Walking With Oxford Fantasy Writers

Walking in the Footsteps of Fantasy Writers - Ep. 3 - The River Cherwell

Rivers feature prominently in the writing of Oxford fantasy writers - not surprising as we are between two of them. Most famous is the Thames but today we are visiting the River Cherwell, a short walk from both Tolkien and Philip Pullman's houses. Come with today's guide, Joss Saunders, and see where Tom Bombadil may have been first imagined meeting the River Daughter, and some wonderful old willows that could trap a hobbit or two. We even dip back into the willows of The Silmarillion before coming up to date with a nod to Lyra and The Northern Lights from Oxford's most famous living fantasy writer.

Oxford has inspired many famous fantasy writers - J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones - to name but few. The city and surroundings appear in their books in many guises. Come with author Julia Golding on this journey in a nature reserve just north-east of the city to visit part of the little kingdom of Farmer Giles of Ham and the chessboard of Alice through The Looking Glass. You can walk in the footsteps of great fantasy writers too!

Do you wish to go into a real barrow on the Downs and see the white horse of legend? Come on this walk to White Horse Hill, home to the fabulous chalk figure that has dominated the Vale of the White Horse for 3000 years. We'll be looking into questions the fantasy writers raise. Why did Tolkien's Rohirrim have a white horse as their symbol? And who was Wayland (Weland) the Smith and why were his corslets of mail and swords so sought after? Walk with Julia Golding into an ancient landscape beloved by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and meet a character who inspired, among others, Rudyard Kipling (Puck of Pooks Hill) and Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising). If you wish to go deeper, you can find out much more in David Miles, The Land of the White Horse (Thames & Hudson) and John Garth's The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien (Frances Lincoln).