Finding the Numinous: An Ecocritical Look at Dune and the Lord of the Rings

Analyzing how the mythopoeic fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert portray the natural world

Finding the Numinous explores the premise that the environments depicted in The Lord of the Rings and the Dune saga are not only for the purpose of world-building; rather, these imagined worlds’ environments are sacred spaces fundamental to understanding these texts and their authors’ purposes. Willow Wilson DiPasquale applies Tolkien’s three functions of fantasy--recover, escape, and consolation--to demonstrate how both authors’ works are intrinsically connected to their ecocritical messages and overarching moral philosophies.

This book also compares Tolkien’s Roman Catholic viewpoint with Herbert’s Zen Buddhist perspective, arguing that the authors’ religious beliefs and biographical, historical, and cultural influences impacted how they chose to craft their creative works and write about nature.

Applying various ecocritical positions to the text, Finding the Numinous explores descriptions of the natural landscapes in both authors’ texts, as well as the relationships characters and communities have with those natural spaces. As our current society’s relationships with nature are increasingly challenged and changed by various ecocrises, DiPasquale convincingly argues, these worlds offer readers various environmental models to critique, to condemn, or, in some cases, to adopt.

Willow Wilson DiPasquale is an instructor of English and writing at Bryn Mawr College, Arcadia University, and Thomas Jefferson University. She is the author of ＂Shifting Sands: Heroes, Power, and the Environment in the Dune Saga＂ in Discovering DuneEssays on Frank Herbert’s Epic Saga. She received the 2024 Arcadia University Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring’s Unsung Hero Award.