Tolkien Studies was founded by three leaders in the field, Michael Drout (Beowulf and the Critics), Verlyn Flieger (Splintered Light), and Douglas Anderson (The Annotated Hobbit). It is also comprised of an editorial board consisting of renowned Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, Carl Hostetter of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, and David Bratman of the Mythopoeic Society, to name but a few. Because of the collected and respected efforts of our academic peers, the field of Tolkienian Studies will now have annual contributions by leading authorities in the field, while remaining open to submissions, undoubtedly adding new voices to vast wealth of information and knowledge to further Tolkien scholarship.

Each of the essays represents a small sampling of the myriad facets of understanding and approach to Tolkien. Yet, there are several that immediately stand out to me personally. I've listed the following essays not to diminish the worth and value of the collection as a whole, but because these are a few that appeal to my current academic work.

Only a text of 188 pages, Tolkien Studies Vol. 1 is well worth the subscription rate. The monetary commitment to the text is far out shadowed by the bountiful resource of knowledge and information that lies between its covers. Though the Jackson films are worthy of analysis through comparison to their written original it is my hope that this text and the work of its authors will turn the attention back to the academic side of Tolkien's work that it rightfully deserves.

"Light-elves, Dark-elves , and Others: Tolkien's Elvish Problem"
Tom Shippey
Shippey shows how Tolkien had considered the variant forms and problems of the word "elf in Germanic Languages"(pg.2)and how Tolkien found inspiration from them for his works. Throughout this piece Shippey demonstrates how Tolkien meant to "recover the authentic tradition which lay further back than any account we possess." (pg. 12) It is through Tolkien's linguistic recoveries, reconstruction's and philological explorations do we get a glimpse at a world forgotten. Here Shippey exquisitely gives us a taste of that through an exploration of the word "elf" through Tolkien's works and ancient tradition and language.

"Identifying England's Lonnrot"
Anne C. Petty
Long have I awaited this essay, learning of it sometime ago by Ms. Petty, and my patience has dearly paid off. Here the author compares and contrasts the tasks set before Elias Lonnrot (compiler, creator of the Kalevala) and J.R.R. Tolkien. Applying the label of "England's Lonnrot" to Tolkien and his son Christopher, Petty details the influential work of Lonnrot in restoring "the Finnish language and folkloric heritage through his creation of the Kalevala and Kantele." (Pg. 70) This paper details the journey of Tolkien's restoration of national spirit and identity through a framework similarly utilized by Lonnrot, thereby restoring what was once lost. It is through the work of Lonnrot and Tolkien that modern readers can get a glimpse of universal motifs, tragic heroes, and an understanding of an ancient past. Petty takes us through an incredibly well documented course of understanding the comparison and differences of Tolkien and Lonnrot's creative process and their works.

"Frodo's Batman"
Mark T. Hooker
Since the 'event' of Peter Jackson's cinematic interpretation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, there has been an ever widening gap between interpretation and text. This gap, in my own personal opinion, can find its sources in the flippant and often poorly referenced commentary by Peter Jackson and screenwriter Phillipa Boyens. On The Two Towers: Extended Edition DVD one documentary in particular discusses the relationship between Frodo and Sam as compared to the officer and his 'batman,' offering the sage analyses of Tim Shippey and Brian Sibley as opposed to Boyens. Boyens refutes the previous assertions that Frodo and Sam have this sort of relationship. She says that the screenwriters and Jackson didn't 'necessarily want to cast Frodo in the light of one of those pampered officers who has someone running around shining their shoes. It is not so much that we moved Sam away from his roots, as we tried not to give the impression that Frodo was in any way his superior..." Finally, in Mr. Hooker's beautiful essay we return to the correct context of Tolkien's portrayal of Frodo and Sam's relationship. Finely balancing the essay between historical accounts of batmen and Tolkien's written works we see the class structure, duties and relationship that Frodo and Sam share with their counterparts in our world.

"Tolkien's Prose Style and its Literary and Rhetorical Effects"
Michael Drout
Upon reading Drout's essay, I was immediately reminded of a portion of his lecture on Tolkien and Beowulf (GOTF Dec. 2003) and a conversation Co-chair Jessica Burke and I had with him. This conversation and lecture portion pertained to Tolkien's prose style and its changes within the Jackson films. One notable example is the exchange between Eowyn and the Witch King in the Jackson version of ROTK. In this essay Drout compares this scene, among other examples with scenes from Shakespeare's King Lear. Tolkien's carefully constructed, stylistic and "meticulously crafted" "grammatical effects" and "rigorous point of view" is clearly brought to light by Drout. He shows us why Tolkien's fiction stands apart from "other fantasies and other forms of literature."