Tolkien the bard: his tale grew in the telling / C.W. Sullivan III -- The dragon-lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse tradition / Jonathan Evans -- J.R.R. Tolkien and the true hero / George Clark -- Tolkien's versecraft in The hobbit and The lord of the rings / Geoffrey Russom -- The monsters are talismans and transgressions: Tolkien and Sir Gawain and the green knight / Roger C. Schlobin -- The sins of Middle-earth: Tolkien's use of medieval allegory / Charles W. Nelson -- Is Tolkien a Renaissance man? Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of poesy and J.R.R. Tolkien's "On fairy-stories" / Tanya Caroline Wood -- Weaving nets of gloom: "darkness profound" in Tolkien and Milton / Debbie Sly -- Gagool and Gollum: exemplars of degeneration in King Solomon's mines and The hobbit / William N. Rogers II and Michael R. Underwood -- "Joy beyond the walls of the world": the secondary world-making of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis / David Sandner -- Taking the part of trees: eco-conflict in Middle-earth / Verlyn Flieger -- Women fantasists: in the shadow of the Ring / Faye Ringel -- Loss eternal in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth / W.A. Senior -- Orcs, wraiths, wights: Tolkien's images of evil / Tom Shippey.