Cover -- Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Contributors -- Editorial Practices and Abbreviations -- Brief Chronology of the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien -- Introduction -- References -- Part I: Life -- 1: A Brief Biography -- Ancestry and Childhood: 1892-1904 -- Youth: 1904-1911 -- Oxford Undergraduate: 1911-1915 -- Soldier and Mythographer: 1915-1918 -- Lexicography and "Lost Tales": 1918-1920 -- Leeds: 1920-1925 -- Oxford and the Road to "The Silmarillion": 1926-1930 -- 20 Northmoor Road and The Hobbit: 1931-1937 -- A "New Hobbit" and a New War: 1938-1945 -- The Lord of the Rings Completed, The Silmarillion Resumed: 1945-1955 -- Success and Retirement: 1955-1964 -- Final Years: 1965-1973 -- Part II: The Academic -- 2: Academic Writings -- Tolkien on Words -- Tolkien on Language -- Tolkien on Literature -- Conclusion -- List of Academic Essays and Other Relevant Academic Publications by J. R. R. Tolkien -- 3: Tolkien as Editor -- The Task of a Glossator -- False Starts and Dialect Studies -- Imaginative Reconstructions -- 4: Manuscripts: Use, and Using -- Introduction -- An Introduction to Medieval Manuscripts -- Manuscripts in Tolkien's Fiction -- Tolkien's Own Manuscripts -- "Shelob's Lair" -- Conclusion -- Part III: The Legendarium -- 5: Myth-making and Sub-creation -- Myth, Fantasy, and Fairy-story -- Tolkien's Myth-making -- "Mythopoeia" -- Sub-creation -- Tolkien's Theory in Context -- 6: Middle-earth Mythology: An Overview -- Outline of the Mythology -- Mythology for England -- Structures and Layers -- Origins in Sound -- Collaboration and Cooperation -- Endings Fated and Chosen -- Beyond England to Synthesis -- 7: The Silmarillion: Tolkien's Theory of Myth, Text, and Culture.

The Creation of the "Silmarillion" Corpus: The Writing and Publishing Process -- The Problems of the "Silmarillion": Tolkien's "Intentions" and Criticism -- The "Silmarillion" and the Critics: Themes and Interpretation -- Conclusion -- 8: The Hobbit: A Turning Point -- When Tolkien Wrote The Hobbit -- Changes Before Publication -- The Road to Publication -- The Influence of Tolkien's Medieval Scholarship -- The Hobbit and the Legendarium -- Children's Literature and The Hobbit -- The Lord of the Rings' Influence on The Hobbit -- Conclusion: Tolkien's Other Masterpiece -- 9: The Lord of the Rings -- Synopsis and Structural Analysis -- The Novel through the New Line Cinema Films -- "Primarily Linguistic in Inspiration" -- "I Cordially Dislike Allegory" -- "Lead Us Not into Temptation" -- "Fall, Mortality, and The Machine" -- "Inside a Song" -- 10: Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth: A Lifetime of Imagination -- Tolkien's Process -- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth -- The History of Middle-earth: Twelve Captivating Volumes -- The Book of Lost Tales I (1983) and II (1984) -- The Lays of Beleriand (1985) -- The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986) -- The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987) -- The Return of the Shadow (1988) -- The Treason of Isengard (1989) -- The War of the Ring (1990) -- Sauron Defeated (1992) -- Morgoth's Ring (1993) -- The War of the Jewels (1994) -- The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996) -- Tolkien's "Great Saga": A "Long Defeat" That May or May Not Include a "Final Victory" -- 11: "The Lost Road" and "The Notion Club Papers": Myth, History, and Time-travel -- Númenor: The Missing Link -- Strongly Biographical Elements -- The Frame is Part of the Picture -- A Mythology for England -- 12: Poetry -- Introduction -- "Where Now the Horse and the Rider?" -- "Errantry" -- 13: "Minor" Works -- The Father Christmas Letters1.

Roverandom -- Mr. Bliss -- Farmer Giles of Ham -- "Leaf by Niggle" -- Smith of Wootton Major -- The Minor Works as Backdrop for The Hobbit -- Conclusion -- 14: Invented Languages and Writing Systems -- Tolkien's "Secret Vice" and Linguistic Aesthetic -- Tolkien's Method -- The Linguistic World of The Lord of the Rings -- The Linguistic World of the Lexicons and The Book of Lost Tales -- The Linguistic World of "The Etymologies" and "The Lhammas" -- Writing Systems -- Part IV: Context -- 15: Old English -- The Making of English -- English and the Germanic Languages -- Names and Locations -- Single Words and Personal Names -- Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and the Poem Maxims II -- Writing Old English -- 16: Middle English -- Scholarship -- Themes and Plot Elements -- Narrative Models and Fictionality -- 17: Old Norse -- Naming the North -- Fiction and Philology: Tolkien as Old Norse Scholar -- Filling the Gaps: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún -- Until the Dragon Comes: Old Norse and The Hobbit -- Echoes in the Dark: The Lord of the Rings -- Conclusions -- 18: Finnish: The Land and Language of Heroes -- Earlier Studies -- Lönnrot and the Kalevala -- Tolkien and the Kalevala -- Tolkien and Kullervo -- Tolkien and the Finnish Language -- Conclusion -- 19: Celtic: "Celtic Things" and "Things Celtic" - Identity, Language, and Mythology -- Identity -- Language -- Mythology -- 20: The English Literary Tradition: Shakespeare to the Gothic -- Post-Medieval Literature -- The Antiquarian Imagination -- The Gothic -- 21: Earlier Fantasy Fiction: Morris, Dunsany, and Lindsay -- William Morris (1834-1896) -- Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) -- David Lindsay (1876-1945) -- Conclusion -- 22: The Inklings and Others: Tolkien and His Contemporaries -- The Inklings -- Tolkien and the Inklings: C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams -- The Inklings and Their Contemporaries -- E. R. Eddison.

