Extollager
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The current issue of Mythlore (Issue #136; Vol. 38: 2) for Spring/Summer 2020 has an item listing meetings of the Oxford Dante Society (founded 1876) that were attended by Inklings C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and/or Charles Williams. It doesn't appear that there were any meetings at which all three were present, and Lewis attended far more often than the other two. At a glance it appears that Tolkien attended almost 20 times, while Lewis attended over twice as often. Williams attended three times; he joined in 1944 and died the next year.
It appears to have been the procedure for someone to read a scholarly paper on a Dantean topic. On 11 Nov. 1947, Tolkien read a paper titled "Lusinghe (Purgatorio I, Inf/. XIII)." Tolkien seems to have joined in 1945 and resigned ten years later. He hosted the meeting of 27 May 1952 at Exeter College.
This all bespeaks a more than casual interest in Dante, even though, in an interview, he said, "Dante doesn’t attract me. He’s full of spite and malice. I don’t care for his petty relations with petty people in petty cities.” See Letter #294, cited here:
Here's a picture of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum at the Cracks of Doom:
Well, no, that's one of Doré's pictures for the Purgatorio.
It appears to have been the procedure for someone to read a scholarly paper on a Dantean topic. On 11 Nov. 1947, Tolkien read a paper titled "Lusinghe (Purgatorio I, Inf/. XIII)." Tolkien seems to have joined in 1945 and resigned ten years later. He hosted the meeting of 27 May 1952 at Exeter College.
This all bespeaks a more than casual interest in Dante, even though, in an interview, he said, "Dante doesn’t attract me. He’s full of spite and malice. I don’t care for his petty relations with petty people in petty cities.” See Letter #294, cited here:
Here's a picture of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum at the Cracks of Doom:
Well, no, that's one of Doré's pictures for the Purgatorio.
