02/04/2026
Mythlore Issue 148, Volume 44, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2026
Table of Contents and Editorial
Going to press sometime next week!
Editorial:
I do keep saying that this is the biggest Mythlore issue ever, then topping it an issue or two later. With Mythlore #148, I’m afraid I’ve done it again.
We switch up our usual order a bit this time and start with C.S. Lewis. Tiffany E. Schubert explores the parallels between the medieval poem Piers Plowman and The Last Battle, and shows how Lewis used this source. Joseph Weigel systematically examines the “angelology” of the Space Trilogy, attempting to pin down exactly how we should conceive of the eldils.
We then move on to non-Inklings, continuing with the second half of Andrew Hallam’s challenging explication of Lois McMaster Bujold’s novella “Borders of Infinity” through the concepts of habitus and figura. Mariana Rios Maldonado and Andoni Cossio introduce us to the short stories of Gustavo Adolfo Béquer, finding parallels to the strong strand of Romanticism running through Tolkien’s works. And John Anthony Dunne examines the deliberate Biblical imagery in the passage where Albus Dumbledore drinks the “Drink of Despair” in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince—both in the book and on film.
Turning to Tolkien, Douglas Charles Kane starts us off with a thorough study of the fragmentary tale of Eärendil and Elwing, its compositional history from Tolkien’s earliest inspiration, the editorial work undertaken by his son Christopher, and the glimpses it gives into Tolkien’s own personal life.
The next three papers focus tightly on individual characters: Zachary Rhone examines the evidence for Galadriel as a hidden master of lore; Jane Beal takes a very close look at Ioreth, the Wise Woman of Gondor, and what her role implies about medical practice in Middle-earth; and we have the second half of Derek Simon’s essay on the kennings attached to Goldberry and what they might have to say about her mysterious origins.
A topic weighing heavily on all of our minds right now is war, and it’s long been my contention that Tolkien can be very helpful in developing and refining one’s own philosophical approach to war. Samuel A. Masters shows how Tolkien develops a more hope-oriented version of the medieval lord-retainer relationship so central to “The Battle of Maldon” and other medieval sources, while Jeffrey S. Dixon examines the chronological development of just war theory and how Tolkien uses, or does not use, refinements contemporary to his writing of The Lord of the Rings.
Our lead Note in this issue is a continuation of G. Connor Salter’s study of William Gresham: a look at an unsigned, undated letter to Gresham and what conclusions may be drawn from it. Verlyn Flieger provides us with a very personal and enjoyable overview of the phenomenal genre-defining impact of The Lord of the Rings. Jennifer Agee also contributes personal reflections mixed with the scholarly in her intriguing reading of Susana Clarke’s Piranesi in relation to Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia. We lost two giants in Lewis studies last year; our in memoriam notes are written by scholars who knew James Como and Colin Duriez personally.
We close, as usual, with an extensive selection of reviews of books about the Inklings (including Verlyn Flieger’s latest), other fantasists, fantasy and related genres in general, and a few less-easily-classified items which may be of interest to Mythlore readers.
If you would like to keep up with news relating to Mythlore, please follow us on Facebook, where we post advance notice of papers accepted for upcoming issues, lists of items available for review, and so forth.
The Mythopoeic Society now has a policy on the use of Generative AI-produced materials across all of our publication and presentation platforms, including Mythlore. The Mythlore policy can be found under Publication Ethics Statement on the journal’s home page at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/.
Translations of selected articles originally published in Mythlore are now a regular feature on the website of the Italian Association of Tolkien Studies; look for the heading Saggi (Essays) on https://www.jrrtolkien.it/.
We wish to note here the passing of Lee Speth, a long-time Steward of the Mythopoeic Society. Mythprint will soon be publishing many personal reminiscences. Lee was an Associate Editor of Mythlore for issues #19-25, provided Editorial Assistance for #26-30, and wrote the column “Cavalier Treatment” for #19-46 (with a few short gaps).
In addition to the members of the Mythlore Editorial Advisory Board (including new board member Wendy Hoofnagle of the University of Northern Iowa), the Mythopoeic Society Council of Stewards, and our ever-dependable referees, I’d also like to express my continuing gratitude to Phillip Fitzsimmons, our Administrator for Mythlore and Mythopoeic Society Archives, who directs the team at Southwest Oklahoma State University adding content to dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/, and to his assistant Ben Dressler.
