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Courses & lectures

From Homer to Tolkien, from knights to samurai: the programme César Pellicer teaches at the Oswald Spengler Academy of Higher Studies. Live, online and with recordings available. All sessions are taught in Spanish.

César Pellicer
Oswald Spengler Academy of Higher Studies

Enrolment, live sessions and recordings are handled by the Oswald Spengler Academy. Each card takes you to its page.

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Poster for “The Great Epic of Europe: From Homer to Tolkien”
Enrolment open Course · Oswald Spengler Academy

The Great Epic of Europe: From Homer to Tolkien

  • 23 September – 23 October 2026
  • Live · 10 two-hour sessions
  • Online · in Spanish

A journey through the great heroic tales that have shaped Europe’s cultural identity for more than three thousand years: from the Iliad and the Odyssey to the Arthurian cycle, the Nibelungs, the Grail and the work of J. R. R. Tolkien. How the archetypes of the hero were born, and why they still live in our literature and imagination.

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Trailers

Hear the lecturer

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The Voices of the Heroic Dead

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Knights and Samurai

Full programme

All courses and lectures

The Survival of the Pagan World in European HistoryPoster for “The Survival of the Pagan World in European History”Course
Apr – May 2026 · Available on demand

The Survival of the Pagan World in European History

From Indo-European roots to contemporary culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the polemic of Celsus, Julian’s restoration, the continuity of heroic motifs in the Middle Ages and the modern recovery of myth in Spengler, Jung, Eliade and Tolkien.

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The Age of Heroes: From Troy to Middle-earthPoster for “The Age of Heroes: From Troy to Middle-earth”Lecture
Sep 2026 · Free access

The Age of Heroes: From Troy to Middle-earth

The legendary lineage that links Achilles, Odysseus, Siegfried, Arthur and Aragorn: how heroic archetypes outlived the centuries, were transformed by medieval chivalry, reborn in Wagner and given new life in Tolkien’s mythopoeia.

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Gods and Knights in the World WarsPoster for “Gods and Knights in the World Wars”Lecture
Aug 2026 · Available on demand

Gods and Knights in the World Wars

Saint George and the archers of Agincourt, Siegfried, Joan of Arc, the bogatyrs of Kyiv… The heroic and sacred imagery with which the powers of 1914 and 1939 clothed industrial warfare.

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The Voices of the Heroic DeadPoster for “The Voices of the Heroic Dead”LectureTrailer
Jul 2026 · Available on demand

The Voices of the Heroic Dead

Starting from Yukio Mishima’s «Voices of the Heroic Dead»: what happens when a civilisation loses the beliefs that gave meaning to its heroes’ sacrifice? A reflection on decline, memory and historical continuity in the light of Oswald Spengler.

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Knights and Samurai: Two Ideas of the Heroic EthosPoster for “Knights and Samurai: Two Ideas of the Heroic Ethos”LectureTrailer
Jul 2026 · Available on demand

Knights and Samurai: Two Ideas of the Heroic Ethos

Europe and Japan: two warrior aristocracies with a strikingly symmetrical history, from the feudalism of the 11th and 12th centuries to their eclipse by gunpowder at Pavia and Nagashino. A critical look at Bushidō as the supposed twin of Western chivalry.

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The Sacred Symbolism of AnimalsPoster for “The Sacred Symbolism of Animals”Lecture
Jun 2026 · Available on demand

The Sacred Symbolism of Animals

From Odin’s wolf to the Lamb of Christ, from the prophetic raven to the imperial eagle: animal symbolism from the Indo-European pagan traditions to its survival in the calendar of saints, heraldry and the medieval bestiary. With Gorka Sánchez Pastor.

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From Heroes to Knights: The Pagan Tradition in the Middle AgesPoster for “From Heroes to Knights: The Pagan Tradition in the Middle Ages”Lecture
Mar 2026 · Available on demand

From Heroes to Knights: The Pagan Tradition in the Middle Ages

A concise overview of the passage from the pagan to the Christian world — Celsus, Julian the Apostate, the end of Antiquity — and of how honour, loyalty and the epic dimension of life lived on in the figure of the knight.

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