Rings,Swords and Monsters
A re-read (or re-listen rather) of the Audible audio book of this series of lectures exploring fantasy literature. This was my gateway drug into the work of Professor Drout and I really enjoyed this course, both in terms of content and delivery (you could listen to this guy read out a shopping list and it would still be engaging.)
Althoug the course included large parts on Tolkien, hearing his discussions of other works in the genre inspired some additional reading (for example, my recent re-read of “The Wizard of Earthsea”, and the first volume of Robert Holdstock’s series “Mythago Wood”, not to mention “Beowulf”). Although I’m still not intending to start any of the “Shannara” books!
This is a broad review of the literture and much of the underlying research into languages and philology as well as the content. Inspiring and never less than fascinating.