JRR Tolkien's masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, or The Lord of the Rings, has been read and loved by generations as they dealt with questions of time, memory and loss, death and immortality, courage in the face of hopelessness. Fifty years after Tolkien's death, his texts are still being rewritten and debated, most recently in the 2023 anthology The Return of the Ring.
For many, the vast world of language and ideas that Tolkien created has assumed the grandeur of an alternative mythology and understanding of creation. At the same time was
Tolkien himself a deeply devout Christian and his work can be seen as an attempt to re-mythologize a world disenchanted by war and industrialism. Tolkien is the first truly great writer of the fantasy genre, and his books claim to be more than escapism – to represent a more real reality. After 2000-
The speech's film adaptation has raised questions about whether Tolkien's Middle-earth rests on racist preconceptions, while the transcendent love between people of different peoples is perhaps Tolkien's strongest theme.
Literary scholar Björn Sundmark and theologian Teresa Callewaert talk, and organist Sofia Östling plays the immortal music from Peter Jackson's films. Just as in the autumn's conversation about Harry Potter, the evening will show the ability of fantasy to illuminate theological themes such as grace, hope and death.
Free entrance