Jonathan Evans is a professor of medieval languages and literature at theUniversity of Georgia. He is known as aTolkien scholar, including for his 2006 bookEnts, Elves, and Eriador and his contributions toThe J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.
Jonathan Evans studied English atAsbury College, earning his B.A. in 1976. He gained an M.A., also in English, in 1978 at Indiana University, where he completed his Ph.D. in British Literature in 1984. That year he joined the faculty at theUniversity of Georgia, where he is a professor of medieval languages and literature. Courses he has taught include early English, medieval languages and literature, and both environmental and fantasy literature. In addition, he researches and teaches onTolkien studies, with topics including thelanguages of Middle-earth.[1]
Evans lives with his wife inAthens, Georgia. They have three children.[1]
Brian McFadden, reviewingEnts, Elves, and Eriador, finds the book's argument plausible, Christianity notwithstanding, since "the basic principles of stewardship that Dickerson and Evans lay out are in line with those of many environmental writers", while theirTolkien scholarship was right up to date.[2]
Caroline Batten, reviewing Evans'sAn Introduction toOld English inThe Medieval Review, writes that it offers "a well-designed, substantive, and entirely authoritative course plan" for teaching the language, including both its historical and its linguistic contexts. She finds Evans's use of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle "especially commendable".[3]
Shaun Hughes, reviewingTolkien the Medievalist inTolkien Studies, writes that Evans's essay "The anthropology of Arda", on humans in Tolkien's world ofMiddle-earth, is "long and densely argued". Hughes disagrees with Evans's restriction of this to Tolkien's "Men", as Tolkien, he writes, followed theOld Norse conception of treating all the humanoid races asmenn, whether they weremennskir (human) or not. But he finds the essay useful in exploring Tolkien's humans, as this was the one "race" that Tolkien did not "invent", even if dwarves and elves existed (in some form) and hobbits are "counted under human kind". Hughes notes that Evans compares how Tolkien andMilton addressed "parallel problems" like thefall of man in theirBible-related stories.[4]
Evans has contributed chapters to books including:
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