J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages ofMiddle-earth frommany sources, especiallymedieval ones.Tolkien and the classical world have been linked by scholars, and by Tolkien himself. The suggested influences include the pervasive classical themes ofdivine intervention anddecline and fall in Middle-earth; the splendour of theAtlantis-like lost island kingdom ofNúmenor; theTroy-likefall of Gondolin; theRome-like stone city of Minas Tirith inGondor;magical rings with parallels to theOne Ring; and the echoes of the tale ofLúthien and Beren with the myth ofOrpheus descending to the underworld. Other possible connections have been suggested by scholars.

Tolkien stated that he wanted to createa mythology evocative of England, not of Italy. Scholars have noted aspects of his work, such as the plants ofIthilien, which are clearly Mediterranean but not specifically classical.

Tolkien's fiction was brought to a new audience byPeter Jackson'sfilm version ofThe Lord of the Rings. This in turn influenced the portrayal of the classical world in several later films, such as the 2004Troy.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, aphilologist andmedievalist interested in language and poetry from theMiddle Ages, especially that ofAnglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe. His professional knowledge of works such asBeowulf shaped his fictional world ofMiddle-earth, including his fantasy novelThe Lord of the Rings.^[2][3] This did not prevent him from making use of classical sources as well.^[4]The classical world has been defined as "the history, literature, myths, philosophy, and society of ancient Greece and Rome".^[5]It has been argued that since Tolkien'smythology for England waslargely medieval, he needed a classical setting to provide a suitableimpression of historical depth.^[6]

The classical scholar Giuseppe Pezzini writes that "narratives of decline" are common in the literature ofancient Greece andRome. This is seen in the writings of bothHesiod andOvid. Pezzini sees the decline of Tolkien's world ofArda from its First Age "filled with Joy and Light" down to its "Twilight" Third Age as echoing the classical theme of decline from theGolden Age.^[7] Ross Clare analyses how Tolkien's chronicles of the decline and fall of his island paradise ofNúmenor might have been influenced byclassical frameworks of decline and fall, as provided by the historiansHerodotus,Thucydides, andSuetonius. Clare sees Athenian decline as entailing a three-stage process, like that of Númenor.^[8]Hamish Williams regards the narrative of decline and fall in Númenor as a thought-experiment exercise recallingPlato's philosophical arguments, where certain virtues and ideals (sophocracy, moderation, piety, etc.) are emphasized through their loss.^[9]

Tolkien built a process of decline and fall in Middle-earth into bothThe Silmarillion andThe Lord of the Rings. The pattern is expressed in several ways, including thesplintering of the light provided by the Creator,Eru Iluvatar, into progressively smaller parts;^{[10][T 1]} the fragmentation of languages and peoples, especially theElves, who aresplit into many groups;^[11] the successive falls, starting with that of theangelic spiritMelkor, and followed by the destruction of the two Lamps of Middle-earth and then of theTwo Trees of Valinor, and the cataclysmic fall ofNúmenor.^[11] Tolkien's use of the theme cannot be said to be exclusively classical;The Lord of the Rings shares the sense of impending destruction found inNorse mythology, whereeven the gods will perish. The Dark LordSauron may be defeated, but that will entail the fading and departure of the Elves, leaving the world toMen, to industrialise and to pollute, however muchTolkien regretted the fact.^[7][12][13]

• 
  Decline and fall: the shattered ruins of the Roman city atBaalbek

Pezzini further states that the pattern of divine intervention inThe Silmarillion andThe Lord of the Rings echoes that inclassical epics such as those ofHomer, in 8th century BC Greece, andVirgil, in 1st century BC Rome; Tolkien directly linkedThe Lord of the Rings to their poems in one of his letters.^{[14][T 2]} He notes that Tolkien likened hisValar to "the gods of 'traditional' 'higher' mythology" – meaning, asRichard Purtill explained, theRoman orGreek pantheons, or to an extent also theÆsir ofNorse mythology – though with definite differences. In particular, in his early workThe Cottage of Lost Play he equated the classical gods to the Valar. Pezzini writes that inThe Silmarillion,^[14]

the Valar are, in fact, full-fledged epic gods: they speak, they suffer, they desire, they fight, and, above all, they deliberate on the fates of elves and humans (in councils [like those] in Homer and Virgil) and interact with them in order to bring about their providential plans (individual or collective).^[14]

• 
  Like thepantheon ofGreek gods, Tolkien'sValar behave as a group,
  and act in Middle-earth through what appears asluck, or fate.

