Authors

  • Nargiza Burieva
    Jizzakh state pedagogical university

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71337/inlibrary.uz.ijai.108082

Abstract

This article explores the deep connection between J.R.R. Tolkien’s linguistic research and the creation of his Middle-earth legendarium. It examines how Tolkien’s early fascination with languages like Old English, Welsh, Finnish, and Gothic influenced his invented tongues and myth-making. Drawing on philological studies and the theoretical work of Owen Barfield, the article highlights language’s aesthetic, nominative, accumulative, and myth-creating functions in Tolkien’s work. It also situates Tolkien’s legendarium within the broader context of 20th-century fantasy literature and cultural studies, emphasizing the role of imagination in bridging ancient mythological consciousness and modern storytelling.


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J.R.R.TOLKIEN’S LEGENDARIUM: THE INTERSECTION OF LINGUISTICS,

MYTH, AND FANTASY

Burieva Nargiza Kuchkarovna

PhD, associate professor Jizzakh state pedagogical university,

department of Foreign languages

Abstract:

This article explores the deep connection between J.R.R. Tolkien’s linguistic

research and the creation of his Middle-earth legendarium. It examines how Tolkien’s early

fascination with languages like Old English, Welsh, Finnish, and Gothic influenced his

invented tongues and myth-making. Drawing on philological studies and the theoretical work of

Owen Barfield, the article highlights language’s aesthetic, nominative, accumulative, and myth-

creating functions in Tolkien’s work. It also situates Tolkien’s legendarium within the broader

context of 20th-century fantasy literature and cultural studies, emphasizing the role of

imagination in bridging ancient mythological consciousness and modern storytelling.

Keywords:

J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle-earth, linguistic research, invented languages, philology,

Old English, Welsh, Finnish, Gothic, myth-making, Owen Barfield, fantasy literature,

legendarium, language functions, imagination

Annotatsiya:

Ushbu maqola J.R.R. Tolkinning lingvistik tadqiqotlari bilan uning O’rta yer

afsonalar to‘plami yaratilishi o‘rtasidagi chuqur bog‘liqlikni o‘rganadi. Tolkienning eski ingliz,

velsh, fin va got tillariga bo‘lgan dastlabki qiziqishi uning ixtiro qilingan tillari va afsonalar

yaratilishiga qanday ta’sir qilganini tahlil qiladi. Filologik tadqiqotlar va Owen Barfieldning

nazariy ishlari asosida maqola tilning estetik, nom beruvchi, yig‘uvchi va afsona yaratuvchi

funksiyalarini yoritadi. Shuningdek, Tolkinning afsonalar to‘plamini 20-asr fantastika adabiyoti

va madaniy tadqiqotlar kontekstida joylashtirib, qadimgi mifologik ong bilan zamonaviy hikoya

san’atini bog‘lovchi tasavvurni ta’kidlaydi.

Kalit so‘zlar:

J.R.R. Tolkin, O’rta yer, lingvistik tadqiqotlar, ixtiro qilingan tillar, filologiya,

eski ingliz, velsh, fin, got, afsona yaratuvchilik, Owen Barfield, fantastika adabiyoti, afsonalar

to‘plami, til funksiyalari, tasavvur.

Аннотация:

В данной статье исследуется глубокая связь между лингвистическими

исследованиями Дж.Р.Р. Толкина и созданием его легендариума Средиземья.

Анализируется, как ранний интерес Толкина к таким языкам, как староанглийский,

валлийский, финский и готский, повлиял на его искусственные языки и мифотворчество.

Опираясь на филологические исследования и теоретические работы Оуэна Барфилда,

статья выделяет эстетическую, номинативную, аккумулирующую и мифотворческую

функции языка в творчестве Толкина. Кроме того, легендариум Толкиена

рассматривается в контексте литературы фантастики XX века и культурологических

исследований, подчеркивая роль воображения в соединении древнего мифологического

сознания и современного повествования.

Ключевые слова:

Дж.Р.Р.Толкин, Средиземье, лингвистические исследования,

искусственные языки, филология, староанглийский, валлийский, финский, готский,


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мифотворчество, Оуэн Барфилд, фантастическая литература, легендариум, функции

языка, воображение.

