Episode 78: Lesser-trod Paths with Cameron Bourquein
Join us this month for a deep dive on Tolkien’s bodacious baddie, the one and only Sauron. Tolkien scholar and Sauron expert, Cameron Bourquein, leads us down her lesser-trod path exploring Sauron’s evolving nature, the meanings of his name, and his changing role in the legendarium throughout its development.
Citations:
Thank you to our guest host, Cameron Bourquein!
How to find Cameron’s work:
Website: https://cameronbourquein.com/
Blog: https://theroadtoardahealed.substack.com/
Website: https://sauronproject.com/
Twitter: @CameronBorgQeen
Bluesky: cameronbourquein.bsky.social
Blog post with Cameron’s Sauron citations:
https://theroadtoardahealed.substack.com/p/a-sauron-bibliography
Works referenced in this episode:
Letter 66 (To Christopher Tolkien, May 6, 1944)
From Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter with Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, London.
Letter 131 (To Milton Waldman, undated- probably written in late 1951)
From Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter with Christopher Tolkien. HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, London.
Dr. Richard Eliot Blackwelder
As cited in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, London: HarperCollins, 2014, page xii.
A. R. Bossert
“Surely You Don’t Disbelieve”: Tolkien and Pius X: Anti-modernism in Middle-earth
Mythlore Vol. 25, No. 1, 2006
Link: https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1289&context=mythlore
Cameron Bourquein and Nick Polk
Reading, Rending, and Queering the Web of Story: With the Lenses of "Con-creation" and Process [Conference Presentation]
Presented at MythSoc OMS on Feb 10th, 2024
Link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-153238639
Stafford Caldecott
The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2013
Link: https://crossroadpublishing.com/product/the-power-of-the-ring/
John Garth
Ilu's Music: The Creation of Tolkien's Creation Myth
From Sub-creating Arda: World-building in J.R.R. Tolkien's Works, its Precursors, and Legacies, Dimitra Fimi and Thomas Honegger (editors), Cormarë Series No. 40
Walking Tree Publishers, 2019
Link: http://www.walking-tree.org/books/sub-creating_arda.php#h
Gwenyth Hood
Sauron as Gorgon and Basilisk
Marshall University, 1987
Link: https://mds.marshall.edu/english_faculty/30/
Jonathan S. McIntosh
The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie
Angelico Press, 2017
Link: https://angelicopress.com/products/the-flame-imperishable
Brian Roseberry
Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003
Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230599987
Elizabeth A. Whittingham
The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth
McFarland & Company, 2007
Link: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-evolution-of-tolkiens-mythology/
The work of Mercury Natis, Tolkien Scholar
Link: https://lushthemagicdragon.carrd.co/
The work of Robin A. Reid, Tolkien Scholar
