Peter Hunt - J.R.R. Tolkien

A fine introduction to the breadth and concerns of Tolkien criticism. The essays are uniformly readable and deal with perennially interesting topics. Janet B. Croft, University of Oklahoma Libraries

This wide-ranging collection of essays has much to offer students of fantasy, childrens literature, film, illustration, and anyone who has a deep interest in Tolkiens writings. Susan Hancock, University of Roehampton

J. R. R. Tolkien is arguably the most influential and popular of all fantasy writers. Although his position and status have long been controversial, his popularity has not faded. His best-loved works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have sold millions of copies around the world and continue to enthral readers young and old.

This lively collection of original essays examines The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the light of childrens literature theory and approaches, as well as from adult and fantasy literature perspectives. Exploring issues such as gender, language, worldbuilding, and ecocriticism, the volume also places Tolkiens works in the context of a range of visual media, including Peter Jacksons film adaptations.

Peter Hunt is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University where he was the first specialist in Childrens Literature to be appointed full Professor of English in a British university.

This latest series of New Casebooks consists of brand new critical essays specially commissioned to provide students with fresh thinking about key texts and writers. Like the original series, the volumes embrace a range of approaches designed to illuminate the rich interchange between critical theory and critical practice.

New Casebooks

Collections of all new critical essays

CHILDRENS LITERATURE

MELVIN BURGESS

Edited by Alison Waller

ROBERT CORMIER

Edited by Adrienne E. Gavin

ROALD DAHL

Edited by Ann Alston & Catherine Butler

C. S. LEWIS: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA

Edited by Michelle Ann Abate & Lance Weldy

J. K. ROWLING: HARRY POTTER

Edited by Cynthia J. Hallett & Peggy J. Huey

J. R. R. TOLKIEN: THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Edited by Peter Hunt

NOVELS AND PROSE

JOHN FOWLES

Edited by James Acheson

FURTHER TITLES ARE CURRENTLY IN PREPARATION

For a full list of published titles in the past format of the New Casebooks series, visit the series page at www.palgrave.com

New Casebooks Series

Series Standing Order

ISBN 978-0-333-71702-8 hardcover

ISBN 978-0-333-69345-2 paperback

(Outside North America only)

You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above.

Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, UK

New Casebooks

J. R. R. TOLKIEN
THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Edited by

PETER HUNT

Selection and editorial matter Peter Hunt 2013

Introduction and individual chapters (in order) Peter Hunt; Keith OSullivan; Maria Sachiko Cecire; Hazel Sheeky Bird; C. W. Sullivan III; Louise Joy; Zo Jaques; Catherine Butler; Jane Suzanne Carroll;

Shelley Saguaro & Deborah Cogan Thacker; Kate Harvey 2013

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2013 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 9781137264008 hardback

ISBN 9781137263995 paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.

Series Editors Preface

Welcome to the latest series of New Casebooks.

Each volume now presents brand new essays specially written for university and other students. Like the original series, the new-look New Casebooks embrace a range of recent critical approaches to the debates and issues that characterize the current discussion of literature.

Each editor has been asked to commission a sequence of original essays which will introduce the reader to the innovative critical approaches to the text or texts being discussed in the collection. The intention is to illuminate the rich interchange between critical theory and critical practice that today underpins so much writing about literature.

Editors have also been asked to supply an introduction to each volume that sets the scene for the essays that follow, together with a list of further reading which will enable readers to follow up issues raised by the essays in the collection.

The purpose of this new-look series, then, is to provide students with fresh thinking about key texts and writers while encouraging them to extend their own ideas and responses to the texts they are studying.

Martin Coyle

Acknowledgements

A shorter version of C. W. Sullivan IIIs essay was presented at the 2012 International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, Florida. Some of the material therein is briefly paraphrased or quoted from two of his previously published articles: J. R. R. Tolkien and the Rediscovery of the North, and J. R. R. Tolkien and the Telling of a Traditional Narrative. The editor and publishers are grateful for the permission of Donald E. Morse for the Hungarian Society for the Study of English, and Brian Attebery, Editor of Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, for permission to use this material.

The editor would like to acknowledge the help of Robin Rudd, St Leo University, Atlanta, in researching on-line writing, creative writing, and Tolkiens influence.

Notes on Contributors

Hazel Sheeky Bird was the recipient of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award; her doctoral thesis was on British interwar camping and tramping fiction. Her current research concentrates on constructions of national identity in childrens British and American naval fiction during the period 18901945.