Richmond Students Trace Britain’s Storytelling History from Beowulf to Hogwarts 

This summer, a group of our students travelled to London to study British Fantasy Literature, tracing the genre’s evolution from mythology and medieval literature through to modern fantasy classics. The module, led by one of our Communications & Art Faculty Jon Mackley, examined Arthurian legend and fairy traditions alongside the works of Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, and took students well beyond the seminar room to see that history for themselves. 

Among the highlights was a visit to the British Library, where students came face to face with the Beowulf manuscript, a Shakespeare First Folio, and a handwritten manuscript by Jane Austen. At the British Museum, the group explored the Saxon, Viking and Medieval collections, including the Sutton Hoo helmet. Two students even delighted the rest of the group by attempting to translate sections of the Rosetta Stone. 

The module’s field trips also took students further afield, to Oxford, home to sites associated with Carroll, Lewis and Tolkien, and to York, where nearly two thousand years of English history unfold side by side: from Roman remains and the Jorvik Viking Centre to the medieval streets of the Shambles, the magnificence of York Minster, and the elegance of the city’s Georgian Assembly Rooms. 

“This year’s British Fantasy Literature Summer School has been one of the most rewarding modules I’ve taught,” Jon Mackley told us. “The students brought genuine curiosity and enthusiasm to every seminar, and it was wonderful to see them connect the literature with the places that inspired it. Their curiosity transformed every visit as we explored almost 2,000 years of British history through locations linked with British Fantasy such as Oxford and York, revealing how British fantasy isn’t confined to books but is woven into the country’s landscapes, architecture, culture, and the places where its authors lived and worked. The greatest pleasure for me was seeing these familiar places anew through my students’ eyes.” 

The British Fantasy Literature module is part of Richmond’s wider commitment to combining rigorous academic study with immersive, experiential learning, helping students understand not only the texts themselves, but the history, culture and values that shaped them.