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The War for Middle-Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933-1945

Thomas Nelson Publishers (2025-06-03)

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In this powerful follow-up to the New York Times bestselling A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, historian Joseph Loconte tells for the first time how the dark shadows cast by the Second World War utterly transformed the lives and literary imagination of Tolkien and Lewis. Loconte explores how these authors and friends rededicated themselves to their scholarly and literary pursuits to offer a brave and hopeful vision of the human story. Their most beloved works--The Lord of the Rings, Leaf by Niggle, The Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity--were conceived in the furnace of the most devasting and dehumanizing war in history. In a world burdened by ugliness and despair, the works of Tolkien and Lewis opened the door to beauty, goodness, and faith. They continue to inspire the moral imagination.

Tolkien and the Gothic: Peter Roe Series XXIV

This volume of proceedings contains papers from the Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2022. It seeks to add to the conversation on what the words 'Goth' and 'Gothic' meant to J.R.R. Tolkien and the ways in which their various associated traditions proliferate his writing. From the linguistic to the literary, religious to the ecocritical, the proceedings explores how traditional and new theories in Gothic scholarship can help us read Tolkien's work anew.

Published under the auspices of the Society's Peter Roe Memorial Fund, this proceedings features a collection of seven papers delivered at the Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2022.

Contents

• Introduction - Will Sherwood
  

• Tolkien’s Gothic: A Poetic Resurgence? - Mahdî Brecq
  

• Beware Melkors Bearing Gifts: The ‘Tale of Adanel’ as Gothic Fiction - Kristine Larsen
  

• Eldritch Tolkien: The Impossibility of the Gothic in Middle-earth - Nick Groom (Keynote)
  

• (Re-)Writing the (Monstrous) Body in 20th Century Fantasy Literature: The Construction of the Stranger in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings - Sofia Skeva
  

• Tolkien’s Triptych: Ecological Uncanny, Double Dualism Personified, and the Language of the Literary Gothic - Michael Dunn
  

• The Gothic and Environmental Bioethics: The ‘Creepy’ Bodies of Middleearth - Journee Cotton
  

• “The forest is queer” - The Fantastic and the Gothic in The Lord of the Rings - D.A.K. Watson

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Tolkien and the Gothic: Peter Roe Series XXIV (XXIV)

Luna Press Publishing (2024-03-26)

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From New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator John Hendrix comes The Mythmakers, a graphic novel biography of two literary lions―C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien―following the remarkable story of their friendship and creative fellowship, and how each came to write their masterworks

Through narrative and comic panels, Hendrix chronicles Lewis and Tolkien’s near-idyllic childhoods, then moves on to both men’s horrific tour of the trenches of World War I to their first meeting at Oxford in 1929, and then the foreshadowing, action, and aftermath of World War II. He reveals the shared story of their friendship, in all its ups and downs, that gave them confidence to venture beyond academic concerns (fantasy wasn’t considered suitable for adult reading, but the domain of children), shaped major story/theme ideas, and shifted their ideas about the potential of mythology and faith.

The Mythmakers also shows the camaraderie and the importance of the social/literary circle of friends called the Inklings, and how the friendship of these two great men fell apart and came together again. Hendrix concludes describing how the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had re-enchanted the 20th century, after two World Wars. In writing aimed at scholars, adults, and young people, these two tweedy academics altered the course of storytelling and embraced the concept that fantasy writing for an adult audience was an accepted form of literature.

The format is similar to The Faithful Spy: prose interspersed with images and narrative comics. The narration is often conversations between a knowledgeable wizard and a comical lion. Through brisk conversation between these two friends, they explain some of the bigger ideas in an approachable and entertaining way. Throughout the story, there are “gateways” that lead readers to the back matter where certain themes, such as how myth/fantasy evolved or the art of world-building, are discussed more fully. This device keeps the main story flowing quickly and smoothly for those readers not interested in the more academic ideas behind the narrative. Among the ideas covered in the narrative and back matter:

‑ Tolkien’s world-building
‑ The “Theology of Creation” linking their faith to their writings
‑ The meaning of real friendship
‑ Notions of modernity and mythology
‑ The value of fantasy
‑ The power of a creative community
‑ An exploration of the different kinds of storytelling in Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, both relying on “the Myth” as a storytelling device, but differing in the use of allegory vs. symbolism
‑ The creative differences of Lewis and Tolkien: the high standards of Tolkien’s fiction and the faster and more immediate approach of Lewis’s
‑ Logos vs. Mythos: Lewis created from images, Tolkien created from language
‑ The mixing of mythologies

Also included are an author’s note, endnotes, bibliography and index.

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The Mythmakers

Abrams Fanfare (2024-09-24)

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zionius wrote:

The Annotated Hobbit 3rd edition has been listed on various sites since 2018 (you can find many results when googling 9780008323332 and 9781328497598) but was postponed indefinitely, presumably because Anderson’s computer was hit by lightning.
This description is still the same as the 2018 one "Revised for the thirtieth anniversary of publication", and edelweiss doesn't have the listing, so I guess it is still false alert.

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J.R.R. Tolkien: A Very Short Introduction

Oxford University Press (2024-12-26)

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Matthew Townend is Professor in the Department of English and Related Literature, and the Centre for Medieval Studies, at the University of York, where he has taught since 1999. He is an expert both on medieval language and literature (especially Old English, Old Norse, and the history of the English language) and also on nineteenth- and twentieth-century 'medievalism' (that is, the re-imagining of the Middle Ages in modern literature and culture).

This Very Short Introduction by Matthew Townend offers an accessible and authoritative guide to the full range of Tolkien's extensive writings, including his academic and posthumously published work. It places Tolkien's writing in the time and context of their composition, and it takes a thematic approach by exploring recurrent ideas and preoccupations in his writings. Throughout the author offers new ideas and insights on Tolkien.