Tolkien and Mary Renault

[GrayMouser]

Not sure this is the right subforum, but just found out that Mary Renault, one of my favorite historical fiction writers when I was younger, had Tolkien as a tutor at Oxford.

And he liked her work, too.

Letters 294:

There are exceptions. I have read all that E. R. Eddison wrote, in spite of his peculiarly bad nomenclature and personal philosophy. I was greatly taken by the book that was (I believe) the runner-up when The L. R. was given the Fantasy Award:5 Death of Grass.6 I enjoy the S.F. of Isaac Azimov. Above these, I was recently deeply engaged in the books of Mary Renault; especially the two about Theseus, The King Must Die, and The Bull from the Sea. A few days ago I actually received a card of appreciation from her; perhaps the piece of ‘Fan-mail’ that gives me most pleasure.

Given her 'pagan' outlook and attitude to sex in her writings, especially homosexuality, pretty broad-minded from the Prof.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Turns out being an RC in fact doesn't necessarily make one a vicious bigot.

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

Turns out being an RC in fact doesn't necessarily make one a vicious bigot.

RC? Really? I’d no idea it was a problem...

(I don’t know who took this picture…)

[GrayMouser]

It's been a long time since I've read them, but now that I think about it, there isn't a lot of male homosexuality in the two books Tolkien was referring to, unlike her other works set later in Greek history (a bit of Sapphic love, though).

A lot of Goddess worship, lamenting their replacement by the Sky Gods- standard anthropological fare back in the day- and one direct hit on monotheism, in the form of a young Israelite who scandalizes all the good pagans with his intolerance for other peole's worship.

Though looking back at the letter, he does mention liking her other works, too.

And glad to see Eddison mentioned there- "The Worm Ourobouros" is classic, though the Zimiamvia Trilogy is a hard slog- fans of "The Faerie Queene" would probably appreciate it.

And somewhat surprised to see he liked John Christopher's "The Death of Grass" ("No Blade of Grass" in the US), a fairly grim post-apocalypse tale, as well as Azimov (sic), a noted believer in progress and technology.

Obviously a man of catholic tastes