Marjorie Burns in 2011
Marjorie Jean Burns, Ph.D. (born 1940) is a scholar of J.R.R. Tolkien and European mythologies who has taught English at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where she is now a professor emerita. She has lectured and contributed to journals on Medieval or Tolkienian studies frequently since the late 1980's. She has been on the board of editors for Tolkien Studies.
In 2006, her book Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth was released, drawing on her own expertise to engage with Celtic and Norse elements of Tolkien's legendarium. She assisted Michael D. C. Drout in producing the immense J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment with Tom Shippey, Douglas Anderson, and Verlyn Flieger, published in 2006 as well.
She also wrote, with Douglas Anderson, On Tolkien: Interviews, Reminiscences, and Other Essays, published in 2007 by Houghton Mifflin.
Essays & articles[]
- "The Anonymous Fairy Tale: Ruskin's The King of the Golden River" in Mythlore, vol. 14, no. 3 (1988)
- "J.R.R. Tolkien and the Journey North" in 1989: Mythlore, vol. 15, no. 4 (1989)
- "J.R.R. Tolkien: The British and Norse in Tension" in Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. XXV, Nos. 1 & 2 (1990)
- "Echos of William Morris' Icelandic Journals in J.R.R. Tolkien" in Studies in Medievalism, Vol. III, nos. 3 & 4 (1991)
- "Eating, Devouring, Sacrifice and Ultimate Just Desserts" in Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1995)
- "All in One, One in All" in Nils Ivar Agøy's Between Faith and Fiction: Tolkien and the Powers of His World (1997)
- "Spiders and Evil Red Eyes" in Proceedings of Unquendor's Third Lustrum Conference (1998)
- "Gandalf and Odin" in Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter's Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth (2000)
- "Bridges, Gates, and Doors" in 2001: A Tolkien Odyssey (2002)
- "Norse and Christian Gods: The Integrative Theology of J.R.R. Tolkien" in Jane Chance's Tolkien and the Invention of Myth (2004)
- Entries "Doubles", "Old Norse Literature", "Shelob", and "Tour in the Alps, 1911" in Michael D. C. Drout's J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (2006)
- "King and Hobbit: The Exalted and Lowly in Tolkien's Created Worlds" in The Lord of the Rings 1954-2004 (2006)
- "Tracking the Elusive Hobbit (In Its Pre-Shire Den)" in Tolkien Studies, vol. 4 (2007)
- "Containment and Progression in J.R.R. Tolkien's World" in The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference (2008)
- "Saintly and Distant Mothers" in Paul E. Kerry's The Ring and the Cross (2011)
- "Night-wolves, Half-trolls and the Dead Who Won't Stay Down" in Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey (2014)
- "Three Stories Holding Hands: The Wind in the Willows, Huntingtower, and The Hobbit" in John D. Rateliff's A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger (2014)
External links[]
- Author page at Goodreads.com
- Personal website (incomplete)
See also[]