The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that Númenor, the Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023, the twenty-fifth book in the Peter Roe series, is now available to pre-order from Luna Press Publishing.
Edited by Will Sherwood, and published under the auspices of the Peter Roe Memorial Fund, Númenor, the Mighty and Frail is a collection of eleven papers presented at The Tolkien Society Seminar that was a hybrid event that took place on Sunday 2nd July 2023.
The book will be released on 25th November 2025.
Order
The printed book is available to order now for £14.99. ISBN for the printed book: 978-1-915556-16-5.
Place your pre-order for the printed book with Luna Press Publishing directly.
An e-book version will be available for purchase on Luna Press Publishing on 25th November. However, you can pre-order it now on all major platforms. Search for “Númenor, the Mighty and Frail”.
Description
These proceedings contain papers from the Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2023. It is the first ever event and edited collection to focus purely on Númenor, the Númenóreans, and their legacies within and outside of Arda as a nexus of critical study. Through comparative, literary and philosophical, ecocritical, historical and religious readings, the volume examines the ways that Númenor and its people shaped and were shaped by Tolkien’s writing and the world of Arda. By seeking to develop conversation centred on Númenor, the volume looks forward and hopes to foster and inspire future scholarship on the island, its citizens, and their legacies.
Published under the auspices of the Society’s Peter Roe Memorial Fund, these proceedings feature a collection of eleven papers delivered at the Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2023.
Contents
Introduction
Will Sherwood
Sea Goddess Worship and the Power of the King: Parallel between Aldarion, Uinen, Mataram Sultanate, and Javanese Queen of the Southern Sea
Putri Prihatini
Penguasa Laut dan Sang Raja: Paralel antara Aldarion, Uinen, Kesultanan Mataram, dan Ratu Laut Selatan Jawa
Putri Prihatini
Dealing with the Dead: Nuances of ancient Egypt and medieval theology in Númenor
Irina Metzler
“I often dream of it”: Trauma and memory in the legacy of the Downfall of Númenor
S.R. Westvik
“Foretasting Death in Life”: Desire, the Fall, and Attempting to Return the ‘Gift’ of Ilúvatar
Sara Brown
“All roads are now bent”: Ethical Readings of the Corporeality of Númenor
Journee Cotton
Ecology of Imperialism: Environmental History for Númenor
Muhammed Alpaslan Tandırcı
The ‘Akallabêth’ and the Anthropocene: Myth, Ecology, and the Changing of the World
Erik Jampa Andersson
Monstrous (Im)mortality: Transhumanism and Ecocriticism in ‘Akallabêth’
Kristine Larsen
“By the Waters of Anduin We Lay Down and Wept”: Exilic Theology in the ‘Akallabêth’
Rev. Tom Emanuel
Seducer-Destroyer: Sauron’s Femme Fatale Sources and their Role in the Númenor Narrative
Mercury Natis
Elmar, the Experience of Captured Women, and Empires in Decline
Clare Moore
About the Peter Roe Memorial Fund
The Tolkien Society’s seminar proceedings – and other booklets such as the Sindarin Lexicon – are published under the auspices of the Peter Roe Memorial Fund. The Fund commemorates Peter Roe who died in 1979 aged 16 after being hit by a speeding lorry outside his home. He was on his way to buy envelopes to enclose his enthusiastic letter to the Society. Peter was clearly an incredibly talented young man, producing stories, artwork and maps. Peter’s Dwarfish Fragments were published in Mallorn 15 in September 1980. Proceeds from the sale of Peter Roe books go back into the Fund to ensure that it is self-perpetuating. The Society will continue to produce book in the “Peter Roe Series” to honour his memory.
