Jyrki Korpua - The Mythopoeic Code of Tolkien

This book has been in development for great number of years. I finished my first academic essay on Tolkiens fiction in the year 1999, when I had just changed my main subject of studies from general history to comparative literature at the University of Oulu, Finland. At the same university in 2002, I conducted my bachelors thesis on Platos Atlantis myth and Tolkiens Nmenor, and in 2005, my masters thesis on Christian Platonic and other mythological elements in J.R.R. Tolkiens The Silmarillion . Ten years later, in 2015, I finalized my doctoral dissertation, Constructive Mythopoetics in J.R.R. Tolkiens Legendarium (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis). After that, I published several articles and book chapters either on Tolkiens fiction or on topics related to Tolkiens fantasy. Of course, even before that, I had been a keen Tolkien reader since the 1980s, when I first borrowed The Lord of the Rings from the public library and later got the book as a Christmas present from my parents.

Because of this quite long personal history, portions of this material and reasoningsin a different shapehave appeared in other works and presentation over the years as it was developing. I have presented altogether eleven annual seminar papers on Tolkiens fiction at the Finfar seminar, organized by FINFARthe Finnish Society for Fantasy and Science Fiction Researchand three presentations on Tolkien at ICFAthe International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. Important presentations for this book also include Christian Platonic Elements in J.R.R. Tolkiens Legendarium at the 2011 3rd Conference on Middle-earth, in Westford, Massachusetts, organized by Jan Howard Finder, and J.R.R. Tolkiens Mythopoeia and the Familiarisation of Myth at the 2012 Return of the Ring conference, University of Loughborough, England, organized by the Tolkien Society. The material in all these presentations and all my previous essays or academic works was part of the research for this book, and I am grateful to their audiences for any comments regarding them. As the project is based in part to my doctoral dissertation, I would like to thank the University of Oulu and Acta Universitatis Ouluensis series for permission to republish that material.

For critical assessments, suggestions, comments, and assistance, I would like to thank Klaus Brax, Dimitra Fimi, Edward James, Kuisma Korhonen, Pekka Kuusisto, and all my research colleagues from the Finfar society, especially Irma Hirsjrvi, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Kaisa Kortekallio, Urpo Kovala, Cheryl Morgan, Merja Polvinen, Liisa Rantalaiho, Hanna-Riikka Roine, Markku Soikkeli, Sanna Tapionkaski, Jani Ylnen, Tanja Vlisalo, and Pivi Vtnen. I also thank emerita and emeritus researchers whose work on Tolkien studies I appreciate a lot, some of which I have had the honor of meeting, including (again) Dimitra Fimi, Verlyn Flieger, Tom Shippey, Elizabeth Whittingham, and Mark J.P. Wolf. Also, thanks to Guy Gavriel Kay for an interesting discussion on The Silmarillion at a Florida pool party in 2009.

Many thanks for the reading of the manuscript to language consultants Andrew Pattison and Nikola Pantchev, Layla Milholen at McFarland, and all the anonymous peer reviewers and editors during the last years.

Wholehearted thanks to my parents, Jaakko and Raija Korpua, my brother Jarkko Korpua and his family, and a long list of friends who have always been interested on discussions in literature, movies, television, roleplaying, or just sheer enthusiastic academic banter.

My deepest gratitude goes to my dear wife Tarja Longi-Korpua, who has been the main listener of all my theories and readings, but who also during this long period of writing had to put up with all my nuisances and mannerisms. Sincere acknowledgments go to my children Kreeta-Leena and Kaius, who are both interested in fantastic in its many modes. Thank you all. Kiitos.