W.P. Ker Lecture

The W.P. Ker lecture was a yearly lecture at the University of Glasgow. It is now a full lectureship. It was instated in 1938 in honour of William Paton Ker, of whom Tolkien spoke with reverence in The Monsters and the Critics.

On April 15th, 1953, Tolkien was given the honour of providing this lecture. It was a discussion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the religious themes temptation, adultery and repentance.

On various websites with a "Tolkien Timeline" (a selection:^{[1][2][3][4][5]}), the date of this lecture is incorrectly given as 1933 (or "circa 1933"). It seems to be based on a misreading and ignorant copy-pasting.

References

• The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, note 2 to Letter 135.
• University of Glasgow
• W.P. Ker at Wikipedia