Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Brandon Vat, the senior content director here at Word on Fire.

And this is an exciting week at Word on Fire because we are releasing the very first book in our brand new Word on Fire

Academic series of books. So you guys know we've been publishing books for several years including many titles by Bishop Aaron.

But with this new book we're breaking into the world of serious scholarship. The first book is titled Tolkien's Modern Reading, Middle Earth Beyond the Middle Ages.

And it's written by our good friend Dr. Holly Ordwe, who's a fellow at the Word on Fire Institute.

In this new book, Holly makes a persuasive case that J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of books such as Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and the Silmarillion,

was actually much more influenced by contemporary or modern sources than people have previously given him credit for.

He was widely read in the realms of children's literature and science fiction and contemporary poetry.

And a lot of these sources played major roles in the shaping of his Middle Earth writings.

This is an exciting book whether you're a Tolkien fan or not. You can find it by visiting the website word on fire.org slash Tolkien.

And again, it's inaugurating our brand new Word on Fire academic line, which we'll have much more to say about soon.

But today I wanted to share an interview that I recently done with Holly about the book, which digs into some of its major findings and claims.

So sit back and enjoy this interview with Dr. Holly Ordwe about her brand new book, Tolkien's Modern Reading. Enjoy.

Welcome to this special interview sponsored by the Word on Fire Institute. My name is Brandon Vott. I'm the senior content director here at Word on Fire.

And I am delighted to be joined by my good and longtime friend, Dr. Holly Ordwe. Holly, welcome.

Well, thank you. This is just such a pleasure to be talking with you about Tolkien.

I'm pumped about it too. You and I have been talking about this book that you've been working on for gosh, almost a decade here.

It's like giving birth to a baby that's just stated for years and years and years. And so I'm just thrilled that after lots of private conversations,

you and I have had about it. We finally get to have an in-depth public discussion about this exciting new book.

Before we get to the book, let me offer everybody a brief biographical take on Holly. Holly is the fellow of faith and culture at our Word on Fire Institute.

She's also a visiting professor of apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Holly is a published poet. She's also the author of a couple of books before the one we're going to talk about today.

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