Fascinating character—among other things, a main mentor to JRR Tolkien, but not only that.
h/t , somewhat indirectly
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wr
Conversation
One of my most important teachers was William Alfred, from whom I learned Anglo-Saxon language and literature. He was, in certain significant ways, the American Tolkien.
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Bill Alfred was the principal student of Albert Lord, who wrote the classic book on the folk-process / oral composition of Medieval epics (Tolkien’s principal concern) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Lo
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Albert Lord was the principal student of Milman Parry, who first figured out how epic worked by studying the last extant tradition of bardry, in Bosnia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milman_Pa
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But also History, and also intellectual history, and also the great myths of the Ancestors in the Dream Time…
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