Tolkien Studies

Tolkien Studies notes the passing of Richard L(awrence) Purtill (1931–2016), who died on December 4, 2016. A professor of philosophy at Western Washington University who made important contributions to Tolkien and C. S. Lewis studies, he was born on March 13, 1931, and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1965. Like Tolkien, he was a Catholic convert. His Lord of the Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (Zondervan, 1974; rev. ed., Ignatius Press, 2006) was a parallel consideration of theological issues in the works of the two authors, including one of the first clear scholarly demonstrations that The Lord of the Rings was a story with a deep-set religious basis, before the publication of The Silmarillion or Tolkien's Letters. A later book, J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion (Harper & Row, 1984; reissued, Ignatius Press, 2003), is a collection of essays, including Purtill's 1977 Mythopoeic Conference Guest of Honor speech discussing levels of symbolism in "Leaf by Niggle" that, in Purtill's view, were too complex to make the story a simple allegory. Other essays discuss religious and theological matters in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Purtill also wrote Christian apologetics, sometimes focused on Lewis' work; numerous college textbooks on logic and metaphysics, often with philosophical dialogues included; and several fantasy novels, most of them inspired by the mythology and archaeology of Greece, a country he often visited for philosophers' conferences. [End Page 3]