This collection of essays was inspired by the previous volume “J.R.R. Tolkien: the Forest and the City”. Cami D. Agan wanted to draw on those conference proceedings to further explore the dual notion of place & space in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, and so she invited several scholars to contribute based on existing papers or research interests. I was delighted to be invited to publish a chapter in this book, and took the opportunity to explore the location of Lake-Town under the pens and brushes of different artists over the years.

The other chapters in this book cover a wide range of subjects, but I particularly enjoyed the focus on Dwarven art & architecture in “Re-enchanting Built Spaces: On Dwarves and Dwarven Places” by Kenton Sena & Kaelyn Harris, as well as “‘But the Beauty of Mithril Did not Tarnish’: Tolkien, Material Culture, and the Mathom” by Nicholas Birns, and “Architecture as Cultural Signifier: Building Identities of Middle-earth on Screen” by Mina D. Lukić.