Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 4-15-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

April 2026

Department

English

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Ian MacDonald

Abstract

Although mundane and often overlooked in reality, in fantasy, food, like all other things, is entirely symbolic. Therefore, considering food closely when analyzing a fantasy text offers unique insights into the world being developed, the characters within that world, and the author’s own understanding of both the real and “secondary” world. In this paper, I consider the foods of Earthsea, Narnia, and Middle Earth to offer various perspectives on the worldbuilding and examine the implications of different foods in these well-known settings. For example, the tea served in Narnia creates a fantasy world that is more normal than the strange reality of the Blitz, and Tolkien’s inclusion of tea in a mythologized British past validates imperial colonialism without needing to invoke it. By bringing the historical and geographical reality of different foods into fantasy, we can gain an understanding of the presumptions that authors may be applying to their works.

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