Project MUSE®: Tolkien Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Tolkien Studies.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2004) through current issueLatest Articles: Tolkien StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Tolkien Studies1547-31631547-3155Latest articles in Tolkien Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Editors' Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973771
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This is the 21st issue of Tolkien Studies, the first refereed journal solely devoted to the scholarly study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. As editors, our goal is to publish excellent scholarship on Tolkien as well as to gather useful research information, reviews, notes, documents, and bibliographical material.All articles have been subject to anonymous, external review as well as receiving a positive judgment by the Editors. In the cases of articles by individuals associated with the journal in any way, each article had to receive at least two positive evaluations from two different outside reviewers. Reviewer comments were anonymously conveyed to the authors of the articles. Although they are solicited and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallEditors' Introduction2025-11-12text/htmlen-USEditors' Introduction2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®29562026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Conventions and Abbreviations
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973772
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Because there are so many editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, citations will be by book and chapter as well as by page number (referenced to the editions listed below). Thus a citation from The Fellowship of the Ring, book two, chapter four, page 318 is written (FR, II, iv, 318). References to the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings are abbreviated by Appendix, Section, and subsection, so subsection iii of section I of Appendix A is written (RK, Appendix A, I, iii, 321). The Silmarillion indicates the body of stories and poems developed over many years by Tolkien; The Silmarillion indicates the volume first published in 1977.The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun together with the Corrigan Poems. (Poem first
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallConventions and Abbreviations2025-11-12text/htmlen-USConventions and Abbreviations2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®120852026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Tolkien's Elegiac Trees: Enta Geweorc and the Ents Across Time
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973773
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In 1954, Tolkien famously reflected on the Old English origins of his Ents: he had "always felt that something ought to be done about the peculiar A. Saxon word ent for a 'giant' or mighty person of long ago—to whom all old works were ascribed" (Letters 305). A year later, writing to W. H. Auden, Tolkien elaborates:
Looking back analytically I should say that Ents are composed of philology, literature, and life. They owe their name to the eald enta geweorc of Anglo-Saxon, and their connexion with stone.
(Letters 310n)
Over the years scholars have examined the Ents in relation to their sources. Some investigate sources and analogues for the Ents beyond the Old English enta geweorc;1 others examine the Ents'
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallTolkien's Elegiac Trees: Enta Geweorc and the Ents Across Time2025-11-12text/htmlen-USTolkien's Elegiac Trees: Enta Geweorc and the Ents Across Time2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®874092026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12The Riddles of The Hobbit, the Academic History of the Exeter Book, and the Invention of Tolkien's Ring
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973774
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"And what about the Riddles? There is work to be done here on the sources and analogues. I should not be at all surprised to learn that both the hobbit and Gollum will find their claim to have invented any of them disallowed"It is surprising to observe, as John D. Rateliff did in 2007, how "relatively little" has been done to meet Tolkien's playful challenge above, made to a curious reader of the Observer in 1938 (the year after The Hobbit was first published) (Rateliff, History of The Hobbit 168). A great deal more work has gone into searching for sources of Tolkien's Ring. Analogues are manifold and much discussed, ranging from rings in Plato, Wagner, and E. Nesbit, to suchlike literary objects in Chrétien de
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallThe Riddles of The Hobbit, the Academic History of the Exeter Book, and the Invention of Tolkien's Ring2025-11-12text/htmlen-USThe Riddles of The Hobbit, the Academic History of the Exeter Book, and the Invention of Tolkien's Ring2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®1433052026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12"I Wonder If Any Song Will Ever Mention It": Locating Precarious Time in The Lord of the Rings
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973775
