User:Astraflame/Tolkien Bibliography

This bibliography of Tolkien scholarship was compiled using the Year in Review information provided by Tolkien Studies from 2004-2008 (documenting the articles published in 2001-2005). For bibliographies of earlier years, researchers would do well to check "A Tolkien Checklist: Selected Criticism 1981-2004" by Richard C. West (MFS 50:1015-1028) or the bibliography at the end of "Tom Shippey's J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and A Look Back at Tolkien Criticism since 1982"[1] by Michael D.C. Drout and Hilary Wynne in Envoi 9.2:101, which may also be found in electronic version on Michael Drout's website [2]. Older articles (1984 and earlier) has been published in Richard C. West's Tolkien Criticism: An Annotated Checklist and Judith Johnson's J. R. R. Tolkien: Six Decades of Criticism.

While I did my best to make inferences based on the summary material available through Tolkien Studies, I did not actually acquire a copy of most of these articles, which may have led to miscategorization and misrepresentation. In order to keep things relatively orderly, I will list the collections, encyclopedias, disregarded sources, and sources without adequate summary material on a separate page. See also key studies. In general, sections are in alphabetical order by author's last name.

The Construction of The Lord of the Rings and other Literary Techniques

Ankeny, Rebecca. “Poem as a Sign in The Lord of the Rings” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 16: 86-95. (year?)

Discusses the significance of the presence of poetry in the story, the pattern of its occurrences, and the demographics of its reciters. Also raises an interesting point regarding the story framing, imagining how The Lord of the Rings would be if Bilbo's walking song were used as a frontispiece rather than the Ring-Verse.

Bibire, Paul. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” British Writers: Classics, Volume II, ed. Jay Parini [New York: Scribner's, 2004]: 155-75.

A brief study placing The Lord of the Rings in the context of The Hobbit and the history of Middle-earth, which includes a further discussion of “characterization, morality (particularly aesthetic ethics), the limits of symbolism, and literary style, paying special attention to humor.”

Bolintineanu, Alexandra. "'On the Borders of Old Stories': Enacting the Past in Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 263-73.

Structural comparison of the two works with a particular focus on their use of retelling old legends and tales to create historical atmosphere

Drout, Michael D. C. "A Mythology for Anglo-Saxon England." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 229-47.

An attempt to determine what exactly was “for England” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology, finds evidence that Tolkien was attempting to establish a mythological connection among the English, the Geats and Danes of Beowulf, and the Goths of the East, for aesthetic reasons despite the slim historical evidence for such a connection.

Drout, Michael DC. “Tolkien’s Prose Style and its Literary Effects.” Tolkien Studies 1: 137-62. (2004)

Deconstruction of The Battle of Pelennor fields in order to demonstrate The Lord of the Rings as a work of value by Modernist critical standards, comparing a sentence of the King of the Nazgul and Denethor’s descent into madness with parallel aspects of Shakespeare’s King Lear

Edwards, Owen Dudley. “Gollum, Frodo, and the Catholic Novel.” Chesterton Review 28: 57-71. (2002)

Comparison between the form of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with other Catholic novels of the time, despite not being explicitly Catholic works; also makes a sharp comparison between Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and Tolkien’s two main novels

Flieger, Verlyn. “’Do the Atlantis Story and Abandon the Eriol Saga’” Tolkien Studies 1: 43-68. (2004)

Analysis of Tolkien’s shift in framing devices from stories told to a medieval man (Eriol-Saga) to stories that come to modern men in dreams and re-embodiment (The Notion Club Papers). Also elaborated in Fliger's Interrupted Music.

Flieger, Verlyn. Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien’s Mythology. [Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2005] (Reviewed in Tolkien Studies, vol. 3)

Thorough discussion of the framing techniques used in Tolkien’s works and their implications

Flieger, Verlyn. "A Postmodern Medievalist?" In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 17-28.

Describes Tolkien as a postmodern based on his placement of comments about the text within the text itself

Gymnich, Marion. "Reconsidering the Linguistics of Middle-earth: Invented Languages and Other Linguistic Features in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 7-30.

Considering the aesthetic implications of Tolkien’s languages, the races that speak them, and the overall incantatory power of words in contributing the realism, morality and mystery of the whole story

Hunter, John. "The Reanimation of Antiquity and the Resistance to History: Macpherson-Scott-Tolkien." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 61-75.

Discussion of the techniques used by [[James Macpherson|Macpherson], Scott, and Tolkien in creating a romantic mythologizing historicism, and finds Tolkien to be using a blending of the techniques used by the other two

Kerry, Paul E. "Thoughts on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and History." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 67-85.

Considers Tolkien’s treatment of the novel as history, finding it more in line with the work of classic historians than writers of historical fiction

Koravos, Nikolaos. “Realistic Fantasy: The Example of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 38: 31-35 (2000)

Discusses the techniques of realism used by Tolkien which is generally not found in any other fantasy novel, i.e. detailed geographical and historical descriptions, social characteristics, a variety of characters, and genuine problematic decisions facing them.

Morrison, Ronald D. “’I Much Prefer History, True or Feigned’: Tolkien and Literary History” Kentucky Philological Review 19:36-42.

Describes Tolkien’s sub-creation as gaining depth through familiarity via literary allusion towards other forms of literature: the Bible and Paradise Lost in The Silmarillion, Victorian adventure in The Lord of the Rings, classic children's literature in The Hobbit

Nagy, Gergerly. “The ‘Lost’ Subject of Middle-earth: The Constitution of the Subject in the Figure of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings”

Through an analysis of Gollum’s use of language as a way of looking at the shifting use of the subject in The Lord of the Rings

Nagy, Gergely. "The Medievalist('s) Fiction: Textuality and Historicity as Aspects of Tolkien's Medievalist Cultural Theory in a Postmodernist Context." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 29-41.

Discusses the technique of “historicity” in Tolkien – the placement of text in its fictionalized historical context – as a technique that tends to be ignored by most postmodern critical theories

Nelson, Charles. “The Sins of Middle Earth: Tolkien’s Use of Medieval Allegory.” In Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across Disciplines, ed. Tim Schindler [St. Paul Dept of English, University of St. Thomas, 2001]:61-65

Attempt to associate each of the seven deadly sins with one of the races of Middle-earth

Pearce, Joseph. “Narnia and Middle-earth: When Two Worlds Collide” Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles ed. Shanna Caughey [Dallas: Benbella Books, 2005]: 113-27

Addressing both author’s suspicion towards allegory and yet their use of ‘loose’ or ‘informal’ allegory in their own works in similar though not congruent fashions

Prozesky, Maria. “The Text Tale of Frodo the Nine-Fingered: Residual Oral Patterning in The Lord of the Rings” Tolkien Studies 3: 21-43 (2006)

Considering The Lord of the Rings as bearing some traits of oral tradition, despite being a written work of literature, and the internal references to oral tradition within The Lord of the Rings

Rutledge, Fleming. The Battle for Middle Earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004]

Scene-by-scene study of The Lord of the Rings that searches for a “deep narrative” exploring moral and theological elements of the work. Rutledge focuses on earlier parts of the work, in particular “The Shadow of the Past.” She emphasizes themes such as leadership and friendship as much as moral responsibility per se. In the context of the balance of providence and free will, she notes cues in Tolkien's syntax indicating the placement of volition and responsibility regarding such matters as desire for and use of the Ring. She argues that by creating a world without formal religion, Tolkien emphasizes the importance of good works over faith.

Salo, David. "Heroism and Alienation Through Language in The Lord of the Rings." The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy, edited by Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray. [Jefferson, NC; London: McFarland, 2004]: 23-37.

Discussion of how Tolkien’s languages as being invented but through actual linguistic sources giving his world an air of both alienness and familiarity, and also discusses the historical authenticity bestowed upon the work due to their detailed development

Segura, Eduardo, and Guillermo Peris. "Tolkien as Philo-Logist." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 31-43.

Brief discussion of Tolkien’s love for words

Simonson, Martin. “Three is Company: Novel, Fairy Tale, and Romance on the Journey Through the Shire.” Tolkien Studies 3: 81-100. (2006)

Discusses the literary form of the journey through the Shire as a blend of the 19th century novel, fairy tale and romances

Straubhaar, Sandra Ballif. “Gilraen’s Linnod: Function, Genre, Prototypes” Tolkien Studies 2: 235-244. (2005)

Straubhaar identifies the alliterative epigram uttered by Aragorn's mother in Appendix A as a form of Norse kvidhlingar, and offers a general defense of Tolkien's verse as essential to and deeply integrated into the text.

