Patterns of Xenia in Tolkien

Homely Houses and Queer Lodgings: Patterns of Xenia in Tolkien’s Works

Sunday 14 June, 2–5pm, Castello di Macello, Turin, Italy

A conference organised by the Oxford Tolkien Network in collaboration with the University of Turin and Sentieri Tolkieniani.

Confirmed speakers: Esterino Adami (University of Turin), Francesco Dedé (University of Milan), Carlo Pagetti (University of Milan), Oriana Palusci (University of Naples, L'Orientale), Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford), Paolo Pizzimento (University of Messina)

Tolkien’s narratives are filled with patterns of hospitality, many of which can be traced across his legendarium. The Hobbit, for instance, unfolds as a sequence of scenes of xenia, in which the travellers receive rest and advice from a new host (Elrond, Beorn, the people of Lake-town), alternating with hostile encounters (Trolls, Goblins, Spiders, the Elves of Mirkwood, and eventually the Dragon). These encounters are not always frictionless: not all hosts are immediately willing to receive their guests. The same pattern can be traced extensively in The Lord of the Rings, including Tom Bombadil’s house and Lothlórien, as well as their darker counterparts, such as Shelob’s Lair or Isengard. It also extends to The Silmarillion material, where it intersects with and further develops related themes. The aim of the conference is to explore patterns of xenia in Tolkien’s works, with special attention to its sources (primarily Classical and Medieval, but also Modernist), and to its relationship with some of Tolkien’s key concerns, including the hope that “though the world is now dark, better days are at hand, and that friendship shall be renewed between … peoples”.

Programme:

Esterino Adami (University of Turin) Metaphors of Hospitable and Inhospitable Landscapes in Tolkien’s Writing

Francesco Dedé (University of Milan) The Language of Hospitality, Hospitality in Language: Aspects of Linguistic Otherness in Tolkien’s Glossopoeia

Carlo Pagetti (University of Milan) A Stranger in Strange Lands: A Double Perspective in The Hobbit

Oriana Palusci (University of Naples “L’Orientale”) Light and Darkness: Hospitality According to Galadriel and Shelob

Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford) Circe, Melian, and Galadriel: Classical Models and Tolkienian Subversions

Paolo Pizzimento (University of Messina) “He Came as the Stranger”: Otherness, Hospitality, and Storytelling in Eriol’s Saga of The Book of Lost Tales