INTRODUCTION

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, and professor of Anglo-Saxon. He is

best known as the creator of the cycle of books about Middle-earth, which came to be known as

the Legendarium.

It is impossible to pinpoint exactly when the idea of the Legendarium began to take shape, since,

according to Tolkien himself, it had existed in his subconscious since childhood. As a young

boy, the future writer was fascinated by the fairy tales of George MacDonald and Andrew Lang.

These stories about distant, unexplored worlds stirred the boy’s imagination and eventually

became the foundation for his own fantasies.

His own experiments in fantasy began with attempts to create a new language. Therefore, the

hypothesis is proposed that the author's linguistic experiments served as the foundation for his

creative work. To achieve this goal, the following tasks should be addressed:

Analyze Tolkien’s own linguistic research;

Trace the origins of influences on his work;

Identify the characteristic features of the functioning of linguistic means.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To address the stated objectives, the following research methods were used: biographical,

historical-cultural, comparative, and hermeneutic. The theoretical foundation includes works by

both Russian and foreign literary scholars, such as J.R.R. Tolkien by S. Alekseev, The Road to

Middle-earth by T. Shippey, and J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by H. Carpenter [1; 4; 12].

The findings of this research can be used as material for specialized courses on 20th-century

foreign literature and cultural studies.

Mabel Tolkien taught her children to read from an early age and, noticing Ronald's interest,

began introducing him to the basics of Latin. For his curious mind, this was not enough, so the

boy started inventing new words for the various phenomena around him. For example, by

analogy with the word “somediv”, he coined the word “youdiv” to mean "some-you" [8, p.

701]. The number of ideas grew, and the game was no longer seen as something insignificant.

Already in King Edward’s School, John Ronald was deliberately writing full phrases in

languages unknown to anyone and was the top student in Ancient Greek and Latin. At the same

time, he also began studying Old English, Norse, and Welsh. Together with his friends Rob

Gilson, Geoffrey Smith, and Christopher Wiseman, Tolkien founded a secret society called the

TCBS (Tea Club and Barrovian Society), whose goal was to change the world through art.

Tolkien saw his contribution primarily in the realm of linguistic experimentation and his early

poetic works.

“Returning, if I may, to the human touches and the question of when I began all this — it's like

asking someone where language itself comes from. It is an inevitable development, though

shaped by external circumstances, of something innate from birth. It has always been with me:

a sensitivity to linguistic patterns that affect my emotions like color or music; a passionate love

for all things that grow; and a deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that contain

what I would call the north-western temper and atmosphere. In any case, if you want to write

that kind of story, you must go back to the roots...”

— wrote Tolkien in a letter to the English poet W. H. Auden [ibid., p. 356].


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A love for language study determined the writer’s future path. In 1913, he enrolled at Exeter

College, Oxford University, initially in the Classics department, later transferring to the more

suitable Faculty of English Language and Literature. As a student, Tolkien not only enjoyed

learning new languages (he studied German, Latin, French, and Greek simultaneously), but also

exploring works written in ancient tongues.

One of his professors, George Brewerton, noticing this interest, gave the young man a textbook

on the Anglo-Saxon language, the study of which was not part of the required curriculum. Upon

close examination, Old English poetry and the literature of medieval England reminded him of

the dialect spoken by his mother’s ancestors [4, p. 42]. Thus, the future of the writer was

determined — he would go on to dedicate his academic career to the study and teaching of

Anglo-Saxon.

Tolkien’s interest extended beyond just the Anglo-Saxon language. In order to read the poem

Kalevala, he studied the basics of Finnish grammar. Finnish would later serve as the prototype

for the language of the Dwarves. The Elvish language Sindarin, on the other hand, was based

on grammatical structures borrowed from Welsh.

Referring to Tolkien’s lecture English and Welsh [11], one may assume that in creating his

languages, the writer focused primarily on the external form of words rather than their internal

meaning. For instance, when describing the Welsh language, Tolkien wrote:

“I will not now attempt to explain what I mean by calling a language as a whole ‘beautiful,’ or

what precisely it is that makes Welsh beautiful to me, since for my conclusion it is sufficient to

state the personal, subjective, if you will, experience of a strong aesthetic pleasure derived from

the Welsh language — whether I hear it or read it” [ibid., p. 196].