Turner, Allen “Legendary and Historical Time in The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 39: 3-6 (2001)

Contrasts specificity of dates in the Appendices vs. the vagueness of the dates in The Lord of the Rings itself facilitating the perception of historical and legendary depth

Wendorf, Thomas A “Greene, Tolkien, and the Mysterious Relations of Realism and Fantasy” Renascence 55:78-100. (date?)

Thematic comparison between The Lord of the Rings and Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, finding Greene to be mythic fantasy in the real world where Tolkien is realism in the fantasy world

Tolkien's Influences

Arvidsson, Hakan. “The Ring: An Essay on Tolkien’s Mythology.” Mallorn 40: 45-52 (2002?)

Survey of possible mythological sources of Tolkien’s ring symbolism, including Prometheus, the study of alchemy, the Exeter Book, Volsunga Saga, The Red Book of Hergest, Beowulf and the tale of the Ring of Volund. Also follows Gene Hargrove in arguing that Tom Bombadil is a Vala, and by process of elimination, Aulë the Smith, and then discusses implications of Tom’s “mastery” over the One Ring (49).

Day, David. The World of Tolkien: Mythological Sources of The Lord of the Rings. [London: Mitchell Beazley; New York: Gramercy Books, 2003]

Quick and dirty consideration of the mythic and historical analogues of places, peoples, and some individual characters in The Lord of the Rings

Gloge, Andreas. “Re-writing the Past: the Pillars of Middle-earth” Mallorn 41:44-52 (2003)

Excerpted & translated from the German J.R.R. Tolkien’s Der Herr Der Ringe that briefly surveys the possible sources for the mythic elements of The Lord of the Rings

Lewis, Alex, and Elizabeth Currie. The Forsaken Realms of Tolkien: Tolkien and the Medieval Tradition. [Oswestry: Medea Publishing, 2005]

One of many books (including J.R.R. Tolkien: The Shores of Middle-earth by Robert Giddings and Elizabeth Holland) that claims to have found the “secret code” to Tolkien’s works; ignoring such pretensions, Tolkien Studies did find that this one does actually draw some interesting parallels

Shippey, Tom. The Road to Middle Earth, 3rd ed. [Boston: Houghton Mifflin: 2003]

Considered one of the most definitive outlines of Tolkien’s sources and influences, updated in the third edition to include a full consideration of the new material published in The History of Middle-earth and responses to more recent critics

Christian Influences

Caldecott, Stratford. The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind "The Lord of the Rings." [New York: Crossroad, 2005] Revised edition of Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien (2003). (Reviewed in Seven 22: 112-114 and Tolkien Studies, vol. 4)

Discusses how Tolkien incorporates Catholic morality and teleology into his works

Caldecott, Stratford. “The Lord & Lady of the Rings: The Hidden Presence of Tolkien's Catholicism in The Lord of the Rings" Touchstone Jan/Feb 2002:51-57, also appears abridged as “The Hidden Presence of Catholicism and the Virgin Mary in The Lord of the Rings” Chesterton Review 176-181. (2002)

Finds the presence of the Virgin Mary in The Lord of the Rings, specifically in the images of Galadriel and Elbereth, the prominence of humility among the Middle-earth virtues, the symbolism of light, and the use of the date of Annunciation for the death of Sauron

Caldecott, Stratford. "The Horns of Hope: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Heroism of Hobbits." The Chesterton Review 28: 29-55. (2002)

Meditation on the religious symbolism in The Lord of the Rings and a list of the letters of J.R.R. Tolkien that Caldecott finds the most important

Kinsella, Sean. "Elves and Angels in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." Notes on Contemporary Literature 32 (4): 10-11. (2002)

Compares Sam’s response to Elves to Teresa of Avila’s description of angels, claiming that Elves may draw on Catholic angelic tradition

Madsen, Catherine. “‘Light from an Invisible Lamp’: Natural Religion in The Lord of the Rings” In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance. [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004]: 35-47 (originally published in 1988)

Disputes the activity of finding Catholic symbolism in The Lord of the Rings, since the echoes of Catholic ritual and hierarchy do not form a Catholic ethos without a Catholic doctrine, which The Lord of the Rings itself is lacking

Maher, Michael W. “‘A Land without Stain’: Medieval Images of Mary and Their Use in the Characterization of Galadriel.” In Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 225-236.

Finds a reflection of medieval images of Mary in the text surrounding Lothlorien and Galadriel, though he asserts that Galadriel is not actually supposed to represent Mary.

Pearce, Joseph. "Letting the Catholic out of the Baggins." Chronicles 28: 26-27. (2004)

Discussion of the current development of Christian studies with respect to Tolkien, reviewing three books and being generally positive about the whole affair

Vaccaro, Christopher T. "'And One White Tree': The Cosmological Cross and the Arbor Vitae in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion" Mallorn 42: 23-28 (2004)

Associates the lone white tree (a symbol of virtue in Tolkien, e.g. Telperion, Nimloth, the White Tree of Gondor) with the biblical symbols the cosmological cross and the Arbor Vitae as well as its usual association with the Yggdrasil in Norse mythology

Classical Influences

Ford, Judy Ann “The White City: The Lord of the Rings as an Early Medieval Myth of the Restoration of the Roman Empire.” Tolkien Studies 2: 53-73. (2005)

Parallel between hobbits’ consideration of Minas Tirith and the 6th century Goth Jordanes contemplating the history of Rome, also general parallels between history of Rome and Gondor

Librán-Moreno, Miryam. “Parallel Lives: The Sons of Denethor and the Sons of Telamon.” Tolkien Studies 2: 15-52. (2005)

Parallels between Tolkien’s story of Boromir, Faramir and Denethor and the Greek myth of Ajax, Teucer and Telamon; analysis of published drafts shows that this was not an original feature of the story

Obertino, James. “Barbarians and Imperialism in Tacitus and The Lord of the Rings” Tolkien Studies 3: 117-131 (2006)

Compares the treatment of the barbarian tribes in Tacitus’ Germania with the use of the barbarians in The Lord of the Rings

Straubhaar, Sandra Ballif. "Myth, Late Roman History, and Multiculturalism in Tolkien's Middle-earth." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 101-17.

Parallels between Gondor and the Rohirrim and the late Roman Empire and Germanic tribes

Medieval and Old English Traditions

Amendt-Raduege, Amy M. “Dream Visions in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” Tolkien Studies 3: 45-55. (2006)

Considers Tolkien’s use of dreams as commensurate with the medieval tradition of the dream vision, where dreams show “an external reality above and beyond the realm of mortals”

Burns, Marjorie J. "Norse and Christian Gods: The Integrative Theology of J. R. R. Tolkien." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 163-78.

Discussion of how Tolkien cleaned up the Norse pantheon to create the Valar

Burns, Marjorie. Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien’s Middle Earth [Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005] (Review in Tolkien Studies, vol. 3)

As series of essays on how Tolkien uses these two contrasting forms of Northerness, mostly based on their images in the English imagination.

Dimond, Andy. "The Twilight of the Elves: Ragnarök and the End of the Third Age." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004]: 179-89.

Draws parallels between the beginning of the Fourth age of Middle-earth and the regeneration of the world after Ragnarök

Drout, Michael DC. “The Problem of Transformation: The Use of Medieval Sources in Fantasy Literature.” Literature Compass 1:1-22 (year?)

Addresses impact on modern reader of medievalism in modern fantasy texts, contrasting Tolkien’s hidden Anglo-Saxonism in the Rohirrim with the open homage to Malory in The Once and Future King to the accidental echoes in Ursula Leguin’s wizards of traveling medieval magicians to the second-hand imagery of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising

Fehrenbacher, Richard W. “Beowulf as Fairy-story: Enchanting the Elegiac in The Two Towers” Tolkien Studies 3:101-115. (2006)

Tracing parallels between The Lord of the Rings and Anglo-Saxon literature and framing it as Tolkien attempting to bring life to the old stories

Holmes, John R. "Oaths and Oath Breaking: Analogues of Old English Comitatus in Tolkien's Myth." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 249-61.

Discusses a similar respect for even casual oaths in The Lord of the Rings as is found in Anglo-Saxon culture, also a discussion of boasting from this context

Honegger, Thomas. “A Note of Beren and Luthien’s Disguise as Werewolf and Vampire Bat.” Tolkien Studies 1:171-175. (2004)

Comparing their disguise to a similarly disguised couple in the Middle English romance William of Palerne

Nelson, Marie “Beowulf’s Bold Words” Neophilologus 89:299-310 (year?)

