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Literature in English, British Isles Commons™
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Articles 1 - 30 of 208
Full-Text Articles in Literature in English, British Isles
Cardinal Vices In Middle-Earth (2025), By Martina Juričková, John Wm. Houghton
Cardinal Vices In Middle-Earth (2025), By Martina Juričková, John Wm. Houghton
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by John Wm. Houghton, of Cardinal Vices in Middle-earth (2025), by Martina Juričková.
Continuing Christopher Tolkien’S Work In A Digital Age, James K. Tauber
Continuing Christopher Tolkien’S Work In A Digital Age, James K. Tauber
Journal of Tolkien Research
Christopher Tolkien’s 12-volume History of Middle-earth is a remarkable achievement, yet Christopher repeatedly acknowledged how difficult the material was to present in print form and that “that there was no really satisfactory solution”. This paper contends that a printed book is not scholarship but just one way of presenting its results. It explores how digital philology can overcome some of the limitations of print, giving examples from the Digital Tolkien Project. It shows how structural markup, version alignment, parallel reading environments, and other approaches can make relationships between drafts and published texts clearer. Importantly, these methods do not replace Christopher’s …
The Music Of The Spheres In The Western Imagination (2022), By David J. Kendall, Brad Eden
The Music Of The Spheres In The Western Imagination (2022), By David J. Kendall, Brad Eden
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Bradford Lee Eden, of The Music of the Spheres in the Western Imagination (2022), by David J. Kendall
Arda Notebooks: The Best Of I Quaderni Di Arda (2026), Ed. By Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi And Wu Ming 4., Andrew Higgins
Arda Notebooks: The Best Of I Quaderni Di Arda (2026), Ed. By Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi And Wu Ming 4., Andrew Higgins
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of Arda Notebooks: The Best of I Quaderni di Arda (2026), ed. by Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi and Wu Ming 4.
"Then Daddy Began A Story": Storytelling In Tolkien’S Home And Our Own, Josh Renaud
"Then Daddy Began A Story": Storytelling In Tolkien’S Home And Our Own, Josh Renaud
Journal of Tolkien Research
"Then Daddy began a story, and this is what he said." That's how J.R.R. Tolkien began the first manuscript version of "Farmer Giles of Ham," one of a few moments of fatherly storytelling to be found in his fiction. Tolkien is remembered today as a great author and artist, but in his home he was a loving parent who regaled his children with tales — a "story-telling presence," as his daughter Priscilla Tolkien put. In this presentation, I reflect on Tolkien as a "daddy" and oral storyteller, drawing on examples from Tolkien's life and writing. I also consider what storytelling …
Tolkien, Modernism, And Mass Art, Matthew Thompson-Handell
Tolkien, Modernism, And Mass Art, Matthew Thompson-Handell
Journal of Tolkien Research
A good deal has been written in the last 30 years on the extent to which Tolkien's work can be aligned or associated with literary modernism. Arguments have been made both for and against, though in spite of the range of perspectives that have been considered, what has been missed is the question of difficulty. A central characteristic of modernism is its difficulty, its inaccessibility to a non-specialized reader. The Lord of the Rings is not difficult, nor inaccessible - indeed it can readily be characterised as mass art by virtue of its accessibility.
