and November 1. Reviewer guidelines for Slayage are at https://www.whedonstudies.tv/slayage-book-reviewers-instructions.html

For review in Mythlore:
Physical books (shipping to US only):
Bacchilega, Cristina. Inviting Interruptions : Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century. Wayne State University Press, 2021.
Barclay, Chris. J.R.R. Tolkien's Women of Middle-Earth: Including Sir Peter Jackson's Women of Middle-Earth. [self-published], [2024].
Blackie, Sharon and Angharad Wynne. Wise Women : Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond. New World Library, 2024.
Butts, Leverett. Heroes with a Hundred Names : Mythology and Folklore in the Early Fiction of Robert Penn... Warren. MCFARLAND, 2023.
Canepa, Nancy L., translator. The Enchanted Boot : Italian Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. Wayne State University Press, 2023.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. edited by Donald J. Gray, Fourth edition. edition, W W Norton & Company, 2024. Norton Critical Editions.
Costabile, Giovanni Carmine. The Mirror of Desire Unbidden: Retrieving the Imago Dei in Tolkien and Late Medieval English Literature. Peter Lang, 2024.
Dobie, Robert J. The Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien : Mythopoeia and the Recovery of Creation. The Catholic University of America Press, 2024.
Durling, Nancy Vine, translator. The Romance of the Violet and Other Wager Tales from Medieval France. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2024.
Lebowitz, Josiah. So You've Landed in a Fantasy World: How to Survive and Thrive. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2022.
MacDonald, George and Larsen Timothy. Diary of an Old Soul. Annotated edition. edition, IVP Academic, 2024.
McAleer, G. J. Tolkien: Philosopher of War. The Catholic University of America Press, 2024.
McBride, Sam. Tolkien's Cosmology: Divine Beings and Middle-Earth. The Kent State University Press, 2020.
Paul, Marcus K. C.S. Lewis on Literature : An Introduction to His Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literary Theory. Winged Lion Press, 2024.
Sarwark, Robert M. The Dragon in World Mythology and Culture. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2024.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Octavia E. Butler : A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2022.
Suttie, Megan H. Schools of Magic : Learning in Children's and Young Adult Fantasy Fiction. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2023.
Westfahl, Gary. Jules Verne Lives! : Essays on His Works and Legacy. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2023.
Williams, Kathleen Broome and Hal M. Friedman, editors. From Soldier to Storyteller : Essays on World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children's Authors. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2024.

Electronic books
Bacon, Eugen and Milton Davis. Hadithi & the State of Black Speculative Fiction. Luna Press Publishing, 2020.
Bernadac, Alice and J. R. R. Tolkien. Aubusson Weaves Tolkien : The Woven Adventure. Aubusson, 2024.
Biswas, P. M. A Diasporic Mythography : Myth, Legend and Memory in the Literature of the Indian Diaspora. Academia Lunare, Luna Press Publishing, 2021.
Ekman, Stefan. Urban Fantasy: Exploring Modernity through Magic. Level Press, 2024.
Sanna, Antonio. Alice in Wonderland in Film and Popular Culture. Cham : Springer International Publishing AG, 2022.
Townend, Matthew. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2024.
Whitehouse, Harvey. The Ritual Animal: Imitation and Cohesion in the Evolution of Social Consciousness. 2021.
Young, Joseph Rex. George R. R. Martin and the Fantasy Form. Routledge, 2019.

Available in both formats
Gallant, Richard Z. Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate : Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium. Jena, 2024.
Magoulick, Mary J. The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture : A Feminist Critique. University Press of Mississippi, 2022.
Neubauer, Łukasz and Guglielmo Spirito, editors. The Songs of the Spheres : Lewis, Tolkien and the Overlapping Realms of Their Imaginations. Jena, 2024.
Pugh, Tison. Q***r Oz : L. Frank Baum's Trans Tales and Other Astounding Adventures in S*x and Gender. University Press of Mississippi, 2023.
Sherwood, Will and Julian Eilmann, editors. The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Jena, 2024.

For review in Slayage
Physical books (shipping to US only):
Bassil-Morozow, Helena Victor. The New Heroines in Film and Television : Post-Jungian Perspectives on Contemporary Female Characters. New York, NY, 2023.
Dove-Viebahn, Aviva There She Goes Again : Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises. Rutgers University Press, 2024.
Garlen, Jennifer C. and Anissa M. Graham, editors. Space, the Feminist Frontier : Essays on S*x and Gender in Star Trek. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2024.
Grunzke, Andrew L. Education and the Female Superhero : Slayers, Cyborgs, Sorority Sisters, and Schoolteachers. Lexington Books, 2020.
Ho, Aaron K. H. and The New Witches : Critical Essays on 21st Century Television Portrayals. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2021.

