List of Figures About the Contributors Introduction Nick Katsiadas and Carl Sell Part One: Ruins in Tolkien's Literary Criticism Chapter 1 'to look out upon the sea': Tolkien's Allegory of the Ruined Tower in Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics Mark Doerksen Chapter 2 Tolkien's Tower by the Sea: Ruins and the Danger of the Nostalgic Gaze Angela Fulk Part Two: Relics and Ruins in Arda Chapter 3 Ruins of Past Tongues: Tolkien's Timeless Philology K. J. Waldron Chapter 4 'What do you Elf eyes see?' Perceiving Ruin in Middle-earth Joseph Burton Chapter 5 Ruins as Landscape Runes Nancy Ciccone Chapter 6 Ruin, Fire, Wealth, and Wergild in Tolkien's Dwarven Civilizations Victoria Smurthwaite Chapter 7 'Too greedily and too deep': Decadence as Ruin of Empire in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Sandra Leonard Chapter 8 Romantic Nostalgia in Tolkien's Relics and Ruins: Longing for Aman, Gondolin, and Númenor in The Lost Road Nick Katsiadas Chapter 9 The Blade of the King: Tolkien, Arthur, and the Remnants of Kingship Carl Sell Part Three: Relics and Ruins in Tolkien Adaptations Chapter 10 'What Are These Towers of Silver?' Ruins as Relics in the Middle-earth Game Series J. Seth Lee Chapter 11 'You Wield Aiglos, spear of Gil-galad': Relics as Signposts in The Two Towers MUD J. Emerson Lowell Chapter 12 Marching through Mordor: Ruins and Landscape in Summoning's Minas Morgul Dean Swinford.