Eco-critical analysis of Tolkien's Legendarium from an environmental history perspective

Environmental History is a research field that examines the interaction of humanity, societies and states with the environment in which they are located in the light of ecology and historical documents. Eco-criticism is a field of study based on the examination of culture and literature from an ecological perspective. This study brings together research areas such as environmental history and eco-criticism with the example of Tolkien Legendarium. Written by the English linguist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien in the first half of the 20th century, Legendarium has a history of thousands of years in addition to its literary quality. Tolkien placed a detailed planned geography, geological changes, social structures, languages, cultures and states into the Legendarium he built. This study deals with the relationship of all these formations with the environment. This research creates an analysis by applying the perspectives of environmental history and eco-criticism to the works that make up the Tolkien Legendarium. In this context, J.R.R. Tolkien's texts that make up the Legendarium have been tried to be analyzed. In this respect, this study has the characteristics of narrative research with its focus on Tolkien's works, and case study with an in-depth explanation of ecological connections in Tolkien's works. While constructing this research, the entire timeline of Tolkien Legendarium was considered instead of a certain period. Therefore, this study is a long-term study. This study, which has findings on the ecological dimension of fields of activity such as magic, wars and industrialization throughout the history of Middle-earth, concludes that all elements that alienated nature and changed and transformed it disappeared in Middle-earth.