Just as with the interactions of the classical gods with mortals, the Valar's interactions with Middle-earth can take multiple forms: direct appearances ortheophanies; through messengers such as the WizardGandalf, sent by the Valar; through entities in nature, such as eagles or mists; through dreams; through inspiration; and perhaps also through omens.^[14] Pezzini writes that Tolkien's approach, that "the gods' messages can be presented as warnings, and not threats or orders and, above all, that they can be ignored by non-divine characters are both unusual scenarios in classical epic".^[14] Further points of difference are that if the Valar choose to intervene, they usually do it overtly, unlike the classical gods; and they do so out of a "desire for fellowship" which is lacking in classical accounts.^[14] Pezzini comments, too, that divine inspiration is typically a good thing in Tolkien's writings and a bad thing in classical accounts.^[14]

The Valar intervene, too, inThe Lord of the Rings, but always covertly. Pezzini takes the example of the wounding of theOrc captainGrishnákh by a fateful arrow in the dark, soon followed by his death.^[14]

Plato's 4th century BC tale of decline inKritias, from the "decadent magnificence"^[7] ofAtlantis to the humdrum life of Athens, is "unambiguously and intimately"^[7] linked to Tolkien's Númenor, since Tolkien made the comparison himself and actually wrote of "Númenor-Atlantis" in his letters. He had considered using this ina time travel novel.^{[7][T 4]} The destruction of Númenor earned it theQuenya nameAtalantë "the Downfallen";^{[T 5]} Tolkien described his invention of this additional allusion to Atlantis as a happy accident when he realized that the Quenya roottalat- "to fall" could be incorporated into a name for Númenor.^{[T 6]}

The commentator Charles Delattre states that Tolkien's tale of Númenor is a retelling of the myth of Atlantis, the only drowned island in ancient literature. Multiple details align: it began as a perfect world, geometrically laid out to reflect its balance and harmony; it abounds in valuable minerals; and it has unmatched power, witha strong fleet able to project control far beyond its shores, likeancient Athens. Númenor's pride, too, writes Delattre, matches thehubris of Plato's Atlantis; and its downfall recalls the destruction of Atlantis.^[15]

• 
  Map of Arda in the Second Age, showingNúmenor in the Great Sea, Belegaer, betweenAman and Middle-earth.
• 
  Tolkien wrote of Númenor asAtlantis.^{[T 4]}Athanasius Kircher's 1669 map (here, inverted to place North at the top) places Atlantis between America and Europe (Hispania, Spain).

Michael Kleu writes that Tolkien made "playful use of Greek myths related to Atlas", possibly including pre-Platonic tradition. Kleu comments that the playfulness extends, inThe Notion Club Papers,^{[16][T 7]} to making Plato's 2,000 year old version derive from the "real" Downfall of Númenor, which in Tolkien's chronology took place some 7,000 years before Plato.^[16]

Tolkien scholars have compared thefall of Gondolin to the sack ofTroy, noting that both cities were famed for their walls, and likening Tolkien's tale to Virgil'sAeneid. Both haveframe stories, situated long after the events they narrate; both have "gods" (Tolkien's Valar) in the action; and both involve an escape.^[18][19][6] David Greenman compares the actions of Tolkien's quest-heroes to those ofAeneas andOdysseus.^[19]

