About the Book
The Lord of The Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, involves many characters with a common goal: the destruction of the Ring of Power. They connect with each other through their individual journeys and become friends.
This book analyses how friendship in Tolkien’s seminal work collaborates in the development of the characters, as well as contributing to the success of their final goal.
Using Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica as a reading lens for Tolkien’s book, the work also considers Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations and their reading of the connection between the characters.
Cristina Casagrande’s comparative analysis brings together different elements to the study of friendship in Tolkien’s narrative, contributing to the development of the reader’s and viewer’s own ethical thinking and character.
“While studying hundreds of pages and hours of movies, Cristina Casagrande is able to show us the huge importance of friendship, a feeling that motivates us, conducts us, and, often, leads us to success… Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Tolkien saw human beings and their emotions clearly. In this work, she evidences their view for our own understanding.” Ronald Kyrmse
About the Author
Cristina Casagrande has a degree in Journalism and Languages. She is the author of A Amizade em ‘O Senhor dos Anéis’ [Friendship in The Lord of the Rings] (São Paulo: Martin Claret, 2019), a product of her master’s thesis defended in 2018, and she works for HarperCollins Brasil in some editorial projects related to J.R.R. Tolkien, such as translations of “Mr. Bliss” and “Letters from Father Christmas”. She is currently pursuing her PhD degree in Comparative Literature, studying Tolkien and Philosophy. She researches fantasy, myth, and fairy-stories at the University of São Paulo, where she organized the exhibition “De Volta Outra Vez: 80 anos de O Hobbit” [Back Again: 80 years of The Hobbit] (2017); and the courses “A Subcriação de Mundos: Estudos sobre a Literatura de J.R.R. Tolkien” [The Subcreation of Worlds: Studies on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Literature] (2018), from which sprang the e-book with the same title in 2019, and “The Posthumous Works of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Tribute to Christopher” (2020). She is the administrator of the website tolkienista.com and organizes the Group of Mythopoetic Studies, a subgroup of research in literature and children’s and youth cultural production, directed by Professor Maria Zilda da Cunha.
Social media:
Website: tolkienista.com
YouTube.com/Tolkienista_a
Instagram: @tolkienista
Facebook.com/tolkienista
About the Translator of the Book
Eduardo Boheme Kumamoto is Brazilian and holds a BA degree in English and Portuguese from the University of São Paulo and an MPhil degree in Literary Translation from Trinity College Dublin. He is passionate about J.R.R. Tolkien’s literature and is particularly interested in aspects of translation and calligraphy in his works.
Friendship in The Lord of the Rings will be released on March 15th, 2022, from Luna Press Publishing.