In his lecture, while explaining the subjective reasons for his perception of the Welsh language,

Tolkien also pointed to one of the motivations behind creating new languages:

“Most English-speaking people, for instance, will admit that cellar door is beautiful, especially

if dissociated from its sense (and its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more

beautiful than beautiful. Well, in Welsh I find an extraordinary number of such 'cellar doors';

and beyond that, on a higher plane, a wealth of word-forms that are pleasing in their connection

of sound and sense.” [ibid., p. 198]

Thus, the Elvish language — created based on Welsh — captivated the author primarily

through its sound. Evidence of this can be found in the poetry written in Sindarin. While some

songs were presented in The Lord of the Rings [7] along with translations, the song “A Elbereth

Gilthoniel,” which is dedicated to the goddess of light Elbereth, is given only in Elvish. This

emphasizes the aesthetic function of the language.

Another language Tolkien used in his linguistic experiments was Gothic. In particular, its roots

can be found in the dialect spoken by the rulers of Rohan (Ristan) before the rise of the Éorlings,

whose language was based on Old English. In this way, the author emphasized the idea that the

land had once been inhabited by a different civilization with its own culture, traces of which

could still be detected in the modern speech of the Rohirrim.

In The History of the Goths by Jordanes [3], there is an account of the Battle of the Catalaunian

Plains, where the Gothic king Theodoric was trampled to death by his own cavalry. Tolkien

describes a similar death for the Rohirrim king Théoden during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Tolkien was drawn to the Gothic language and Gothic culture primarily because it was the first

Germanic language to be recorded in written form. Through the study of Gothic, philologists

were able to trace the development of the modern English language based on linguistic kinship.


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Tolkien closely followed all new research on the Gothic language, and in his classes, students

studied Gothic “as a primary source of poetic inspiration, just as it was for the ancient English

and Scandinavians” [15, p. XCVII].

Thus, the use of Gothic reflected the accumulative function of language.

RESULTS AND DICUSSION

The experiments continued but were considered merely a pastime of a philology student.

Everything changed when some words required a context: Tolkien decided to create stories in

which he could use the various speech constructions he invented based on the languages he

studied. In a conversation with his close friend C.S. Lewis, he admitted that he had “discovered

that it is impossible to invent a language without simultaneously inventing a mythology” [1, p.

36].

By synthesizing elements from different languages, Tolkien created new words and phrases that

needed tangible representations. Since these could not be found in reality, Tolkien began to

create them himself, in his imagination. In total, Tolkien created five artificial languages spoken

by his characters: “I am a philologist, and all my works are philological in nature” [8, p. 362].

The English version of the fantasy genre, within which Tolkien’s secondary world was created,

was theoretically shaped during meetings of the Inklings—a literary club founded by Tolkien

and Lewis along with their colleagues from Oxford. The theorist of the Inklings was Owen

Barfield—a poet, writer, and philosopher, recognized as the “first and last Inkling.” His

contribution to the development of the fantasy genre lies not only in defining the concept but

also in understanding modern myth-making as a whole.

In his works Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning (1928) and Saving the Appearances: A Study

in Idolatry (1957), Barfield argued that myth is “the product of the mental labor of humanity

from the dawn of time” [6, p. 384]. According to him, myth reflects the direct perception of an

ensouled world. This ensoulment is conveyed through the meanings of words as reflections of

attitudes toward natural (literal meaning) and supernatural (figurative meaning) forces.

In this context, myth originated before the rise of civilizations, when human consciousness was

different and characterized by what Barfield called “original participation.” Modern humans

have lost this kind of understanding of the world, and its echoes are reflected in myth.

Barfield’s idea traces back to the philosophy of French philosopher and ethnologist Lucien

Lévy-Bruhl and his theory of the law of mystical participation (participation mystique). In his

work Primitive Thinking (1922), Lévy-Bruhl suggested that the thinking of ancient humans was

based on identifying objects of different orders with one another, which also allowed the same

object to be represented in several places simultaneously.

According to Barfield’s theory, the human world was inhabited by “others” — beings that

humans contrasted with themselves — animals, trees, plants, various experiences, and

phenomena. In human understanding, everything, like the human being himself, was alive.

