Fantasies of Time and Death

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction: The Game of Life and Death

   • Anna Vaninskaya

   Pages 1-22

3. Lord Dunsany: The Conquering Hours

   • Anna Vaninskaya

   Pages 23-67

4. E. R. Eddison: Bearing Witness to the Eternal

   • Anna Vaninskaya

   Pages 69-151

5. J. R. R. Tolkien: More Than Memory

   • Anna Vaninskaya

   Pages 153-228

6. Envoi

   • Anna Vaninskaya

   Pages 229-231

7. Back Matter

   Pages 233-262

   PDF

This book reveals the unique contribution made by the three founding fathers of British fantasy—Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison and J. R. R. Tolkien—to our culture’s perennial reassessment of the meanings of time, death and eternity. It traces the poetic, philosophical and theological roots of the striking preoccupation with mortality and temporality that defines the imagined worlds of early fantasy fiction, and gives both the form of such fiction and its ideas the attention they deserve. Dunsany, Eddison and Tolkien raise some of the oldest questions in existence: about the limits of nature, human and divine; cosmic creation and destruction; the immortality conferred by art and memory; and the paradoxes and uncertainties generated by the universal experience of transience, the fear of annihilation and the desire for transcendence. But they respond to those questions by means of thought experiments that have no precedent in modern literary history.

This book has won the '2021 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award' for Myth and Fantasy Studies.

• Lord Dunsany
• E. R. Eddison
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• Time and death in writing
• Fantasy writing
• British and Irish Literature

“This is an important study of two critically undersubscribed authors and an impressive look at a third who benefits from reconsideration in relation to them. It is not the last word on any of its subject texts, but it serves as a robust contribution to a weighty, potentially inexhaustible debate.” (JosephYoung, Gramarye, Issue 19, 2021)

“Fantasies of Time and Death makes us hungry to return to the primary worlds it discusses.” (Sarah R.A. Waters, Mythlore, Vol. 39 (2), 2021)

“One of the greatest strengths of this study overall is Vaninskaya’s extensive familiarity with the work of each author … . The volume is particularly well suited as a reference for readers who are already well-versed in the works of one or more of these three authors. … Overall, it is a thorough and thoughtful work which will be of value for studies of all three authors.” (Holly Ordway, Journal of Inklings Studies, Vol. 10 (1), October, 2020)

“Vaninskaya’s attentive, detailed, and well-supported claims, which remain strong through the entirety of the text, will likely be a welcome addition to the shelves of academics interested in the subjects of time and death or these authors, as well as libraries looking to expand their selection of volumes on the same.” (R. J. Murphy, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 31 (3), 2020)

“This just may be the book on Dunsany Dunsany scholars have been waiting for.  ... Vaninskaya ... offers real insights into Dunsany's theme and method ... [her] insights made me want to reread books I've not read for decades.” (John D. Rateliff, editor of The History of the Hobbit and award-winning Inklings Scholar) 

“Fantasy deals with serious matters - with reality, with human experience - and few topics are as serious as the ones addressed here: time and death.  Anna Vaninskaya's detailed and useful study ... [is] deftly handled ... a thorough and thoughtful work which will be of value for studies of all three authors.” (Journal of Inklings Studies)

“The book has scope, energy, density and concision, all served by beautiful writing and great lyrical qualities. It will prove to be a milestone in Fantasy studies.” (Dr. Marc Rolland, Professor, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, France)

“Anna Vaninskaya’s study of three major fantasists offers an important new perspective on the origins of the genre as a vehicle for philosophical speculation. By grouping J. R. R. Tolkien with his contemporaries Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison rather than with C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, she shows how these writers similarly use fantasy to explore time, death, love, and change.” (Prof. Brian Attebery, Professor of English, Idaho State University, Editor, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth)

“This important book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the impulse to create fantasy. Through a detailed study of three writers working in the first half of the twentieth century – Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison and J.R.R. Tolkien – Vaninskaya demonstrates how their invented worlds showcase their very different philosophies, providing them with an experimental testing ground as vibrant and complex as anything created by their modernist contemporaries. Ambitiously conceived, beautifully written and convincingly argued, her narrative helps explain as well as any book in recent memory why so many authors have turned to world creation as a means of expressing ‘the nature of mortal existence’ at a time of unprecedented global change.” (Dr. Robert Maslen, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow, Convener of the MLitt in Fantasy)

“This is an important piece of scholarship that offers much-needed critical explorations of the works of Dunsany and Eddison alongside highly original readings of Tolkien’s legendarium and manages to help the reader navigate very complex philosophical questions with lucidity. I can see this book being read and enjoyed by general readers too, which is quite an achievement.” (Dr. Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow, author of Tolkien, Race and Cultural History and Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children's Fantasy)

• English Literature, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

  Anna Vaninskaya

Anna Vaninskaya is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is the author of William Morris and the Idea of Community (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) and over forty articles and book chapters on nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, politics and history.

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