Tolkien's Hidden Pictures: Anthroposophy and Middle-Earth

Rediscovered by each new generation, this story has proved captivating ever since its publication in 1954. It's a good story, to be sure, but is there something more—a profound aspect that we recognize or sense, speaking directly to something deeper and hidden within us? Many scholars and commentators have attempted to address this and similar questions. Tolkien scholarship has achieved remarkable insights into his unique use of language, his deep knowledge of storytelling aesthetics in our human heritage of myths, and his ability to weave together an exploration of myriad themes into one story. Nevertheless, few if any scholars have approached the profoundest aspects of Tolkien's work with the esoteric spiritual insights of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy as the basis for illuminating their studies. With Tolkien's Hidden Pictures, Mark McGivern does exactly this, while also building upon the work of scholars such as Verlyn Flieger, whose open-hearted and serious studies, born of love