Abstract
Desire, in the form of the yearning and compelling urge to create, is the topic of this speculative but compelling reading of Tolkien’s recurring “Atlantis-complex” dream, his “exorcising” of it through its use as a recurring theme in his writing, and the underlying tangle of hubris, loss, and father/son issues that might well be the source of this vision. Events in Tolkien’s personal life are aligned with events in his creative life.