Art by Randall Wesley
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
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
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