It is the most unexpected of honors for me to have been awarded the 2024 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Inklings Studies. Being a Spaniard and a lawyer, two strange characteristics that had never been present in a winner beforehand, I feel like a little Hobbit who is admitted to the Council of the Wise.

My first thanks, naturally, must go to the Jury, who has made happy someone who writes about Tolkien as a hobby and not as trade.

My second thanks go to Tom Shippey, who endorsed my work with his prestige, giving me the most beautiful of the prologues. I still can't believe that I have joined him, and so many other distinguished scholars such as Verlyn Flieger, in the Halls of this Award.

Next in my gratitude is Peter Buchs, editor of Walking Tree, who in Birmingham in 2019 considered that my topic could lead to an interesting book for a reader who does not live in court.

I conclude by thanking all the friends who accompanied me during the writing of the book, providing numerous observations that made it a much more complete work than what I had achieved. Everyone will understand that I distinguish among them Friar José Anido, who has found his own role as an inhabitant of my footnotes.

The ultimate thanks go to my wife. Without her, and her patience, and the sacrifice of our shared leisure time, none of this could have been achieved.

With this award, the three functions of Fantasy become reality for me: recovery, escape, consolation. Thank you so much. Muchas gracias.