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Podcast: New Books in Popular Culture
Episode: Nick Katsiadas and Carl Sell eds., "Tolkien's Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Description: The structural and symbolic purposes of ruins in literary texts have a long history, yet few scholars explore their importance within J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. From the ruins of Erebor and the relics of Gondolin appearing in The Hobbit to the various images of Amon Sûl, Moria, and Osgiliath in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien constructs a distinct mood-one that captures characters' awareness of the glories of the past and a desire to emulate them. The scholars who do engage Tolkien's relics and ruins tend to limit the scope to Tolkien's debt to the Middle Ages. W...