Latest publications
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Celebrating Tolkien's Legacy
26th September 2024: Celebrating Tolkien's Legacy
Walking Tree Publishers are proud to announce the publication of Celebrating Tolkien's Legacy by Nancy Bunting, Seamus Hamill-Keays and Toby Widdicombe.
Fifty years after the death of J.R.R. Tolkien, these essays look at Tolkien's own history in relation to his fiction and where Tolkien studies may go in the next few decades and what issues it needs to address.
Celebrating Tolkien's Legacy
Nancy Bunting, Seamus Hamill-Keays and Toby Widdicombe
Cormarë Series No. 52
about the authors | about this book | table of contents | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=227 )
The Songs of the Spheres: Lewis, Tolkien and the Overlapping Realms of their Imagination
30th April 2024: The Songs of the Spheres now published
The Songs of the Spheres: Lewis, Tolkien and the Overlapping Realms of their Imagination (edited by Łukasz Neubauer and Gugliemo Spirito), is now available.
This book was previously announced here.
about this publication | about the editors | table of contents | abstracts | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=220 )
The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
17th March 2024: New publication, The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien's Arda illustrates how he incorporated and built on aesthetics, ideals, and philosophies that were, during his lifetime, associated with the Romantics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien is a celebration of Romanticism's multiplicity, offering fresh perspectives on Tolkien's relationship with English, Scottish, German, transatlantic, musical, and artistic Romanticisms, working in concert to open up our discussions of Tolkien's Romantic Spirit.
By embracing this approach, the volume avoids generalisations or vague definitions of Romanticism and the Romantic, paving the way for future scholarship that seeks to understand Tolkien's stylistic and thematic connections with Romanticism.
The contributions to this volume by no means exhaust the discussion on Tolkien's Romanticism. Rather, they aim to ignite further exploration by embracing Romanticism's ever-growing cast of voices and spirits.
table of contents | abstracts | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=216 )
Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium
17th March 2024: New publication, Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium
The theory of Northern Courage was J.R.R. Tolkien' s designation
for the heroic ethos found in 'Germanic' or Northern heroic lays
and epics. Tolkien admired the nobility of the old heroes, such as
Beowulf, but wrestled with the inherent cruelty of the Welands,
Ingelds, and Gunnars that is also expressed within this heroic framework.
This volume explores the means in which this conflict of nobility
and cruelty, virtue and vice, expresses itself in Tolkien's narrative
fiction. Such means include the use of secondary-world chroniclers
narrating a secondary-world history and tales to a secondary-world
audience through illustrative narratives that dramatize the moral
and ideological views of the narrators themselves. The narratives
are often tragic, but they serve to highlight the different aspects of
Northern courage through the examples of the Fingolfians, Fëanorians,
and subsequently the Edain and Dúnedain. The moral and ideological
views expressed by these secondary-world narrators parallel
Tolkien's own personal correspondence and academic essays, which
also criticized the vices and praised the virtues of Northern courage.
Gallant's study is the winner of the 2024 Inklings-Prize in the category 'best scholarly publication (PhD/Habilitation)' of the Inklings-Gesellschaft e.V.
table of contents | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=215 )
Tweaking Things a Little. Essays on the Epic Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien and G.R.R. Martin
2nd July 2023: New publication, Tweaking Things a Little
"World-building, name-finding, language-crafting; the flaws in chivalric practice, and the ethics (Machiavellian and otherwise) that produce the moral complexities of Middle-earth and the Known World are thus the topics that Tweaking Things a Little considers. The modest title belies what lies within these covers: nimble readings, profound knowledge of the medieval world, original and provocative reading of both books and the TV show await the reader here. Pointing both back in time to the medieval underpinnings of Tolkien's creation and outwards to the contemporary world that informs Martin's pragmatic and politically astute thinking, these essays enthral, astonish and challenge. Best of all, they encourage us to journey back into Middle-earth and the Known World, with newly opened eyes and ears, to rediscover their wonders anew."
Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature (University of Oxford), author of Winter is Coming: The Medieval World of 'Game of Thrones' (2015) and All Men Must Die: Power and Passion in 'Game of Thrones' (2021).
About the author: Thomas Honegger is Professor for English Medieval Studies at the Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena (Germany).
table of contents | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=207 )
Nólë Hyarmenillo: An Anthology of Iberian Scholarship on Tolkien
23rd May 2022: New book: Nólë Hyarmenillo
We are pleased to announce our latest publication, Nólë Hyarmenillo: An Anthology of Iberian Scholarship on Tolkien, edited by Nuno Simões Rodrigues, Martin Simonson, Angélica Varandas.