Finds oaths in the Lord of the Rings (Frodo taking the Ring to Mordor, Faramir refusing to touch it, and Pippin swearing loyalty to Denethor) as similar to those in Beowulf, reflecting a link between the Lord of the Rings and the Northern sense of courage and honor found in Beowulf

Pettit, Edward “Treebeard’s Roots in Medieval English Tradition” Mallorn 42:11-18 (2004)

Finds Treebeard in various walking trees and tree-men in medieval Welsh and Old Norse literature; also explores the usage of the Old English word ent meaning “giant.”

Pettit, Edward “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Use of an Old English Charm” Mallorn 40: 39-44 (2002)

Finds striking resemblance between the Morgul-knife that stabs Frodo and a charm found in the medical collection Lacnunga (written 1000 AD) that attributes a patient's sharp stabbing pain to elfshot or some other supernatural spear or knife. The melting of the knife also echoes the description of the charm and a melting sword in Beowulf.

Siewers, Alfred K. "Tolkien's Cosmic-Christian Ecology: The Medieval Underpinnings." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 138-53.

An attempt to find sources for Tolkien’s awareness of the respect for nature in Celtic literature

Wilcox, Miranda. “Exilic Imagining in The Seafarer and The Lord of the Rings.” In Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 133-154.

Discusses Tolkien’s engagement with this Anglo-Saxon poem and draws thematic parallels to the sea-longing of the elves in The Lord of the Rings

Less easily categorized mythologies

Finn, Richard J. “Arthur and Aragorn: Arthurian Influences in The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 43: 23-26 (2005)

Considers Tolkien’s problematic relationship with the Arthurian mythos despite the many similarities, and comes to the conclusion that Tolkien may be suggesting that his mythology is the “real” origin of the Arthurian idea

Flieger, Verlyn. "A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 277-83.

Argument outlining how the Kalevala provided Tolkien with a model for an English mythology (argument also elaborated in Interrupted Music)

Gay, David Elton. "J. R. R. Tolkien and the Kalevala: Some Thoughts on the Finnish Origins of Tom Bombadil and Treebeard." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004]: 295-304.

Argues for Tolkien having Kalevala’s Väinämöinen in mind when he created Tom Bombadil and Treebeard

Petty, Anne C. “Identifying England’s Lönnrot” Tolkien Studies 1:69-84. (2004)

Detailing Tolkien’s encounter with the Kalevala and comparing his works with the work of Elias Lönnrot, the 19th century physician and folklorist who created the Kalevala

Shelton, Mahmoud. Alchemy in Middle-earth: The Significance of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. [Ashland, Oregon: Temple of Justice Books, 2003]

Finds striking parallels between Islamic and hermetic symbolism with Tolkien’s works, and makes the fairly tenuous claim that all of this is intentional due to Tolkien’s acquaintance with Charles Williams, who once belonged to a hermetic order

West, Richard C. "Setting the Rocket Off in Story: The Kalevala as the Germ of Tolkien's Legendarium." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 285-94.

Discusses why the Kalevala had such an impact on Tolkien and traces possible transformation from the Kullervo to the story of Turín Turambar

Literary Influences

Brennan Croft, Janet. "'Bid the Tree Unfix His Earth-Bound Root': Motifs from Macbeth in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" Seven 21: 47-59 (year?)

Details the many parallels between The Lord of the Rings and Macbeth, including the transformation and enlivening of several prophecies from Macbeth; also makes note of some stylistic echoes

Esty, Jed. A Shrinking Island: Modernism and National Culture in England [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004]: 121-122

Comparison of Tolkien’s “deep connection to archaic elements” and “romanticization of Englishness” with similar impulses in T. S. Eliot

Foster, Mike. “The Shire and Notting Hill.” In Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across Disciplines, ed. Tim Schindler [St. Paul Dept of English, University of St. Thomas, 2001]: 33-41 (first published in 1997)

Compared the shared Catholocism, affection for unindustrialized England and the seminal essays on fantasy between Tolkien and Chesterton, and also presents some evidence that Tolkien read & appreciated Chesterton’s work

Lobdell, Jared. The Rise of Tolkienian Fantasy [Chicago: Open Court, 2005] An updated and more extensive elaboration of the same topic in Lobdell’s work in England and Always (1981) and The World of the Rings (2004)

Outline of the stylistic and thematic roots of The Lord of the Rings in Victorian and Edwardian literature, most notably in feigned history (James Macpherson and William Morris), nonsense writing (Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll), adventure romance (John Buchan and S. R. Crockett), light children's fantasy (E. Nesbit, Andrew Lang, and George MacDonald), and Arcadian pastoral (Kipling and G.A. Henty), and an attempt to determine what this says about Tolkien’s own tastes and effect on his successors.

Long, Rebekah. "Fantastic Medievalism and the Great War in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 123-37.

Compares the war influence on Tolkien’s literary pursuits more closely to the poem In Parentheses, by David Jones who had comparable WWI experiences to Tolkien and medievalized the war in his work, drawing particularly on Chaucer

Lynch, Andrew. "Archaism, Nostalgia, and Tennysonian War in The Lord of the Rings." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 77-92.

Matched Tolkien’s World War I–influenced literary approach to The Idylls of the King by Tennyson rather than more recent literature

Nelson, Dale. “Little Nell and Frodo the Halfling.” Tolkien Studies 2: 245-48 (2005)

Comparison between the journey of Nell through an industrial town in Dickens’ The Curiosity Shop and Frodo’s journey through Mordor

Nelson, Dale. “Possible Echoes of Blackwood and Dunsany in Tolkien’s Fantasy” Tolkien Studies 1: 177-181. (2004)

Draws parallels between the Nazgul and Blackwood’s Wendigo, and the Mewlips (from Tolkien’s poem of that title) and Dunsany’s Gibbelins

Phelpstead, Carl. "Auden and the Inklings: An Alliterative Revival." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 103: 433-57. (2004)

Presents Tolkien and the other Inklings as consciously reenacting the fourteenth-century alliterative revival led in the twentieth centurey by Auden, whom they were all aware of

Podles, Mary. "Tolkien & the New Art: Visual Sources for The Lord of the Rings" Touchstone Jan./Feb.: 41-47. (2002)

Discusses visual art that may have influenced Tolkien’s vision, including: Art Nouveau metalwork and architecture, and fairy-tale illustrations by Walter Crane, Arthur Rackham, and Kay Nielsen.

Scoville, Chester N. "Pastoralia and Perfectability in William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 93-103.

Believes that Tolkien took inspiration from Morris’ openly socialist News from Nowhere without taking on any of its political baggage.

Simonson, Martin. "The Lord of the Rings in the Wake of the Great War: War, Poetry, Modernism, and Ironic Myth." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 153-70.

Abbreviated study of Tolkien’s place in the literature of his generation, demonstrates the shift from Edwardian jollity to Georgian seriousness within Tolkien’s work, the integration of narrative and historical traditions where other authors of his time maintained distance, and the lack of irony in the interior of his story but rather on the exterior to distance the reader from the narrative

Zlosnik, Sue. “Gothic Echoes” Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 47-58

Cites themes in Tolkien that were taken from various 19th century Gothic fiction sources, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Studies of Tolkien's Personal Life

Brennan Croft, Janet. War and the Works of JRR Tolkien [Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2004]; Shorter versions: "'The Young Perish and the Old Linger, Withering': J.R.R. Tolkien on World War II" Mythlore 24: 58-71 and “The Morality of Military Leadership” Mallorn 42: 47-50

Detailed survey of the influence of the two world wars on The Lord of the Rings, including some consideration on how the war is depicted in the narrative itself. Croft finds more thematic similarity with typical World War I literature (as defined in Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory), but finds World War II more reflected in the author’s parental concern for his sons that served in the war. Chapters are also dedicated to exploring Tolkien’s acceptance of the Christian “just war” doctrine and his moral principles of war as expressed in the leadership and battle tactics of his characters, e.g. the virtuous general always leading his troops personally.

Chism, Christine. "Middle-earth, the Middle Ages, and the Aryan Nation: Myth and History in World War II." In Tolkien The Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance. [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 63-92.

Article discussing the effect of what he considered the “Nazi perversion of Germany” on his works, turning him from the innocence of his early works to a greater concern over the perversion of power. Also does considerable work to distinguish Tolkien’s approach from the mythic history of Richard Wagner and from Nazi theorist Arthur Rosenberg.

