Tom Shippey
Encyclopedia
Thomas Alan Shippey is a scholar of medieval literature
, including that of Anglo-Saxon England, and of modern fantasy
and science fiction
, in particular the works of J. R. R. Tolkien
, about whom he has written several scholarly studies. He is widely considered one of the leading academic scholars on Tolkien. Shippey retired from the Walter J. Ong
Chair of Humanities at Saint Louis University
's College of Arts and Sciences in 2008.
His work and life cross paths in many ways with that of Tolkien; like Tolkien, he attended King Edward's School
in Birmingham
and taught Old English
at Oxford University. He occupied Tolkien's former chair at the University of Leeds
.
Under the pseudonym of "Tom Allen" he has written two stories that were published in anthologies edited by Peter Weston. The first published was the fantasy story "King, Dragon" in Andromeda 2 in 1977; the second was the science fiction novelette "Not Absolute" in Andromeda 3 in 1978.
Under the pseudonym of John Holm, he is also the co-author (with Harry Harrison
) of The Hammer and the Cross
trilogy of alternate history
/fantasy
novels.
In 2009, he wrote a scholarly 21-page introduction to Flights of Eagles, a collection of James Blish
works.
In addition to writing books of his own, he has edited both The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, and The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories. he is the editor of the journal Studies in Medievalism. He serves on the editorial board of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, and he reviews science fiction for the Wall Street Journal.
at a young age, followed by an academic career in Oxford
and Leeds
.
Shippey was born in India, where his father worked as a bridge builder. He spent the first several years of his life there. His father then sent him to a strict boarding school in England
, and when his father came back, Shippey was transferred to King Edward's School
in Birmingham
, where he studied from 1954 to 1960.
Here he was introduced to science fiction, and The Hobbit
, which was lent to him when he was 14 years old. Shippey quickly developed an affinity for Old English, Old Norse, German and Latin (like Tolkien) and playing rugby (like Tolkien), and he was able to afford The Lord of the Rings
when he won a school contest.
The first meeting between Shippey and Tolkien took place in 1972. Norman Davis
, successor of Tolkien at the Merton Chair of English Language, invited Shippey over for dinner. Shippey, then a Fellow of St. John's College, taught Old and Middle English with Tolkien's syllabus, and his meeting with Tolkien at the dinner left him full of professional piety.
After Tolkien's death, Shippey's admiration only grew. His first printed essay, "Creation from Philology in The Lord of the Rings", was much of an elaboration of his 1970 lecture. In 1979, he was elected to the Chair of English Language and Medieval English Literature at the University of Leeds, a former position of Tolkien. He published his first book, the famed The Road to Middle-earth
, in 1982. At this time, Shippey shifted from the view of Tolkien as a philologist to a view of a post-war writer, or what he called "traumatised authors", like Vonnegut
and Golding
.
After 14 years at Leeds, Shippey moved to the Saint Louis University
, where he was elected to the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities. Here, he could focus in teaching, research and publishing, rather than administrative work.
. He also assisted the dialect coaches and is personally thanked in the closing credits. He later recollected his experiences:
Medieval literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages . The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works...
, including that of Anglo-Saxon England, and of modern fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, in particular the works of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, about whom he has written several scholarly studies. He is widely considered one of the leading academic scholars on Tolkien. Shippey retired from the Walter J. Ong
Walter J. Ong
Father Walter Jackson Ong, Ph.D. , was an American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher. His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and changed human consciousness...
Chair of Humanities at Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
's College of Arts and Sciences in 2008.
His work and life cross paths in many ways with that of Tolkien; like Tolkien, he attended King Edward's School
King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School is an independent secondary school in Birmingham, England, founded by King Edward VI in 1552. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, and is widely regarded as one of the most academically successful schools in the country, according to...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and taught Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
at Oxford University. He occupied Tolkien's former chair at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
.
Under the pseudonym of "Tom Allen" he has written two stories that were published in anthologies edited by Peter Weston. The first published was the fantasy story "King, Dragon" in Andromeda 2 in 1977; the second was the science fiction novelette "Not Absolute" in Andromeda 3 in 1978.
Under the pseudonym of John Holm, he is also the co-author (with Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
) of The Hammer and the Cross
The Hammer and the Cross
The Hammer and the Cross is the first in the series of novels written by Harry Harrison and John Holm, the pseudonym for the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey. The book chronicles the rise of the protagonist Shef, a bastard son of a Viking and an English lady...
trilogy of alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
/fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novels.
In 2009, he wrote a scholarly 21-page introduction to Flights of Eagles, a collection of James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
works.
In addition to writing books of his own, he has edited both The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, and The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories. he is the editor of the journal Studies in Medievalism. He serves on the editorial board of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, and he reviews science fiction for the Wall Street Journal.
Youth
Many commenters have noticed the parallels between his life and Tolkien's: born in a colony, moved to BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
at a young age, followed by an academic career in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
.
Shippey was born in India, where his father worked as a bridge builder. He spent the first several years of his life there. His father then sent him to a strict boarding school in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and when his father came back, Shippey was transferred to King Edward's School
King Edward's School
King Edward's School or King Edward VI School is the name of several schools, the majority of them founded during the reign of King Edward VI...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, where he studied from 1954 to 1960.
Here he was introduced to science fiction, and The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
, which was lent to him when he was 14 years old. Shippey quickly developed an affinity for Old English, Old Norse, German and Latin (like Tolkien) and playing rugby (like Tolkien), and he was able to afford The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
when he won a school contest.