From this arises the modern understanding of the concept of deity, which Barfield consciously

avoids because, in his theory, all things are equal and no hierarchy exists. Simply put, humans

felt the presence of a living soul in these very “others.”

It is important to note that the “soul” was not perceived by humans as a separate entity; rather,

it was an unknown category distinguishing the living from the non-living. These souls existed

throughout the world in relationships of participation. Through this participation, humans of

ancient times connected their lives with the rest of the world; through participation, all elements

of the world were present alongside one another and interacted:

“Participation is a supersensory relationship between a person and a phenomenon” [13, p. 40].


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Reflecting these relationships, the original myth embodied a multiplicity of meanings that

modern consciousness tries to grasp and decipher. Similarly, ancient words contained several

meanings that today are considered distinct. Thus, language at its early stages primarily

embodied the literal meaning of words, since abstract concepts did not exist in human

consciousness:

“Mythology is the ghost of a concrete meaning” [Ibidem, p. 92].

As an example, Barfield cites the concept of “soul” (“pneuma”), which was originally

understood simultaneously as “breath,” “life,” “wind,” “air,” and “spirit.”

The philosopher argued that the divide between ancient and modern consciousness could not be

bridged by reason alone, as scholars had previously attempted, but rather through imagination,

which would lead to a balance between human self-awareness and the world perceived by it. In

his concept, this synthesis was called “final participation.”

Barfield primarily emphasized that the creation of a modern myth by an author is only possible

if one abstracts away from all kinds of abstract ideas. At its core, myth is concrete and therefore

as far removed as possible from metaphor and allegory. To support this view, he cited

phenomena of language and the theory of a single universal language.

The unity of sound and meaning in words made it possible to find a material embodiment of the

human mind — speech. Friedrich Nietzsche, in his work On Music and Words, explained this

synthesis by stating that human sensations are first reflected in the speaker’s intonation, which

then gives rise to the sound of specific words.

The gap between the meaning of a word and its sound, which has occurred in modern times, is

due to the separation between its inner content and its external form, a process in which

scientific and technological progress plays a significant role.

Thus, in his scholarly research, Owen Barfield sought to show that humanity, increasingly

distancing itself from nature—the primary source of creative energy—“limits itself within the

narrow confines of metaphorical thinking and idolatry” [14, p. 5].

Tolkien came to the same conclusion in his youth, as modernization and urbanization

increasingly took over more territory, thereby taking away places cherished from childhood

memories. The idea of the negative impact of progress fully took shape during World War I,

when scientific and technological advancements in the form of new types of weapons caused

the deaths of many people.

Barfield’s theory broadened Tolkien’s understanding of a return to natural roots, which also

found expression in the creation of the world of Middle-earth. Any tools and weapons used by

the protagonists were forged by hand, while the dark forces relied on military technology to

equip their armies.

But what Tolkien liked most was the idea of the intersection between language and myth. At

the same time as the founding of the Inklings club, Tolkien was in the process of searching for

ways to develop his languages. Therefore, the desire to recreate an originally English

mythology found practical expression in his linguistic experiments.

It was at the Inklings meetings that, intentionally, the first serious works—according to the

author himself—were brought to life, such as the story of Beren and Lúthien, The Children of

Húrin, excerpts from The Ainulindalë, as well as a playful tale about a small and unassuming

hobbit. These had not yet formed a unified cycle about Middle-earth at that time, but the very

idea of his own mythology had firmly taken root in the writer’s soul.


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Oxford professor of Old English language and poetry Tom Shippey, in his work The Road to

Middle-earth, called Tolkien’s entire multi-volume work a “philosophical-linguistic epic,”

noting that “philology is the only suitable guide to Middle-earth” [12, p. 16].

Deliberate simplicity and etymological multidimensionality coexisted in the creation of new

words, which is most evident when analyzing the toponyms of Middle-earth, where names such

as the Hill or the Long Lake stand alongside major human settlements like Gondor or Rohan,

each having their own translations in other languages of Tolkien’s world, thereby revealing the

nominative function of language.

