Some essays I liked very much, some not - and some i could not judge becouse I have not read the books and the authors they were about
"The ones I liked most are: Wounded by war, men's bodies in the prose tradition of The Children of Húrin" and "Now often forgotten,"
I liked also "Silent wounds" ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2591385.html#cutid4

We are in the midst of the centenary of the Great War, as it was called at the time, and the essays in this book make that argument that as for so much else in European life, it was a crucial moment for British fantasy writing. Six and a half of the sixteen essays are about Tolkien, which is only fair given his importance in the field, the demonstrable importance of the war in his life, and the large amounts of supporting material to investigate the relationship between them. Verlyn Flieger and John Garth are (rightly) frequently invoked. I found all of them thought-provoking, especially the first, Michael Livingstone's "The Shell-shocked Hobbit: The First World War and Tolkien’s Trauma of the Ring ", which convincingly diagnoses Frodo with PTSD. I have to admit that when I first read the book at the age of ten or so, I wasn't convinced by the apparently magical way Frodo's injuries return to cause a physical illness on their anniversaries after his return to the Shire; now that I'm older and I've seen that happen to people in real life, I'm impressed by the understated way Tolkien describes it.

Of the other essays, two and a half are about C.S. Lewis, who said and wrote much less about his was experience: serving in the trenches and getting blown up with permanent injury to his left hand was less traumatic than his experiences at boarding school or the death of his mother. Still, there is war in Narnia, and interesting comparisons and contrasts to be made between the real and fictional variety - most notably, as pointed out by Brian Melton in "The Great War and Narnia: C. S. Lewis as Soldier and Creator", what happens to the bodies of those killed at the various battles? They seem to disappear almost before the fighting is over.

The other authors treated here are Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, Lord Dunsany, Sylvia Townsend Warner, E.R. Eddison (twice) and T.H. White. I really read only the last of these, Ashley Pfeiffer's "T. H. White and the Lasting Influence of World War I: King Arthur at War ", and also Nick Milne's fascinating "The Door We Never Opened: British Alternate History Writing in the Aftermath of World War I ", as I am not familiar with the relevant works of the others (though clearly I should remedy that situation). Anyway, a very solid set of essays with some real revelations for me. ( )