Celebrating 70 years since J.R.R. Tolkien's Sir Gawain lecture in Glasgow (1953-2023)

On 15 April 1953, Tolkien delivered the W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture, on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to an audience of 300 at the University of Glasgow. The essay was published posthumously, in 1983, in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, edited by Christopher Tolkien.

On Thursday 27 April 2023 we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the lecture and its significance, Tolkien's links to Glasgow, and the importance of the Sir Gawain text in Tolkien's creativity.

Our panel of speakers featured:
Professor Jeremy Smith, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Glasgow
Dr Lydia Zeldenrust, Lecturer in Middle English Literature, University of Glasgow
Dr Andoni Cossio, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, University of Glasgow
Chair: Dr Dimitra Fimi, Senior Lecturer in Fantasy and Children’s Literature, and Co-Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic

On-campus attendees had the opportunity to see a pop-up exhibition with documentation related to Tolkien’s appointment as the 1953 W.P. Ker Memorial Lecturer (including a hand-written letter by Tolkien), in collaboration with Archives & Special Collections, University of Glasgow.

Видео Celebrating 70 years since J.R.R. Tolkien's Sir Gawain lecture in Glasgow (1953-2023) канала Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic