Cover	1
	Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture	4
	Title page	5
	Copyright page	6
	Dedication	7
	Contents	9
	Acknowledgments	13
	Notes on Contributors	15
	Editorial Practices and Abbreviations	21
	Brief Chronology of the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien	24
	Introduction	37
	References	40
	Part I: Life	41
	1: A Brief Biography	43
	Ancestry and Childhood: 1892–1904	43
	Youth: 1904–1911	45
	Oxford Undergraduate: 1911–1915	46
	Soldier and Mythographer: 1915–1918	47
	Lexicography and “Lost Tales”: 1918–1920	49
	Leeds: 1920–1925	49
	Oxford and the Road to “The Silmarillion”: 1926–1930	50
	20 Northmoor Road and The Hobbit: 1931–1937	51
	A “New Hobbit” and a New War: 1938–1945	53
	The Lord of the Rings Completed, The Silmarillion Resumed: 1945–1955	54
	Success and Retirement: 1955–1964	55
	Final Years: 1965–1973	57
	Part II: The Academic	61
	2: Academic Writings	63
	Tolkien on Words	65
	Tolkien on Language	66
	Tolkien on Literature	68
	Conclusion	73
	List of Academic Essays and Other Relevant Academic Publications by J. R. R. Tolkien	74
	3: Tolkien as Editor	77
	The Task of a Glossator	79
	False Starts and Dialect Studies	82
	Imaginative Reconstructions	87
	4: Manuscripts: Use, and Using	92
	Introduction	92
	An Introduction to Medieval Manuscripts	93
	Manuscripts in Tolkien’s Fiction	95
	Tolkien’s Own Manuscripts	98
	“Shelob’s Lair”	101
	Conclusion	104
	Part III: The Legendarium	113
	5: Myth-making and Sub-creation	115
	Myth, Fantasy, and Fairy-story	115
	Tolkien’s Myth-making	116
	“Mythopoeia”	118
	Sub-creation	122
	Tolkien’s Theory in Context	124
	6: Middle-earth Mythology: An Overview	128
	Outline of the Mythology	129
	Mythology for England	130
	Structures and Layers	132
	Origins in Sound	134
	Collaboration and Cooperation	136
	Endings Fated and Chosen	137
	Beyond England to Synthesis	140
	7: The Silmarillion: Tolkien’s Theory of Myth, Text, and Culture	143
	The Creation of the “Silmarillion” Corpus: The Writing and Publishing Process	144
	The Problems of the “Silmarillion”: Tolkien’s “Intentions” and Criticism	146
	The “Silmarillion” and the Critics: Themes and Interpretation	150
	Conclusion	153
	8: The Hobbit: A Turning Point	155
	When Tolkien Wrote The Hobbit	155
	Changes Before Publication	157
	The Road to Publication	158
	The Influence of Tolkien’s Medieval Scholarship	159
	The Hobbit and the Legendarium	161
	Children’s Literature and The Hobbit	163
	The Lord of the Rings’ Influence on The Hobbit	164
	Conclusion: Tolkien’s Other Masterpiece	165
	9: The Lord of the Rings	169
	Synopsis and Structural Analysis	169
	The Novel through the New Line Cinema Films	173
	“Primarily Linguistic in Inspiration”	174
	“I Cordially Dislike Allegory”	176
	“Lead Us Not into Temptation”	177
	“Fall, Mortality, and The Machine”	178
	“Inside a Song”	180
	10: Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth: A Lifetime of Imagination	182
	Tolkien’s Process	182
	Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth	183
	The History of Middle-earth: Twelve Captivating Volumes	184
	The Book of Lost Tales I (1983) and II (1984)	185
	The Lays of Beleriand (1985)	186
	The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)	186
	The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)	186
	The Return of the Shadow (1988)	187
	The Treason of Isengard (1989)	187
	The War of the Ring (1990)	187
	Sauron Defeated (1992)	188
	Morgoth’s Ring (1993)	188
	The War of the Jewels (1994)	189
	The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)	189
	Tolkien’s “Great Saga”: A “Long Defeat” That May or May Not Include a “Final Victory”	190
	11: “The Lost Road” and “The Notion Club Papers”: Myth, History, and Time-travel	197
	Númenor: The Missing Link	198
	Strongly Biographical Elements	201
	The Frame is Part of the Picture	203
	A Mythology for England	206
	12: Poetry	209
	Introduction	209
	“Where Now the Horse and the Rider?”	213
	“Errantry”	216
	13: “Minor” Works	225
	The Father Christmas Letters1	227
	Roverandom	228
	Mr. Bliss	230
	Farmer Giles of Ham	230
	“Leaf by Niggle”	231
	Smith of Wootton Major	232
	The Minor Works as Backdrop for The Hobbit	234
	Conclusion	236
	14: Invented Languages and Writing Systems	238
	Tolkien’s “Secret Vice” and Linguistic Aesthetic	238
	Tolkien’s Method	239
	The Linguistic World of The Lord of the Rings	241
	The Linguistic World of the Lexicons and The Book of Lost Tales	244
	The Linguistic World of “The Etymologies” and “The Lhammas”	245
	Writing Systems	248
	Part IV: Context	251
	15: Old English	253
	The Making of English	254
	English and the Germanic Languages	255
	Names and Locations	257
	Single Words and Personal Names	260
	Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and the Poem Maxims II	263
	Writing Old English	264
	16: Middle English	266
	Scholarship	266
	Themes and Plot Elements	271
	Narrative Models and Fictionality	275
	17: Old Norse	280
	Naming the North	281
	Fiction and Philology: Tolkien as Old Norse Scholar	282
	Filling the Gaps: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún	283