Forest-Hill, Lynn. "Elves on the Avon: The Place of Medieval Warwick in J.R.R. Tolkien's Vision of Middle-earth." Times Literary Supplement (8 July 2005): 12-13.

Study of the influence of Warwick as an inspiration for Tolkien, specifically in the creation of Kortirion in the poem “Kortirion Among the Trees” but also in the medieval city character of Edoras and Gondor

Garth, John. Tolkien and The Great War [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003] (Reviewed in Seven 22:110-112, World Literature Today 70(1):93, Lion and the Unicorn 29(1): 128-33, and Tolkien Studies 2:268)

Furthers a thesis for the maturation of Tolkien’s creative imagination through his friendship with his schoolmates, the TCBS, that extended into his war service and the deaths of two in the group. Garth supports his arguments with original research based on unpublished letters exchanged among the TCBS and a close reading of The Book of Lost Tales, which Tolkien began writing during this period.

Gyler, Diana Pavlac. The Company They Keep. [Kent, Ohio: Kent State University, 2007] (Reviewed in Tolkien Studies, vol. 4)

Updated study of the Inklings’ influence on each other’s writing

Lazo, Andrew. "A Kind of Mid-wife: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis—Sharing Influence." In Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 36-49.

Considers the influences of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis on each other’s writing and tries to find some common thread in the literary influences on both authors, but fails at this second aim with some limited success with the first.

Lazo, Andrew. "Gathered Round Northern Fires: The Imaginative Impact of the Kolbítar." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 191-226.

Claim that the Kolbítar, an Oxford club for reading Norse myths and sagas aloud, was a place for Lewis & Tolkien to meet and a precursor to their friendship developed with the Inklings

Weidner, Brian N. “Middle-earth: the Real World of J.R.R. Tolkien” Mythlore 90: 75-84. (year?)

Dismisses Tolkien’s disavowal of Middle-earth being any allegory for his own life with the claim that the allegory must exist unconsciously, draws many specific parallels between the English channel and the Brandywine River, the alliance between Sauron and Saruman and the alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany, and makes an argument for Elrond as a papal figure in the parallelism between Middle-earth and Christian morality. Interesting, but seems rather tenuous.

Philosophical Implications

Bassham, Gregory. "Tolkien's Six Keys to Happiness." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 49-60.

Demonstration of how Tolkien’s characters embody a simple definition of happiness

Birzer, Bradley J. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth. [Wilmington: ISI Books, 2002]

Discussion of the moral and theological context of Middle-earth, including the roles of salvation, heroism, and evil. Devotes a chapter to the “Catholic humanist applicability of the book in the modern world.”

Blount, Douglas K. "Überhobbits: Tolkien, Nietzsche, and the Will to Power." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 87-98.

Discusses the contrasts between Tolkien’s philosophy and Nietzsche’s, describing Tolkien is more communitarian and oriented towards beauty than Nietzsche.

Bronson, Eric. "'Farewell to Lórien': The Bounded Joy of Existentialists and Elves." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 72-84.

Compares the mixture of sorrow and joy in Tolkien’s Elves to existentialist despair and Nietzschean self-affirming power

Craven, Ken. “A Catholic Poem in Time of War: The Lord of the Rings” Chesterton Review 28:246, may also be a free copy online

Describes The Lord of the Rings as a Catholic myth for modern times, discussing Tolkien’s belief in the necessity of fighting evil without hatred

Curry, Patrick. Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004]

An attempt to make a distinction between nature, wilderness, and civilization in Tolkien with an afterward (in the new edition) addressing Tolkien’s enduring popularity in terms of its appeal to “spiritual hunger”

Davis, Aaron R. "Holy Elven Light: A Religious Influence on The Lord of the Rings." Studies in Fantasy Literature 1: 3-11 (2004)

Addresses sacraments, mercy, providence, and temptation in The Silmarillion, drawing from it a discussion of the nature of evil

Davison, Scott A. “Tolkien and the Nature of Evil.” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 99-109

Argument for the evil of the One Ring as being primarily Augustinian, a reflection of the desire on the part of its possessors, mediating the two concepts of evil argued for by Tom Shippey

Dickerson, Matthew T. Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings. [Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003] (Reviewed in Tolkien Studies, vol. 2)

Critical studies of Tolkien’s moral expression, including a study of Tolkien’s viewpoints towards war (through his depiction of battles), his distinction between moral victories and military victories, and his approach towards free will, moral judgment, the responsibility of hope, and the promise of salvation.

Dubs, Kathleen E. “Providence, Fate, and Chance: Boethian Philosophy in The Lord of the Rings” In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance. [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 133-142. (reprinted from 1981)

The first essay (in 1981) to use Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy as a way to study Tolkien, demonstrating that providential events in Tolkien are compatible with freedom of will

Ellison, John “Images of Evil in Tolkien’s World” Mallorn 38: 21-29. (2000).

Divides characters in Tolkien as either humanized, i.e. not fundamentally wicked but capable of falling into evil, or “static” non-humans that generally lurk off-stage (like Sauron). Orcs have a middle status, and he also goes into a consideration of what Treebeard’s voice must have sounded like.

Evans, Jonathan. "The Anthropology of Arda: Creation, Theology, and the Race of Men." In Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 194-224.

Discusses the place for Men in a world where there are Elves and other sapient beings of equal or higher moral rank. Compares Man’s precarious position to that of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Also searches for a solution to the problem of the Creator’s responsibility for the misbehavior of his created beings, but does not find an answer in Milton or Tolkien.

Garbowski, Christopher. "Tolkien's Middle-Earth and the Catholic Imagination." Mallorn 41: 9-12. (2003)

General discussion of the religious humanism in The Lord of the Rings, particularly in considering Tolkien’s sense of the sacredness of the natural world as a way of worship. Suggests that the Catholic perception is deeply rooted in the English imagination.

Garcia, Jorge J. E. "The Quests of Sam and Gollum for the Happy Life." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 61-71.

Explains why Gollum fails at happiness due to being self-centered, while Sam succeeds since he is outer-directed

Garrido, Gerardo Barajas “Perspectives on Reality in The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 42: 51-59 (2004) and 43: 53-59 (2005)

Part I: Tests questions of perception by Tolkien’s characters with Lockean realism, continuing with a discussion of the differing goals and perceptions of power seen between the characters from hobbits to elves to Sauron.

Part II: Discussion of the tension between change and stasis in nature, where nature undergoes constant change but with death as the essence of change. Elves are found to be closest to “perceiving the reality of nature as a Platonic ideal” as part of their status as deathless. Gerrido concludes with a description of Tolkien’s view of good and evil as surprisingly complex.

Goggans, Phillip. “The Lord of the Rings and The Meaning of Life” Celebrating Middle-Earth: 'The Lord of the Rings' as a Defense of Western Civilization, ed. John G. West [Seattle, WA: Inkling Books, 2002.]: 103-107

Brief philosophical discussion that uses Tolkien’s work to stave off existentialism and moral relativism

Hibbs, Thomas. “Providence and the Dramatic Unity of The Lord of the Rings” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]:167-178.

Outlines the interplay between fate and free will in The Lord of the Rings from a philosophical perspective

Houghton, John W and Keesee Neal K "Tolkien, King Alfred, and Boethius: Platonist Views of Evil in The Lord of the Rings" Tolkien Studies 2: 131-59. (2005)

Claims that Tolkien’s purported two contradictory views of evil (as described by Tom Shippey) can be accounted for in the Platonic view of evil as the absence of good rather than an active force, noting imagery of Tolkien’s evil characters tending towards a “condition of nothingness”

Katz, Eric. "The Rings of Tolkien and Plato: Lessons in Power, Choice and Morality." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 5-20.

Compares the power of the Ring and how one may reject or submit to it to moral principles of The Republic

Loy, David R. and Linda Goodhew. "The Dharma of Engagement: J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." In The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy, by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew. [Boston: Wisdom, 2004]: 19-46.

Finds in The Lord of the Rings a nuanced sense of moral balance, a hesitation over violence, a theme of renunciation and even a demonstration of karma, among other values consistent with Buddhist teachings

Milbank, Alison. “‘My Precious’: Tolkien’s Fetishized Ring.” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 33-45.

Begins by interpreting the Ring as a Freudian fetish, but her main thesis is regarding Tolkien’s moral view that possessions should not imprison us but should be cherished for their beauty and use.

