The Return of the Ring: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012

From Tolkien Gateway
The Return Of The Ring: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012
The Return Of The Ring Volume 1.jpgThe Return Of The Ring Volume 2.jpg
Introduction byShaun Gunner
EditorLynn Forest-Hill
PublisherThe Tolkien Society
Released9 June 2016
FormatPaperback
Pages276 (Volume 1)
216 (Volume 2)
ISBN978-1-911143-02-4 (Volume 1)
978-1-911143-03-1 (Volume 2)

The Return Of The Ring: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012 is a two volume book which contains the majority of the material presented at The Return of the Ring conference held in 2012.

From the publisher[edit | edit source]

Few twentieth-century authors can compete with J.R.R. Tolkien. More than three-quarters of a century after the publication of The Hobbit in 1937, his works continue to captivate millions of readers across the world. As a collection of papers delivered in 2012 at the Tolkien Society’s international conference of the same name, The Return of the Ring is representative of the wide and varied responses Tolkien’s works have generated over the decades. The first volume focuses primarily on Tolkien’s life, examining the influence of war, philosophy, and religion on his mythology. The second volume is much more diverse, covering themes from medievalism and romanticism through to fantasy and modernity. With contributions from the likes of John Garth, Colin Duriez, Ronald Hutton, and Janet Brennan Croft, The Return of the Ring is essential for scholars and casual readers alike.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Volume 1[edit | edit source]

  • "Foreword" – Shaun Gunner
  • "Introduction" – Lynn Forest-Hill

Biography

War and its Effects

  • "Robert Quilter Gilson, T.C.B.S.: A brief life in letters" by John Garth
  • "Tolkien: the War Years" by Robert S. Blackham
  • "Sauron Revealed" by LeiLani Hinds
  • "Clean Earth to Till: A Tolkienian Vision of War" by Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • "The Importance of Home in the Middle-earth Legendarium" by Sara Brown

Philosophy and Ethics

  • "Tolkien versus the history of philosophy” – Franco Manni
  • "Tolkien’s Boethius, Alfred's Boethius" by Gerard Hynes
  • "Teaching Leadership and Ethics through Tolkien" by Laura Miller-Purrenhage

Religion and its Discontents

  • "Tolkien – Pagan or Christian? A proposal for a 'new' synthetic approach" by Claudio A. Testi
  • "A Latter-day Saint reading of Tolkien" by James D. Holt
  • "Tolkien's Magic" by Ronald Hutton

The Mythic Dimension

  • "Cyclic cataclysms, Semitic stereotypes and religious reforms: a classicist's Númenor" by Pamina Fernández Camacho
  • "From 2012 AD to Atlantis and Back Again – Tolkien's Circular Journey in Time" by Xavier de la Huerga
  • "The Notion Club Papers: A Summary" by David Doughan
  • "Myth-Making: How J.R.R. Tolkien Adapted Mythopoeia from Old English" by Zachary A. Rhone
  • "J.R.R. Tolkien's Mythopoeia and Familiarisation of Myth: Hobbits as Mediators of Myth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings" by Jyrki Korpua
  • "White riders and new world orders: Nature and technology in Theodor Storm's Der Schimmelreiter and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" by Larissa Budde

Volume 2[edit | edit source]

  • "Introduction" by Lynn Forest-Hill

Medievalism

  • "Tolkienesque Transformations: Post-Celticism and Possessiveness in 'The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun'" by Yoko Hemmi
  • "Tolkien's Devices: The Heraldry of Middle-earth" by Jamie McGregor
  • "Tolkien and the Gothic" by Nick Groom
  • "Frodo and Faramir: Mirrors of Chivalry" by Constance G.J. Wagner

Fantasy

  • "An Old Light Rekindled: Tolkien's Influence on Fantasy" by Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • "'In the memory of old wives': Old Tales and Fairy-stories in Middle-earth" by Troels Forchhammer

Diversity

  • "Tolkien and Nonsense" by Maureen F. Mann
  • "Stars Above a Dark Tor: Tolkien and Romanticism" by Anna E. Thayer (née Slack)
  • "The Ainulindale and Tolkien's Approach to Modernity" by Reuven Naveh
  • "Tolkien, the Russians and Industrialisation" by Jim Clarke
  • "Legal bother: Law and related matters in The Hobbit" by Murray Smith
  • "Tolkien's Faërian Drama: Origins and Valedictions" by Janet Brennan Croft
  • "Tolkien's women of Middle-earth" by Chris Barclay
  • "Colours in Tolkien" by Christopher Kreuzer
  • "Thirty Years of Tolkien Fandom" by Nancy Martsch

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

The Tolkien Society
President: J.R.R. Tolkien · Vice-president: Priscilla Tolkien · Chair: Shaun Gunner
Topics History (Letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society) · Archives · Awards · Enyalië · Smials · Tolkien to the World · Tolkien fandom
Chairs Vera Chapman (1970) · Keith Bridges (1970-1973) · Hartley Patterson (1973-1974) · Jonathan Simons (1974-1984) · Brin Dunsire (1984-1988) · Alex Lewis (1988-1992) · Amanda Fingleson (1992-1996) · Chris Crawshaw (1996-2008) · Matthew Vernon (2008-2009) · Sally Kennett (2009-2013) · Shaun Gunner (2013-present)
Annual Events Birthday Toast (3 January) · Tolkien Reading Day (25 March) · AGM and Springmoot (April) · Seminar (July) · Oxonmoot (September)
Conferences Oxonmoot (annual, 1974-present) · J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1992) · Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On (2005) · The Return of the Ring (2012) · Tolkien 2019 (2019)
Publications Journals Belladonna's Broadsheet (1969-1970) · Mallorn (1970-present) · The Tolkien Society Bulletin (1970-1971) · Andúril (1972) · Amon Hen (1972-present) · Quettar (1980-1995)
Books An Extrapolation on The Silmarillion (1975) · The Trees, the Jewels and the Rings (1977) · Tolkien in Oxford: The Tolkien Society Guide (1978) · The Tolkien Society Songbook (1985) · Tolkien and Romanticism (1988) · Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1995) · The Oxonmoot Songbook (1997) · The Filking Songbook (2001) · The Tolkien Society Guide to Oxford (2005) · Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference (2008) · Tolkien 2005 Souvenir Book (2009) · Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012 (2016)
Peter Roe Books 1. Some Light on Middle-earth (1985) · 2. Leaves from the Tree (1991) · 3. The First and Second Ages (1992) · 4. Travel and Communication in Tolkien's Worlds (1996) · 5. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 1 (1997) · 6. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 2 (1998) · 7. Tolkien, the Sea and Scandinavia (1999) · 8. The Ways of Creative Mythologies (2000) · 9. Tolkien: A Mythology for England? (2000) · 10. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 1 (2000) · 11. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 3 (2001) · 12. Sindarin Lexicon (2001) · 13. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 2 (2002) · 14. Tolkien: Influenced and Influencing (2005)· 15. Freedom, Fate and Choice in Middle-earth (2012) · 16. Journeys & Destinations (2015) · 17. Death and Immortality in Middle-earth (2017) · 18. Poetry and Song in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2018) · 19. Tolkien the Pagan? (2019) · 20. Adapting Tolkien (2021) · 21. Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien (2022) · 22. Tolkien and Diversity (2023)