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Time is both infinitely abundant and fleetingly precious in The Lord of the Rings. The Elves, for example, are granted long life, yet the end of their time in Middle-earth looms near, as the very means of their survival—Sauron's destruction—also brings about their departure; though not a death, their leave-taking signals the end of a type of life. Frodo, too, is permitted to sail to the Undying Lands, though his life in Middle-earth is defined by a race against time. Even Aragorn, gifted with unusually long life for a mortal man because of his Númenórean lineage, must confront the urgency of time during the War of the Ring, faced with the imminent destruction and subjugation of the world. Thus, time in The Lord of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmall"I Wonder If Any Song Will Ever Mention It": Locating Precarious Time in The Lord of the Rings2025-11-12text/htmlen-US"I Wonder If Any Song Will Ever Mention It": Locating Precarious Time in The Lord of the Rings2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®578902026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12The Allegiant Translator: J.R.R. Tolkien, Burton Raffel, and Verse Translation
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973776
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Translation has become a fertile field in Tolkienian scholarship, being studied from different points of view: some focus on the challenge of rendering Tolkien's works in different languages; some examine translation as a fictional tool he used in his stories; others (and this is the present case) discuss Tolkien as a translator. This article's main objective is to contrast Tolkien's views about translation with those held by the American scholar and poet Burton Raffel (1928–2015), who sent Tolkien some of his translated works in the 1960s. To this end, I will build upon previous research done by Stuart D. Lee and Curtis A. Weyant. Lee's article on Tolkien and The Wanderer, while not dealing primarily with
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallThe Allegiant Translator: J.R.R. Tolkien, Burton Raffel, and Verse Translation2025-11-12text/htmlen-USThe Allegiant Translator: J.R.R. Tolkien, Burton Raffel, and Verse Translation2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®911652026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12The Wanderer's Return: New Findings on Tolkien in Oxford 1918–19
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973777
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So 2nd Lieutenant J.R.R. Tolkien wrote recalling Oxford, where he had spent four undergraduate years to 1915. He first drafted this poem as "The Wanderer's Allegiance" after his delayed graduation ceremony there on 16 March 1916, his only known visit since leaving for army training. He revised the poem that November in a Birmingham military hospital, while recovering from the Battle of the Somme and trench fever. He now added the phrase about Oxford being far away (CP 1: 322, ll. 49–50). But the city in the vale would long remain a distant prospect for Tolkien.Here we will present significant new information about the wanderer's return to Oxford at last in 1918, including when he began work at the Oxford English
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallThe Wanderer's Return: New Findings on Tolkien in Oxford 1918–192025-11-12text/htmlen-USThe Wanderer's Return: New Findings on Tolkien in Oxford 1918–192025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®801912026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12From "The Tree" to "Leaf by Niggle": Up to the Mountains and Beyond
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973778
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"Leaf by Niggle" (LBN) remains unique in Tolkien's works, both for its genesis (Tolkien said he conceived it from a dream) and for its writing (which was very fast and seemed effortless for the author).1 LBN is, on the face of it, a light and banal story, but actually contains an enormous wealth of content, so much so that critics have given divergent interpretations of it.2 I am convinced that in LBN there are many treasures still waiting to be discovered and, in this essay, I hope to contribute to critical research on them. This article is divided into three parts: Part 1 outlines a brief "history of LBN" based on manuscripts and typescripts from the Bodleian Library, in order to highlight its evolution, from
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallFrom "The Tree" to "Leaf by Niggle": Up to the Mountains and Beyond2025-11-12text/htmlen-USFrom "The Tree" to "Leaf by Niggle": Up to the Mountains and Beyond2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®842782026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12"The Course of Actual Composition": Analysis of Some Aspects of the Revision History of The Lord of the Rings Using "Lexomic" Digital Methods
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973779
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As documented in the four-volume The History of The Lord of the Rings, the composition of J.R.R. Tolkien's great work was a long and tortuous process. Although some iconic scenes and lines of dialogue appeared in the very first drafts, much of the book's form and content developed only in the course of multiple re-writings and revisions over more than fifteen years. Christopher Tolkien's meticulous editing and publication of this archive provide a record of the creation and revision of a long narrative that is perhaps unique in the insight it provides into an author's creative process. In this paper, we attempt to identify some of the dynamics of Tolkien's writing by applying a combination of new "Lexomic" methods