Purtil, Richard L. J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion. [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003], first published in 1984

Collection of essays, most valuable for philosophical discussions of sin and temptation in The Lord of the Rings and an argument for why “Leaf by Niggle” is not allegory.

Pearce, Joseph. “True Myth: The Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings” Celebrating Middle-earth: ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a Defense of Western Civilization [Seattle, WA: Inkling Books, 2002]: 83-94. Reprints: “Finding Frodo’s Faith” National Catholic Register Jan 2002 which is reprinted in “An Interview with a Tolkien Biographer” Chesterton Review 28:184-187

Argues that a Christian interpretation of The Lord of the Rings is the only plausible one

Skoble, Aeon J. "Virtue and Vice in The Lord of the Rings." In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 110-119.

Brief explanation of why Tolkien’s characterizations are examples of Aristotelian virtue

Spencer, Andrew and Soule, Brendan. “Not to Strike Without Need: Evaluation of Dichotomy in The Lord of the Rings.” In Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across Disciplines, ed. Tim Schindler [St. Paul Dept of English, University of St. Thomas, 2001]: 61-65

Identifies Tom Bombadil’s pacifism as Tolkien’s moral ideal but the hobbits’ acceptance of their duty to fight as his realistic view

Sturch, Richard. Four Christian Fantasists: A Study of the Fantastic Writings of George MacDonald, Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. [Zurich: Walking Tree, 2001] (Reviewed in Seven 22:118-121)

Literary approach to considering the moral and philosophic views of the four authors with chapters focusing on secondary creation, escapism, symbolism and imagery, moral choice, the responsibility of power, and divine providence. Concludes that the authors are more an unobtrusive demonstration of Christian values than an actual argument for them.

West, Richard C. "'And She Named Her Own Name': Being True to One's Word in Tolkien's Middle-earth." Tolkien Studies 2: 1-10. (2005)

Demonstrates that truthfulness and honor as deeply embedded in Tolkienian morality, even to the point that some extraordinary instances pass without comment on the characters’ nobility and some even more extraordinary instances demonstrate that honesty is the best policy, e.g. Luthien disarming Morgoth with the truth of who she is.

Willhite, Gary L. and John R.D. Bell. "J.R.R. Tolkien's Moral Imagination." Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society 40: 7-12. (2002)

Argue that all creative work reflects an author’s moral beliefs, but do not claim that all of Arda is therefore Christian, but rather Tolkien’s own sub-creation whose full moral meanings he himself did not completely understand

Wood, Ralph C. "Conflict and Convergence on Fundamental Matters in C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 55.4: 314-338. (2003)

Point-by-point consideration of the two men’s views on apologetics, ecumenism, Christian metaphysics, modernism, and other theological issues

Mythological and Folkloric Issues

Baltasar, Michaela. "J. R. R. Tolkien: A Rediscovery of Myth." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 19-34.

Contrasts Tolkien’s story-centered approach to myth-making with the more analytical and historical views of Max Müller and Andrew Lang.

Davenport, John J. “Happy Endings and Religions Hope: The Lord of the Rings as an Epic Fairy Tale.” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 204-218.

Reviews novel’s employment of the principles of “On Fairy Stories” and argues that the eucatastrophe is what makes the book fundamentally religious in nature

Dawson, Deidre. "English, Welsh, and Elvish: Language, Loss, and Cultural Recovery in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 105-20.

Compares Tolkien’s efforts to make a mythology for his country with Macpherson’s efforts, discussing among other things, their use of language: Scots Gaelic for Macpherson and Welsh for Tolkien

Grace, Kevin Michael. “Praising God in Myth.” [Alberta] Report 7 Jan 2002, reprinted in Chesterton Review 28: 237-43 (2002)

Using a biographical argument to draw parallels between Tolkien’s love of myth and his dislike of the drab and destruction of modern life.

Hiley, Margaret “Stolen Language, Cosmic Models: Myths and Mythology in Tolkien” MFS 50(4):838-60

Semiotic study of Tolkien’s use of myth, claiming that Tolkien may resemble canonical modernists in his usage by merging myth with history and making both weigh heavily on his characters and readers in order to impart a sense of truth in the narrative

Nagy, Gergely. "Saving the Myths: The Re-creation of Mythology in Plato and Tolkien." In Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, ed. Jane Chance [Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.]: 81-100.

Compares Tolkien’s theory of mythology to that of Plato where both thinkers view mythology as a process rather than an object

Northrop, Clyde B. “The Qualities of a Tolkienian Fairy Story.” MFS 50(4): 814-837.

Advocates for the analysis of Tolkien on his own terms, i.e. using “On Fairy Stories,” and for the use of that approach to other works, which he believe will solve the gaps in other structuralist theories, such as Todorov.

Oser, Lee “Tolkien and Coleridge: An Encounter” ALSC Newsletter 11.4: 14-15

Comparison between Tolkien’s imagination and Coleridge’s (a link is made in “On Fairy Stories” by Tolkien himself), and claims that Tolkien’s is more concrete due to his Catholicism.

Petty, Anne C. One Ring to Bind Them All: Tolkien’s Mythology. [Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002] reprint of the 1979 book, based on the author’s doctoral dissertation

Using the terminology of Vladimir Propp to perform a folklore motivic analysis of The Lord of the Rings to find patterns reminiscent of (other?) fairy tales

Themes and Motifs

Dufau, Jean-Christophe. "Mythic Space in Tolkien's Work (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion)." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 107-28.

Discusses motifs of the tree, the labyrinth, and the town and shows them to be important in Tolkien based on his use of language surrounding them

England:

Caldecott, Stratford. "Tolkien's Elvish England." Chesterton Review 31(3-4): 109-23. (2005)

Exploration of what of England The Silmarillion is supposed to capture as a mythology of England, focusing on the national character as described by Chesterton

Love:

Greenwood, Linda. “Love: ‘The Gift of Death’” Tolkien Studies 2: 171-195. (2005)

A discussion of “various thematic oppositions and ironies in The Lord of the Rings: going forward without hope, the exalting of the humble, the weakness of the hero (Boromir, the most traditionally heroic character), love towards one's enemies, fantasy as a flight to reality, flexibility amid rigid social roles, the eucatastrophe of sadness in the happy ending, and finally death as a gift.”

Nelson, Dale. “The Lord of the Rings and the Four Loves” Mallorn 40: 29-31 (2002)

Nelson explains how Tolkien's work owed its existence in part to his romantic love for his wife Edith and to his friendship with Lewis, and he shows all four loves appearing in the story: affection of Gandalf for the hobbits, the comradeship of Frodo and Sam, the romantic passion of Éowyn for Aragorn and of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and charity in the form of Frodo's quest.

Nature:

Brisbois, Michael J. “Tolkien’s Imaginary Nature: An Analysis of the Structure of Middle-earth.” Tolkien Studies 2: 197-216. (2005)

A study of the use of nature in the Lord of the Rings, not only as a tool for grounding the story but also as an explicit expression of the morality of Middle-earth.

Dickerson, Matthew and Evans, Jonathan. Ents, Elves and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien [Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2006] (reviewed in Tolkien Studies, vol. 4)

Presenting a Christian environmental ethics perspective on Tolkien’s work, making some interesting distinctions concerning the use of the environment but ultimately tries too hard to push Tolkien’s work into their thesis

Light, Andrew. “Tolkien’s Green Time: Environmental Themes in The Lord of the Rings” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 150-163.

Considers the detached perspective of Bombadil and the Ents towards the War of the Ring as embodying the indifference of nature towards ephemeral human concerns

Power:

Petty, Anne C. Tolkien in the Land of Heroes [Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2003] (Reviewed in Tolkien Studies, vol. 2)

Explores themes of power, loss and heroism in The Lord of the Rings

Raiche, Donald. “Making the Darkness Conscious: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” Parabola 29.3: 95-101 (year?)

Argues for the books theme being “the need to shun the use of power for any reason” (95).

The Past:

Hannon, Patrice “The Lord of the Rings as Elegy” Mythlore 24: 36-42 (year?)

Discusses the ways in which the characters and the (un-named) narrator of the story bear the weight of the past

Holmes, John R. "Tolkien, Dustsceawung, and the Gnomic Tense: Is Timelessness Medieval or Victorian?" In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 43-58.