Rohan, also known as the Riddermark, is the name of the Land of Riders in Westron (the

common tongue), while the Rohirrim themselves called their lands the Mark. Shippey

considered two possible sources for the borrowing of this toponym: the Anglo-Saxon kingdom

of Mercia, in whose territory Tolkien’s native Birmingham was located; and the common name

“Mierce,” used by the neighboring West Saxons for all Anglo-Saxon lands, which was meant to

be pronounced as “Mark” or “Marka” [Ibid., p. 58].

“But one should not think that philologists, in chasing details, neglect the author’s intent and

thereby differ from literary critics. Their profession simply requires them to pay attention not

only to the behavior of a word in its immediate context but also to its roots, its equivalents in

other languages, its relatives and descendants, as well as the cultural metamorphoses that the

history of a given word may reveal,” wrote Shippey, pointing out that understanding the

characters’ images requires attention to their speech [Ibid., p. 79].

As an example, one can consider the development of the main character in the tale The Hobbit,

or There and Back Again — Bilbo. Throughout the narrative, Bilbo’s speech pattern remains

unchanged, thus portraying him as a simple and guileless character: “You see, it’s a completely

unbearable situation. I’m personally quite tired of it. I’d like to be back at home in the West,

where the people are not so stubborn” [10, p. 32]. However, this does not mean that his

character remains static. This is evidenced by his monologue upon the death of the leader of

their company, the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield: “Farewell, King under the Mountain. Truly a sad

adventure that must end so; and no mountain of gold is worth it. Yet I’m glad I shared its

hardships with you — that’s more than any Baggins has deserved” [Ibid., p. 49].

Thus, passing through a series of trials, the small hobbit undergoes an initiation and becomes a

true hero. The story begins and ends with a tea scene. But whereas at the very beginning Bilbo

was quite displeased with unexpected guests, at the end of his journey he is genuinely happy to

see his friends. Despite the internal changes the hero undergoes, Tolkien’s beloved character

remains just as simple-hearted, exclaiming at the arrival of guests: “That’s nice!” [Ibid., p. 53].

The image of the main character, as well as the entire tale, reveals Tolkien’s key stylistic

innovation as a writer. This innovation later became the foundation for all his creative work. C.

S. Lewis called this technique the “shift of tone” [Quoted in: 5, p. 49], which is explained by

the transition from everyday, mundane storytelling to the epic, and a return to the original

beginning — as if “There and Back Again.” Such a “shift of tones” can be observed both in

individual works (the same pattern of journey and hero’s development in The Lord of the Rings)

and throughout the entire concept of the Legendarium: from the children’s story about a little

hobbit to the grand mythological canvas depicted in The Silmarillion [9], which is built on

influences and borrowings from ancient cultures, most notably seen in the creation of artificial

languages.

Tolkien’s own personal experiences became the foundation for many stories in the

Legendarium. For example, the story of his own love is reflected in the tale of Beren and


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Lúthien, while the death of his father and the subsequent sleep (the “Atlantis complex”) found

their logical conclusion in the story of the fall of Númenor. However, Tolkien never set out

merely to describe his own life. As the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze asserted, “to write is

not to tell one’s memories, journeys, loves, and griefs, one’s dreams and obsessions. That

would mean committing the sin of excess realism or imagination” [2, p. 15]. By coexisting in

balance, the author’s fantasy and life experience, synthesized together, made it possible to

create a world where invented languages could acquire meaning.

Shippey noted that all the phenomena of Middle-earth, as products of Tolkien’s philological

research, were primarily born under the influence of the philological discoveries of the 19th

century [12, p. 37]. The century preceding Tolkien’s work was characterized by a vast number

of discoveries of linguistic laws, such as Kuhn’s law, Grimm’s law, Werner’s law, and so on. A

natural result of this was the growing popularity of lectures on comparative philology, which

sparked interest not only among scholars but throughout London’s high society: “The English

word invention (meaning ‘invention, fabrication’) originates, as is well known, from the Latin

invenire — ‘to find.’ Once upon a time, invention also meant ‘discovery,’ which Tolkien was

perfectly aware of. If someone were to say that the foundation of 19th-century philology was

the invention (finding, discovery) of languages, they would not be straying from the truth at all.

