Under a Northern Sky: Early Medieval Influences on Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin

The Marion E. Wade Center, Old English Reading Group, English Department and Tolkien Society at Wheaton College present "Under a Northern Sky: Early Medieval Influences on Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin," a lecture by Benjamin Weber, Ph.D. on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 4:00 PM.

The story of Túrin Turambar is perhaps the most haunting and tragic of the tales that lie behind the world of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself remarked that the story was influenced by the Finnish Kalevala, but there are clear parallels with the Old Icelandic and Old English legends of Sigurd the Dragonslayer as well. This lecture will consider the ways in which Tolkien was inspired by different stories from what he calls the “nameless North," suggesting that the legends of Sigurd and the Volsungs can deepen our appreciation of the tale of Túrin and tell us something about Tolkien as a reader of early medieval literature.

Dr. Benjamin Weber is Associate Professor of English and Classical Languages (by courtesy) at Wheaton College, where he teaches numerous courses on medieval literature and its Classical antecedents. A specialist in Old English literature, he has written numerous interpretive essays on the Old English poetic corpus and is currently working on a book entitled Woven in Words: Poetics and Poetry Translation in Pre-Conquest England, under contract with Manchester University Press. He has a long-standing interest in Tolkien as a reader and commentator on medieval literature, expressed most obviously in prior lectures at the Wade Center on Tolkien’s translations of Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon.

This event is cosponsored by the Marion E. Wade Center, Old English Reading Group, English Department, and Tolkien Society at Wheaton College.

This event is free and open to the public and will take place in Marion E. Wade Center, Bakke Auditorium, located at 351 East Lincoln Avenue in Wheaton on the Northwest corner of campus at the intersection of Washington Street and Lincoln Avenue. Parking is located on the east side of Washington Street. For more information, contact the Wade Center at 630.752.5908 or wade@wheaton.edu.