Greenman compares and contrastsIdril's part in the story toCassandra andHelen of Troy, two prominent female figures in accounts of theTrojan War: like the prophetess, Idril had a premonition of impending danger and like Helen, her beauty played a major role in instigatingMaeglin's betrayal of Gondolin, which ultimately led to its downfall and ruin. Conversely, Greenman notes that Idril's advice to enact a contingency plan for a secret escape route out of Gondolin was heeded by her people, unlike the warning of Cassandra; and that Idril had always rejected Maeglin's advances and remained faithful to Tuor, unlike Helen who left her husband KingMenelaus of Sparta for PrinceParis of Troy.^[19]

Alexander Bruce writes that Tolkien's tale parallels Virgil's account, but varies the story. Thus, Morgoth attacks while Gondolin's guard is lowered during a great feast, whereas the Trojans were celebrating the Greeks' apparent retreat, with the additional note of treachery. TheTrojan Horse carried the Greeks into Troy, where they set fire to it, paralleled by the fire-serpents which carried "Balrogs in hundreds" into Gondolin. Tolkien's serpents are matched by the great serpents with "burning eyes, fiery and suffused with blood, their tongues a-flicker out of hissing maws" which kill the high priestLaocoön and his sons. Aeneas and his wife Creusa become separated during their escape; her ghost pleads with him to leave when he searches for her, and he travels to Italy; in contrast, Tuor and Idril escape to Sirion together, eventually sailing from there toValinor.^[18] Marco Cristini adds that both cities are fatally attacked during a feast; their heroes both leave their wives to fight, and both see their kings die.^[6] Cristini comments further that "The most evident analogy is perhaps the behaviour of Creusa and Idril, who clasp the knees of their husbands to prevent them from joining again the battle when all hope is lost."^[6] Scholars have noted that Tolkien himself drew classical parallels for the assault, writing that "NorBablon, norNinwi, nor the towers ofTrui, nor all the many takings ofRûm that is greatest among Men, saw such terror as fell that day upon Amon Gwareth".^[18][6]

J. K. Newman likens the scene in whichSam Gamgee reflects on what fiction is, and how he and Frodo are in a tale or will be put into one, to Virgil's account of Aeneas looking at his own tale: "There in order he sees the battles fought at Troy... 'Yes', he said, 'this tale will bring you some yet mysterious salvation'...heaving many a sigh... He even recognised himself in the melee with the Greek champions."^[20]

Tolkien appears to have based one scene on another classical source,Euripides' playThe Trojan Women. Maeglin tries to throw Idril's sonEärendil from the city wall, just asHector's sonAstyanax is thrown down from Troy's walls. Tolkien changes the outcome: Eärendil resists, and Tuor appears just in time to rescue him by throwing Maeglin from the walls instead.^[18][19]

• 
  Tolkien's fire-serpents are paralleled byVirgil's great serpents that kill the Trojan priestLaocoön and his sons
  in the fall ofTroy.^[18]
• 
  Maeglin's failed attempt to throwEärendil from the city walls contrasts withEuripides' account of the throwing of the youngAstyanax from the walls of Troy.^[18]

Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, inThe J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, discusses the real-world prototypes of Gondor. She writes that like theNormans, their founders the Númenóreans arrived "from across the sea", and that Prince Imrahil's armour with a "burnishedvambrace" recalls late-medievalplate armour. Against this theory, she notes Tolkien's direction of readers to Egypt andByzantium. Recalling that Tolkien locatedMinas Tirith at the latitude ofFlorence, she and other scholars^[21] suggest that possibly the strongest likenesses are withancient Rome. She identifies several parallels: Aeneas, from Troy, andElendil, from Númenor, both survive the destruction of their home countries; Aeneas's descendants, the brothersRomulus and Remus, found Rome, while the brothers Isildur and Anárion found the Númenórean kingdoms of Gondor andArnor in Middle-earth; and both Gondor and Rome experienced lengthy "decadence and decline".^[1]

