Grace Khuri
Thesis Title: Tolkien’s Eldar Edda: Norse Myth, the Great War, and the Writing of ‘The Silmarillion’
Supervisor: Andy Orchard & Mark Atherton
Research Interests: J.R.R. Tolkien, Geoffrey Bache Smith, William Morris, Old Norse myth and sagas, the military and cultural history of World War I, First World War verse, medievalism, medieval literature, Victorian and Edwardian children's literature.
Doctoral research: Thesis explores the nuanced interaction of Old Norse myth and World War I as influences on J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Silmarillion’. In many ways imperfectly understood works, The Silmarillion and its related antecedents in The Book of Lost Tales and The History of Middle Earth all present a unique and challenging outlook on war, power, conquest, feud, and tragedy, by reformulating motifs, characters, and ideas from Old Norse mythological works, the Poetic and Prose Eddas, with which Tolkien was intimately familiar. In the Silmarillion corpus, Tolkien fuses elements of the dynastic, societal, and political problems of gods and men in Norse myth with the real-life concerns of the events and aftermath of the ‘War to End All Wars’ to create a stirring cycle of interrelated narratives that explore ethical questions relating to conflict, political power, and the responsibility and culpability of the individual.
BIO: Earned B.A. in English Language and Literature (Course II, First Honours) and M.Phil (Medieval English, 550-1550; Distinction) from Merton College, Oxford. Interviewed by BBC Culture in the lead-up to Amazon's Rings of Power and served as chair and speaker for Tolkien panels at the Bradford Literary Festival (2022, 2023) and Oxford Literary Festival (2023). Delivered lectures on J.R.R. Tolkien at Corpus Christi and Exeter Colleges for events commemorating the 50th anniversary of his passing and 70th anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings. Served as one of the convenors for the Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series (Hilary and Trinity Terms, 2024) along with Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini (Corpus Christi) and Prof. Simon Horobin (Magdalen). Speaker for Christopher Tolkien at 100: A Celebration on Nov. 18, 2024, at the Weston Library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F2UPSfTF38&t=3456s (talk at 45.33). English Faculty Lecture: 'Seeds of a Mythology: Origins of The Book of Lost Tales and The Silmarillion' (February 11, 2025, Lecture Theatre 2).
Teaching (Past and Present):
Prelims Paper 2: Early Medieval Literature, c. 650-1350 (TMS, 2024/25):
Christ Church: General Classes Taught in Hilary Term, 2025:
- Introduction to the 'Beowulf Manuscript'
- Myth, Monsters, and Making Meaning: Beowulf, Contexts and Interpretations
Supervising two undergraduate dissertations on J.R.R. Tolkien for AY 2024/25 (FHS Paper 7):
- Tolkien and William Morris (Exeter College)
- Tolkien and Medieval Romance (Magdalen College)
Tutorials for Visiting Students:
- Tolkien, Wagner, & Norse Mythology (Oxford Programme Abroad/Trinity College; Hilary Term, 2025)
- 'J.R.R. Tolkien's Mythology: Texts and Contexts' (St. Catherine's College; Trinity Term, 2023)
- Tolkien's Mythology (St. Anne's College; Trinity Term, 2023)
Book Chapters and Journal Articles:
'G.B. Smith at Oxford and at War: A Lost History?', in J.R.R. Tolkien and G.B. Smith: A Special Relationship (Palgrave, 2025).
‘The Politics of Norse Medievalism in the British Press During the First World War,’ ed. Karl Fugelso, Studies in Medievalism XXXI, Special Issue: Politics and Medievalism III (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 79-106.
https://www.academia.edu/113103338/The_Politics_of_Norse_Medievalism_in_...
Book Reviews:
The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien, edited by Richard Ovenden and Catherine McIlwaine (Oxford: Bodleian Publishing, 2022). Tolkien Studies, Vol. 20 (2023):
https://www.academia.edu/115771427/Review_The_Great_Tales_Never_End_Essa...
David Duncan, Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure (London: Allen Lane, 2021). Oxford Research in English, Issue 15 (Spring 2023), pp. 169-174.
https://oxfordresearchenglish.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/ore-15_reviews...
Podcasts:
(2023) -- 'A Heroic History of the Elves: Finding a "Lost" Mythology of England?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-heroic-history-of-the-elves-tolk...
(2021) -- ‘What is the Silmarillion?’ Great Writers Inspire – Fantasy Literature – (Sub-Category: Tolkien in Oxford)
http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/what-silmarillion
Other:
Quoted in a BBC Culture article written in the lead-up to Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220824-the-ancient-roots-of-the-lo...
