Recent content by Bruce N H

I agree that looking at this through an allegorical lens is important. Looking at this as the journey of Dante's soul from sin and error ultimately through sanctification and to God you could see this as Dante rejecting wrath. Earlier he had pity, e.g. on the lustful, but this could be him...

I love the Modern Scholar series and listened to all the ones my local library had. Do they still exist, or were they killed off by podcasts and youtube and other material that's free online? I know I've listened to a couple of Timothy Shutt courses and really enjoyed them.

Hi all, I wasn't able to attend live last week (December 9) and so just listened to the recording today to get caught up before tonight's class while running a bunch of errands before the snow started falling. So I might have missed something due to distraction, but I was confused about...

Hey, I've said this in other threads, but my number one hope is that we take on The Tolkien Reader, or Tales from the Perilous Realm, to include tons of Tolkien's shorter works that we've never formally done in Mythgard Academy - Niggle, Farmer Giles, On Fairy Stories, and SO. MANY. POEMS...

That's a good point and I was probably speaking too loosely. I was thinking along the lines of what Corey talked about in class 1, about reading Dante on multiple levels. So Virgil could be Virgil on one level, but on other levels you could have different interpretations - for instance, Virgil...

Hi all, I'm no scholar of either Dante or Boethius - I've only read the Comedy and the Consolation a couple of times and the only classes I've taken on either have been the Mythgard Academy ones - so I can't really develop this further. As Corey might do I'll just say "this would make a great...

Hey, Thanks for that link. I'm going back and forth. I'm reading the Mandelbaum online, but also Apple Podcasts has a free audiobook of the Longfellow translation that I've been listening to on walks. Finally I've got the Penguin books Sayers translation, which I love. I know and understand...

Hey, Here are my LEGO scene for cantos 2-4, tonight's readings: Canto 2: Virgil tells how Beatrice descended to Hell to charge him with leading Dante. Here I wanted to show two levels, Dante up on the surface of earth still in the dark wood, and Virgil down below. Canto 3: Upon entering...

Okay, yes, but when will we start talking about Dante? I'll let myself out, Bruce

Dolorous - Last week's Morgoth's Ring ended with material from page 345 of the Houghton Mifflin hardcover (about a page into The Tale of Adanel). Corey said this week we would finish up the Athrabeth and start into the final section of Morgoth's Ring - Myths Transformed. That's about 60 more...

Hey all, I started thinking about this and maybe I'm just forgetting, but did Tolkien address the origins of hobbits in any of his post-LotR writings? We know about elves, men, dwarves and ents. We've been reading through Tolkien going back and forth about the orcs, and whichever story you go...

Here you go Rhiannon: Or if you kick it old school:

Hi all, Last week's Mythgard Academy (August 7, 2002, Morgoth's Ring class 17) included a discussion of the Fall. Christopher quoted a letter by JRRT - it's letter 212 in Letters of JRRT - comparing the difference between Christian theology and the internal theology his sub-created world. In...

Hi all, I was just listening to the episode from a couple of weeks ago where Corey starts with this discussion (I think I came in just at the tail end of this during the live class). I would suggest that whatever the ultimate outward-facing product, a wiki would be a great way to organize...

Hi all, Years ago I started, but did not finish*, a project to illustrate the Divine Comedy in LEGO by creating a vignette** for each canto. Here's my scene for Canto 1 of the Inferno: Midway this way of life we're bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was...