Category: Articles and reports (Tolkien)

Special Aspects of the Study of Imaginary Worlds, Through the Example of Fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien (in Russian)

Michael

Mints M. M. “Osobennosti izucheniia voobrazhaemoi real’nosti na primere proizvedenii Dzh. R. R. Tolkina” [Special aspects of the study of imaginary worlds, through the example of fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien]. Vestnik kul’turologii [Herald of culturology], no. 1 (2026): 182–97.

The article deals with a number of theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe as an imaginary world. The author concentrates mainly on particularities of the primary sources, their classification, various kinds of internal authorship, interrelations between certain groups of Tolkien’s works. Tolkien’s own views on the nature of creative work are also considered.

Full text (in Russian)

The Study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fiction as an Issue of Methodology

Michael

Mints M. M. “Izuchenie tvorchestva Dzh. R. R. Tolkina kak metodologicheskaia problema” [The study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fiction as an issue of methodology]. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo lingvisticheskogo universiteta. Gumanitarnye nauki [The herald of Moscow State Linguistic University. Humanities], no. 7 (2025): 122–28.

The article (in Russian) is an updated version of my previous publication on the subject, this time in a professional academic periodical (or, more exactly, the first part of it; the second part is to be published next year).  It deals with such issues as the nature of Tolkien’s creative heritage, interrelation between the texts and the invented world they describe, perspectives and probable directions of further research. My main goal is to lay a necessary basis for interdisciplinary research in the field, as well as for the study of Tolkien’s universe as an imaginary world. My approach to these tasks is based on current methodology of the humanities taking into account the special aspects of the material under review (place and role of the primary source in a research, the study of imaginary worlds).

The published version of the article contains some errors in citations, so I’m posting here not only the PDF file, but also my initial manuscript.

Full test in PDF format

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International Academic Conference ‘Creative Legacy of J. R. R. Tolkien in the Historical and Literary Context’

Michael

Mints M. M. Mezhdunarodyaia nauchnaia konferentsiia ‘Tvorchestvo Dzh. R. R. Tolkina v istoriko-literaturnom kontekste’. Sotsial’nye i gumanitarnye nauki. Otechestvennaia i zarubezhnaia literatura. Seriia 7: Literaturovedenie, no. 3 (2022): 106–119.

The article (in Russian) is about the academic conference ‘Creative Legacy of J. R. R. Tolkien in the Historical and Literary Context’ that took place at the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences on 13–16 January 2022 and was timed to the 130th anniversary of Tolkien. It was the first conference of such a scale in Russia focused entirely on his works. More than forty reports were presented altogether, analysing numerous aspects of Tolkien’s legacy, including the probable sources of various images and storylines, place and role of his fiction in today’s culture etc.

Full text of the article

Particularities of Study of Arda as an Invented World: Theory and Methodology

Michael

Mints M. (Amdir), ‘Osobennosti izucheniia Ardy kak vymyshlennogo mira: voprosy teorii i metodologii’, Palantir, no. 80 (2020): 25–42.

The article (in Russian) deals with main questions of theory and methodology of Tolkien studies, including the object of research, the nature of (sub)creative legacy of J. R. R. Tolkien, world of Arda as a separate imaginative work, texts and pictures by Tolkien as primary sources, ‘external’ and ‘internal’ history of Arda, Tolkien studies as a field of interdisciplinary research etc. The text is revised and extended according to the results of its discussion at VesCon-2019 (Moscow annual Tolkien festival) and to the suggestions of the editorial board of Palantir. I’m grateful to everyone who took part in the discussion for their additional useful ideas, as well as to Arthoron who finally made me finish this (nine-years old!) work 😉

Text of the article

Archive of the journal (at the website of the Tolkien Society of Saint-Petersburg)

This work is important for me for personal reasons as well. While being a post-graduate, and for the first years after the end of my term, I had a terrible stage fright, and it was at Major Tolkien Seminar in Saint-Petersburg in 2010 where I made my first report on theory and methodology that I was surprised to feel the fright had disappeared 🙂

Geography of the South and East of Middle-Earth

Michael

Godkin D. (Arthoron), Mints M. (Amdir), ‘Geografiia Iuga i Vostoka Sredizem’ia’, Palantir, no. 74 (2017): 21–33.

The article (in Russian) is a revised version of a report Arthoron and I made at the Minor Tolkien Seminar in Saint-Petersburg in 2016.  We tried, using the small pieces of information from numerous sources, to reconstruct the map of the world of Middle-earth as a whole, to represent the Westlands on it in proper place and scale, as well as (as far as possible) other geographical objects ‘outside the map’ of the Westlands ever mentioned in original texts and maps by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Text of the article (PDF, 2.5 Mb)

Archive of the journal (at the website of the Tolkien Society of Saint-Petersburg)

Theory and Methodology of Tolkien Studies (in Russian)

Michael

The report was made at the 6th Tolkien Seminar in Saint Petersburg on 30 January 2010. I am analysing the existing approaches to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and trying to form a new synthetic approach that could resolve various issues of Tolkien studies using methods of different academic disciplines on the basis of a common methodology. The text of the report (PDF, in Russian).