Judy Ann Ford adds inTolkien Studies that Gondor is distinctive in Middle-earth in having cities built of stone: "the only culture within [the Anglo-Saxons'] historical memory that had made places like Minas Tirith was the Roman Empire."^[22] She comments that Tolkien's account of Gondor can be seen as the decline andfall of Rome, but "with a happy ending", as it "somehow withstood the onslaught of armies from the east, and ... was restored to glory."^[22] She finds multiple likenesses between the cities.^[22]

• 
  Minas Tirith's towering stone hall of Ecthelion has been compared to Ravenna's 6th centuryBasilica of San Vitale.^[22]
• 
  The410 AD sack of Rome byAlaric'sVisigoths contrasts with Gondor's siege and rescue in thebattle of the Pelennor Fields:
  Rome "with a happy ending".^[22]

Plato'sRepublic tells the story of theRing of Gyges that gave its owner the power of invisibility, as Tolkien'sOne Ring did. In so doing, it created amoral dilemma, enabling people to commit injustices without fearing they would be caught.^[23] In contrast, Tolkien's Ring actively exerts an evil force that destroys themorality of the wearer.^{[T 8]}

Scholars includingFrederick A. de Armas note parallels between Plato's and Tolkien's rings.^[23][24] De Armas suggests that both Bilbo and Gyges, going into deep dark places to find hidden treasure, may have "undergone aCatabasis", a psychological journey to the Underworld.^[23]

The Tolkien scholar Eric Katz writes that "Platoargues that such [moral] corruption will occur, but Tolkienshows us this corruption through the thoughts and actions of his characters".^[25] Plato argues that immoral life is no good as it corrupts one's soul. So, Katz states, according to Plato a moral person has peace and happiness, and would not use a Ring of Power.^[25] In Katz's view, Tolkien's story "demonstrate[s] various responses to the question posed by Plato: would a just person be corrupted by the possibility of almost unlimited power?"^[25] The question is answered in different ways: the monsterGollum is weak, quickly corrupted, and finally destroyed;Boromir, son of theSteward of Gondor, begins virtuous but like Plato's Gyges is corrupted "by the temptation of power"^[25] from the Ring, even if he wants to use it for good, but redeems himself by defending the hobbits to his own death; the "strong and virtuous"^[25]Galadriel, who sees clearly what she would become if she accepted the ring, and rejects it; the immortalTom Bombadil, exempt from the Ring's corrupting power and from its gift of invisibility;Sam who in a moment of need faithfully uses the ring, but is not seduced by its vision of "Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age"; and finallyFrodo who is gradually corrupted, but is saved by his earlier mercy to Gollum, and Gollum's desperation for the Ring. Katz concludes that Tolkien's answer to Plato's "Why be moral?" is "to be yourself".^[25]

• 
  The shepherdGyges ofPlato'sRepublic finds themagic ring, setting up amoral dilemma.Ferrara, 16th century

Elena Capra writes that Tolkien made use of the medieval poemSir Orfeo, based on the classical tale ofOrpheus and Eurydice but transposed to England, both forThe Hobbit's Elvish kingdom, and for his story inThe Silmarillion ofBeren and Lúthien. That in turn influenced his "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". In Capra's view,Sir Orfeo's key ingredient was the political connection "between the recovery of the main character's beloved and the return to royal responsibility."^[26]

Peter Astrup Sundt draws parallels between Beren andOrpheus, or rather between both Beren and Lúthien and the classical character, as it is Lúthien not Beren who has magical powers, and far from playing a passiveEurydice, she too goes to sing for Mandos, the Vala who watches over the souls of the dead.^[27]

