Environmentalism in Middle-earth brings together ten essays exploring Tolkien as a proto-environmentalist and deep ecologist before the term existed. From the tree-herding Ents of Fangorn to the maternal nature goddesses of The Silmarillion, from the ethical mining of Erebor to the corrupted wasteland of Mordor, the contributors reveal how Tolkien’s legendarium presents a morally charged vision of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Drawing on ecocriticism, Jungian psychology, postcolonial theory, and deep ecology, the volume traces an evolution in Tolkien’s ecological imagination across his entire body of work. In an era of climate crisis and rising authoritarianism, this collection argues that Tolkien’s myths have never been more urgently relevant - and that the resilience of his protagonists may yet offer readers mythic guidance for navigating the environmental challenges of our own times.
