Oxonmoot 2024

This paper uses the lens of dress to analyze the relationship between identity and Faërie in The Lord of the Rings. Clothing performs many linguistic and symbolic functions in Tolkien’s works; in The Lord of the Rings it is tied to a character’s relationship to Faërie, Tolkien’s term for the realm of magic accessed by mortals in fantasy. This is especially true of the hobbits, who are reclothed during key encounters with Faërie and undergo some of the most significant transformations in the text. From the elven cloaks of Lórien to the preservation of Frodo and Sam’s clothing as artefacts of honour, Tolkien infuses garments with significance. Drawing from works including The Silmarillion and Smith of Wootton Major, this paper explores the ways in which Tolkien uses dress to depict and probe shifts in identity wrought by contact with Faërie. Such shifts are worn as material markers of ennoblement, estrangement, and enchantment.