Chapter III focuses on another key feature of Tolkien’s literary technique, namely the lavish use of omissions, allusive language, and, more specifically, the deletion of (almost) all the explicit references to the hidden ‘divine narrative’ underlying the story; these are scattered throughout the book, but always in a ‘hidden’ or ‘glimpsed’ form. The second part explores the theoretical implications of this poetics of ‘cloaking’ or ‘glimpsing’. This technique evokes in the reader a “heart-racking” longing for something unattainable. This is not just a (well-paralleled) strategy: rather, literature for Tolkien does not just come from the human mind, since human beings are only sub-creators, and the light that their works refract comes from a higher Light: incompleteness and cloaking are thus means by which Tolkien acknowledges the mysterious origin of his sub-creations, and at the same time expresses God’s high concern for freedom, His own and that of the human sub-creators and their readers.

The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries marked a deep crisis of the international political and legal order of Europe, caused by the Reformation, the emergence of some strong composite monarchies and the discovery of the New World. The chapter maps how the law of nations began to emerge as a new paradigm for the governance of Europe under whose wings rulers, diplomats and scholars attempted to advance claims to an exclusive jurisdiction over international relations by sovereign princes and republics. As such, the ‘law of nations’ functioned as a lever, an argument for power in a period of great clashes between centralising governments, opposing confessions, and regional and local elites, rather than representing a reality. The ultimate success by governments in several important states at the end of the Renaissance was facilitated to a great extent by the patrimonial and transactional nature of the states that allowed to include old, autonomous powers in the machinery of state.

Chapter IV discusses another important feature of Tolkien’s work, that is, the vast amount of narrative parallelism, both intra- and intertextual, focusing on some case studies (including the relation between the hero Beren and the hobbit Frodo in particular). These parallels are related to Tolkien’s belief in “the seamless web of story”, that is to say, to the view that there is only one single Tree of Tales, criss-crossing primary and secondary realities, which sprouts again and again with new branches and leaves, all different and yet all similar. This ‘organic’ image is helpful to understand key aspects of Tolkien’s literary ‘theory’, including his famous aversion to allegory, which is here related to his belief that literature embodies in new “modes” the same universal “motives” but in a way that is ‘unexpected’ and ‘unconscious’, and the conviction that all stories correlate with each other in a narrative chain having its centre in the Gospel Story.

The present chapter addresses the creation process of the fundamental dichotomic system of the modern law of the sea, viz. territorial sea and high seas, in Old Regime Europe thorough the analyses of ‘state practices’ and doctrines regarding dominium maris, based on some preceding historical backgrounds. It also discusses two neglected issues in order to grasp the accurate, at least theoretically, traces in establishing the current perception of ‘territorial sea’ emanating from the ‘cannon-shot rule’, most famously propounded by Bynkershoek for defining the outer limit of the adjacent sea. The discussion concludes that, although the basic notion of the modern dichotomic system had generally been recognised during the epoch surveyed, no unified criterion for determining the extent of the terrestrial authority over the sea had emerged. It suggests, in the end, the importance of two Italians, Galiani and Azuni, as the earliest known theorists who proposed the theoretical equation of the rules of cannon-shot and three-mile limit and indicates the necessity of fathoming the complex spoors of the history of the law of the sea originating from immensely diverse theories and practices.

The chapter examines the development and changing nature of the laws and customs of war in Old Regime Europe. It focuses on land warfare, scrutinising the received idea that the waging of war in this age was characterised by a growing moderation and by the improvement of troops’ conduct and discipline. The chapter surveys the major principles and doctrines of the jus in bello and the use thereof made by European players. In doing so, it draws on state and military practice as well as scholarly – legal and military – literature. Subjects which are covered include the theoretical conceptualisation of the laws of war, status in war and neutrality – limited to its terrestrials aspects – the emergence of new legal constraints regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians, siege warfare and use of weapons, the treatment of enemy possessions and occupation.

This chapter takes up an idea that is arguably a central component of common-sense thinking, as well as one that is widely accepted among philosophers. This is that all kinds of attitude–desires, beliefs, and goals and intentions–come in degrees. They can admit of differing strengths or causal efficacy. Although rarely fully articulated, some versions of the view go along with a distinctive picture of the nature of decision-making (called here “the push-push theory”). The chapter argues that neither beliefs nor desires admit of degrees, while also critiquing the philosophical theory of credences. Instead, beliefs embed analog-magnitude representations of likelihood and desires embed analog-magnitude representations of value. There is, however, an element of truth in the idea that intentions can differ in strength, at least as a trait-like property of individuals.