Not long ago, the Inklings society at Brown University invited me to give a talk on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I decided to speak on the topic of “bromance,” an emotionally and physically ...

Trend-watchers noted recently that the days of the stiff handshake are gone. From the lads of One Direction to David Cameron and Barack Obama, the man hug is now the default male greeting, and these ...

At first, I thought that putting the talk together would be pretty easy, since Tolkien’s hobbits share a level of commitment that I seldom saw. As they endeavor to destroy the Ring of Power and save ...