Electronic
Stanton, Courtney, ed. Project(Ing) Human: Representations of Disability in Science Fiction. edited by Courtney Stanton, Vernon Press, 2023.

ISSN 1546-9212

28/10/2024

Interested in what editors do in mediating between the author and the reviewer(s)? While this article is about book publishing, much of it is applicable to journal publishing, too.

Peer reviewers for book manuscripts are often more helpful than they’re given credit for (even the mean ones).

22/10/2024

And the newest edition of the Index, including #145 and the recently published Cities and Strongholds essay collection, is available:

16/10/2024

The Wart, the Wizard, and the Cathedral: Applying C.S. Lewis's Intertextuality Theory to T.H. White and J.K. RowlingG. Connor Salter

30/09/2024

I expect to send this to the printer next Monday, after which it should be up online within a few days.

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
Issue 145 Volume 43, Number 1 Fall/Winter 2024
Table of Contents
Editorial
Janet Brennan Croft
Fantasy, Colonialism, and the Middle Landscape
Brian Attebery
The Catholic Imaginations of J.R.R. Tolkien and Oscar Wilde
Frazier Alexander Johnson
Hamlet in Narnia: The Prince and the Poem in Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia
Sarah R.A. Waters
The Wart, the Wizard, and the Cathedral: Applying C.S. Lewis’s Intertextuality Theory to T.H. White and J.K. Rowling
G. Connor Salter
“The Company at St. Anne’s” and “The God’s Gardeners”: What C.S. Lewis and Margaret Atwood Teach Us about Caring for Our Planet
Anne Frédérique Mochel-Caballero
Tolkien the Playwright: Manuscript Revisions and Faërian Dramas in “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”
Anna Smol
The Rhetoric of Temporality in C.S. Lewis’s Works: A Study of Time in Mere Christianity and the Chronicles of Narnia
Lorraine Nasser
Elmar, Aerin, and Aredhel: Female Enslavement in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Clare Moore
Hell on Earth in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom: Dark Jouissance and the Dead Mother
John Rosegrant
The Inconsistencies of Galadriel: The Influence of the Earlier Legendarium in The Lord of the Rings
Alexander Retakh
The Hag ‘o the Hills: Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching as Soverignty Goddess
Eileen Donaldson

Notes and Letters
A Bleak, Barren Take: A Response to “Women and Fertility in The Lord of the Rings,” Clare Moore and Leah Hagan
Tolkien’s Lúthien from Life to Art and Art to Life, Verlyn Flieger
“I’m Studying Beowulf with Beowulf Himself,” Matthew Thompson-Handell
Friar Jack, the Science-Fiction Apologist: Exploring “The Friar of Oxford” by William Lindsay Gresham, Sørina Higgins and G. Connor Salter

Reviews
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics by Hamish Williams, Robert T. Tally, Jr.
Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales, edited by Jack Zipes, Toni Thibodeaux
The Wizard of Mecosta: Russell Kirk, Gothic Fiction, and the Moral Imagination by Camilo Peralta, G. Connor Salter
The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien by Nicholas Birns, María Fernández Portaencasa
Many Times and Many Places: C.S. Lewis and the Value of History by K. Alan Snyder and Jamin Metcalf, Landon Loftin
The Major and the Missionary: Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs, edited by Diana Pavlac Glyer, Bruce R. Johnson
The Phantomwise Tarot and Guidebook by Erin Morgenstern, Emily E. Auger
Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many by Thomas P. Hillman, Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Science, Technology, and Magic in The Witcher: A Medievalist Spin on Modern Monsters by Kristine Larsen, Amber Lehning
Representing Middle-Earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology by Robert T. Tally, Jr., Norbert Schürer
Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway, and C.S. Lewis: Spirituality for Mere Christians by William Griffin, Martina Juričková
What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield by Landon Loftin and Max Leyf, Katherine Sas
A Guidebook to Monsters: Philosophy, Religion, and the Paranormal by Ryan J. Stark, Mark A. Brians III
Occidental Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume 3) by Joseph Campbell, Phillip Fitzsimmons
Reading Tolkien in Chinese: Religion, Fantasy, and Translation by Eric Reinders, Cait Coker
Briefly Noted: Binding Them All: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on J.R.R. Tolkien and His Works, edited by Monika Kirner-Ludwig et al., Troels Forchhammer

15/07/2024

Your friendly neighborhood Mythlore and Slayage Book Review Editor here!
Updated list as of July 15.

NEW: If you are going to be at Mythcon in Minneapolis at the beginning of August and want one of the PHYSICAL books to review, I can deliver it to you there.

