Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : on the pleasures of (reading and writing) Tolkien criticism / Neil D. Isaacs -- The dethronement of power / C.S. Lewis -- The lord of the hobbits : J.R.R. Tolkien / Edmund Fuller -- The quest hero / W.H. Auden -- Power and meaning in The lord of the rings / Patricia Meyer Spacks -- Moral vision in The lord of the rings / Rose A. Zimbardo -- Men, halflings, and hero worship / Marion Zimmer Bradley -- Tolkien and the fairy story / R.J. Reilly -- Folktale, fairy tale, and the creation of a story / J.S. Ryan -- Frodo and Aragorn : the concept of the hero / Verlyn Flieger -- Middle-earth : an imaginary world? / Paul Kocher -- Tolkien : archetype and word / Patrick Grant -- Myth, history, and time in The lord of the rings / Lionel Basney -- The lord of the rings : Tolkien's epic / Jane Chance -- Another road to middle-earth : Jackson's movie trilogy / Tom Shippey.