Music in Tolkien's Work and Beyond

“I love music” (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Music plays a crucial role in Tolkien’s mythology, and his tales contain many songs as well as mentions of musicians and instruments.

The present book edited by Julian Eilmann and Friedhelm Schneidewind is the successor to the well-received 2010 volume Music in Middle-earth, No. 20 of the Cormarë Series, which drew the attention of Tolkien scholarship to the importance and nature of music in Tolkien’s work. As the title of this volume suggests, Music in Tolkien’s work and Beyond simultaneously follows the path of analyzing the use and significance of music and musical elements in Tolkien’s literary texts while also considering the broader context, such as adaptations and other authors and composers.

The 21 articles feature a multitude of different academic approaches, e.g. musicological, philosophical or theological, which not only look at music itself but also at poetry, song and instruments and even the musicality of Tolkien’s prose. The contributions are divided into five sections: ‘Tolkien and Music’, ‘The Power of Music’, ‘Music of Different Texts and Characters’, ‘Instruments in Middle-earth’ und ‘Music beyond Tolkien’.