The Return of the Ring proceedingsThe Tolkien Society is just about to publish the proceedings of the 2012 Tolkien Society Conference in two volumes, with a lot of very interesting materials available for the first time:
The first volume focuses primarily on Tolkien’s life, examining the influence of war, philosophy, and religion on his mythology. The second volume is much more diverse, covering themes from medievalism and romanticism through to fantasy and modernity. With contributions from the likes of John Garth, Colin Duriez, Ronald Hutton, and Janet Brennan Croft, The Return of the Ring: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012 is essential reading for scholars and casual readers alike.

The publication date is just a few weeks away now on June 9th, and if you pre-order before then you can save £5 on the books. With all profits from the work being donated to Tolkien to the World, there is more than one good reason to support the editorial staff, the Society, and your own reading pleasure.

Publication Information (from https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society ... ales/return-of-the-ring/)

Publication Date: 9 June 2016
Publisher: Luna Press Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-911143-02-4 and 978-1-911143-03-1
Page Numbers: 276 and 216

Volume 1
  • “Foreword” – Shaun Gunner
  • “Introduction” – Lynn Forest-Hill
    • BIOGRAPHY
  • “Tolkien’s Birmingham” – Robert S. Blackham
  • “J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘second father’ Fr. Francis Morgan and other non-canonical influences” – José Manuel Ferrández Bru
  • “Tolkien’s Oxford” – Robert S. Blackham
  • “J.R.R. Tolkien and the origins of the Inklings” – Colin Duriez
    • WAR AND ITS EFFECTS
  • “Robert Quilter Gilson, T.C.B.S.: A brief life in letters” – John Garth
  • “Tolkien: the War Years” – Robert S. Blackham
  • “Sauron Revealed” – LeiLani Hinds
  • “Clean Earth to Till:A Tolkienian Vision of War” – Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • “The Importance of Home in the Middle-earth Legendarium” – Sara Brown
    • PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS
  • “Tolkien versus the history of philosophy” – Franco Manni
  • “Tolkien’s Boethius, Alfred’s Boethius” – Gerard Hynes
  • “Teaching Leadership and Ethics through Tolkien” – Laura Miller-Purrenhage
    • RELIGION AND ITS DISCONTENTS
  • “Tolkien – Pagan or Christian? A proposal for a ‘new’ synthetic approach” – Claudio A. Testi
  • “A Latter-day Saint reading of Tolkien” – James D. Holt
  • “Tolkien’s Magic” – Ronald Hutton
    • THE MYTHIC DIMENSION
  • “Cyclic cataclysms, Semitic stereotypes and religious reforms: a classicist’s Númenor” – Pamina Fernández Camacho
  • “From 2012 AD to Atlantis and Back Again – Tolkien’s Circular Journey in Time” – Xavier de la Huerga
  • “The Notion Club Papers: A Summary” – David Doughan
  • “Myth-Making: How J. R. R. Tolkien Adapted Mythopoeia from Old English” – Zachary A. Rhone
  • “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mythopoeia and Familiarisation of Myth: Hobbits as Mediators of Myth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings” – Jyrki Korpua
  • “White riders and new world orders: Nature and technology in Theodor Storm’s Der Schimmelreiter and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” – Larissa Budde


    • Volume 2
  • “Introduction” – Lynn Forest-Hill
    • MEDIEVALISM
  • “Tolkienesque Transformations: Post-Celticism and Possessiveness in ‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun’” – Yoko Hemmi
  • “Tolkien’s Devices: The Heraldry of Middle-earth” – Jamie McGregor
  • “Tolkien and the Gothic” – Nick Groom
  • “Frodo and Faramir: Mirrors of Chivalry” – Constance G.J. Wagner
    • FANTASY
  • “An Old Light Rekindled: Tolkien’s Influence on Fantasy” – Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • “‘In the memory of old wives’: Old Tales and Fairy-stories in Middle-earth” – Troels Forchhammer
    • DIVERSITY
  • “Tolkien and Nonsense” – Maureen F. Mann
  • “Stars Above a Dark Tor: Tolkien and Romanticism” – Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • “The Ainulindale and Tolkien’s Approach to Modernity” – Reuven Naveh
  • “Tolkien, the Russians and Industrialisation” – Jim Clarke
  • “Legal bother: Law and related matters in The Hobbit – Murray Smith
  • “Tolkien’s Faërian Drama: Origins and Valedictions” – Janet Brennan Croft
  • “Tolkien’s women of Middle-earth” – Chris Barclay
  • “Colours in Tolkien” – Christopher Kreuzer
  • “Thirty Years of Tolkien Fandom” – Nancy Martsch

    • https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society ... sales/return-of-the-ring/