Ben Eldon Stevens maps out similar parallels, but adds that Tolkien's retelling contrasts sharply with the myth. Where Orpheus nearly manages to retrieve Eurydice from Hades, Lúthien rescues Beren three times – from Sauron's fortress-prison of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, involving singing; from Morgoth's Angband, with the Silmarils; and by getting Mandos to restore both of them to life. Stevens comments that in the original myth, Eurydice meets "a second death", soon followed by the griefstruck Orpheus, whereas Tolkien has Lúthien and Beren enjoy "a second life". Stevens notes that Tolkien evidently agreed that this version, ending with a resurrection, embodied a "religious difference" from the Greek myth, as he had described this in one of his letters as "a kind of Orpheus-legend in reverse, but one of Pity not of Inexorability".^{[28][T 9]}

• 
  Tolkien used the medieval poemSir Orfeo, which begins
  "Orfeo was a king
  In Inglond an heiȝe lording"
  for hisTale of Aragorn and Arwen.^[26]
• 
  In the classical myth,Orpheus nearly rescuesEurydice from Hades, only for her to die a second death. In Tolkien's version,Lúthien plays Orpheus rather than Eurydice, three times rescuingBeren, and they enjoy a second life together.

Ursula Le Guin describes parallels betweenThe Lord of the Rings andHomer'sIliad andOdyssey. She comments on thebalance of action abroad and waiting at home, noting that while Tolkien brings Frodo home tothe Shire at the end, Homer interleaves "Odysseus trying desperately to get to Penelope and Penelope desperately waiting for Odysseus – both the voyager and the goal".^[29]

Ursula Le Guin's analysis of parallels betweenThe Lord of the Rings andHomer'sIliad andOdyssey^[29]

Element	Homer	Tolkien
"The two basic fantasy stories" "The War", "The Journey"	Iliad,Odyssey	"'There and Back Again', asBilbo put it"
"Not the War of Good vs. Evil" In bothDante'sThe Divine Comedy andMilton'sParadise Lost, "the good guys win".	The Trojan War "just a war, a wasteful, useless, needless, stupid, protracted, cruel mess..." "It isn't Satan vs. Angels. It isn't hobbits vs. orcs. It's just people vs. people."
Balance of action abroad and waiting at home	"The reader is alternatelyOdysseus trying desperately to get toPenelope and Penelope desperately waiting for Odysseus – both the voyager and the goal"	"I love ... Tolkien's understanding of the importance of what goes on back on the farm while the Hero is taking his Thousand Faces all round the world", but till the return "Tolkien never takes you back home."
"Honest[y] about the difficulty of being a far-traveled hero who comes home"	"Neither Odysseus nor Frodo is able to stay there long"

Gloria Larini compares theTrolls ofThe Hobbit to theone-eyed giantPolyphemus in theOdyssey.^[30][31] Hamish Williams argues that Tolkien's ideas on Trolls shifted from Norse myth to Polyphemus-like monster as he came to see brute strength as the opposite of the civilized use of culture and magic, in the framework of likeningThe Hobbit's "hospitality journey" to that of theOdyssey.^[32]

Tolkien related theHaradrim'smûmakil in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields toPyrrhus of Epirus's war elephants in his 3rd century BC invasion of ancient Rome.^[33]

Charles Oughton likens Tolkien'sBattle of Helm's Deep toLivy's account ofHoratius Cocles's heroic defence of Rome'sPons Sublicius bridge. The heroes Aragorn,Éomer, andGimli hold off the army of Orcs; Horatius holds off the army ofEtruscans at the bridge. Oughton finds multiple matches between the two accounts. Several of these are not present inThomas Babington Macaulay's poem "Horatius" which retells Livy's tale, though Oughton suggests that Tolkien did make additional use of Macaulay for some details.^[34]

The scholar of English literatureCharles A. Huttar compares the combination of a tentacled monster, theWatcher in the Water, and the "clashing gate" when the Fellowship pass through the Doors of Durin, only to have the Watcher smash the rocks behind them, to Greek mythology'sWandering Rocks near the opening of theunderworld, and toOdysseus's passage between the devouringScylla and the whirlpoolCharybdis.^[35]

Verlyn Flieger has calledFëanor "aPromethean figure ... [an] overreacher whose excess is punished, yet whose accomplishments succeed in bringing ... a spark which can elevate humankind".^[36]