An Asexual Autist’S Feminist Musings On The Lord Of The Rings, Robin A. Reid
An Asexual Autist’S Feminist Musings On The Lord Of The Rings, Robin A. Reid
Journal of Tolkien Research
Abstract: This reader response is about how a seventy-year-old asexual autist began to discover her feminist queer politics by reading Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings at the age of ten. Countering the negative stereotype of feminists (and/or women) disliking Tolkien, Reid describes how her autistic obsession with Tolkien’s world and her love for Éowyn led her first into online Tolkien fandom and then into aca-fandom. She chronicles a journey from feeling isolated and weird in her childhood and adolescence (in small-town Idaho during the 1960s) to finding communities in which her weirdnesses (autism, asexuality, and feminism) were not only …
“As Bachelors Very Exceptional”: An Asexual Reading Of Frodo Baggins, Danna Petersen-Deeprose
“As Bachelors Very Exceptional”: An Asexual Reading Of Frodo Baggins, Danna Petersen-Deeprose
Journal of Tolkien Research
Queer Tolkien scholarship has seen a number of homosexual readings of Frodo Baggins. While there are indeed many elements within the text that support a queer reading, it is a mistake to insist that queer elements necessarily point to homosexuality. This article advances an alternative queer reading of Frodo: an asexual reading. Drawing queer and asexual scholarship, including Ela Przybylo, Danielle Cooper, Audre Lorde, and Jack Halberstam, this article examines Frodo’s actions, journey, and characteristics through an asexual lens, focusing on his solitary life in the Shire, the way he is perceived by the other Hobbits, his lack of any …
“A Natural Human Activity”: The Split Attraction Model As A Tool For Reading Tolkien’S Legendarium, Sarah Courtis
“A Natural Human Activity”: The Split Attraction Model As A Tool For Reading Tolkien’S Legendarium, Sarah Courtis
Journal of Tolkien Research
The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have long been a refuge for readers seeking escape; a world of eucatastrophe where difference is celebrated, and friendship lauded. Despite his egalitarian themes, gatekeepers attempt to bar those living at the margins and intersections from reading themselves into the texts, denying that applicability which Tolkien called for in his own works. One such applicable interpretation of the legendarium is through the lens of asexuality and aromanticism. As there are no graphic sex scenes (though contrary to GRR Martin’s claims sex does exist in the world and is expanded upon in The Nature of Middle …
Wanted: More Feminist Queer Medievalists In Tolkien Scholarship, Robin A. Reid
Wanted: More Feminist Queer Medievalists In Tolkien Scholarship, Robin A. Reid
Journal of Tolkien Research
J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction has been identified with the medieval world, and with medieval studies, from the beginning. In this presentation, I acknowledge the extent to which Tolkien scholarship is indebted to the medievalists who established the cornerstone upon which we have all built. Current publications in queer approaches to Tolkien and feminist approaches are growing, but queer scholarship tends to focus on male characters and feminist scholarship on (straight) female characters. What is currently missing in Tolkien scholarship, based on the bibliographic scholarship I have done in the past ten years, is work by feminist queer medievalist scholars and scholarship. …
Entiscum Yrfe Ealdniflunga: Meter And Poetic Style In Tolkien’S Old English Attila, Galen Miller-Atkins
Entiscum Yrfe Ealdniflunga: Meter And Poetic Style In Tolkien’S Old English Attila, Galen Miller-Atkins
Journal of Tolkien Research
Tolkien famously wrote several poems in Old English and Gothic; however, these remain understudied for their philological and poetic qualities relative to his modern English poetic corpus. In the Old English Poem of Attila Tolkien adapts the Old Norse poem Atlakviða into Old English. This essay analyzes the meter and poetic techniques in Old English Poem of Attila, especially in relation to the closely related, Eddic poem Atlakviða. The Old English Poem of Attila exhibits verse patterns and vocabulary from the Old Norse original, but it is firmly rooted in the Old English poetic tradition. Tolkien deliberately blends …
Tolkien's Joyful Sorrow, The "Gift Of Tears" Of Medieval Mysticism, And John Donne's Sermon "Jesus Wept", Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Tolkien's Joyful Sorrow, The "Gift Of Tears" Of Medieval Mysticism, And John Donne's Sermon "Jesus Wept", Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Journal of Tolkien Research
At the field of Cormallen, the emotion of joy felt by the victorious Hobbits is so great that Sam wonders whether everything sad will come untrue. At the same time, their joy is so great that it is described as "poignant as grief". Dimitra Fimi in 2017 pointed out Tolkien's probable indebtedness to Christian Orthodox tradition of "charmolype", or joyful sorrow. Another relevant parallel of the intermingling of joy and sorrow is the eleventh century Norman monk and abbot John of Fécamp's notion of the "Gift of Tears" (Gratia lacrymarum) from God, which brings true happiness. …
