Marjorie Jean Burns is a scholar of English literature, best known for herstudies of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Marjorie Jean Burns was born in 1940. She gained her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.[1]
She is an emeritus professor of English atPortland State University, having worked on the faculty there for over thirty years. She lectured on English literature and Tolkien, writing many papers on these topics.[1][2][3][4] She married the geologist Scott Burns, also at Portland State University, and Don S. Wilner. She has four children.[3][4]
Burns co-edited theJ. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, and contributed four articles to it on topics includingOld Norse literature and the giant spiderShelob.[5][6]
C. W. Sullivan III, reviewing her 2005 bookPerilous Realms for theJournal of Folklore Research, found it both praiseworthy and problematic. He liked Burns's discussion of the English prejudice against the Celts, and ofTolkien's dislike of frivolous post-Shakespeare fairies. He noted that many of the chapters were published as separate papers, so there was some repetition, and she had failed to note the Celtic origin ofSir Gawain. But she had written a "valuable window into Tolkien's sources"; he liked the way he blended "Celtic enchantment and Norse vitality", and the book was accessible to scholars and the public alike.[7]
Kathryn Stelmach, reviewing the book forComitatus, found her exploration of Norse "more compelling" than her "overly simplified" approach to the "Celtic" identity and the use of unreliable sources.[8]
Marjorie Burns is an author, traveler, and lover of adventure, as well as a professor of English at Portland State University. Currently on leave from teaching to write, she lives with her husband in Washington State, near the base of a dormant volcano. She is an avid kayaker, cyclist, and rock climber.