My thanks as usual to David L. Emerson for moral support, eagle-eyed proofreading, and keeping the editor optimally caffeinated. My gratitude also to Cam Miller and Marguerite Lamy for serving as editorial assistants for this issue. I welcome more collaboration with students and scholars who want to develop their expertise in editing. Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in a short-term internship of one or two semesters, a longer-term commitment as an editorial assistant, or editing a special issue.
—Janet Brennan Croft
Peer-reviewed essays:
Piers’s Barn and Aslan’s Stable: Satire and Sublimity in Langland’s Piers Plowman and Lewis’s The Last Battle, Tiffany E. Schubert
What Are C.S. Lewis’s Eldila and Why Do They Matter?, Joseph Weigel
The Soldier’s Stigmata, Part II: Figura, the Four Senses of Interpretation, and Other Matters in Lois McMaster Bujold’s “The Borders of Infinity,” Andrew Hallam
The Romantic Imagination of Gustavo Adolfo Béquer and J.R.R. Tolkien, Mariana Rios Maldonado and Andoni Cossio
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Gethsemane: Christian Art and Tradition in the Passion of Albus Dumbledore, John Anthony Dunne
“The Silmaril was Bound Upon His Brow”: Elwing and Eärendil and the “Living Light” of Love, Douglas Charles Kane
Galadriel: A Source of Lore for the Silmarillion, Zachary Rhone
The Significance of Ioreth, Wise Woman of Gondor, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Jane Beal
From Viðkenning to Valarindi: The Enigma of Goldberry and the River-woman, Derek Simon
From Maldon to Mordor: Hobbits and the Lord-Retainer Relationship in The Lord of the Rings, Samuel A. Masters
Tolkien’s Thomist Triad: A High Medieval Response to Contemporary Jus Ad Bellum, Jeffrey S. Dixon
Notes:
Signed, Unknown Friend: Hints of William Lindsay Gresham’s Associates in a Curious Letter, G. Connor Salter
Recollections and Reflections on the Book That Created Itself, Verlyn Flieger
Piranesi and Neptune: How Susanna Clarke’s Spellbinding Story Orbits Planet Narnia, Jennifer Agee
Prometheus the Trickster: Prophecy, Power, and Deception, Chris Griglack
In Memoriam: James Como, Anne-Frédérique Mochel-Caballero
In Memoriam: Colin Duriez, Justin Wiggins
Reviews:
A Real Taste for Fairy-stories by Verlyn Flieger, Douglas Charles Kane
Aubusson Weaves Tolkien: The Woven Adventure / Aubusson tisse Tolkien: L’aventure tissée, Nancy Martsch
Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy, edited by Dimitra Fimi and Alistair J.P. Sims, Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Alice in Wonderland: Norton Critical Edition, edited by Donald J. Gray, James Hamby
Urban Fantasy: Exploring Modernity Through Magic by Stefan Ekman, Phillip Fitzsimmons
Schools of Magic: Learning in Children’s and Young Adult Fantasy Fiction by Megan H. Suttie, Sara Landaverde
Russell Hoban: Faithful to the Strange by Graeme Wend-Walker, Nicholas Birns
The Mirror of Desire Unbidden: Retrieving the Imago Dei in Tolkien and Late Medieval English Literature by Giovanni Carmine Costabile, Katherine Cooper Wyma
Icons of the Fantastic: Illustrations of Imaginative Literature, Douglas A. Anderson
William Hope Hodgson and the Rise of the Weird: Possibilities of the Dark by Timothy S. Murphy, Timothy R. Granger
The Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien: Mythopoeia and the Recovery of Creation by Robert J. Dobie, Hayden Bilbrey
Mythopoeic Narrative in The Legend of Zelda, edited by Anthony G. Cirilla and Vincent E. Rone, Bianca Beronio
So You’ve Landed in a Fantasy World by Josiah Lebowitz, Nancy Martsch
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Women of Middle-earth: Including Sir Peter Jackson’s Women of Middle-earth by Chris Barclay, Diane Riggins
Briefly Noted: Raven and Crow: The Mythology, Art and Science of Our Favorite Black Birds by Ellen W. Williams, Janet Brennan Croft
Mythlore is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal published by the Mythopoeic Society that focuses on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and the genres of myth and fantasy.
