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Hamish Williams

Hamish Williams
Born1988
Cape Town, South Africa
OccupationClassical studies
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Cape Town
Academic work
Notable worksTolkien and the Classical World

Hamish G. D. Williams is a scholar of classical reception and fantasy at the University of Groningen. He is known for his 2021 book Tolkien and the Classical World about classical influences on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings.

Biography

Hamish G. D. Williams gained his PhD at the University of Cape Town in 2017; his thesis was titled "The Typical and Connotative Character of Xeinoi Situations across the Apologue: Three Studies in Repetition". He then lectured at Leiden University, moving to the University of Jena as a research fellow in 2019. In 2021 he became a fellow at the Polish Institute for Advanced Studies. Alongside this, in 2020 he joined the faculty at the University of Groningen, where he is a scholar of classical reception and fantasy.[1]

He is known for his 2021 edited collection Tolkien and the Classical World[2] about classical influences on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings.[3][4][5] He has written research articles on Tolkien studies, on classical reception, and on fantasy literature.[1][6] His 2023 monograph J.R.R. Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics[7] has been welcomed as insightful and well-conceived.[8]

Books

Written

  • Williams, Hamish (2021). The Southern Tide. Ranger. ISBN 978-9492469304. (fiction)
  • Williams, Hamish (2023). J.R.R. Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1350241480.

Edited

  • Williams, Hamish, ed. (2021). Tolkien and the Classical World. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers. ISBN 978-3-905703-45-0.
  • Williams, Hamish; Clare, Ross, eds. (2022). The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1802079227.

References

  1. ^ a b "H.G.D. (Hamish) Williams, PhD". University of Groningen. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  2. ^ Williams 2021.
  3. ^ Houghton, John (2020). "Tolkien and the Classical World (2021), edited by Hamish Williams"". Journal of Tolkien Research. 11 (2). Article 4.
  4. ^ Parker, Victor (2022). "Tolkien and the Classical World ed. by Hamish Williams, and: Tolkien and the Classics ed. by Roberto Arduini". Tolkien Studies. 19 (2): 205–211. doi:10.1353/tks.2022.0020. ISSN 1547-3163. S2CID 258432978.
  5. ^ Swain, Larry J. (2022). "Tolkien and the Classical World, edited by Hamish Williams". Mythlore. 40 (2). Article 26.
  6. ^ "Hamish Williams". Google Scholar. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  7. ^ Williams 2023.
  8. ^ Delbrooke-Jones, Beren-Dain (2024). "Review of Williams, Hamish. (2023) J.R.R. Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics. London: Bloomsbury Academic" (PDF). Rosetta (29). doi:10.25500/ROSETTA.BHAM.00000034.