Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss: Steps on the Developmental Journey

by John Rosegrant

Overview

Tolkien’s enchanted worldview as literary form and as psychological struggle

Focusing on the themes of enchantment and loss in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, this unique study incorporates elements of developmental psychology to explore both Tolkien’s life and art, deepening our understanding of the interrelationship between his biography and writing.

As John Rosegrant relates, Tolkien’s early years saw a good deal of trauma: the loss of both parents, serious illness, poverty, and battlefield action during World War I, including the loss of close friends. Yet he presents an enchanted worldview in the stories of Middle-earth, and that tension between enchantment and disenchantment—as it results from significant trauma and loss—lies at the very heart of Tolkien’s creative endeavors.

In short, Tolkien’s creative effort can be understood, especially from the perspective of his own psychological development, as a way to maintain a sense of enchantment in the face of great personal loss. Throughout our lives, at several stages we must surrender earlier forms of enchantment and develop more mature forms so that life does not become barren, drab, or dismal. As Rosegrant argues, Tolkien found ways to use his personal losses and struggles to address universal psychological issues in his art, giving his work great emotional sophistication and complexity.

Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss both deepens our understanding of Tolkien and helps us to recognize how Tolkien widens and enriches our understanding of life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606354353
Publisher:	Kent State University Press
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Rosegrant is a practicing psychoanalyst who has published numerous papers on topics including play therapy, dreams, fairytales, Harry Potter, the World of Warcraft computer game, and Ursula Le Guin, and is also the author of The Gates of Inland Young Adult Fantasy series. His work on J. R. R. Tolkien has appeared in Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, and American Imago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Tolkien's Dialogue between Enchantment and Loss 15

2 My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me 32

3 Bilbo Baggins, the Master of Laketown, and the Fate of Enchantment 44

4 In Deep with The Hobbit 54

5 Mother Music 68

6 The Man-Maiden and the Spider with Horns 85

7 Seeing the Self in the Mirror of Galadriel 98

8 From the Ineluctable Wave to the Realization of Imagined Wonder 112

9 Something Has Gone Crack 129

10 The One Ring and Tom Bombadil 150

11 Late Life Loss of Transitionality 164

Epilogue 173

Notes 176

Bibliography 194

Index 203

Editorial Reviews

This thought-provoking study brims with far-ranging psychological insights. In Rosegrant’s care, foundational developments in Tolkien’s mythology—the Music of the Ainur, the drowning of Númenor, even the blank exam page that birthed The Hobbit—take on new dimensions.” —Peter Grybauskas, author of A Sense of Tales Untold: Exploring the Edges of Tolkien’s Literary Canvas

“This is a unique perspective on the interrelationship between Tolkien’s life and art, well argued, convincing, and beautifully written. Many scholars in the field will welcome this work.” —Janet Brennan Croft, editor of Mythlore

"Dr. John Rosegrant, a practicing psychoanalyst, offers a view of Tolkien and his writings through the frame of psychology….[and] provides readers with rich new insights into the familiar themes of enchantment and loss which shape Tolkien’s life and permeate the legendarium." —Journal of Tolkien Research

"Rosegrant is an accomplished writer and story teller, and the narrative flows smoothly. He presents his attractive thesis as the intertwining of loss and enchantment/ creativity." —Beyond Bree

"Poignant readings of Tolkien’s fiction, life, and letters are found in this book: Rosegrant rightly identifies loss as a characteristic theme of Tolkien’s and demonstrates powerfully how Tolkien’s fiction tempers success and fulfillment with the knowledge that, someday, they will fade. Rosegrant's prose is lucid and accessible and his command of Tolkien’s oeuvre enviable." —CHOICE

From the Publisher