Academic career
Shippey did not immediately pursue an academic career after graduation, as the British economy in the early 1960s did not offer much work. Not until the mid-sixties did he enroll in Cambridge. His first academic work on Tolkien was from late 1969 or early 1970. Shippey, a junior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, was asked to speak at a Tolkien day organised by a student association. That lecture, "Tolkien as philologist", would form Shippey's view of Tolkien - a philologist - for years to come. Unbeknownst to him, Joy Hill, the private secretary of Tolkien, was in the audience. After the lecture, she asked him for the script, for Tolkien to read. Tolkien wrote to Shippey on April 13, 1970 with what first seemed like a formal reply.The first meeting between Shippey and Tolkien took place in 1972. Norman Davis
Norman Davis
Norman H. Davis , was a U.S. diplomat. He was born in Bedford, Tennessee. He served as President Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Treasury and later as Undersecretary of State....
, successor of Tolkien at the Merton Chair of English Language, invited Shippey over for dinner. Shippey, then a Fellow of St. John's College, taught Old and Middle English with Tolkien's syllabus, and his meeting with Tolkien at the dinner left him full of professional piety.
After Tolkien's death, Shippey's admiration only grew. His first printed essay, "Creation from Philology in The Lord of the Rings", was much of an elaboration of his 1970 lecture. In 1979, he was elected to the Chair of English Language and Medieval English Literature at the University of Leeds, a former position of Tolkien. He published his first book, the famed The Road to Middle-earth
The Road to Middle-earth
The Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien written by Tom Shippey. In Great Britain it was first published by Allen & Unwin in 1982, with a second edition published in 1993 by Harper Collins and a revised and expanded...
, in 1982. At this time, Shippey shifted from the view of Tolkien as a philologist to a view of a post-war writer, or what he called "traumatised authors", like Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
and Golding
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
.
After 14 years at Leeds, Shippey moved to the Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
, where he was elected to the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities. Here, he could focus in teaching, research and publishing, rather than administrative work.
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings
Being considered the foremost expert on Tolkien, Shippey appeared in several documentaries surrounding The Lord of the Rings film trilogyThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
. He also assisted the dialect coaches and is personally thanked in the closing credits. He later recollected his experiences:
Books
- Old English Verse (London: Hutchinson's, 1972)
- Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, Ltd., 1976; 2nd ed., 1977)
- Beowulf. Arnold's Studies in English Literature series (London, 1978).
- The Road to Middle-earthThe Road to Middle-earthThe Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien written by Tom Shippey. In Great Britain it was first published by Allen & Unwin in 1982, with a second edition published in 1993 by Harper Collins and a revised and expanded...
(London: Allen & UnwinAllen & UnwinAllen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
, 1982; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983), 2nd ed. (London: Harper Collins, 1993), also Revised and Expanded edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003) - Fictional Space : Essays on Contemporary Science Fiction, Editor (Oxford : Basil Blackwell, 1991, ISBN 0631171290).
- The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, Editor (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0192142046).
- The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories , Editor (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1994 ISBN 019214216X).
- J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the CenturyJ. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the CenturyJ.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century is a work of literary criticism written by Tom Shippey. It is about the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. In it, Shippey argues for the relevance of Tolkien today and attempts to firmly establish Tolkien's literary merits....
(London: Harper Collins, 2000; Houghton MifflinHoughton MifflinHoughton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
, Boston, 2001) - Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien (Zurich and Berne: Walking Tree PublishersWalking Tree PublishersWalking Tree Publishers was founded in 1996 by members of the Swiss Tolkien Society with the aim of publishing the proceedings of the Cormarë conference held that year to mark the 10th anniversary of the Swiss Tolkien Society. The company is run by volunteers and on a no-profit basis, with surplus...
, Cormarë Series 11, 2007, ISBN 978-3-905703-05-4)
Edited Volumes
- Medievalism in the Modern World. Essays in Honour of Leslie J. WorkmanLeslie J. WorkmanLeslie J. Workman was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.- Biography :...
. Ed. Richard Utz and Tom Shippey (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), ISBN 2-503-50166-4.
Documentaries
- 1992: Tolkien Remembered - Himself
- 1996: J.R.R.T.: A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien - Himself
- 1998: An Awfully Big Adventure: J.R.R. Tolkien - Himself
- 2001: Beyond the Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring - Himself
- 2002: Page to Screen: The Lord of the Rings - Himself
- 2003: J.R.R. Tolkien: Origins of Middle-Earth - Himself
Awards
- 1984 - Mythopoeic AwardMythopoeic SocietyThe Mythopoeic Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of mythopoeia, fantasy and mythic literature. The group focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on works written by J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis. These authors were members of The Inklings, an...
, Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inkling Studies, The Road to Middle-earthThe Road to Middle-earthThe Road to Middle-earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien written by Tom Shippey. In Great Britain it was first published by Allen & Unwin in 1982, with a second edition published in 1993 by Harper Collins and a revised and expanded... - 2001 - Mythopoeic Award, Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inkling Studies, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
- 2001 - World Fantasy AwardWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
, Special Award Professional, J.R.R. Tolkien:Author of the Century - 2004 - The One Ring Celebration Award, Best Tolkien based Lecture presented at an Academic Function, History in Words, Tolkien's Ruling Passion
- 2006 - The One Ring Celebration Award, Best Lecture/Paper