J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
Language: English
Pages: 384
ISBN: 061812764X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The core of the book consists of three chapters that examine THE LORD OF THE RINGS as a linguistic and cultural map, as a twisted web of story, and as a response to the meaning of myth. Shippey presents a unique argument to explain the nature of evil and gives readers a compelling insight into the complicated interweaving of many strands as the narrative moves between characters and into the remarkable skill behind the construction of such a rich and complex story. Other chapters examine THE HOBBIT, explaining the hobbits' anachronistic relationship to the heroic world of Middle-earth; the fundamental importance of THE SILMARILLION to Tolkien's canon; and an illuminating look at FARMER GILES OF HAM, LEAF BY NIGGLE, and other lesser-known works in connection to Tolkien's life.
With a clear and accessible style, Shippey offers a new approach to Tolkien, to fantasy, and to the importance of language in literature. He demonstrates how THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION form part of a live and continuing tradition of storytelling that can trace its roots back through Grimms' FAIRIY TALES to BEOWULF. J.R.R. TOLKIEN: AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY not only gives readers a deeper understanding of Tolkien and his work, but also serves as a learned and entertaining introduction to some of the finest and most influential works of fantasy ever written.
earthly epitaph is (from Perkins), ‘poor little Niggle!…Never knew he painted’. This fate of oblivion must have been what Tolkien feared; in 1939, and 1944, it seemed all too likely. The story’s title, ‘Leaf by Niggle’, is ironically enough the same as the title of the fragmentary work first preserved in the Museum and then lost for ever. Tolkien on other occasions at about this time (see Sauron Defeated, pp. 303, 308) gloomily imagined his writings surviving only uncomprehended and unread. In
detailed reading of the story, it is in general clear that Smith of Wootton Major is another ‘Valedictory Address’, or ‘Farewell to Arms’, in which Tolkien lays aside his star; defends the real-world utility of fantasy; insists that fantasy and faith are in harmony as visions of a higher world; hopes for a revival of both in a future in which the Nokeses of the world (the materialists, the misologists) will have less power; and possibly, though this is my last and most tentative suggestion,
nearer to our purpose. What shall we do with it?’ One reason the Council has not made any progress is that its members have been pre-occupied with issue (1) above. It is once again framed explicitly by Boromir, though only after the Council has been in session for some time, ‘How do the Wise know that this ring is [Isildur’s]?’, and repeated by Galdor, ‘The Wise may have good reason to believe that the halfling’s trove is indeed the Great Ring…But may we not hear the proofs?’ The only conclusive
Shadowfax returned at the same time to lure away their horses was just a coincidence – if there is such a thing as a coincidence, which Gandalf takes leave to doubt: he remarks at this point how strange it is that their enemies have managed only to ‘bring Merry and Pippin with marvellous speed, and in the nick of time, to Fangorn’ (and so to stir up the Ents), ‘where otherwise they would never have come at all’, a remark which bears on Gandalf’s theories about ‘chance’, to be discussed in the
cautiously and tactfully that Bilbo cannot have been doing much writing – ‘He won’t ever write our story now’ – and Bilbo wakes up enough to respond and in a sense appoint Frodo his literary executor. Bilbo, then, has adapted the poem just as Frodo did (taking over Frodo’s phrase ‘weary feet’), and left it still immediately relevant to his own personal circumstances, to what is happening in the room at the time. But the more the poem is adapted, the clearer its symbolic sense becomes, in which