Newman compares the myth of Elendil and the defeat of Sauron withJason's taking of theGolden Fleece. In both, a golden prize is taken; in both, there are evil consequences – Elendil's sonIsildur is betrayed and the Ring is lost, leading to the War of the Ring and Frodo's quest;Medea murders Jason's children.^[4]

Julian Eilmann argues that the tale ofTúrin, often vaguely described as "tragic", fits the pattern ofAristotle's theory of tragedy, as described in hisPoetics, and accordingly arouses "strong emotional responses of pity and shock".^[37] Aristotle's elements ofperipeteia or reverse of circumstances,anagnorisis or moments of critical discovery, andpathos or emotional appeal are all present, confirming that the tale is indeed tragic.^[37] Tolkien wrote that Túrin hadmultiple mythological parallels, including toOedipus.^{[T 10]}

John Garth likens theearthly paradise of Valinor, shielded by the mountainous wall of thePelóri, to the Greek paradise ofHyperborea, protected "at the back of the north wind behind a huge mountain range".^[38]

• 
  Tolkien related theHaradrim'smûmakil toPyrrhus of Epirus's war elephants in his invasion of Rome.^[33]
• 
  An arctic continent at the north pole, shielded by a ring of mountains, in this 1623 map, like the GreekHyperborea or Tolkien'sValinor with itsPelóri mountain wall^[38]
• 
  Tolkien made use ofLivy's tale of the heroic bridge defence byHoratius Cocles, perhaps partly viaMacaulay's version in his 1842Lays of Ancient Rome.^[34]

Philip Burton, examiningphilological andbotanical aspects of Tolkien's works, concludes that Tolkien appears consistently to stress "underlying oneness of theMediterranean and northern European worlds", and that he repeatedly displays interest in "things associated with the Mediterranean but not distinctly 'classical'".^[39] A clear example is the Mediterranean vegetation of the southern province ofIthilien:^[39]

Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.Many great trees grew there, ... and groves and thickets there were oftamarisk and pungentterebinth, ofolive and ofbay; and there werejunipers andmyrtles; andthymes that grew in bushes, ...sages of many kinds putting forth blue flowers, or red, or pale green; andmarjorams and new-sproutingparsleys, and many herbs of forms and scents beyond the garden-lore of Sam. The grots and rocky walls were already starred withsaxifrages andstonecrops.Primeroles andanemones were awake in thefilbert-brakes; andasphodel and manylily-flowers nodded their half-opened heads ... Greatilexes of huge girth stood dark and solemn in wide glades ... and there were acres populous with the leaves of woodlandhyacinths:^{[T 11]}

• Resemblances of Ithilien to Italy
• 
  Tolkien alludes todryads, classical tree-nymphs, in his description ofIthilien
• 
  Ithilien is said to be home to theolive,
  a tree of the Mediterranean basin
• 
  Asphodel, one of the Mediterranean herbs found in Ithilien

Burton grants that the mention ofdryads (tree-nymphs) is "certainly ... strikingly classical", and citesRichard Jenkyns's identification of the described landscape as Mediterranean: "Ithilien is Italy, as the name implies".^[39][40] All the same, Burton comments, many of the plant names, seemingly "a parade of Greek and Latinlexis", actually "point beyond the strictly 'classical'." Thus, the -nth- element in "terebinth" and "hyacinth" has been claimed to precede Greek, coming fromAsia Minor. "Lily" has an Egyptian origin, and had arrived in England by the 10th century. Many of the plants are, Burton writes, familiar enough in northern Europe that they may "lose their foreign associations altogether."^[39]

