Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens

Peter Roe Series XIX

Anna Milon

• Publisher: Luna Press Publishing
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781911143802
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

This volume of proceedings contains papers from the largest and, perhaps, most diverse Tolkien Society Seminar to date.

Following a much-contested Call for Papers, ‘Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens’ explores Tolkien’s complex use of religious ideology, the readers’ approach to their beloved fictional world via unusual spiritual and philosophical channels, and how Middle-earth almost became a faith unto itself.

Peter Roe Series xix

Tolkien the Pagan?

Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens

Proceedings of The Tolkien Society

Seminar 2018

Edited by Anna Milon

Copyright © 2019 by The Tolkien Society

www.tolkiensociety.org

First published 2019 by Luna Press Publishing, Edinburgh

www.lunapresspublishing.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-911143-80-2

Cover illustration copyright © 2019 ‘Starkindler’ by Becky Green

Published under the auspices of the Peter Roe Memorial Fund, eighteenth in the series.

All contributors to this volume assert their moral right to be identified as the author of their individual contributions.

Each contribution remains the intellectual property of its respective author and is published by The Tolkien Society, an educational charity (number 273809) registered in England and Wales, under a non-exclusive licence.

All rights reserved by The Tolkien Society. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Nor can it be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

About the Peter Roe Memorial Fund

The Tolkien Society’s seminar proceedings and other booklets are typically published under the auspices of the Peter Roe Memorial Fund, a fund in the Society’s accounts that commemorates a young member who died in a traffic accident. Peter Roe, a young and very talented person joined the Society in 1979, shortly after his sixteenth birthday. He had discovered Middle-earth some time earlier, and was so inspired by it that he even developed his own system of runes, similar to the Dwarvish Angerthas, but which utilised logical sound values, matching the logical shapes of the runes. Peter was also an accomplished cartographer, and his bedroom was covered with multi-coloured maps of the journeys of the fellowship, plans of Middle-earth, and other drawings.

Peter was also a creative writer in both poetry and prose—the subject being incorporated into his own Dwarvish Chronicles. He was so enthusiastic about having joined the Society that he had written a letter ordering all the available back issues, and was on his way to buy envelopes when he was hit by a speeding lorry outside his home.

Sometime later, Jonathan and Lester Simons (at that time Chairman and Membership Secretary respectively) visited Peter’s parents to see his room and to look at the work on which he had spent so much care and attention in such a tragically short life. It was obvious that Peter had produced, and would have continued to produce, material of such a high standard as to make a complete booklet, with poetry, calligraphy, stories and cartography. The then committee set up a special account in honour of Peter, with the consent of his parents, which would be the source of finance for the Society’s special publications. Over the years a number of members have made generous donations to the fund.

The first publication to be financed by the Peter Roe Memorial Fund was Some Light on Middle-earth by Edward Crawford, published in 1985. Subsequent publications have been composed from papers delivered at Tolkien Society workshops and seminars, talks from guest speakers at the Annual Dinner, and collections of the best articles from past issues of Amon Hen, the Society’s bulletin.

Dwarvish Fragments, an unfinished tale by Peter, was printed in Mallorn 15 (September 1980). A standalone collection of Peter’s creative endeavours is currently being prepared for publication.

The Peter Roe Series

I Edward Crawford, Some Light on Middle-earth, Peter Roe Series, I (Pinner: The Tolkien Society, 1985)

II Leaves from the Tree: Tolkien’s Short Fiction, ed. by Trevor Reynolds, Peter Roe Series, II (London: The Tolkien Society, 1991)

III The First and Second Ages, ed. by Trevor Reynolds, Peter Roe Series, III (London: The Tolkien Society, 1992)

IV Travel and Communication in Tolkien’s Worlds, ed. by Richard Crawshaw, Peter Roe Series, IV (Swindon: The Tolkien Society, 1996)

V Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees: Volume One, ed. by Helen Armstrong, Peter Roe Series, V (Swindon: The Tolkien Society, 1997)

VI Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees: Volume Two, ed. by Helen Armstrong, Peter Roe Series, VI (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 1998)

VII Tolkien, the Sea and Scandinavia, ed. by Richard Crawshaw, Peter Roe Series, VII (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 1999)

VIII The Ways of Creative Mythologies, ed. by Maria Kuteeva, 2 vols, Peter Roe Series, VIII (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 2000)

IX Tolkien: A Mythology for England?, ed. by Richard Crawshaw, Peter Roe Series, IX (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 2000)

X The Best of Amon Hen: Part One, ed. by Andrew Wells, Peter Roe Series, X (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 2000)

XI Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees: Volume Three, ed. by Helen Armstrong, Peter Roe Series, XI (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 2001)

XII Kenneth Chaij, Sindarin Lexicon, Peter Roe Series, XII (Telford: The Tolkien Society, 2001)

XIII The Best of Amon Hen: Part Two, ed. by Andrew Wells...

Table of contents

• The Peter Roe Series