Through Peaks And Troughs: Visualising The Rhythmic Sentiment Of The Lord Of The Rings, Dimitra Vogatza
Through Peaks And Troughs: Visualising The Rhythmic Sentiment Of The Lord Of The Rings, Dimitra Vogatza
Journal of Tolkien Research
This study offers a fresh look at the widely discussed binaries in The Lord of the Rings and examines whether their structure can be visualised. Building on previous research that identifies Tolkien’s prose as structured by emotional and moral shifts, this study makes visible how these changes happen throughout the trilogy, through quantitative means. A transformer-based language model was employed and fine-tuned on a Tolkien-specific corpus to align with Tolkien's semantics and symbolism. The primary methodology for highlighting these binaries is a Tolkien-specific sentiment analysis. A semi-guided approach, selecting positive and negative sentences from the work as contextual reference points, …
“Neither Living Nor Dead”: From Nazgûl To The Sídhe In Tolkien's The Fellowship Of The Ring (1954), Noelia Ramos
“Neither Living Nor Dead”: From Nazgûl To The Sídhe In Tolkien's The Fellowship Of The Ring (1954), Noelia Ramos
Journal of Tolkien Research
This study explores the influence of Celtic supernatural folklore, particularly the banshee tradition, on Tolkien’s depiction of the Nazgûl in The Fellowship of the Ring. Using W.B. Yeats’ Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and the Celtic Twilight movement as a comparative framework, it analyses “A Short Cut to Mushrooms” and “A Knife in the Dark”, focusing on liminality, spectral presence, and supernatural dread. These parallels are further contextualised through reference to early Irish texts The Táin Bó Cúailnge and The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, central works within the Celtic literary compilation known to Tolkien …
Welsh On Wagons: Tolkien’S Introduction To The Welsh Language, Clive Shergold
Welsh On Wagons: Tolkien’S Introduction To The Welsh Language, Clive Shergold
Journal of Tolkien Research
This photo-essay explores the history behind Tolkien’s discovery of the Welsh language on coal wagons in Birmingham. It displays typical wagons, and explains the meaning of the Welsh names.
Tolkien's Oriental Sources? Renunciation Of Immortality And Fairy Nature, Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Tolkien's Oriental Sources? Renunciation Of Immortality And Fairy Nature, Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Journal of Tolkien Research
Thompson motif F302.6.2.2. Fairy gives up her fairy nature and becomes mortal to be able to return to her mortal husband and its combination with H310. Suitor tests and H1010. Impossible tasks are Oriental motifs, to be found only in the Tibetan tale of The Boy with the Deformed Head in O'Connor's 1907 collection and in the 9th century CE Japanese Taketori Monogatari. In this light, it appears necessary, assuming that Tolkien had a source for his idea of Lúthien sacrificing her Elven immortality and Elven fate, that his source must be found in the aforesaid narratives, both available …
Queer Approaches To Tolkien: Essays On The Many Paths To Middle-Earth (2025), Edited By Robin Anne Reid, Christopher Vaccaro, And Stephen Yandell, Taylor Driggers
Queer Approaches To Tolkien: Essays On The Many Paths To Middle-Earth (2025), Edited By Robin Anne Reid, Christopher Vaccaro, And Stephen Yandell, Taylor Driggers
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Taylor Driggers, of Queer Approaches to Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth (2025), edited by Robin Anne Reid, Christopher Vaccaro, and Stephen Yandell
Numenor, The Mighty And Frail: Proceedings Of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023 (2025), Ed. By Will Sherwood, Douglas Charles Kane
Numenor, The Mighty And Frail: Proceedings Of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023 (2025), Ed. By Will Sherwood, Douglas Charles Kane
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Douglas Charles Kane, of Numenor, The Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023 (2025), ed. by Will Sherwood
The Tower And The Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’S Creation (2025) By Michael D.C. Drout, Nicholas Birns
The Tower And The Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’S Creation (2025) By Michael D.C. Drout, Nicholas Birns
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Nicholas Birns, of The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation (2025) by Michael D.C. Drout
Tolkien And The Mystery Of Literary Creation (2025), By Giuseppe Pezzini, Mitchell Kooh
Tolkien And The Mystery Of Literary Creation (2025), By Giuseppe Pezzini, Mitchell Kooh
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Mitchell Kooh, of Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation (2025) by Giuseppe Pezzini
"Uruk ... We Prefer 'Uruk'": The Representation Of The Orc In The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, Robert T. Tally Jr.
"Uruk ... We Prefer 'Uruk'": The Representation Of The Orc In The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, Robert T. Tally Jr.