Considers Tolkien’s efforts in writing passages that find depths of time as a way to go beyond the Victorian idea of medievalism and reach something more historically resonant

The Journey:

Ellison, John. "The Road Goes Ever On: Tolkien's Use of the 'Journey' Motive in Constructing The Lord of the Rings" Mallorn 43: 15-19 (2005)

Discusses Tolkien’s control of the narrative flow through the journeys, from the leisurely and strongly descriptive journey of the first volume, to the alternation between the fast-paced action and the slow-paced journey of Sam & Frodo in the second volume, and then the culmination as a spiritual pilgrimage by the end

Persoleo, Paula. “Tolkien: The Road to Getting It Right.” The Image of the Road in Literature, Media and Society, ed. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan [Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, 2005]: 170-75.

Comparative study of Fëanor, Bilbo and Frodo having the same quest that they all failed to complete fully and that all had unexpected repercussions. Also makes the claim that the books are all flawed according to Persoleo: The Silmarillion is disjointed, The Hobbit is a hero-story about an insufficiently heroic hero and The Lord of the Rings has too many fortuitous events in it.

Wright, J. Lenore. “Sam and Frodo’s Excellent Adventure: Tolkien’s Journey Motif.” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 192-203.

Considers the Ring quest as a pilgrimage like the spiritual journeys of Augustine and Descartes

Tolkien's Characters

Davidson, Christine “Coming of Age, Changes in Heart: Growth and Enlightenment in The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 39: 15-22 (2001)

Traces character development and increased maturity among all nine members of the Fellowship

Hero Archetypes

Donovan, Leslie A. "The Valkyrie Reflex in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Galadriel, Shelob, Éowyn, and Arwen." In Tolkien The Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance. [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 106-132.

Demonstrates that these four characters are all modernized, Christianized adaptations of different aspects of medieval Germanic heroic women. Other, less important women, are outlined as being more domestic in nature rather than heroic

Fadar, Shanti. "A Fool's Hope: Hobbits Rush in Where Heroes Fear to Tread." Parabola 26(3): 48-52. (2001)

Article for general readers on the new archetype for heroes demonstrated by hobbits

Flieger, Verlyn. “Tolkien’s Wild Men: From Medieval to Modern.” In Tolkien The Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance. [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 95-105

Primarily concerned with the uncivilized side of characters such as Aragorn, Turin and Gollum as reflections of medieval conceptions of the wild man that also have modern psychological insights

Lakowski, Romauld Ian. “Types of Heroism in The Lord of the Rings” Mythlore 90:22-35 (year?)

Discusses the four hero archetypes displayed in The Lord of the Rings (Sam, Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf) and declares that the book has no single leading hero

Nelson, Charles W. "From Gollum to Gandalf: The Guide Figures in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" Journal of the Fantastic Arts 13: 47-61 (year?)

Contrasts the “evil guide figure” Gollum with the “good guide figure” of Gandalf and those who step up to take his place, and finds that the heroes can mature by following even Gollum

Specific Characters

Frodo:

Longenecker, Dwight. "The Little Way through Middle Earth." The Chesterton Review: 28: 105-11. (2002)

Compares Frodo’s obedience and humility to that taught in the “Little Way” of Thérèse of Liseaux, thus declaring such behavior to be “saint-like” rather than simply Christian

Marples, Laura “The Hamletian Hobbit” Mallorn 40: 15-21 (2002)

Disputes comparisons of Frodo to Christ, demonstrating why he is more like Hamlet with a breakdown following the attack of Shelob more like Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Persoleo, Paula. “Frodo: The Modern Medieval Hero.” The Image of the Hero, ed. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan [Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social History, 2004]: 464-68.

Brief citation of the comparison of Frodo to Beowulf and Sir Gawain by other critics, but expands on this by claiming that he is more modern than either of these characters

Gollum:

Bashir N, et al. “A Precious Case from Middle-Earth” BMJ 329: 1435-1436 (year?)

A study by six medical students and a gerontological psychiatrist at University College London of Gollum’s case history, tentatively diagnosing him with schizoid personality disorder

Bolintineau, Alexandra. “‘Walkers in Darkness’: The Ancestry of Gollum” In Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across Disciplines, ed. Tim Schindler [St. Paul Dept of English, University of St. Thomas, 2001]: 67-72.

Comparing the ancestry of Gollum with that of Grendel from Beowulf, both physicially and spiritually, connecting this comparison to further implications for Gollum’s relationship with Sam and Frodo

Merry:"

Longstaff, Hillary. "Merry in Focus: On Ring Fever, Having Adventures, Being Over-looked, and Not Getting Left Behind" Mallorn 43: 43-48 (2005)

Careful character study of Merry that bears a striking resemblance to Tolkien himself

Sam:

Hooker, Mark T. “Frodo’s Batman” Tolkien Studies 1:125. (2004)

Comparing Sam’s behavior to the behavior of the officer’s valets in World War I

Kleinman, Scott. “Service” In Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 138-148

Searches for the source of Sam’s devotion to Frodo (that of a servant to a master), for Sam does not begin as Frodo’s manservant, and they are by the end facing their dangers as equals. Also, contrasts Theoden & Denethor’s style of leadership, and makes observations concerning Eowyn mistaking Aragorn’s talent as a captain for “phantom romantic love”

More Specific Elements of Tolkien

Argyros, Ellen. "'Clicking Its Pincers Menacingly': Arachnophobia, Gender, and the Transformation of the Hero in the Work of Rowling and Tolkien" In Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across Disciplines, ed. Tim Schindler [St. Paul Dept of English, University of St. Thomas, 2001]: 53-59.

Discusses the role of giant spiders in both authors’ work, attributing Rowling’s use of spiders to arachnophobia and Tolkien’s use as a possible anti-female sentiment (as his spiders are all female and Rowling’s are all male)

Cunningham, Michael. “A History of Song: The Transmission of Memory in Middle-Earth” Mallorn 43: 27-29 (2005)

Describes the Lament of the Rohirrim as simultaneously a lament for the lost days, a funerary hymm and a call to arms

Fraser, Kenneth. "Coinage in Middle Earth." Mallorn 41: 42-43. (2003)

Consideration of what the coins in Middle-earth must have looked like and comparison to genuine medieval coins

Jordan-Smith, Paul. "Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre." Journal of American Folklore 117 (464): 204-05. (2004)

Tracing riddles in folklore and cites Bilbo’s “What have I got in my pocket?” as a problem in defining the limits of what counts as a riddle

Kells, F. MacDonald. The Culture of Middle-earth: Everyday Life in Tolkien's World. [Carlton South, Victoria: Bread Street Press, 2004]

Attempt to piece together elements of everyday life, also makes some interesting observations regarding the common use of chess metaphors in Tolkien, but also presumes that if actions are not shown on stage, then it may not have happened at all

Larsen, Kristine. “Tolkien’s Burning Briar: An Astronomical Explanation” Mallorn 43: 49-52 (2005) & “A Definitive Identification of Tolkien’s ‘Borgil’: An Astronomical and Literary Approach” Tolkien Studies 2: 161-170 (2005)

Two well-researched though not thoroughly confident studies of the “Burning Briar” and “Borgil” constellations in the astronomy of Middle-earth

McNelis, James I. "The tree took me up from the ground and carried me off": A Source for Tolkien's Ents in Ludvig Holberg's Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground.” Tolkien Studies 3: 153-156 (2006)

Strong parallels between the kingdom of trees in Holberg’s early science fiction novel and the Ents, but no strong evidence that Tolkien ever read Holberg

Petty, Anne C. "J. R. R. Tolkien: A Treacherous Twosome." In Dragons of Fantasy, by Anne C. Petty. [Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2004]: 34-61.

Discussing the origins and impacts of the two dragons in Tolkien, i.e. Smaug as an archetypal Western dragon with a memorable mixture of urbanity and bestiality in his character, and Glaurung as a cunning monster that is more evocative of Fáfnir from the Völsunga Saga

Roberts, Adam. “The One Ring” Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 59-70

Attempt to figure out why Tolkien should use the traditional wedding ring as a symbol of ultimate evil, despite his lack of opposition towards marriage. Suggests that Tolkien sees the binding power of the Ring "as embodying a sort of malign anti-marriage, the photographic negative, as it were, of a blessed sacrament" (69).

