Verlyn Flieger
Verlyn Flieger (born 1933) is an author, editor, and Professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she taught courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. She is well known as a Tolkien scholar, especially for her books "Splintered Light" and "A Question of Time". She has won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award four times for her work on Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. Biography. Flieger holds a master's degree (1972) and doctorate (1977) from The Catholic University of America, and has been  associated with the University of Maryland since 1976. In 2012, retiring from teaching at Maryland, Flieger began teaching Arthurian studies online at Signum University. Her best-known books are "Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World" (1983; revised edition, 2002), which argues that light is a central theme of Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology; "A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie", which won the 1998 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings studies; and "Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology" (2005). The Tolkien scholar Bradford Lee Eden describes "Splintered Light" as "the most important  and influential book on both language and music in Tolkien's works", discussing how the two are interwoven as "central themes" throughout "The Silmarillion". She won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies a second time in 2002 for "", which she co-edited with Carl Hostetter; J. S. Ryan, reviewing the book for "VII", called it a "luminous companion" to the 12 volumes of "The History of Middle-earth", and "clearly indispensable". Ryan stated that it "pays a much merited tribute" to Christopher Tolkien's six decades or more of work on his father's writings, indeed from his childhood  as one of the original audience for "The Hobbit". Ryan describes the 14 essays as "carefully argued", noting among other things Bratman's description of the 4 styles Tolkien used in the Legendarium as "Annalistic, Antique, Appendical, and Philosophical". In 2013 she won the Mythopoeic Award again for "Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien", and in 2019, for a fourth time, for "There Would Always Be a Fairy Tale: More Essays on Tolkien". Flieger has written two young adult fantasies, "Pig Tale" and "The Inn at Corbies' Caww", a collection of Arthurian stories, "Arthurian Voices", and  some short stories. With David Bratman and Michael D. C. Drout, she is co-editor of "Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review".