T. H. White -- Mervyn Peake -- High and heroic fantasy -- Lovecraft, Howard, and Smith -- Children's fantasy and mimetic literature -- An Epilogue -- 23: Later Fantasy Fiction: Tolkien's Legacy -- Fantasy After Tolkien: Actions and Reactions -- British Fantasy after Tolkien: Myth, Legend and Medievalism (Cooper, Garner, Wynne Jones) -- The Peak of American Fantasy: Responding to and Questioning Fantasy Conventions (Le Guin) -- The Legacy of Tolkien's "On Fairy-stories": The Fantasy Author as Critic and (Self-)Theorist -- "And Wither Then?": Fantasy in the Twenty-first Century (Pullman and Rowling) -- 24: Modernity: Tolkien and His Contemporaries -- Introduction1 -- 1880-1918: Fairies and Wanderers -- A Few More Romantic Legacies -- 1918-1945: Patriots, Suburbanites, and Big Bosses -- Conclusion: The Victorian Modernist -- Part V: Critical Approaches -- 25: The Critical Response to Tolkien's Fiction -- First Wave: The 1950s and 1960s -- The Silmarillion: The 1970s -- Tolkien's Fiction in the 1980s -- The Polls: 1996-1998 -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The 2000s -- Modernism -- From Tolkien Studies -- Others -- 26: Style and Intertextual Echoes -- Simple Style and Word-play: The Shorter Works -- Contrasting Styles: The Hobbit -- Complexity and Archaism: The Lord of the Rings -- Annalistic Compression: The Silmarillion -- Conclusion -- 27: The Hero's Journey -- The Hero's Journey -- Tolkien and Middle English -- There and Back Again: Bilbo, Merry, and Pippin -- The Broken Hero: Frodo -- The Patriarch's Quest: Aragorn and Sam -- 28: Evil -- Tolkien and War -- Sub-creation and Evil -- Power and Domination -- Active Evil vs. Evil as Privation -- Polyphonic Good vs. Monological Evil -- Evil and History in Middle-earth -- 29: Nature -- Roots of Affection -- Tree, Leaf, Wind, Rock, and Sky -- Letting Nature Speak for Itself.

Nature Defiled: Tolkien's Broken Landscapes -- Nature Rediscovered and Closing Thoughts -- 30: Religion: An Implicit Catholicism -- Introduction -- Tolkien's Religious Background -- The Hobbit and Beyond -- The importance of feasting -- The extraordinary potential of ordinary individuals -- Gandalf -- Resisting temptation -- Religious intertextuality -- Later Fiction -- Fantasy and Sub-creation: "On Fairy-stories" -- Conclusion -- 31: War -- Introduction -- Early Life and World War I -- World War II -- The Wounds That Will Not Heal -- War: Just or Unjust? -- Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Developments -- 32: Women -- 33: Art -- "On Fairy-stories" -- The Balrog Scene -- Éowyn and the Witch King -- Minas Tirith -- 34: Music -- Introduction -- "The Ainulindalë" ("The Music of the Ainur") -- Musical References in Tolkien's Works, and the Character of Tinfang Warble -- Scholarship on Music in Tolkien's Works -- Sub-creational Music Based on Tolkien's Works -- Conclusion -- 35: Film Adaptations: Theatrical and Television Versions -- Background -- The Morton Grady Zimmerman Project of 1957-1959 -- The 1967 Hobbit Short -- The 1969 United Artists Contracts and Projects -- Saul Zaentz and the Ralph Bakshi Version -- Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit and The Return of the King -- A Soviet Hobbit -- Finland Tackles The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings -- Peter Jackson and New Line's Epics -- The Lord of the Rings -- The Hobbit -- 36: Games and Gaming: Quantasy -- The Roots of Enchantment: "On Fairy-stories" -- All Aboard: Wargaming and Board Games -- Rolls, Skills, and Action: Role-playing Games -- Fantasy Envisioned and Enworlded: Sub-creation in Computer Games -- The Apotheosis of the Sub-created World: Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs -- Conclusion -- General Bibliography -- Index.