Russell, Beth. "Botanical Notes on the Mallorn." Mallorn 43: 20-22 (2005)

Discussion of the descriptive traits, history, and botanic categorization of the mallorn based on the scant information available

Serjeant, William A.S. “The Shire: Its Bounds, Food and Farming.” Mallorn 39: 33-37 (2001)

Describes the geography, botany, agriculture, and geology of the Shire as described by clues in Tolkien's text and maps

Shippey, Tom. “Light-Elves, Dark-Elves and Others: Tolkien’s Elvish Problem.” Tolkien 1: 1-15. (2004)

Demonstration of how Tolkien gradually developed his taxonomy of elves, melding the use of “elf” in Germanic languages and the classification of elves in Norse mythology to make a system that not only made sense in itself but explained the inconsistencies of the other systems

Sinex, Margaret. “‘Oathbreakers, why have ye come?’: Tolkien’s ‘Passing of the Grey Company’ and the Twelfth Century Exercitus Mortuorum.” In Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance [New York: Routledge, 2003]: 155-168.

Finds parallels between The Lord of the Rings’ Army of the Dead and Orderic Vitalis’ Ecclesiastical History and posthumously binding oaths in De foundatione monasterii S. Fidis Sletstatenis

Sinex, Margaret. "'Tricksy Lights': Literary and Folkloric Elements in Tolkien's Passage of the Dead Marshes" Tolkien Studies 2: 93-112. (2005)

Presents a reading of the Dark Marshes as a horror story, analyzing Tolkien’s sources from WWI battlefield imageries to Icelandic and European folklore horror

Uncategorized Miscellany

Battis, Jes. "Gazing upon Sauron: Hobbits, Elves, and the Queering of the Postcolonial Optic." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 50(4): 908-26. (2004)

Post-modern analysis of Tolkien, analyzing the extent to which all the races of Middle-earth can be considered in terms of postcolonial and queer theories and using such an analysis to demonstrate Tolkien’s importance within his colonial/postcolonial context

Bird, Craig. “Do Anti-Semitism Charges Against Tolkien Ring True?” NJ Jewish News, 29 Nov 2001, reprinted in Chesterton Review 28: 284-286 (2001)

Concludes that Tolkien is not anti-semitic, due to the undercutting of race prejudice in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's personal denunciation of Nazi notions of racial purity

Chance, Jane. "Tolkien and the Other: Race and Gender in the Middle Earth.” In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 171-86.

Discusses Tolkien’s hatred of apartheid and studies the ethnic range of hobbits in this context

Halten, Burton. “Pullman’s His Dark Materials: A Challenge to the Fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.” His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Philip Pullman's Trilogy, ed. Millicent Lenz and Carole Scott [Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005]: 75-94.

Makes a claim that Pullman’s work is an advancement on the obsolete and medievalist thinking of the tired old Inklings

Kraus, Joe. “Tolkien, Modernism, and the Importance of Tradition.” In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All, eds. Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson. [Chicago: Open Court, 2003]: 137-149.

Discusses the balance between Tolkien’s anti-modernism and his respect for scholarly research, using Sam Gamgee as the model case character who achieves scholarly wisdom despite a lack of training

McFadden, Brian. "Fear of Difference, Fear of Death: The Sigelwara, Tolkien's Swertings, and Racial Difference." In Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages, eds. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005]: 155-69.

Discusses Tolkien’s sensitivity in the depiction of racial differences in his work, contrary to many other papers that claim that he was racist

Mortimer, Patchen. “Tolkien and Modernism.” Tolkien Studies 2: 113-129. (2005)

Argument for Tolkien’s modernism with a special focus on his depiction of war; the actual argument for modernism is based on his belief in “art for art’s sake” and his legendarium project as an example of the modernist movement to reinvent from the roots.

Rearick, Anderson, III. "Why Is the Only Good Orc a Dead Orc? The Dark Face of Racism Examined in Tolkien's World." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 50(4): 861-74. (2004)

Engaging with previous critics of The Lord of the Rings as racist and establishes a necessary criteria for discussing the views towards race in Tolkien: a careful consideration of the author’s own views, distinguishing between the use of race in the films vs. the books, analyzing the narrative’s complex construction and its own historical context

Rosman, Adam. "Gandalf as Torturer: The Ticking Bomb Terrorist and Due Process in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" Mallorn 43: 38-42 (2005).

Provocative, though poorly researched study that Gandalf’s torture of Gollum is not morally justified despite the general “moral clarity” of Tolkien’s works

Steele, Tony “The Chronology of Middle-Earth” Mallorn 42: 43-46 (2004)

Reports his discovery that a new age in Theosophical doctrine began 6462 years after the date they assign to the sinking of Atlantis; as Tolkien's Second and Third Ages also total to 6462 years, Steele considers this not attributable to coincidence. With sufficient fudging the Theosophical dates are compatible with Tolkien's various estimates of The Lord of the Rings as occurring six to eight thousand years ago. Steele concludes that Tolkien was therefore interested in Theosophy; the Sun rose in 10,160 B.C., and the War of the Ring took place in 3105-3104 B.C., concluding the legendarium at roughly the date of the founding of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.

Tucev, Natasa. "The Knife, the Sting and the Tooth: Manifestations of Shadow in The Lord of the Rings." In Reconsidering Tolkien, ed. Thomas Honegger [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005]: 87-105.

Jungian analysis of Tolkein finding the archetype of the shadow in Ringwraiths (shadows of the Numenoreans), Shelob (shadow queen) and Gollum (shadow Frodo)

Werber, Niels "Geo- and Biopolitics of Middle-earth: A German Reading of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" New Literary History 36: 227-46. (2001)

“Proof” that the Lord of the Rings is a novel that promotes the extermination of the inferior and the right to racial homelands. Tolkien is excused from Nazism because he is not German.

Gender Theory, Homosexuality and Women in Tolkien's Work

Craig, David M. “’Queer Lodgings’: Gender and Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings” Mallorn 38: 11-18 (2000)

Application of gender theory to various aspects of the Lord of the Rings, Arwen & Rosie discounted as “late additions” and some interesting notes on the actions of Galadriel as provocative because she is female and the domestic tasks of the male hobbits at Crickhollow as a definition for hobbit masculinity

Crocker, Holly A. “Masculinity” In Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 111-123

Discusses the feminization of LoTR’s main heroes, the hobbits, may be a more confused discussion than the original person to make this point: Melanie Rawl in “The Feminine Principle of Tolkien” Mythlore 38:5-13 (1984).

Fredrick, Candice and McBride, Sam. Women among the Inklings: Gender, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams [Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001]

Deliberately provocative study that skates over some strong female characters, e.g. Erendis from Unfinished Tales and Andreth in Morgoth’s Ring, while also downplaying the role of others, e.g. claiming that Luthien does “very little” and “only gets herself into trouble.” However, Tolkien Studies claims that they make some “usefully provocative statements.”

Neville, Jennifer. “Women” Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 101-110

Claims that Tolkien inherited the critical view of women from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, also points out that Eowyn’s powerlessness in court was what allowed her subsequent heroism to be so outstanding

Rawls, Melanie “The Feminine Principle of Tolkien” Mythlore 38: 5 (1984)

Considers the feminization of Tolkien’s main (mostly male) heroes

Rohy “On Fairy Stories” MFS 50: 927 (2004)

Claims that there is an inherent but deferred sexuality throughout the story, due to the overwhelming desire for the One Ring

Rosenthal, Ty “Warm Beds are Good: Sex and Libido in Tolkien’s Writing” Mallorn 42: 35-42 (2004)

Broad survey of Tolkien's views on sexuality as compared to other writers of his day

Smol “Readings of Male Intimacy in the Lord of the Rings” MFS 50:949 (2004)

Considers Frodo & Sam as “males thrown in the intimate” like in any other war story

Timmons, Daniel “Hobbit Sex and Sensuality in The Lord of the Rings” Mythlore 89: 70 (2000)

Claim that while Tolkien’s works lack carnality that does not mean that they lack sensuality, which former critics have wrongly conflated

Critical Reception of Tolkien

Anand, Valerie and Nelson, Dale. "Tolkien—Why Is He Important Today?" Mallorn 39: 38-40. (2001)

Short symposium on Tolkien’s importance by Tolkien fans

Booker, Courtney M. "Byte-sized Middle Ages: Tolkien, Film, and the Digital Imagination." Comitatus 35: 144-74. (2004)

Study of the development of reader perceptions of The Lord of the Rings in the digital age, particularly since so much exposure to Tolkien’s ideas currently comes from the mass marketing of role-playing fantasy games developed by Tolkien-reading war gamers and computer programmers

Bülles, Marcel R. "Tolkien Criticism—Reloaded." Hither Shore 1: 15-23. (2004)

Calls for more criticism of Tolkien on his own terms and with a thorough study of his actual life and influences, and also calls for more studies of the reception of Tolkien

Colebatch, Hal G. P. Return of the Heroes: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Social Conflict. [2nd ed, Christchurch, New Zealand: Cybereditions, 2003]

Passionate rebuttals against a long list of negative critics against Tolkien, defending The Lord of the Rings as a work of moral integrity and Burkean conservatism

Cooper, Susan. "There and Back Again: Tolkien Reconsidered." Horn Book Magazine, March 2002, 143-50.

