Mankato Tolkien Conference, 1996
Art by Randall Wesley
NOTICE 3/24/00
[I have just received this addendum:]
note that I am planning a conference on the works of Tolkien scheduled for Thursday, April 26, 2001 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. A 2001 Tolkien Conference web site is soon to come. The tentative title is,
“Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across the Disciplines.”
–Tim Schindler
Here’s a bit of info on the second Mankato Tolkien Conference (in Minnesota), which occurred last May (1996). I was so inspired that I foolishly decided that we should host Bree Moot 3 in the Twin Cities, and enlisted Steve Deyo and Ruth Berman to be involved.
Program began at 9 a.m. in the Mankato State University Student Union South Ballroom
Keynote address by Steven Mark Deyo:
“Which Came First–The Mythopoeic Chicken or the Glossopoeic Egg? The Role of Invented Languages in the Works of J.R. R. Tolkien.”
There were program themes of “Tolkien and Myth,” “Tolkien: Fantasy, Fairy Tale and Medievalism,” “Tolkien in the Classroom,” and a summary presentation.
Some individual presentations included: “Two Strategies for Myth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis,” “Tolkien’s Influence: From Middle Earth to Cyberspace,” :The Rash Promise and Breach of Marital Troth in Chaucer’s ‘Franklin’s Tale’ and Tolkien’s ‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun:’ An Alternative Ending,” and “Tolkien’s Romantic View of Astronomy.”
Presenters included: Louisa Smith, Ruth Berman, Scott Hall, Maurice London, Alan C. Jalowitz, Joseph Abrahamson, Gary Hunnewell and others. Here’s a report on the conference, by Ruth Berman, from Pooka 34.
Steve Deyo, keynote speaker at the Second Mankato State University Tolkien Conference
Tolkien Conference Report
May 2, David Lenander and I drove out the Minnesota River to Mankato, where a group in the MSU English Dept. put on a one-day Tolkien Conference, commemorating the Tolkien Conference held there 30 years ago. (I think I was the only one to attend both.) Steve Deyo gave opening and closing speeches on mythopoeic linguistics, and Gary Hunnewell (who may be repeating it at Mythcon?) gave a talk on Tolkien’s use of astronomy, with gorgeous slides of some of Tolkien’s art plus some assorted relevant documents. Other enjoyable papers I heard were by Louisa Smith on homely hearths in TLotR and by Joseph Abrahamson on Tolkien’s use of a scholarly editor compiling the ms. as a fictional device. I repeated the paper I gave at Rivendell’s Mythcon on Andrew Lang and Tolkien. All in all, a pleasant outing. –Ruth Berman
Gary Hunnewell, at the Second Mankato Tolkien Conference
Web site, with the full conference program, was www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/english/tolcon.html–but its seems to be permanently gone, now. I’ve tried to reconstruct what I could, above.
The conference was Thursday, May 2, 1996, about 8:30 to 3
Cost was $6 for students and $12 for adults.
Keynote speaker was Steve Deyo
Organizers included Tim Schindler (trschindler@stthomas.edu), William D. Dyer (straits@vax1.mankato.msus.edu) and Ramona Czer
**********************