In Burton's view, Tolkien, "anIndo-Europeanist by training", is unable to treat classical Greece or Rome as "the fountainhead of Western civilization", since they are part of a Eurasian culture. Further, Tolkien's Catholicism leads him to focus onChrist's incarnation, not on some secular tradition of civilization. Burton comments that since the incarnation is situated in the classical world, that world "has a peculiar claim on our interest", but Tolkien was equally attracted to echoes of the story in other "mythical traditions".^[39] Garth, one of Tolkien's biographers, comments that Tolkien was seeking to createa mythology for England which would be "redolent of our 'air' ... not Italy or theAegean, still less the East",^{[41][T 12]} and that in doing this he managed to "borrow classical ideas without borrowing the atmosphere."^[41]

Antony Keen, an author on the reception of the classics in film and science fiction, writes thatPeter Jackson's 2001–2003films ofThe Lord of the Rings have had a powerful influence on the portrayal of the classical era in film. One effect, he argues, has been a focus on heroes of Greek mythology, with a move away from Rome, seen as a historical setting, towards Greece, seen as more mythical. Another effect is the addition of monsters; a third, the imitation of Jackson's battle scenes; and a fourth, the use of Jackson's stars in films of the classical world. Keen sees the 2004 filmTroy as an early instance, withOrlando Bloom, who had played the Elf-archerLegolas for Jackson, appearing again as "an accomplished archer",Paris. Further, its battles make use of "wide aerial pans of CGI armies" and "an assault upon a defended wall", like Jackson's portrayal of the Battle of Helm's Deep.^[42]

Keen comments that four films set at least partly in Roman Britain all make use of something much like Jackson-style "aerial footage, taken from helicopters, showing parties of characters striding across the landscape".^[42] These are the 2004King Arthur; the 2007The Last Legion; the 2010Centurion; and the 2011The Eagle.^[42] The films also use "a certain degree ofCeltic-style non-verbal singing", which Keen supposes is imitative ofHoward Shore'smusic forThe Lord of the Rings films.^[42] He suggests in addition that such films have taken on some of Jackson's tropes, such as that the story should be somewhat mythological or fantastical.^[42]

The use of monsters, too, has become available to film directors; Keen mentions the "Immortals" in the 2006 film300 as "echo[ing] theOrcs", while its "Uber Immortal", a departure from the comic on which the film was based, reminds him of Jackson'scave troll.^[42]

• Tolkien and the Celtic
• Tolkien and the Norse
• Tolkien's modern sources

• Arduini, Roberto; Canzonieri, Giampaolo; Testi, Claudio A., eds. (2019).Tolkien and the Classics. Zurich:Walking Tree Publishers.ISBN 978-3-905703-42-9.OCLC 1107816986. (contains 4 essays on "Tolkien and Authors from Antiquity", also covers medieval and modern "classics")
• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981].The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York:HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
• Flieger, Verlyn (1983).Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World.Wm. B. Eerdmans.ISBN 0-8028-1955-9.
• Garth, John (2020).The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth. London:Frances Lincoln Publishers.ISBN 978-0-71124-127-5.
• Newman, J. K. (2005). "J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings': A Classical Perspective".Illinois Classical Studies.30:229–247.JSTOR 23065305.
• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982].The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Third ed.).HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-261-10275-0.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a).The Fellowship of the Ring.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 9552942.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954).The Two Towers.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 1042159111.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).The Silmarillion. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1992).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).Sauron Defeated. Boston, New York, & London:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 0-395-60649-7.
• Williams, Hamish, ed. (2021).Tolkien and the Classical World. Zurich:Walking Tree Publishers.ISBN 978-3-905703-45-0.OCLC 1237352408.
• Williams, Hamish (2023).Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics. London: Bloomsbury.ISBN 978-1-350-24145-9.

• Thersites. Journal For Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities From Antiquity To Date (2022). Matz, Alicia; Paprocki, Maciej (eds.). "There and Back Again: Tolkien and the Greco-Roman World (whole issue)".Thersites. Journal for Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date.15.doi:10.34679/THERSITES.VOL15.

• Themes of The Lord of the Rings
• Middle-earth themes
• Influences on J. R. R. Tolkien
• Classical antiquity in modern art and culture

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