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmall"The Course of Actual Composition": Analysis of Some Aspects of the Revision History of The Lord of the Rings Using "Lexomic" Digital Methods2025-11-12text/htmlen-US"The Course of Actual Composition": Analysis of Some Aspects of the Revision History of The Lord of the Rings Using "Lexomic" Digital Methods2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®1048272026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12The "Origin of Gandalf": Josef Madlener's Der Berggeist and the Transboundary Mountain Spirit Rübezahl as Purported Sources of Inspiration for Tolkien's Wizard
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973780
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A few years ago, a rumor spread among the readers of J.R.R. Tolkien in Poland that the mountain spirit known as Liczyrzepa was a major, if not the principal, source of inspiration behind the character of Gandalf. It is hard to tell how the whole affair actually came about,1 but even a cursory look at internet search engines reveals that the earliest assertions of this kind could be dated to the early 2010s, with the frequency of their occurrence steadily rising towards the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century and the original speculation ultimately becoming accepted (or, at least, upvoted) in the popular mind as a well-established "fact."2 Before long, the rumor came to be replicated in a number of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallThe "Origin of Gandalf": Josef Madlener's Der Berggeist and the Transboundary Mountain Spirit Rübezahl as Purported Sources of Inspiration for Tolkien's Wizard2025-11-12text/htmlen-USThe "Origin of Gandalf": Josef Madlener's Der Berggeist and the Transboundary Mountain Spirit Rübezahl as Purported Sources of Inspiration for Tolkien's Wizard2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®962982026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Reconsidering the Early Critical Response to The Lord of the Rings
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973781
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The Lord of the Rings famously won the Book of the Century poll organized by the UK bookseller Waterstone's in 1997. The backlash that followed from literary critics and commentators was considered by both Joseph Pearce (126–52) and Tom Shippey (305–28) when they looked at the wider critical response to Tolkien's work. Since then, several additional scholars have reviewed the history of—and sought to characterize—the critics' view of Tolkien from its earliest days. The prevailing narrative of all this work, undertaken since the 1997 poll, is that the critical response has been, and remains, broadly negative. Consequently, what emerges from this narrative is a view—either expressed or implied—that the initial
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallReconsidering the Early Critical Response to The Lord of the Rings2025-11-12text/htmlen-USReconsidering the Early Critical Response to The Lord of the Rings2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®799362026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth by Robert Stuart (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973782
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In his introduction reflecting on how this book came to be and how he has sought to engage with the thorny question of race in Tolkien's work, Stuart lays out his goals, drawing on Umberto Eco: to uncover "the intention of the author" (3), "the intention of the interpreter" (7), and "the intention of the text" (9). Towards this end, Stuart engages in a detailed and thorough examination of not only Tolkien's works ("the intention of the text"), but the critical scholarship focused on them ("the intention of the interpreter"), and especially the intellectual thinking of Tolkien's time ("the intention of the author"). It is this latter that presents perhaps the most distinctive but also the most problematic aspect of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallTolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth by Robert Stuart (review)2025-11-12text/htmlen-USTolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth by Robert Stuart (review)2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®173252026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology by Robert T. Tally, Jr. (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973783
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In Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology, Robert T. Tally, Jr. takes a deep look at the writings and views of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium from an unusual perspective, exploring the intricate interplay between form and ideology in Tolkien's works through the lens of his own Marxist ideology, which—as he himself acknowledges—conflicts with Tolkien's views. When I first began reading the book, I was uncertain about how such an analysis would work for a reader who loves Tolkien's work and does not share Tally's political views. I was pleased to find Tally's book to be engaging and insightful overall; even in the many instances where I did not fully agree with Tally's perspective, he was able to
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallRepresenting Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology by Robert T. Tally, Jr. (review)2025-11-12text/htmlen-USRepresenting Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology by Robert T. Tally, Jr. (review)2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®281632026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many by Thomas P. Hillman (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973784
