Oxford Portal to Fantasy

Ever wondered whether Harry Potter could successfully bring the One Ring to Mordor? Or if Peter Pevensie could defeat the Red Queen in Wonderland? Now you can find out!

In 2011 I studied abroad at the University of Oxford as part of a UC Davis summer program. The class was called "Portal to Fantasy" and involved researching influential fantasy works from authors who attended Oxford (or, in Harry Potter's case, where scenes from the movies were filmed). For my final project, I wrote an 'interactive essay' of sorts that explores how the protagonist from each novel would fare if they were instead the hero of the other stories.

The works we studied were: Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Golden Compass, Harry Potter, Howl's Moving Castle. In this essay, you can select any protagonist and transplant them to the other universes to see whether they'd remain an effective main character.

Special thanks to Professor John Stenzel and everyone in the UC Davis Summer program!