Of all sad words of tongue or pen ...

Scott Nokes at Unlocked Wordhoard considers the reasons it took so long for Tolkien to be taken seriously by the academy. Nokes argues that, while snobbery about "genre fiction" probably had something to do with it, the reluctance of medieval scholars to venture outside of the traditional parameters of the discipline was perhaps an even stronger reason for the scholarly neglect of Tolkien. As Nokes points out, Tolkien's work is deeply philological and relies on a profound understanding of medieval language and culture. Nokes observes that most modernists simply don't have that kind of background and knowledge. What he's too polite to say -- but I'm not -- is that the anti-Tolkien snobbery of many modernists is thus built upon smug ignorance.

I find the resuscitation of Tolkien as a subject of serious study a positive development, obviously. It always leaves me with a twinge of regret, though, since the prospect of changing my emphasis to medieval literature and studying Tolkien is perhaps the only thing that could have kept me in graduate school.