Nick Katsiadas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Writing at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Carl Sell is the Assistant Director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

• List of FiguresAbout the ContributorsIntroductionNick Katsiadas and Carl SellPart One: Ruins in Tolkien’s Literary CriticismChapter 1‘to look out upon the sea’: Tolkien’s Allegory of the Ruined Tower in Beowulf: The Monstersand the CriticsMark DoerksenChapter 2Tolkien’s Tower by the Sea: Ruins and the Danger of the Nostalgic GazeAngela FulkPart Two: Relics and Ruins in ArdaChapter 3Ruins of Past Tongues: Tolkien’s Timeless PhilologyK. J. WaldronChapter 4‘What do you Elf eyes see?’ Perceiving Ruin in Middle-earthJoseph BurtonChapter 5Ruins as Landscape RunesNancy CicconeChapter 6Ruin, Fire, Wealth, and Wergild in Tolkien’s Dwarven CivilizationsVictoria SmurthwaiteChapter 7‘Too greedily and too deep’: Decadence as Ruin of Empire in Tolkien’s Lord of the RingsSandra LeonardChapter 8Romantic Nostalgia in Tolkien’s Relics and Ruins: Longing for Aman, Gondolin, and Númenorin The Lost RoadNick KatsiadasChapter 9The Blade of the King: Tolkien, Arthur, and the Remnants of KingshipCarl SellPart Three: Relics and Ruins in Tolkien AdaptationsChapter 10‘What Are These Towers of Silver?’ Ruins as Relics in the Middle-earth Game SeriesJ. Seth LeeChapter 11‘You Wield Aiglos, spear of Gil-galad’: Relics as Signposts in The Two Towers MUDJ. Emerson LowellChapter 12Marching through Mordor: Ruins and Landscape in Summoning’s Minas MorgulDean Swinford

[The reviewer] found the book to be an enjoyable read, that gave [the reviewer] some new ideas. Contributors do not merely itemize the imagery used to embody historical depth in Tolkien’s storytelling. They draw connections between Tolkien’s work and the uses of such imagery in other contexts that were part of Tolkien’s intellectual terrain.