The Broken Scythe:
Death and Immortality in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Description
The Broken Scythe: Death and Immortality in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien What is the central theme of The Lord of the Rings? J.R.R. Tolkien’s answer to this apparently simple question may surprise some readers: “I do not think that even Power or Domination is the real centre of my story […] The real theme for me is about something much more permanent and difficult: Death and Immortality” (Letters no. 186). Despite this very clear statement, only a small number of published studies have focused on these two themes. This collection of essays by Italian scholars aims at filling this lacuna in the critical scholarship. The nine papers, introduced by Verlyn Flieger’s preface, are the result of a two-year interdisciplinary project that concentrated on death and immortality and provide a fascinating, multi-facetted exploration of these fundamental aspects of Tolkien’s work.
Table of contents
– List of Abbreviations
– Preface (Verlyn Flieger)
– Introduction (Roberto Arduini & Claudio A. Testi)
– A Eulogy of Finitude: Anthropology, Eschatology and Philosophy of History in Tolkien (Franco Manni)
– Tolkien’s Legendarium as a meditatio mortis (Claudio A. Testi)
– Tolkien, Death and Time: the Fairy Story within the Picture (Roberto Arduini)
– On the Edge of the Perilous Realm
(Lorenzo Gammarelli)
– The Wrong Path of the Sub-creator: from the Fall to the Machine and the Escape from Mortality (Alberto Ladavas)
– “In the Mounds of Mundburg“: Death, War and Memory in Middle-earth (Simone Bonechi)
– Death, Immortality and their Escapes: Memory and Longevity (Andrea Monda)
– Logic and Theology in Tolkien’s Thanatology (Claudio A. Testi)
– A Misplaced Envy: Analogies and Differences between Elves and Men on the Idea of Pain (Giampaolo Canzonieri)
– Bibliography
– Index
Essential data
The Broken Scythe: Death and Immortality in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Roberto Arduini and Claudio A. Testi (editors)
Cormarë Series No. 26
256 pages, Walking Tree Publishers 2012, Cormarë Series No. 26, ISBN: 978-3-905703-26-9.
Website: Walking Tree Publishers