Tolkien often engaged in wordplay, comparing the languages he invented with those that were

‘discovered’ or reconstructed by scholars worldwide. In doing so, he aligned himself with his

own professional heritage… Tolkien’s personal history here appears simply as a separate,

concrete embodiment of the same overarching generalized idea looming in the background”

[Ibid., p. 38].

Thus, Tolkien’s Middle-earth was created based on invented languages; however, it was only

through the creation of this secondary world that these languages gained their vitality:

“Writing is a process of becoming that is never finished and is always in a state of doing,

transcending any inhabited or experienced material. It is a process—that is, a transition of Life

passing through the inhabited and experienced. Literature is inseparable from becoming: in the

act of writing, one becomes a woman, becomes an animal, a plant, becomes a molecule up to

the point of becoming indistinguishable. These becomings interlock with one another,

following, as in Le Clézio’s novel, some special line, or coexist on all levels, following, as in

Lovecraft’s mighty work, through doors, thresholds, and passages that make up an entire

universe” [2, p. 25].

The philological principles that underlie Tolkien’s poetological features are described in essays

such as “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “English

and Welsh,” “On Fairy-Stories,” and “The Secret Vice.” All these lectures, later published in

the collection “Beowulf and the Critics and Other Essays,” highlight the linguistic nature of his

research. In particular, the essay on Beowulf includes a detailed analysis of the poem’s

translation and its meter. What began as philological analyses laid the foundation for Tolkien’s

own fantastic stories, whose theoretical justification was presented in “The Secret Vice” and

“On Fairy-Stories.” In this context, language performs aesthetic, accumulative, and nominative

functions. Theoretical reflections by O. Barfield played a significant role in the development of

Tolkien’s work. His idea of the intersection between language and myth became the key to

understanding not only Tolkien’s Legendarium but also C. S. Lewis’s fantasy cycle The

Chronicles of Narnia, who, alongside Tolkien, is considered a founder of the English variant of

the genre.

CONCLUSION


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Thus, in addition to the functions mentioned above, language performs a myth-making function,

the fulfillment of which can be traced throughout Tolkien’s entire div of work. This function

places reality and fiction on equal footing. The secondary reality created on the pages of his

works, despite its fictional foundation, has roots that reach back to the period before the dawn

of civilization. Therefore, only the myth-making function of language is capable of bridging the

gap between meaning-making elements that have since given rise to modern existential

problems. The global problems of the universe, which originate in language, cannot be

comprehended through reason alone but require imagination. By constructing a worldview that

spans from mythological consciousness to historical time, Tolkien fills a gap in the history of

his own country, reinterpreting human development through artistic invention. The

Legendarium is a complete system in which the author not only follows ancient traditions but

also revives and transforms them, creating a synthesis of archaic elements with later narrative

techniques inherited within the stream of English culture.

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9. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. Moscow: AST, 2016. 416 pages.

10. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2000. 57

pages.

11. Tolkien, J. R. R. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and Other Essays / translated by

the Elsewhere creative team. Moscow: AST, 2007. 416 pages.

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Petersburg: Limbus Press, 2003. 146 pages.

13. 13. Barfield O. Poetic diction: A study in meaning. Middletown: Wesleyan University

Press, 1973. 238 p.

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University Press, 1988. 191 p.

15. 15. Corpus Poeticum Boreale: in 2 vols. / ed. by G. Vigfusson, F. York Powell. Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1883. Vol. 1. СXXIV+716 p.

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Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Moscow: AST, 2020. 752 pages.

Tolkien, J. R. R. Letters. Moscow: AST, 2019. 752 pages.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. Moscow: AST, 2016. 416 pages.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2000. 57 pages.

Tolkien, J. R. R. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and Other Essays / translated by the Elsewhere creative team. Moscow: AST, 2007. 416 pages.

Shippey, T. The Road to Middle-earth / translated from English by M. Kamenkovich. St. Petersburg: Limbus Press, 2003. 146 pages.

Barfield O. Poetic diction: A study in meaning. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1973. 238 p.

Barfield O. Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1988. 191 p.

Corpus Poeticum Boreale: in 2 vols. / ed. by G. Vigfusson, F. York Powell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1883. Vol. 1. СXXIV+716 p.