Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Style, Usage, and Abbreviations xiii
Note to the Reader xvii
Part 1 "A Perilous Land": Defining Faërie 1
"There Would Always Be a 'Fairy-tale'": J. R. R. Tolkien and the Folklore Controversy 5
But What Did He Really Mean? 17
Re-creating Reality 32
War, Death, and Fairy Stories in the Work of J. R. R. Tolkien 49
Eucatastrophe and the Dark 59
Part 2 "Faerie Begins": The Nuts and Bolts of Sub-creation 67
Words and World-making: The Particle Physics of Middle-earth 71
Myth, History, and Time-travel: The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers 76
Politically Incorrect Tolkien 90
The Jewels, the Stone, the Ring, and the Making of Meaning 100
Making Choices: Moral Ambiguity in Tolkien's Major Fiction 113
Part 3 "Arresting Strangeness": Making It Different 125
The Forests and the Trees: Sal and Ian in Faërie 129
How Trees Behave-Or Do They? 145
Myth and Truth in Tolkien's Legendarium 157
Fays, Corrigans, Elves, and More: Tolkien's Dark Ladies 165
Part 4 Boiling Bones; Serving Soup 179
Tolkien, Kalevala, and Middle-earth 183
Tolkien's Celtic Connection 196
Tolkien's French Connection 203
Drowned Lands 213
Voyaging About: Tolkien and Celtic Navigatio 221
Permissions and Acknowledgments 229
Notes 231
Works Cited 240
Index 248