Friday, May 2, 2025

Tolkien and Wartime Oxford

So, here's a brief allusion to Tolkien's work creating and administrating the syllabus for the accelerated cadet's course at Oxford during WW II:

"One of the most eye-catching initiatives was the course in English literature designed by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: this was the first external examination authorised by the University of Oxford."*

*The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading by Andrew Pettegree (2023)

endnote: Bruce R. Johnson, 'The efforts of C. S. Lewis to aid British prisoners of War during World War II', C. S. Lewis Journal. 12 (2018), pp. 41-76.

[endnote: Pettegree page 444]

I found this of interest because it co-credits Lewis, whom Tolkien outranked professionally. I'll have to hunt down Johnson's article.

--John R.

--current (re)reading:: the Murderbot series by Martha Wells