Journal of Tolkien Research
In Tolkien’s legendarium, there are many complicated characters, vexed figures who combine aspects of what readers might think of as good and evil, but Orcs are, it seems, always and only evil. This despite the fact that Tolkien’s own writings provide ample evidence that Orcs, however loathsome they may appear, are nevertheless people, a “race” that like Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits maintains social orders and belongs to Middle-earth. The Amazon Prime show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power offers a glimpse of Orc culture from within, as the audience is introduced to a mysterious new character, …
Tolkien’S Glee: A Reading Of The Songs In “The Hobbit” And “The Lord Of The Rings” (2025) By John R. Holmes, Douglas Charles Kane
Tolkien’S Glee: A Reading Of The Songs In “The Hobbit” And “The Lord Of The Rings” (2025) By John R. Holmes, Douglas Charles Kane
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Douglas C. Kane, of Tolkien’s Glee: A Reading of the Songs in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”, by John R. Holmes
The High Hallow: Tolkien’S Liturgical Imagination (2025) By Ben Reinhard., Tom Emanuel
The High Hallow: Tolkien’S Liturgical Imagination (2025) By Ben Reinhard., Tom Emanuel
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Tom Emanuel, of The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (2025) by Ben Reinhard.
Tolkien Among The Theologians (2025) Edited By Austin M. Freeman, Tom Emanuel
Tolkien Among The Theologians (2025) Edited By Austin M. Freeman, Tom Emanuel
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Tom Emanuel, of Tolkien among the Theologians (2025), edited by Austin M. Freeman
The Romantic Spirit In The Works Of J.R.R. Tolkien (2024), Edited By Will Sherwood And Julian Eilmann, Deidre A. Dawson
The Romantic Spirit In The Works Of J.R.R. Tolkien (2024), Edited By Will Sherwood And Julian Eilmann, Deidre A. Dawson
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Deidre A. Dawson, of The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2024), edited by Will Sherwood and Julian Eilmann
A Real Taste For Fairy-Stories: Essays (2025), By Verlyn Flieger., Marilyn R. Pukkila
A Real Taste For Fairy-Stories: Essays (2025), By Verlyn Flieger., Marilyn R. Pukkila
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Marilyn R. Pukkila, of A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025) by Verlyn Flieger.
Proceedings Of The Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), Edited By Will Sherwood, Ross Smith
Proceedings Of The Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), Edited By Will Sherwood, Ross Smith
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Ross Smith, of Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), edited by Will Sherwood.
The Mismeasure Of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment Of Tolkien’S Demonized Creatures (2025), By Robert T. Tally, Jr., Andrew Higgins
The Mismeasure Of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment Of Tolkien’S Demonized Creatures (2025), By Robert T. Tally, Jr., Andrew Higgins
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien’s Demonized Creatures (2025), by Robert T. Tally, Jr.
"Cold Words, Heartless And Miserable": Tolkien's Approach To Supernatural Horror, Dylan L. Henderson
"Cold Words, Heartless And Miserable": Tolkien's Approach To Supernatural Horror, Dylan L. Henderson
Journal of Tolkien Research
For the most part, scholars of supernatural horror do not consider J. R. R. Tolkien a contributor to that genre, a conclusion supported by many Tolkien specialists. And yet, horror plays a major role in many of Tolkien’s works, specifically The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, “Fog on the Barrow-downs” is basically a tale of supernatural horror that Tolkien has incorporated into his epic. This article examines that chapter in that context, comparing it to a similar short story by E. F. Benson, and this approach not only highlights the links between Tolkien and contemporaneous supernatural horror—the shares themes …
“Who Wrought It Slowly Long Ago” : Anonymity, The Unnamed, And The Ethical Use Of Objects Found On The Barrow-Downs, Nicholas Birns
“Who Wrought It Slowly Long Ago” : Anonymity, The Unnamed, And The Ethical Use Of Objects Found On The Barrow-Downs, Nicholas Birns
Journal of Tolkien Research
This essay delves into the significance of two objects found by the Hobbits and Tom Bombadil on the Barrow-Downs in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." It considers how the sword found by Merry and the brooch with Tom Bombadil gives to Goldberry have different fates and tell different ethical stories. The essay contrasts the ethical implications of Merry's use of a sword from the Barrow-Downs, which plays a crucial role in the plot, with Goldberry's wearing of a brooch, raising questions about cultural appropriation and the moral reclamation of a artifacts The combination of the importance of these …