Andrew Higgins in 2016 at the Tolkien Society's yearly Oxonmoot
Andrew Higgins is a writer, language enthusiast, and Tolkien scholar, known chiefly for co-editing, with Dimitra Fimi, A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Langauges (2016). He has also, in the 2010s, written essays and reviews relating to J.R.R. Tolkien or to Tolkien studies.
He received his doctorate at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales, giving his thesis "The Genesis of Tolkien's Mythology" in 2015. He is a member of the British Tolkien Society, and Director of Development at the national museum-chain Imperial War Museum. Higgins was also an "inaugural" member of the online Mythgard Institute, founded by Corey Olsen, and is currently a Visiting Lecture and board member there, having lectured also at its parent institution Signum University.
Andrew Higgins organized with Dimitra Fimi the sessions of Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2022, a conference at the University of Leeds.
He lives in Brighton, England.[1]
Essays & articles (selected)[]
- 'Those Who Cling in Queer Corners To The Forgotten Tongues and Memories of an Elder Day': J.R.R. Tolkien, Finns and Elves in Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 3, issue 2 (2016) (external link)
- "'Gifts in harmony?': a philological exploration of Tolkien's invented words for 'life' and 'death'" in Death and Immortality in Middle-earth, of the Peter Roe Memorial Series (2017)
- "Elvish Practitioners of the Secret Vice" in Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 5, issue 1 (2018) (external link)
- "More than Narrative: The Role of Paratexts in the World-building of Austin Tappan Wright, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Ursula K. Le Guin" in Thomas Honegger and Dimitra Fimi's Sub-creating Arda (2018)
- "Mythology is Language and Language is Mythology: How Verlyn Flieger's Favorite ‘Bumper-sticker’ Works in Tolkien's Legendarium" in John D. Rateliff's A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger (2018)
- "Tolkien on Holiday" in Mallorn 60
- "Elvish as She is Filmed: The adaptation of the Elvish Language in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings" in Will Sherwood's Adapting Tolkien, of the Peter Roe Memorial Series (2021)
Reviews[]
- Of Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner's Tolkien's Poetry, of the Cormarë Series - for Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 1, issue 1 (external link)
- Of Stuart D. Lee's A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien - for Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 2, issue 1 (external link)
- Of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship's Parma Eldalamberon XXII - for Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 3, issue 2 (external link)
- Of Mark T. Hooker's Tolkienian Glôssology - for Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 12, issue 2 (external link)
External links[]
- Personal blog
- LinkedIn profile
- Signum University profile
- 2017 lecture, "Tolkien's rare invented language"