Have also written articles for the First World War centenary on J.R.R. Tolkien and his poet friend, Geoffrey Bache Smith (who died on the Western Front in 1916):
‘“Of Songs that Die Not”: A Quiet Hero of the Somme,’ The Poor Print, 47 (‘Sacrifice,’ November 3, 2019):
https://thepoorprint.com/2019/11/03/of-songs-that-die-not-a-quiet-hero-of-the-somme/
‘Saving Imagination: Myth and Legend in WWI Poetry,’ The Poor Print, 35 (‘Fantasy,’ October 27, 2018):
https://thepoorprint.com/2018/10/27/saving-imagination-myth-and-legend-in-world-war-i-poetry/
Conferences, Festivals, and Seminars:
- 'Seeds of Tolkien's Mythology: Origins of The Book of Lost Tales and The Silmarillion,' Fantasy Literature Series (Convenor: Prof. Stuart Lee), Lecture Theatre 2, English Faculty, February 11, 2025.
- Interviewer/Moderator. 'In Conversation w/ Phillipa Boyens' (screenwriter of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy), T.S. Eliot Lecture Theatre, Merton College, November 29, 2024.
- 'An Introduction to The Silmarillion'. Christopher Tolkien at 100: A Celebration, with Baillie Tolkien, Richard Ovenden, Catherine McIlwaine, Simon Horobin, and Giuseppe Pezzini. Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, November 18, 2024, 5:30-7:15.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F2UPSfTF38&t=3456s (talk at 45.33)
- 'Medievalism in the Margins: Echoes of Anglo-Saxon England in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings - From Page to Screen.' 70th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings Seminar Series. Cohen Quad, Exeter College (November 21, 2024).
- Convenor. Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series, Magdalen and Merton. (Trinity Term, 2024).
- Convenor. Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series, Merton and Corpus Christi. (Hilary Term, 2024).
https://tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk/event/tolkien-50th-anniversary-seminar-se...
- ‘A Heroic History of the Elves: Tolkien’s “lost” Mythology of England?', Tolkien 50th Anniversary Seminar Series, Exeter College's Cohen Quad, Oxford (November 8, 2023).
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-heroic-history-of-the-elves-tolk...
- 'Kipling’s Medievalism and Tolkien’s Book of Lost Tales: Historicizing Myth and Mythologizing History in the Early 20th Century,' Tolkien's Worlds and Words -- Commemorative Conference on 50th Anniversary of the Death of J.R.R. Tolkien, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (September 2-3, 2023).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xikzb1ea5_0&t=280s
- Panelist: 'Who Was J.R.R. Tolkien?', John Garth, Grace Khuri, Dr. Adam Roberts, Bradford Literary Festival (June 25, 2023).
https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/event/who-was-j-r-r-tolkien/
- Panel Chair: 'The Great Tales Never End,' with Catherine McIlwaine, John Garth, and Dr. Stuart Lee. Oxford Literary Festival, Oxford (March 28, 2023):
https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2023/march-28/the-g...
- ‘Geoffrey Bache Smith at Oxford and at War: A Lost History?’, G. B. Smith and J.R.R. Tolkien: A Meaningful Friendship, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (March 21-22, 2023).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_znAtyZJMY -- from 48.00-1.25.
https://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/alumni/events-and-reunions/gb-smith-and-jrr-tok...
- Panel Chair: ‘The Great Tales Never End,’ with Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Library, and Tolkien biographer John Garth. Bradford Literature Festival (June 25, 2022).
- Panel Chair, Conversation(s), Panel 5: ‘Words, Images, and Spiritual Essences’: Corinne Clark, ‘Cultural literacies and Corporeal Palimpsests: Exploring Parallel Conversations with Divinity and Liquidity in Early Islamic and Middle English Devotional Literature,’ and William Burns, ‘Talking Pictures: Painting and Modern Poetry in Stevens, O’Hara, and Langley,’ Oxford English Graduate Conference (June 3, 2022).
- ‘Norse Medievalism in Britain During the Great War,’ Medievalism and the North, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark (July 28, 2021).
- ‘Transforming Saga: H. Rider Haggard’s Experiment with (Neo)Medieval Saga as Victorian Novel in Eric Brighteyes,’ Norse in the North (June 12, 2021).
- ‘De-Marginalizing the Margins: The Dynamic Relationship Between Margins and Central Space in Material Culture,’ Margins, Oxford English Graduate Conference (2014).
- ‘The Solomon and Saturn Tradition,’ Oxford English Graduate Conference (2014).
