A detailed work of reference and scholarship, this one volume Encyclopedia includes discussions of all the fundamental issues in Tolkien scholarship written by the leading scholars in the field. Coverage not only presents the most recent scholarship on J.R.R. Tolkien, but also introduces and explores the author and scholar's life and work within their historical and cultural contexts. Tolkien's fiction and his sources of influence are examined along with his artistic and academic achievements - including his translations of medieval texts - teaching posts, linguistic works, and the languages he created. The 550 alphabetically arranged entries fall within the following categories of topics: adaptations art and illustrations characters in Tolkien's work critical history and scholarship influence of Tolkien languages biography literary sources literature creatures and peoples of Middle-earth objects in Tolkien's work places in Tolkien's work reception of Tolkien medieval scholars scholarship by Tolkien medieval literature stylistic elements themes in Tolkien's works theological/ philosophical concepts and philosophers Tolkien's contemporary history and culture works of literature

"In this volume of their ground-breaking research, Lewis and Currie explore the earliest writings that formed a part of Tolkien's invented mythology to look for the origins and the sources. The authors of the highly-acclaimed Uncarted Realms of Tolkien venture out like Victorian explorers seeking the source of a mighty river. Their journey is no less spectacular--for in the cauldron of a World War the youthful Tolkien found is imagination turning to thoughts of Eärendil the Mariner and to Gondolin, and elvish city doomed to destruction. We find the sources of Tolkien's invented mythology are as wide-ranging as any river that Victorian explorers sought after. With tenacious research techniques, rigorous and painstaking investigation, Lewis and Currie in this book overturn a number of long-held opinions which were founded on little more than hearsay. By the use of rarely seen medieval texts some of which are translated for the first time in the modern era, and the use of Greek Philogy, Lewis and Currie have uncovered a fascinating web of connections. Find out where Gondolin is drawn from, and where else the same sources were utilised in The Lord of the Rings. Read about the fascinating origins of the hero-sailor who would become Eärendil. And discover the truly amazing background to the Witch-king, the Lord of Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings." --From cover.

Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review centers on J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. Since the publication of The Hobbit in 1937 the writings of Tolkien have been admired throughout the world. With the publication of The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s, Tolkien's fantasy writing began to attract academic attention in both the classroom and the world of scholarship. Most recently, Peter Jackson's three-part movie adaptation has added film-study scholars to those fascinated by Tolkien's work. Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review is the first scholarly journal published by an academic press for the purpose of presenting and reviewing the growing body of critical commentary and scholarship about Tolkien's writings. The founding editors, Douglas A. Anderson, Michael D.C. Drout, and Verlyn Flieger, and the members of the editorial board, David Bratman, Carl F. Hostetter, Tom Shippey, Richard C. West, and Marjorie Burns, are all distinguished Tolkien scholars.

Tolkien's Middle-earth and its legendarium have drawn extensive scholarly attention. But there is more to Tolkien than the history and legends of Middle-earth, and there has hitherto been a certain lack of academic criticism focused primarily on his shorter fictional works Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, Roverandom and his poetry. Although scholarly evaluations of these works exist, they often deal with the shorter texts more as an afterthought, as footnotes to the 'major' texts rather than as demanding attention in their own right. This dearth of studies suggests that it is time for a closer look at Tolkien's 'Shorter Works'. The current volume collects the findings of a joint conference of Walking Tree Publishers who co-organised this event in order to celebrate their tenth anniversary, and the German Tolkien Society at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany in 2007. Various interesting aspects, details and connections are unearthed which are likely to broaden not simply the understanding of Tolkien's Shorter Works, but also of the author's overall fictional work as well as the man and author J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

When The Lord of the Rings was published in the 1950's it did not sit comfortably among any preconceived notions of literary genre. The critical responses reflected the confusion: for some, it was an unwelcome reappearance of narrative standards that modernism was supposed to have done away with, or just a bad novel. Others considered it a refreshing work in the epic and romance traditions. Ironically, much of the critical prejudice regarding the question of genre in The Lord of the Rings has been motivated by the same kind of blindness that Tolkien denounced in his famous 1936 lecture Beowulf: the monsters and the critics. Like Beowulf, Tolkien's work has also failed to be properly appreciated and assessed due to a general refusal to accept the centrality of monsters, because despite its 'monstrous' originality and fantastic setting, it is very clearly, and not only chronologically, at the centre of twentieth-century literature. The Lord of the Rings and the Western Narrative Tradition is an attempt to account for the particular genre interaction that governs Tolkien's tale and put it in a meaningful relationship with the contemporary literary context. At the same time, it is a quest to track down one of the most famous and elusive literary monsters of the past century by filling out a long-neglected white space on the map of comparative literature and genre criticism.