Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in Oxford

Seminars meet each weekday morning, with afternoons free for course-related field trips, individual study, or exploring the many places of interest in and around the city.

Monday
Unlikely allies: Ranging across favourite reading, schools, youthful friendships, personal lives, early religious outlooks, and First World War soldiering experiences, we learn what Lewis and Tolkien had in common when they met in 1925, and what they did not. We join their conspiracy to revolutionise the Oxford English School. Sampling their poetry, we read Tolkien’s epic romance of Beren and Lúthien through Lewis’s eyes.

Tuesday
Mythopoeia, allegory, and Inklings: We listen in on the late-night conversation that turned Lewis to Christianity in 1931, and ponder whether it changed Tolkien too. Weighing up two radically different attempts to see through medieval eyes, we pitch Tolkien’s Hobbit against Lewis’s scholarly approach. We join the thinking, drinking, Inklings and find what Owen Barfield, Charles Williams and others brought to the brew.

Wednesday
A pact, Atlantis, and the planets: In the mid-1930s Tolkien and Lewis agreed to write a science fiction story each. We pursue Lewis powering through his space trilogy, and see what we can salvage from the flotsam of Tolkien’s unfinished time-travel experiment, The Lost Road. We measure how much Tolkien went into Lewis’s hero Ransom; and, glancing forward to the 1940s, we ponder Tolkien’s Notion Club Papers as a portrait of the Inklings.

Thursday
The Lion, the Witch, and the War of the Ring: Unrolling our maps, we explore two remarkable worlds as attempts to reconsecrate nature and refill the wells of the imagination. We trace Lewis’ impact on Middle-earth and Tolkien’s on Narnia. And we ask: what was Tolkien’s problem with the Chronicles? In the afternoon we follow the friends’ footsteps across Oxford and its colleges. Walking tour to Merton and Magdalen Colleges.

Friday
Divide and rule: We watch the two men drift apart and examine what came between them: Charles Williams, Lewis’s marriage to Joy Davidman, religious differences, or something else? We ask if we are right to consider Lewis and Tolkien together, or if they are simply too different. We look at how their reputations have grown and evolved since their deaths, and what they mean to Oxford, to literature, and to the human imagination.

Field trip
Destination: Merton and Magdalen Colleges, Oxford
Websites: www.merton.ox.ac.uk and www.magd.ox.ac.uk
Excursion rating: Moderate - up to two hours' walk on even ground or up to an hour's walk on rough and/or steep ground or up lots of stairs and steps.

Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their Friends. HarperCollins, 2006.

Lewis, C.S. Out of the Silent Planet. Harper, 2005.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. HarperCollins, 2013.

All fees are charged on a per week, per person basis.

Please be aware that all payments made via non-UK credit/debit cards and bank accounts are subject to the exchange rate on the day they are processed.

Payment terms

• If enrolling online: full payment by credit/debit card at the time of booking.
• If submitting an application form: full payment online by credit/debit card or via bank transfer within 30 days of invoice date.

Cancellations and refunds

1. Cancellation by you

Participants who wish to cancel must inform the Programme Administrator in writing: by email to oxfordexperience@conted.ox.ac.uk, or by post to The Oxford Experience, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, OXFORD, OX1 2JA, UK.

The following cancellation and refund policy applies in all cases:

• Cancellation within 14 days of online enrolment / payment of fees – full refund of all fees paid.

• Cancellations received up to and including 30 April 2022 – OUDCE will retain an administration fee of £100 per week booked; all other fees paid will be refunded.
• Cancellations received between 1-31 May 2022 – OUDCE will retain 60% of the fees paid; the remaining 40% of fees paid will be refunded.
• Cancellations received on and after 1 June 2022 - no refunds will be made.

Where course fees have been paid in currencies other than pounds sterling, refunds will be subject to the exchange rate on the day they are processed.

2. Cancellation by us

OUDCE reserves the right to cancel a course where there is good reason, for example, if exceptionally low enrolment would make it educationally unviable. In these cases we will refund the course fees that you have already paid. If we cancel a course, our liability is limited to the fees that we have received from you; this means that we will not compensate you for any pre-booked travel costs or any other expenses incurred.

Where course fees have been paid in currencies other than pounds sterling, refunds will be subject to the exchange rate on the day they are processed.

The status of this course will be reviewed on 1 May 2022. If it is likely that the course may be cancelled, all those affected will be notified by email within 7 days; if you have not heard from OUDCE by 8 May 2022, you should assume that your course will be running. You may wish to delay finalising your travel arrangements until after this date.

3. Travel insurance

You need to purchase travel insurance to cover the programme fee, travel costs, and any other expenses incurred.

Participants will be taught in seminar groups of up to 12 people. Elements of this teaching will normally include mini lectures and presentations by tutors and tutor-led class discussions.

There are no assessments for this course.

The Oxford Experience is aimed at non-specialists: no prior knowledge is required, and classes are pitched at an introductory level. The courses are designed for an international audience aged 18 and over.