The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium

Description

The timely collection of essays is thematically unified around the subject of corporeality. Its theoretical underpinnings emerge out of feminist, foucauldian, patristic and queer hermeneutics. The book is organized into categories specific to transformation, spirit versus body, discourse, and source material. More than one essay focuses on female bodies and on the monstrous or evil body. While Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is central to most analyses, authors also cover The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and material in The History of Middle-earth. Abbreviations Introduction Notes Works Consulted The Transformation of the Body The Body in Question The Unhealed Wounds of Frodo Baggins Coda Notes Works Consulted Incorporeality and Transformation in The Lord of the Rings1 Notes Works Consulted Frodo’s Body Liminality and the Experience of War1 Notes Works Consulted The Body and the Spirit The Hröa and Fëa of Middle-earth Health, Ecology and the War Glimpses of the Unseen: Spirit in Middle-earth Healing the Body and the Soul Body, Spirit, and Tolkien’s Environmentalism Not Against Flesh and Blood Conclusion Notes Works Consulted The Ugly Elf Orc Bodies, Perversion, and Redemption in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings1 Notes Works Consulted The Discursive Body Light (noun, 1) or Light (adjective, 14b)? Female Bodies and Femininities in The Lord of the Rings Agency Imagery Appendix A: LOTR Excerpts & Stylistic Analysis Goldberry Arwen Galadriel Éowyn Shelob Notes Works Consulted A Body of Myth Representing Sauron in The Lord of the Rings Mythological Subjects and the Body Sauron and the Body: A Short Biography of a Dark Lord From the Physical to the Theoretical: Somebody Without a Body The Power and the Body: Sauron and the Ring Conclusions Notes Works Consulted The Body and the Source Material Emblematic Bodies Tolkien and the Depiction of Female Physical Presence Goldberry Galadriel Arwen Éowyn Notes Works Consulted Extending the Reach of the Invisible Hand A Gift Looks for Gain in the Gifting Economy of Middle-earth The Process of Gifting The Giver The Gifted The Darker Side of Gifting Unresolved Issues Notes Works Consulted Tolkien’s Whimsical Mode Physicalities in The Hobbit Shifting Physicalities in The Hobbit Conclusion Notes Works Consulted About the Contributors List of Names and Terms