If you are at all familiar with Tolkien’s work, then Bilbo’s cry – proclaiming the arrival of Eagles – will be no stranger to you. Indeed, these plot-armoured birds are somewhat of a hallmark of the Master of Middle-Earth, one rejoiced over and lampooned in equal measure by both lovers and critics of his writing.
 
But they are misunderstood. Tolkien’s Eagles cannot be taken literally; they are a narrative embodiment of the unlooked-for grace, the redemptive turn – winged harbingers of Tolkien’s concept of eucatastrophe.

Anna Thayer has been fascinated, inspired and led by this concept since childhood. This book represents a eucatastrophe casebook of sorts, spanning over ten years of research. It is a series of investigations into Tolkien’s work that reveal how overarching this theory was in his writing and mindset.
 
5* "I love Tolkien, and this collection of papers has been very useful to me, in order to understand better the Professor's work. It's pocket size too, so it fits well in the bag for bus/train journey. I had read a couple of the papers in the past, but to have them all together in this edition is very handy." By Trixter76 on Amazon.co.uk