Mythology 201 will meet on the first and third Tuesday of the month, 7-9pm, and be taught by Dr. Grant Weinberg.
The True Myth Embodied: Literature from Chaucer to Tolkien
The medieval world or dark ages, was anything but. The ancient world saw the cosmos as a place of power where might made right and the strongest ruled. The West, during the medieval times, awakened to a world with Christ. Christianity changed everything, and we can see this in its literature. The secular power struggle was still there, but it was bridled by the gospel, trying to unite with the sacred.
As Christians today, we look upstream to see where we have come in order to know where we should go. The flow of the sacred and secular mixing together in the medieval times and must recognize how it affects us today. These are powerful stories which understood the human condition with all its struggles and sought to find solutions to the greatest problems of mankind.
These great books are good for all ages, to those who can just read to those with the highest education. This is what makes them great, they meet you where you are at and take you from there to where you are meant to go.
Ideally, this class, and these books, is meant for those who are willing to wrestle with it. Everyone will get the level of effort they put into it. Are you willing, like Bilbo, to start on your unexpected journey?
There will be reading, discussion, note taking, and some writing assignments over this course.
A minimum of 5 students is needed in order for this class to be offered.
The reading schedule will be handed out the first day of class. A rough outline is below.
Class Schedule
| 9/15 | Chaucer Troilus and Criseyde Book 1-2 pp.3-56 | 1/19 | Spenser Fierce Wars Intro-Canto V pp. 9-108 |
| 9/29 | Book 3 pp. 57-90 | 2/2 | Canto VI-Epilogue pp.109-236 |
| 10/6 | Book 4 pp.91-120 Monster and Critics pp.5-48 | 2/16 | Elfin Knight Intro-Canto VI pp.9-120 M&C pp.109-162 |
| 10/20 | Book 5 pp.121-154 | 3/2 | Canto VII-XII pp.121-161 |
| 11/3 | Shakespeare Hamlet Act 1-2.2 pp.1-72 M&C pp.49-71 | 3/16 | Milton Paradise Lost Intro- Book II pp.vii-51 M&C pp.162-197 |
| 11/17 | Act 2.3-5.2 pp.73-155 | 4/6 | Book III-V pp.52-124 M&C pp.198-223 |
| 12/1 | King Lear Act 1-3.2 pp.1-64 M&C pp.72-108 | 4/20 | Book VI-IX pp.125-216 |
| 12/15 | Act 3.3-5.3 pp.65-129 | 5/4 | Book X-XII pp.217-288 M&C pp.224-240 |
From Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and plodding along with some essays by Tolkien. This literature is not escapism. It is a school of warning and wonder.
Key Texts:
Chaucer’s Troilus and Cresseyde,
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and King Lear,
Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene Book 1 and Book 2,
John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Secondary Text:
Tolkien’s Monsters and Critics and Other Essays