This week, I received word from the International Medieval Congress in Leeds that my proposal has been accepted for one of the Tolkien sessions organized by Dr. Dimitra Fimi. My paper, “Tolkien’s Typological Imagination,” will be part of the first session on Memory in Tolkien’s Medievalism on July 2nd. We were only allowed a 100-word proposal, a difficult exercise in condensing ideas, and this is the best I could do:
In The Lord of the Rings, Sam suddenly recognizes that Frodo’s possession of Galadriel’s star-glass connects them to Eärendil’s history: “Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still!” Here, Tolkien dramatizes the link between “the memory of the past and the foreshadowing of the future that resides in all things” (Notion Club 178). Eärendil is the type of a sacrificing hero, reenacted by Frodo later in the course of linear time. I propose to discuss such examples of Tolkien’s typological imagination and how it shapes concepts of memory and history in his work.
Below are the titles and times of all the Tolkien panels. For full details listing all the speakers, see Dimitra Fimi’s blog.
- Memory in Tolkien’s Medievalism I. July 2, 11:15 – 12:45
- Memory in Tolkien’s Medievalism II. July 2, 14:15-15:45
- “New” Tolkien: Expanding the Canon. July 2, 16:30 – 18:00
- Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches, I. July 3, 14:15-15:45
- Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches, II. July 3, 16:30 – 18:00
- Tolkien in Context(s): a Round Table Discussion. July 3, 19:00 – 20:00
With the one-day Tolkien Society Seminar that usually precedes this conference, there should be plenty of talks on Tolkien to enjoy at the beginning of July in Leeds. I’ll post full details after the official IMC program comes out in a few months.
