Tolkien Studies: Volume 21

Tolkien Studies: Volume 21
Publication Information
Editor	David Bratman, Michael D.C. Drout, Yvette Kisor
Publisher	West Virginia University Press
Released	November, 2025
Format	Paperback; electronic
Pages	360
ISSN	1547-3155

Tolkien Studies: Volume 21, published in November 2025, though being the 2024's issue, is the twentieth volume of the annual review Tolkien Studies.

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Contents

• Articles
  • Alexandra Bolintineanu, "Tolkien's Elegiac Trees: Enta Geweorc and the Ents Across Time"
  • Patrick J. Murphy, "The Riddles of The Hobbit, the Academic History of the Exeter Book, and the Invention of Tolkien's Ring"
  • Anika Jensen, "'I Wonder If Any Song Will Ever Mention It': Locating Precarious Time in The Lord of the Rings"
  • Eduardo Boheme Kumamoto, "The Allegiant Translator: J.R.R. Tolkien, Burton Raffel, and Verse Translation"
  • John Garth and Peter Gilliver, "The Wanderer's Return: New Findings on Tolkien in Oxford 1918–19"
  • Claudio A. Testi, "From 'The Tree' to 'Leaf by Niggle': Up to the Mountains and Beyond"
  • Peizhen Wu and Michael D. C. Drout, "'The Course of Actual Composition': Analysis of Some Aspects of the Revision History of The Lord of the Rings Using 'Lexomic' Digital Methods"

• Notes and Documents
  • Łukasz Neubauer, "The 'Origin of Gandalf': Josef Madlener's Der Berggeist and the Transboundary Mountain Spirit Rübezahl as Purported Sources of Inspiration for Tolkien's Wizard"
  • Matthew Thompson-Handell, "Reconsidering the Early Critical Response to The Lord of the Rings"

• Book Reviews
  • Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth, by Robert Stuart, reviewed by Yvette Kisor
  • Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology, by Robert T. Tally, Jr., reviewed by Douglas C. Kane
  • Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring: To Rule the Fate of Many, by Thomas P. Hillman, reviewed by Clare Moore
  • Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, edited by Douglas Estes, reviewed by Nick Polk
  • How to Misunderstand Tolkien: The Critics and the Fantasy Master, by Bruno Bacelli, reviewed by Lori Campbell-Tanner

• Cami D. Agan, David Bratman, The Rev. Tom Emanuel, Jonathan Evans, Jason Fisher, John Magoun, "The Year's Work in Tolkien Studies 2021"
• David Bratman, "Bibliography (in English) for 2022"

External links

• Tolkien Studies: Volume 21 at Project Muse
• Tolkien Studies 21: an announcement on David Bratman's blog