Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Sources of Inspiration (Cormare Series)

In the year after his graduation from Exeter College, Oxford, the great mythopoeic work for which he would become famous was already germinating in Tolkien's mind. In August 2006 the College offered a week of seminars and papers by leading international specialists on Tolkien's Exeter years, the influence of the Great War, the healing power of his narrative, and its relevance to religious and linguistic studies, comparative mythology, and history. Priscilla Tolkien, C.S. Lewis's secretary and friend Walter Hooper, Tolkien's friend the Jesuit priest Robert Murray SJ, and grandson Simon Tolkien attended as special guests, representing the family and those who knew Tolkien personally. The conference was intended to encourage the growth of Tolkien Studies through international and interdisciplinary collaboration. The papers from this conference have been selected, edited, and supplemented by other essays on complementary themes especially for this volume, in order to reveal the dynamic growth of Tolkien Studies around the world. This book explores the spiritual, poetic, personal, and academic sources of inspiration for what is widely regarded as the greatest book of the twentieth century. Foreword / Frances Cairncross Introduction: sources of inspiration / Stratford Caldecott Part one: biographical Tolkien, Exeter College and the Great War / John Garth The wold as leaf: perspectives on Tolkien as lexicographer and philologist / Peter Gilliver, Edmund Weiner, and Jeremy Marshall Gilson, Smith, and Baggins / Verlyn Flieger Part two: mythos and modernity Enchantment in Tolkien and Middle-Earth / Patrick Curry From Vico to Tolkien: the affirmations of myth against the tyranny of reason / Marek Oziewicz From or Zarathustra: beyond nihilism in Tolkien and Nietzsche / Peter M. Candler Part three: mythos and logos Morals makyth man and hobbit / Leon Pereira Tolkien, Chesterton, and Thomism / Alison Milbank The influence of holiness: the healing power of Tolkien's narrative / Guglielmo Spirito Tolkien's project / Stratford Caldecott Conclusion: a look into Galadriel's mirror / Thomas Honegger.