	Until the Dragon Comes: Old Norse and The Hobbit	285
	Echoes in the Dark: The Lord of the Rings	288
	Conclusions	291
	18: Finnish: The Land and Language of Heroes	295
	Earlier Studies	296
	Lönnrot and the Kalevala	297
	Tolkien and the Kalevala	298
	Tolkien and Kullervo	300
	Tolkien and the Finnish Language	303
	Conclusion	304
	19: Celtic: “Celtic Things” and “Things Celtic” – Identity, Language, and Mythology	308
	Identity	309
	Language	312
	Mythology	315
	20: The English Literary Tradition: Shakespeare to the Gothic	322
	Post-Medieval Literature	323
	The Antiquarian Imagination	327
	The Gothic	332
	21: Earlier Fantasy Fiction: Morris, Dunsany, and Lindsay	339
	William Morris (1834–1896)	343
	Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)	345
	David Lindsay (1876–1945)	349
	Conclusion	350
	22: The Inklings and Others: Tolkien and His Contemporaries	353
	The Inklings	353
	Tolkien and the Inklings: C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams	356
	The Inklings and Their Contemporaries	358
	E. R. Eddison	359
	T. H. White	360
	Mervyn Peake	361
	High and heroic fantasy	362
	Lovecraft, Howard, and Smith	365
	Children’s fantasy and mimetic literature	366
	An Epilogue	366
	23: Later Fantasy Fiction: Tolkien’s Legacy	371
	Fantasy After Tolkien: Actions and Reactions	371
	British Fantasy after Tolkien: Myth, Legend and Medievalism (Cooper, Garner, Wynne Jones)	373
	The Peak of American Fantasy: Responding to and Questioning Fantasy Conventions (Le Guin)	376
	The Legacy of Tolkien’s “On Fairy-stories”: The Fantasy Author as Critic and (Self-)Theorist	378
	“And Wither Then?”: Fantasy in the Twenty-first Century (Pullman and Rowling)	380
	24: Modernity: Tolkien and His Contemporaries	386
	Introduction1	386
	1880–1918: Fairies and Wanderers	388
	A Few More Romantic Legacies	393
	1918–1945: Patriots, Suburbanites, and Big Bosses	394
	Conclusion: The Victorian Modernist	399
	Part V: Critical Approaches	403
	25: The Critical Response to Tolkien’s Fiction	405
	First Wave: The 1950s and 1960s	406
	The Silmarillion: The 1970s	407
	Tolkien’s Fiction in the 1980s	408
	The Polls: 1996–1998	409
	The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The 2000s	410
	Modernism	412
	From Tolkien Studies	417
	Others	419
	26: Style and Intertextual Echoes	425
	Simple Style and Word-play: The Shorter Works	426
	Contrasting Styles: The Hobbit	427
	Complexity and Archaism: The Lord of the Rings	429
	Annalistic Compression: The Silmarillion	437
	Conclusion	438
	27: The Hero’s Journey	440
	The Hero’s Journey	441
	Tolkien and Middle English	442
	There and Back Again: Bilbo, Merry, and Pippin	445
	The Broken Hero: Frodo	446
	The Patriarch’s Quest: Aragorn and Sam	448
	28: Evil	454
	Tolkien and War	455
	Sub-creation and Evil	456
	Power and Domination	458
	Active Evil vs. Evil as Privation	460
	Polyphonic Good vs. Monological Evil	462
	Evil and History in Middle-earth	464
	29: Nature	467
	Roots of Affection	468
	Tree, Leaf, Wind, Rock, and Sky	469
	Letting Nature Speak for Itself	472
	Nature Defiled: Tolkien’s Broken Landscapes	473
	Nature Rediscovered and Closing Thoughts	476
	30: Religion: An Implicit Catholicism	482
	Introduction	482
	Tolkien’s Religious Background	484
	The Hobbit and Beyond	485
	The importance of feasting	485
	The extraordinary potential of ordinary individuals	486
	Gandalf	487
	Resisting temptation	489
	Religious intertextuality	490
	Later Fiction	492
	Fantasy and Sub-creation: “On Fairy-stories”	493
	Conclusion	494
	31: War	497
	Introduction	497
	Early Life and World War I	497
	World War II	501
	The Wounds That Will Not Heal	503
	War: Just or Unjust?	504
	Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Developments	506
	32: Women	509
	33: Art	523
	“On Fairy-stories”	523
	The Balrog Scene	525
	Éowyn and the Witch King	529
	Minas Tirith	531
	34: Music	537
	Introduction	537
	“The Ainulindalë” (“The Music of the Ainur”)	539
	Musical References in Tolkien’s Works, and the Character of Tinfang Warble	541
	Scholarship on Music in Tolkien’s Works	545
	Sub-creational Music Based on Tolkien’s Works	546
	Conclusion	547
	35: Film Adaptations: Theatrical and Television Versions	550
	Background	550
	The Morton Grady Zimmerman Project of 1957–1959	551
	The 1967 Hobbit Short	554
	The 1969 United Artists Contracts and Projects	555
	Saul Zaentz and the Ralph Bakshi Version	557
	Rankin/Bass’s The Hobbit and The Return of the King	558
	A Soviet Hobbit	559
	Finland Tackles The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings	560
	Peter Jackson and New Line’s Epics	560
	The Lord of the Rings	560
	The Hobbit	563
	36: Games and Gaming: Quantasy	566
	The Roots of Enchantment: “On Fairy-stories”	567
	All Aboard: Wargaming and Board Games	568
	Rolls, Skills, and Action: Role-playing Games	572
	Fantasy Envisioned and Enworlded: Sub-creation in Computer Games	574
	The Apotheosis of the Sub-created World: Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs	576
	Conclusion	578
	General Bibliography	581
	Index	591