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Below is a listing of all peer-reviewed and reprinted articles, as well as a directory of newsletter columns.
The articles below have passed both staff and peer review. We are always looking for new essays and resources to add to our collection. Learn more about how to submit your work to our Reference Library and how to support our work as a Reference Reader.
The Accidental King: Five Reasons Why Finarfin Deserves More Appreciation
An essay and commentary looking at the canonical facts about Finarfin in contrast to the neglect and hostility that his character is given by the Silmarillion fan fiction community.
Categories: Character
Burning in the House: Éowyn's Outcry and the Death of Aerin
In an attempt to allow widely separated parts of the Legendarium to throw light on each other, Aerin's final acts are compared to the imagery in which Éowyn's expresses her concerns in The Lord of the Rings. The relevant passages share the motif of the burning house. The handling of this motif suggests authorial sympathy with Éowyn's plight. Published 22 June 2018.
Categories: Character, Comparative Studies (Legendarium)
Chronology of the Silmarillion
A compilation of Tolkien's various timelines from the First Age and earlier that presents dates for important events from The Silmarillion.
Categories: Timelines
Exile, Wyrd and the Anglo-Saxon Warrior Ideal in The Wanderer and Tolkien's Quenta Silmarillion
As a professor of Anglo-Saxon, Tolkien's stories are undeniably influenced by the literature of this early people. This essay considers how exile, fate, the warrior ideal, and masculinity in the Quenta Silmarillion were influenced by the Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer.
Categories: Germanic History & Myth, Heroism
This comprehensive essay discusses how to write balanced and effective fiction critiques with a special emphasis on Tolkien fan fiction.
Categories: Commenting and Feedback
Name Calling: Group Identity and the Other among First Age Elves
As the names used by the early Elves to identify themselves and others evolved according the essay Quendi and Eldar (HoMe 11), relationships between the different cultures are revealed.
The Perfect Girl: An Exploration of the Hidden and Dynamic World of Fan Fiction
An analysis of the fan fiction phenomenon of "Mary Sue" and readers' reactions to this controversial fanfic archetype.
Categories: Fandom Culture
Varda kindled the stars and set them into patterns. Many of these stars the Professor named in Elvish, but which real-life stars was he referring to?
Categories: Science
A Woman in Few Words: The Character of Nerdanel and Her Treatment in Canon and Fandom
A review of the canon facts available on Nerdanel and discussion of why she remains so popular with fans despite her scarce appearances in the texts.
Categories: Character, Fandom Culture
The articles below have been reprinted from other vetted publications and presentations and have passed staff review. We are always looking for new essays and resources to add to our collection. Learn more about how to submit your work to our Reference Library.
Tolkien is often criticized for his simplistic, knight-in-shining-armor heroes. The first in a series of essays argues that heroism and masculinity in Tolkien's works are not premised on this, but on love and loyalty. Originally published as part of the author's Master's thesis.
Categories: Germanic History & Myth, Heroism
Power and Choice in the Second Age: A Political Primer 
Fantasy fiction is often conceived to aid escapism in a world as complex and threatening as ours is. It is also an important tool for reflecting on and critiquing our political and societal norms and deficits, serving as a great lens to understand politics, power, choice, order, and justice. Through the lens of political science, underused in Tolkien studies, this paper describes and evaluates the broad themes of the domestic and international political landscape of early Second Age in Middle-earth, examined through a framework of power and choice. With a specific focus on Númenor as a rising power, the paper will also address diverse themes of great power politics, foreign policy, technology and weaponry, ideology, and alliance systems. Originally presented at Tolkien 2019.
Categories: Political Science, Second Age
Seafaring Heroes and Villains: The Role of the Sea in Tolkien's Legendarium
Tolkien's seafarers and shipbuilders explore, challenge, define, and reframe his world throughout its fictional history, and Tolkien's use of the sea and sea-longing in particular hearkens to Germanic themes of exile and longing. Originally presented at the 2015 New York Tolkien Conference.
Categories: Germanic History & Myth
The Textual Ghosts Project is a list of the women who must have existed by inference, acting on the assumption that all characters (excepting the Ainur and the first-awakened Elves at Cuiviénen) must have had mothers and those with offspring also must have had wives.
Categories: Gender
Biochemist and long-time Tolkien fan, Doc Bushwell argues that the events and ideas expressed in Tolkien's works often demonstrate a strong disdain for science and technology. Originally published in SEED Magazine's Science Blogs.
Categories: Science
Women Find a Room of Their Own in Tolkien Fanfiction
As a genre belonging almost exclusively to women, fanfiction creates a "room of their own," apart from mainstream publishing that is often hostile to women, for women authors to critically and creatively explore ideas in popular texts and, in the style of Tolkien, create new mythologies that appeal to them. Originally published in Lembas, the journal of the Dutch Tolkien Society.
Categories: Fandom Culture, Gender
Below is a listing of all newsletter columns, both current and inactive. Click the link for a list of articles for each column, as well as information about how to contribute to columns that are currently accepting submissions.
Character of the Month Biographies
Since 2008, we have featured a monthly biography about a character in our newsletter.
Linguistic Foolery answers commonly asked questions about Tolkien's languages.
A Sense of History relates Tolkien's writings to our real-world history.
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