Oxonmoot 2024

In the unending quest for “Tolkien’s sources”, many have commented on the obvious influences on his writings from H. Rider Haggard’s 1886 adventure novel "She". Some treatments have been quite detailed, such as Holly Ordway’s in "Tolkien’s Modern Reading". Has this particular barrel now been scraped empty?
It is the contention of this paper that it has not, and that the effects of Rider Haggard’s text may be found not only in parallels between Queen Ayesha in "She" and Tolkien’s Galadriel, or between the Sherd of Amenartas and the Book of Mazarbul, but are pervasive and to be discovered even in small details of style and attitudes, and in "The Hobbit" and "The Silmarillion" as well as in "The Lord of the Rings".