Thomas Honegger

Thomas Honegger (born 1965) is a scholar of literature, known especially for his studies of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.

Biography

Thomas Honegger obtained an MA in English Studies, Medieval Germanic Languages, and Medieval German Literature from the University of Zurich. He then worked in that university's Department of English as an assistant. He took his PhD in 1996 on the subject of "Animals in Medieval English Literature". He worked as a researcher at the University of Sheffield and at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Zurich. He had temporary postings at the universities of Kiel, Berlin, Zurich and Jena before becoming professor of Old English at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena in 2002.^[1] He contributed a chapter on Tolkien's academic writings to Wiley-Blackwell's A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, published in 2014.^[2]

Books

2004: Riddles, knights and cross-dressing saints : essays on medieval English language and literature. Bern, Berlin, Oxford: Peter Lang.
2004: Translating Tolkien: Text and Film. Walking Tree Publishers. Reprinted 2011.
2004: News from the Shire and Beyond: Studies on Tolkien, with Peter Buchs. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers.
2005: Reconsidering Tolkien, Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers.
2006: Tolkien and Modernity, with Frank Weinreich (eds.) 2 vols.
2007: Myth and magic : art according to the Inklings. Zollikofen: Walking Tree Publishers.
2011: Tolkien in Translation, with Eduardo Segura. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers.
2014: Crime and the Fantastic 1 & 2, with Fanfan Chen. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
2016: Fantastic Animals, animals in the fantastic, with Oliver Bidlo, Frank Weinreich, Erwin Otto. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
2016: Laughter in Middle-earth: Humour in and around the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, with Maureen F. Mann. Jena: Walking Tree Publishers.
2017: Subcreation: world-building in the fantastic, with Erwin Otto. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
2019 Sub-creating Arda, with Dimitra Fimi (eds). Walking Tree Publishers.
2019: Introducing the Medieval Dragon. Cardiff University of Wales Press.
2023: Tweaking Things a Little: Essays on the Epic Fantasy of JRR Tolkien and GRR Martin. Walking Tree Publishers.

Reception

Harley Sims, reviewing Tolkien in Translation, notes that few topics are more interesting or more divisive. He comments that "one might say that translation is Tolkien, and that no analysis of his work can pretend to be complete without some exegesis of his actual wording."^[3] Finding the book a good introduction to its subject's theory and practice, and making both the cultural and literary aspects accessible, Sims commends Honegger and the publishers for assembling "specialists in five languages".^[3]

References

^ "Thomas Honegger". Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
^ Honegger, Thomas (2020) [2014]. "Academic Writings". In Lee, Stuart D. (ed.). A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 25–40. ISBN 978-1119656029. OCLC 1183854105.
^ ^a ^b Sims, Harley J. (2012). "[Review] Tolkien in Translation. Edited by Thomas Honegger. Zurich and Jena: Walking Tree Publishers, 2011". Mythlore. 31 (1/2): 173–177.

External links

University of Jena
Tolkienists
Around 100 of Honegger's papers and reviews on Academia.edu

J. R. R. Tolkien

- Bibliography
- Letters

Poetry
and songs

Songs for the Philologists (1936)
- "Bagme Bloma"
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953)
"A Walking Song" (1954)
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
- "Errantry"
- "Fastitocalon"
- "The Sea-Bell"
- "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
Bilbo's Last Song (1974)
List of Tolkien's alliterative verse

Fiction

The Hobbit (1937)
"Leaf by Niggle" (1947)
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945)
Farmer Giles of Ham (1949)
The Lord of the Rings:
- The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- The Two Towers (1954)
- The Return of the King (1955)
Tree and Leaf (1964)
The Tolkien Reader (1966)
Smith of Wootton Major (1967)

Posthumous
fiction

The Father Christmas Letters (1976)
The Silmarillion (1977)
Unfinished Tales (1980)
Mr. Bliss (1982)
The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996)
Roverandom (1998)
The Children of Húrin (2007)
The History of The Hobbit (2007)
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009)
The Fall of Arthur (2013)
The Story of Kullervo (2015)
Beren and Lúthien (2017)
The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)
The Fall of Númenor (2022)

Academic
works

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925)
"The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925)
"Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929)
"Sigelwara Land" (1932–34)
"Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)
"On Fairy-Stories" (1939)
"On Translating Beowulf" (1940)
Sir Orfeo (1944)
Ancrene Wisse (1962)
"English and Welsh" (1963)
Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)

Posthumous
academic

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975)
Exodus (1981)
Finn and Hengest (1982)
The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983)
Beowulf and the Critics (2002)
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014)
A Secret Vice (2016)

Scholars

Writers	Biographers Humphrey Carpenter John Garth Popular authors Lin Carter Robert Foster Glen GoodKnight J. E. A. Tyler
Christian	Stratford Caldecott Matthew T. Dickerson Peter Kreeft Joseph Pearce Fleming Rutledge Ralph C. Wood
Literary critics	Douglas A. Anderson Nicholas Birns Bradley J. Birzer David Bratman Janet Brennan Croft Patrick Curry Bradford Lee Eden Dimitra Fimi Jason Fisher Verlyn Flieger Michael Foster Wayne G. Hammond Randel Helms Thomas Honegger Charles A. Huttar Paul H. Kocher Stuart D. Lee Jared Lobdell John D. Rateliff Robin Anne Reid Christina Scull Amy H. Sturgis Richard C. West
Linguists	Anthony Appleyard Helge Fauskanger Carl F. Hostetter Tom Loback David Salo Arden R. Smith
Medievalists	Marjorie Burns Jane Chance Michael D. C. Drout Gergely Nagy Tom Shippey Elizabeth Solopova Sandra Ballif Straubhaar