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The huge success of the films The Lord of the Rings and now The Hobbit have thrown light on the works of Tolkien. Yet for all this, Dr Mark Atherton argues, the origins of Tolkien’s myth-making have been neglected. Atherton explores the main influences on Tolkien’s work – his childhood in the West Midlands, the landscapes and seascapes that shaped his thinking, his experiences in World War I, his interest in Scandinavian myth, his Oxford friendships with the Inklings. And he looks at the relevance of Tolkien’s themes, particularly the ecological ones, for today.

Atherton is a lecturer in English language and literature at the University of Oxford with a particular interest in Old English.