I Desired Dragons: JRR Tolkien and His Sense of Myth

"I Desired Dragons: JRR Tolkien and His Sense of Myth" pays tribute to "the grandfather of fantasy" by examining the inspiration and background of Tolkien's imagined world of Middle Earth. It will examine the religious, historical, literary and linguistic influences on Tolkien with a particular emphasis on Tolkien's devout Roman Catholic beliefs and how all of this tied into his understanding and use of myth. Finally, it will briefly examine how modern literati have regarded Tolkien and closes with a brief discussion of Tolkien's influence (or lack thereof) on modern fantasy authors such as Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Ursula K. Leguin, George Lucas, George RR Martin,  Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, etc.

About our speaker: A Lauderdale County native, Lee Freeman is the Public Historian at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library in Florence, a post he's held for over 25 years.  He's a member of several local historical boards, including Heritage Preservation, Inc., The Tennessee Valley Historical Society, the Natchez Trace Genealogical Society and the Mayor's Walk of Honor Committee. He's had articles published in The Journal of Muscle Shoals History, Alabama Heritage, and in 2017 published Medievalspeake: A Medieval Worde Boke, which is a kind of Medieval encyclopedia/dictionary. Lee discovered Tolkien via Lord of the Rings in 1985 and has been a life-long fan ever since (he likes the Peter Jackson LOTR films but hates the 1970s animated versions).