Mythlore 32.1, Fall/Winter 2013  145 EVIEWS THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF MIDDLE-EARTH: LEARNING FROM THE LORD OF THE RINGS. ‚bigail E. Ruane and Patrick James. ‚nn ‚rborDZ University of Michigan Press, ŘŖŗŘ. ŘśŜ pp. $ŗş.şś ǻpbkǼ. şŝŞ-Ŗ-ŚŝŘ-ŖśŗŞŘ-ř. F ONE DOES NOT OBJECT TO THE OBVIOUS ANACHRONISM of the project, the geopolitical landscape of Middle-earth during the final years of the Third ‚ge offers fertile ground for thinking about international relations. Distinctive cultures, if not modern nation-states, abound in J.R.R. TolkienȂs world, and the commerce, conflict, and alliances among them provide the background for and add color to the adventures depicted in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. One might argue that, with The Hobbit in particular, the clash of these cultures animates the narrative. Whereas the quiet, discernibly Edwardian, English countryside of the Shire is home to a good-natured, if somewhat xenophobic population, an exiled company of Dwarves pines for its lost homeland, and the adventures along the way to the Lonely Mountain are marked by the encounters with various foreign civilizations, as ‛ilbo ‛aggins discovers. These unique ȃnationsȄ include two different Elven cultures, the hidden kingdom of ElrondȂs Rivendell and the sylvan city-state of Elvenking ǻThranduilǼ in Mirkwood, along with perhaps two distinct Goblin tribes ǻone in the lair of the Great Goblin in the Misty Mountains, the other in the armies of ȃ‛olg of the NorthȄ which appear in the ‛attle of the Five ‚rmiesǼ, the mercantile Men of Lake-town, and the assorted races of Trolls, Wolves, Spiders, and Eagles, not to mention the odd loners, Gollum, ‛eorn, and Smaug the Dragon. Further in the background, the more cosmopolitan heirs of Númenor established a network of cities and holdfasts ranging from the mouth of the ‚nduin in the south to the northern kingdom of ‚rnor, including great citadels such as Minas Ithil and Isengard, and the deep history of their sorrows lays the foundations for the events that culminate in the War of the Ring. ‚s the more limited geography and history of The HobbitȂs Middle-earth gives way to that of The Lord of the Rings, many more cultures and kingdoms come into viewDZ Galadhrim, Rohirrim, Drúedain, and Haradrim, to I