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Pity is surely one of the most important themes in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself made this clear in the text when Gandalf tells Frodo that it was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand when he encountered Gollum in the caverns beneath the mountains (FR, I, ii, 68–69). The centrality of pity to the destruction of the One Ring and therefore good's triumph over evil is something that sets Tolkien's novel apart from the Norse mythology he loved, the medieval literature he studied, and the fantasy genre he helped shape. This is not to say that such narratives do not feature pity as a theme, but the role pity plays in Tolkien's most famous work is more unexpected than expected in such heroic literature. As such a central
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallPity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many by Thomas P. Hillman (review)2025-11-12text/htmlen-USPity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many by Thomas P. Hillman (review)2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®253742026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology ed. by Douglas Estes (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973785
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Outside of the specifically theological realm, Tolkien studies contains many scholarly studies concerning the experiences of those who read the works of Tolkien and those who participate in Tolkien fandom. The relevant research ranges from how young readers receive The Lord of the Rings (Shelton) to online Tolkien fanfiction communities (Walls-Thumma) to how atheists and agnostics have applied meaning to their lives through their engagements with Tolkien's writings (Reid) to the study of Tolkien-based religion (Davidsen). These studies have provided the field of Tolkien studies with invaluable insight into current sociological phenomena and offer constructive approaches for scholars and fans. Although practical
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallTheology and Tolkien: Practical Theology ed. by Douglas Estes (review)2025-11-12text/htmlen-USTheology and Tolkien: Practical Theology ed. by Douglas Estes (review)2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®233622026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12How to Misunderstand Tolkien: The Critics and the Fantasy Master by Bruno Bacelli (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973786
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With the title How to Misunderstand Tolkien, one would expect a volume that would helpfully respond to the lingering naysayers who, out of preconceived notions or a simple lack of familiarity, persist in undervaluing Tolkien's work. Instead, How to Misunderstand Tolkien is a collection of "negative criticism and misinterpretations" (1) that have been lobbed at Tolkien over the years with little to no substantive pushback. To be sure, a study of the negative criticism is an important and useful undertaking, especially since Tolkien has suffered more than many writers of his age largely due to the popularity of his work, as Bacelli acknowledges. What's noticeably missing in How to Misunderstand Tolkien, though, is an
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallHow to Misunderstand Tolkien: The Critics and the Fantasy Master by Bruno Bacelli (review)2025-11-12text/htmlen-USHow to Misunderstand Tolkien: The Critics and the Fantasy Master by Bruno Bacelli (review)2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®154952026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12Notes on Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973788
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Cami D. Agan is Professor of English at Oklahoma Christian University, where she teaches British and world literature. Her research focuses primarily on Tolkien's First Age materials. Agan's recent publications include her edited collection Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth: Essays on the Habitations of Tolkien's Legendarium, Mythopoeic Press (2024); "Resisting Elf-centrism," in "Responses to Reading Charles Mills' 'Orkish Manifesto'" in Mythlore (2023); and "Legal Precedent and Noldorin History: Miriel's Weaving" in Loremasters and Librarians in Fantasy and Science Fiction: Gedenkschrift for David Oberhelman (2022), which was short-listed for best article/chapter by the Tolkien Society. Her forthcoming work
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallNotes on Contributors2025-11-12text/htmlen-USNotes on Contributors2025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®112092026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12The Year's Work in Tolkien Studies 2021
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/973849
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In Tolkien studies, 2021 was primarily the year of the publication of The Nature of Middle-earth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), Carl F. Hostetter's collection of Tolkien's late writings on the nature of his legendarium, both in the sense of its physical world and of its intrinsic characteristics. It received the Tolkien Society Award for Best Book of 2022.Of secondary studies, most notable was Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2021), a book-length accumulation of evidence conclusively refuting the common belief that Tolkien never read anything from after Chaucer, but less successful at rebutting the truer charge that
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/299/image/coversmallThe Year's Work in Tolkien Studies 20212025-11-12text/htmlen-USThe Year's Work in Tolkien Studies 20212025-11-122025TWOProject MUSE®1965802026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-11-12