The tentative outline for the chapter that they provided me was:
However, they also indicated that I could "shape the chapter in a different way based on your expertise and research, as long as the remit of the Handbook is maintained (i.e. a combination of authoritative and up-to-date surveys of original research, critical examination of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research)," and of course I have done so. But the 6500 word limit (including notes and bibliography) really limited how much I could say, and I suspect it might turn out to be too much of my own original thinking, and not critical examination of the progress and direction of debates (though there is certainly some).This chapter will focus on Tolkien’s conception of time in Arda, beginning with an overview of the internal chronology of his mythology (the Three Ages) as well as the way in which time and the passage of time are thematised in his legendarium, including the theme of the Fall, the idea of the passage of time as decay, the notion of gradual disenchantment, and Tolkien’s unfinished time-travel stories (The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers) as potential frameworks of the legendarium.
We'll see!
