Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien

Nicholas Birns teaches at New York University and is the author of many books and articles on literary criticism, including coediting The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel.

"Nicholas Birns explores diverse and wide-ranging visions of history in Tolkien’s works, including Roman, Mediterranean, Semitic, and Byzantine influences, thus significantly expanding the conventional focus in Tolkien studies on the early Germanic world, while his discussion of the Goths and Lombards provides a detailed and nuanced account of Tolkien’s interest in Germanic histories. Various chapters offer different historical contexts and sometimes surprising insights, such as 18th-century politeness in Théoden and the hobbits; 19th-century Romanticism in the nature-loving Silvan Elves; 20th-century philologists and Tolkien, and the shocking effect of Appendix F in Lord of the Rings. Select a chapter or read the entire book, which examines history in the real world and inside the fiction, from Númenor to the last days of the Dwarves, and suggests ways in which history can be read as an analogue, a limitation, or a creative inspiration for our understanding of Tolkien and his fiction."--Anna Smol, Mount Saint Vincent University“Birns treats his readers to a fascinating array of historical debates…. Birns’s final chapter deserves special mention for braving a discussion of philology via Tolkien, Erich Auerbach, and Edward Said—a trio not discussed often enough by Tolkienists.”--Dennis Wilson Wise, Los Angeles Review of Books“…tackles boldly some problematic topics concerning Tolkien’s historical influences and thus it is overall a fine piece of research which should be considered as part of the Tolkienian scholarship and literary criticism from now on.”--Maria Fernández Portaencasa, Mythlore

• 1 History in the Archives and on the Road2 Forehistories: Prehistory to the Pre- Roman3 From Ulfilas to Appendix F: How Tolkien Yearned for, and Gave Up, the Goths4 Interhistories: Tolkien, Byzantium, and the Worlds of Modern Fantasy5 Hobbits, the Rohirrim and the Modern Histories of Politeness6 Sylvan Historians: The Silvan Elves in Nature and History7 Philology and History: Tolkien, Auerbach, Said8 Afterhistories: Or, Why Moria Was Not Restored?