As always, contact me OFF-LIST at [email protected] (for Slayage) or [email protected] (for Mythlore) to express interest, rather than responding here; those who follow directions get first consideration!
Outside the US: Alas, postage rates for overseas shipping are now prohibitive and reviewers outside the US can only choose from the e-books below. If you are particularly interested in one of the print books, contact me and I can see if the publisher will provide me an e-copy to share with you, or ship a print copy directly to you.
Review deadlines for Mythlore are August 25 and February 25. Reviewer guidelines for Mythlore can be found at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/reviewer_instructions.pdf.
Review deadlines for Slayage are May 1 and November 1. Reviewer guidelines for Slayage are at https://www.whedonstudies.tv/slayage-book-reviewers-instructions.html

For review in Mythlore:
Physical books (shipping to US only):
Bacchilega, Cristina. Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century. Wayne State University Press, 2021.
Butts, Leverett. Heroes with a Hundred Names: Mythology and Folklore in the Early Fiction of Robert Penn... Warren. MCFARLAND, 2023.
Canepa, Nancy L., translator. The Enchanted Boot: Italian Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. Wayne State University Press, 2023.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. edited by Donald J. Gray, Fourth edition. edition, WW Norton & Company, 2024. Norton Critical Editions.
McDaniel, Kathryn N. and Emily K. Strand, editors. Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter. McFarland,2024.
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Man Born to Be King. edited by Kathryn Wehr, Wade annotated edition, IVP Academic, 2023.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Octavia E. Butler: A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2022. McFarland Literary Companions, vol. 21.
Suttie, Megan H. Schools of Magic: Learning in Children's and Young Adult Fantasy Fiction. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2023. Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy, vol. 85.
Westfahl, Gary. Jules Verne Lives!: Essays on His Works and Legacy. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2023.

Electronic books only:
Bacon, Eugen and Milton Davis. Hadithi & the State of Black Speculative Fiction. Luna Press Publishing, 2020. WorldCat.
Biswas, P. M. A Diasporic Mythography: Myth, Legend and Memory in the Literature of the Indian Diaspora. Academia Lunare, Luna Press Publishing, 2021.
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois. Nordic Sagas as Children's Literature: Victorian and Edwardian Retellings in Words and Pictures. McFarland, 2023.
Sanna, Antonio. Alice in Wonderland in Film and Popular Culture. Cham : Springer International Publishing AG, 2022.
Whitehouse, Harvey. The Ritual Animal: Imitation and Cohesion in the Evolution of Social Consciousness. Oxford, 2021.
Young, Joseph Rex. George R. R. Martin and the Fantasy Form. Routledge, 2019.

Available in both paper and electronic formats:
Costabile, Giovanni Carmine. The Mirror of Desire Unbidden: Retrieving the Imago Dei in Tolkien and Late Medieval English Literature. Peter Lang, 2024
Magoulick, Mary J. The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture: A Feminist Critique. University Press of Mississippi, 2022.
Pugh, Tison. Q***r Oz: L. Frank Baum's Trans Tales and Other Astounding Adventures in S*x and Gender. University Press of Mississippi, 2023. Children's Literature Association Series
Whited, Lana A., editor. The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond: More Essays on the Works of J. K. Rowling. Columbia, Missouri : University of Missouri Press, 2023.

For review in Slayage:
Physical books (shipping to US only):
Bassil-Morozow, Helena Victor. The New Heroines in Film and Television : Post-Jungian Perspectives on Contemporary Female Characters. New York, NY, 2023.
Dove-Viebahn, Aviva There She Goes Again : Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises. Rutgers University Press, 2024.
Grunzke, Andrew L. Education and the Female Superhero: Slayers, Cyborgs, Sorority Sisters, and Schoolteachers. Lexington Books, 2020. Education and Popular Culture.
Ho, Aaron K. H. and The New Witches: Critical Essays on 21st Century Television Portrayals. McFarland & Company, Inc , Publishers, 2021.

Available in both paper and electronic formats:
Stanton, Courtney, ed. Project(Ing) Human: Representations of Disability in Science Fiction. edited by Courtney Stanton, Vernon Press, 2023.

15/07/2024

Sometimes I am just gobmacked by our statistics. In June 2024, BePress reports there were over 11,500 full-text downloads of papers from Mythlore. And that's a slow month -- there were over 17,000 downloads in January this year. My own paper on Terry Pratchett's witches is still the top paper this year, but Rebecca Brackmann's controversial paper on Tolkien's Dwarves and antisemitism is second, and Charles Coulombe's 1996 paper on the Golden Dawn and fantasy has just made a surprising leap into third place. I don't think this counts downloads from full-text library databases.