The Mirror of Desire Unbidden: Retrieving the Imago Dei in Tolkien and Late Medieval English Literature sets Tolkien’s theory of Fantasy against the backdrop of Western history of phantasia, all the way back to the Biblical image of God and the Hellenic concept of phantasm. The historical change into the judgment of the imaginative faculty shaped Christianity in associating fantasy with adultery. The emergence of the fantastic, Arthurian Legend, and Courtly Love in the 12th century might appear a countertendency, but Tolkien rather follows authors like Chaucer and the Gawain-Poet in their refusal of adultery. An investigation into the subject affords to clarify Tolkien’s poetics and his theology, finalized to the retrieval of the female Imago Dei.

Giovanni Carmine Costabile (MPhil) is an independent researcher, teacher, translator, and writer. His articles and notes are published in several academic journals and he contributes chapters to collections dedicated to Medieval Studies, Fantasy and Tolkien. He translated several volumes, both non-fiction and fiction.