Cover of J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth

J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth

by Bradley J. Birzer · 2002

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Peter Jackson's film version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the accompanying proliferation of Rings-related paraphernalia, has once again brought the work of J. R. R. Tolkien to a popular audience. There are, however, few full and accessible treatments of the religious vision permeating Tolkien's influential works. Bradley Birzer has remedied that with his fresh study, J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth. In it, Birzer explicates the religious symbolism and significance of Tolkien's Middle-earth stories. More broadly, Birzer situates Tolkien within the Christian humanist tradition represented by Thomas More and T. S. Eliot, Dante and C. S. Lewis. He argues that through the genre of myth Tolkien is able to provide a sophisticated and appealing social and ethical worldview.

Subject
literary criticismliterary criticismMore like thisLess of this
Genre
fantasyfantasyMore like thisLess of thismythologymythologyMore like thisLess of thismyths and folkloremyths and folkloreMore like thisLess of this
Themes
religionreligionMore like thisLess of thisChristianChristianMore like thisLess of thisspiritualityspiritualityMore like thisLess of this
Setting
20th century20th centuryMore like thisLess of thisEnglandEnglandMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 255 pages

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