Although the literary heritage of the period 1550-1800 appears somewhat barren in Tolkien studies – too late to be properly medieval in language and thought, too early to engage meaningfully with the apocalyptic challenges of the twentieth century – this chapter argues that e literary heritage of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries provided important material that profoundly affected Tolkien’s overall vision. Canonical poets such as Shakespeare and Milton, as well as more neglected antiquarian and medievalist writers influenced the composition of Middle-Earth, as did theories of the sublime and emerging movements such as the Gothic. This is a revised version of a chapter first published in 2014.