ABSTRACT
On 7 May 2009 I received an unexpected email. I had just begun a PhD project, intending to focus on Star Wars-inspired Jediism, but now Gwineth wrote this: “I thought that maybe you might be interested to know – though maybe you already do – that there is a small number of people who are trying to build a ‘spiritual path’ on the mythical history of Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien. I am one of them”.1 I had never heard of any such Tolkien-based spiritual groups, but eagerly replied and was soon introduced to the other members of Gwineth’s online-based group. These members approached Tolkien’s stories about Middle-earth, his so-called Legendarium, in a variety of ways, but they all agreed that the Legendarium was an effective means of transportation to the Faery Otherworld or “Imaginal Realm”. Several members were also well versed in Tolkien’s Elvish languages and had named the group Ilsaluntë Valion, which means the Silver Ship of the Valar in Qenya.2 The Valar referred to in the group name are the angelic beings or lower gods of Tolkien’s cosmology; the Silver Ship is a poetic reference to the Moon.