Criticizes Tolkien for lack of female characters, but defends the quality of his prose in general. Considers Tolkien’s background to be key to his work, and reminisces about her own attendance at his lectures on Beowulf.

Croft, Janet Brennan and Jay Shorten. "Reading The Lord of the Rings: 'The Final Attempt': An Analysis of a Web Community." Mallorn 41: 26-33. (2003)

Study of an online community that grew up around the experience of reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time and then watching the films

Davis, Erik. “The Fellowship of the Ring” Wired Oct 2001: 120-32

Article describing the manifestations of Tolkien fandom

de Goldi, Kate. "Blaming Tolkien." New Zealand Books 15 (1): 22-23. (2005)

Free-style fantasy-bashing

Drout, Michael D.C. “Towards a Better Tolkien Criticism.” Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 15-29.

Complaint about taking Tolkien’s statements in his published letters at face value, but also complaining about interpreting Tolkien based on “folk etymology” (meanings based on what the word happens to sound like to the critic)

Flieger, Verlyn. “What Good is Fantasy?” Chesterton Review 31.3-4: 217-221. (year?)

Links the craving of fantasy to the human craving for truth, so that people will even read bad fantasies, although they will enjoy good fantasies more, which explains the popularity of Tolkien and other such writers.

Galwey, Caroline. “Reasons for Not Liking Tolkien.” Mallorn 42: 5-10 (2004)

Response to Turner’s article. Discusses subconscious reasons for critics’ dislike of Tolkien, including a distrust of Romanticism, a misapplication of Freudianism, and a hidden Puritan work ethic that demands that literature must be “useful” in order to be relevant

Garth, John. “Triumph of the Tolkien Magic.” London Evening Standard, Dec 12, 2003.

Argues for judging Tolkien’s work by older storytelling traditions and not modernist standards

Gilsdorf, Ethan. "The Trouble with Tolkien." Common Review 2(4): 12-19. (2004)

Generally a popularized summary of the arguments by Shippey, Chance, and Drout to establish Tolkien as worth taking seriously; also makes the interesting point of citing sub-creation as an example of why Middle-earth “is not a fantasy vacuum” (15)

Haber, Karen, ed. Meditations on Middle-Earth. [New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001]

Includes 15 essays by professional fantasy authors regarding what Tolkien’s work means to them

Hammond, Wayne G. "Whose Lord of the Rings Is It, Anyway? Private Tolkien and His Audience." The Canadian C.S. Lewis Journal: 59-65. (2002)

Reviews Tolkien’s idea of who his audience was throughout his career and concludes that Tolkien’s popularity is more due to his audience reaching out to him rather than any sort of targeting on his part

Hooker, Mark T. Tolkien Through Russian Eyes. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2003. Shorter version: Hooker, Mark T. "Nine Russian Translations of The Lord of the Rings." In Tolkien in Translation, ed. Thomas Honegger. [Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2003]: 119-152.

Outlines the work of nine translators of Tolkien in Russia, discussing their attitude towards his work as being more towards literary effect than accuracy

Hughes, Shaun F.D. “Introduction: Postmodern Tolkien.” MFS 50 (4): 807-813. (year?)

Discussion of whether Tolkien’s enduring popularity and critical dismissal can be resolved by postmodernism

Kaveney, Roz. "In the Tradition . . ." In Reading The Lord of the Rings, ed. Robert Eaglestone [London: Continuum, 2005]: 162-75.

A survey of fantasy epics imitative of Tolkien with a favorable analysis of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea as strongly influenced but distinct of Tolkien and a thorough rebuttal of Michael Moorcock’s criticisms of Tolkien

Kohman, Catherine, ed. Lembas for the Soul: How "The Lord of the Rings" Enriches Everyday Life. [Yellville, AR: Whitehall Publishing, 2005]

Compilation of over 50 testimonies of love for The Lord of the Rings

Lane, Anthony. "The Hobbit Habit: Reading The Lord of the Rings." The New Yorker, 10 December 2001, 98-105.

Makes good points biographically / culturally regarding Tolkien’s appeal to counter-culture and the importance of loss in Tolkien’s loss, though written by an author that personally failed to appreciate Tolkien

Markova, Olga. “When Philology becomes Ideology: The Russian Perspectives of J.R.R. Tolkien” Trans. Mark T. Hooker. Tolkien Studies 1:163-170 (2004).

Consideration of the critical reception of Tolkien in Russia

McKillip, Patricia A. "Three Ways of Looking at a Trilogy." New York Review of Science Fiction 13 (12 (156)): 4-5. (2001)

Attempt to honor Tolkien while still refusing to read it again due to initial alienation from the lack of female characters

McLemee, Scott. "Reaching for the Ring: Tolkien Scholars Embark on a Quest for Legitimacy in Academe." Chronicle of Higher Education 50(39): A11-A13. (2004)

Interview of Chance and Drout in order to make an argument for an academic audience that Tolkien is worth studying

Mikkelsen, Nina. “Fighting Dragons and Winning: The Hobbit” In Powerful Magic: Learning from Children's Responses to Fantasy Literature, by Nina Mikkelson [New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2005]

A book analyzing how children respond to books in ways that adults may not necessarily expect through semiotic theory with a chapter featuring a response of her 12-year-old son Vinny to The Hobbit

Ripp, Joseph. "Middle America Meets Middle-earth: American Discussion and Readership of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, 1965-1969." Book History 8: 245-86. (2005)

Detailed account of the copyright controversy of the 1965 Ace paperback edition and a thorough historical survey of the articles written in the American popular press after the Tolkien “campus craze”

Rosebury, Brian. Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon. [Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003] an updated version of Tolkien: A Critical Assessment (1992) (Reviewed in Seven 22:114-116 and Tolkien Studies, vol. 2)

Close stylistic analysis of Tolkien’s works to demonstrate why they are a worthy achievement by conventional standards of literary criticism and therefore worth studying. Different from Shippey in that his analysis is not restricted to comparison with other fantasy writers, but within the context of modernist criticism. The new edition further expands with replies to some critics regarding Tolkien as a thinker and other broader aspects of the cultural phenomenon, including the films

Schweitzer, Darrell. "Middle Earth Revisited; or, Back There Again." New York Review of Science Fiction 14 (9 (165)): 8-13. (2002)

Fullest appreciative article of Tolkien in 2001-2002 period outside of Haber’s book

Shippey, Tom. “Why the Critics Must Recognize The Lord of the Rings as a Classic” Daily Telegraph 2 Jan 2002, reprinted in the Chesterton Review 28:266-268. (2002)

Brief piece describing the books as “a fairy-tale epic told in the form of a novel"

Shulevitz, Judith. “Hobbits in Hollywood.” New York Times Book Review 22 Apr. 2001: 35

Finds The Lord of the Rings evocative in its use of medieval linguistic echoes but overall too portentous and grandiose. Mostly a response to the opening film and the use of New Zealand as a setting

Spencer, Neil. “Mordor, He Wrote” Guardian 9 Dec 2001

Finds the poetry and historical references in The Lord of the Rings tedious, while praising the book’s narrative power and gritty realism

Turner, Jenny. "Reasons for Liking Tolkien." London Review of Books, 15 November 2001, 15-24.

Article that points out similarity between Tolkien and other 20th century canonical articles and then declaring that Tom Shippey, et al. are “kidding themselves” over Tolkien’s canonicity

Trexler, Robert. "Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling & the Imagination: Three Book Reviews." CSL: Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society 35: 18-21. (2004)

Review of three other book reviews that fail to show, in Trexler’s view, that Rowling has less moral sense than Tolkien

Upstone, Sara. "Applicability and Truth in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion: Readers, Fantasy, and Canonicity" Mythlore 90: 50-66 (year?)

Counters usual critical dismissals of Tolkien based on irrelevance and escapism with on the obvious relevance and meaning of his work to his readers. Believes that Tolkien’s spiritual and mythological truths are the foundation to his work and its appeal to his readers