The present collection, Nólë Hyarmenillo ('Lore from the South' in Quenya), features essays written by Spanish and Portuguese scholars on diverse topics related to Tolkien and his legendarium, ranging from an analysis of film posters and adaptations, to studies of comparative literature, ecocritical analysis and the role and impact of Tolkien's works in contemporary subculture. As such, the anthology also reflects the growing bonds between two national communities of scholars, who over the past decade have consolidated research on Tolkien's legendarium at various large universities on the Iberian peninsula.
table of contents | abstracts | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=183 )
Law, Government, and Society in J.R.R. Tolkien's Works
23rd May 2022: New book: Law, Government and Society
We are pleased to announce our latest publication, Law, Government, and Society in J.R.R. Tolkien's Works, by José María Miranda Boto.
Law and government are aspects of J.R.R. Tolkien's works that have not received much scholarly attention. However, they are present in many facets of his sub-creation. In describing the various societies that populate it, Tolkien addressed aspects of their legal and governmental systems, such as the succession of kings, rules of inheritance, or the function of the Mayor of Michel Delving. In many cases, he did so to add a further thread to the rich tapestry of his descriptions.
But in other cases, law appears as an important narrative element, functioning as a test of character for the protagonists who encounter it. Thus, the trial of Beregond reveals Aragorn's justice, while Turgon's ordering the execution of Ëol shows his ruthlessness.
Law and philology appear together in several passages of Tolkien's work. It is no coincidence that the most relevant objects of his sub- creation, the One Ring and the Silmarils, are described in archaic legal terms. In parallel, law and the tools of government are used as humorous elements in other fragments.
Law and government are, in short, omnipresent in Tolkien's work. They are not a central element, but, without what is studied in this book, Arda would have been much poorer.
table of contents | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=182 )
The Gallant Edith Bratt
19th August 2021: New publication, The Gallant Edith Bratt
We are pleased to announce our latest publication The Gallant Edith Bratt, by Nancy Bunting and Seamus Hamill-Keays.
Who was Edith Bratt? Millions saw Hollywood's fantasy version of J.R.R. Tolkien's one and only love, Edith Bratt, in the 2019 movie, Tolkien. Fact, though, is stranger than fiction, and more interesting. Edith's story reveals a gallant heroine suffering under "The Shadow of the Past." Edith was Ronald's "lover," and much like her mother, Edith risked all for the man she loved. New research finds a financially independent and strong woman who was not only John Ronald's equal, but his muse, his anchor of stability in the present, and his hope for the future.
Admirers, enthusiasts, and students of Tolkien will find much new material to enrich their understanding and appreciation of Tolkien. Placing the development of John Ronald Tolkien's Elvish languages, mythology, and art during the crucial years of 1916-18 in a new biographical context that includes the importance and significance of Edith Bratt culminates in the pivotal story of Lúthien and Beren with new unsuspected sources and the complementary artwork of The Fair Towns of Holy Tol Eressëa. A fresh awareness of the compelling and pervasive influence and effect of Tolkien's biography on his oeuvre suggests new views and possibilities for further investigations.
table of contents | cover | authors | endorsements | announcements
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=174 )
Tolkien and the Classical World
23rd January 2021: New publication, Tolkien and the Classical World
We are pleased to announce our latest publication Tolkien and the Classical World, edited by Hamish Williams.
While scholars have often cited the influence of medieval texts and society on J.R.R. Tolkien's seminal fantasy creations, the role of the classical world – the literature and thought of ancient Greece and Rome – has received far less attention.
This volume of essays explores various ways in which Tolkien's literary creations were shaped by classical epic, myth, poetry, history, philosophy, drama, and language. In making such connections, the contributors to this volume are interested not simply in source-hunting but in how a reception of the classical world can shape the meaning we derive from Tolkien's masterworks.
The contributions to this volume by Philip Burton, Łukasz Neubauer, Giuseppe Pezzini, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, Graham Shipley, and several other scholars should pave the way for further discussions between classical studies and fantasy studies.
podcast | table of contents | abstracts | cover | announcements | more
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=169 )
Middle-earth or There and Back Again
19th July 2020: New publication, Middle-earth or There and Back Again
We are pleased to announce our latest publication Middle-earth or There and Back Again , edited by Łukasz Neubauer.
The world of Tolkien's imagination is a virtually boundless universe, one in which multiple layers of cultural heritage revolve around his enduring passion for storytelling, fascination with languages and devotion to the Catholic faith. In effect, much of his fiction is an eclectic, though, at the same time, remarkably coherent, mixture in which certain elements of the old lore appear to be constantly reinvented, reimagined and reinterpreted to suit the tastes of the Professor's readers and listeners. It is a constant mediation between the world of the past (ancient, medieval or other) and the world in which he lived, an informed dialogue tinted by the writer's personal convictions and beliefs. (read more ...)
(to link to this announcement: http://www.walking-tree.org/news_archive.php?item=165 )
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