Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World

by Verlyn Flieger (Editor)

J. R. R. Tolkien is perhaps best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but it is in The Silmarillion that the true depth of Tolkien’s Middle-earth can be understood. The Silmarillion was written before, during, and after Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A collection of stories, it provides information alluded to in Tolkien’s better known works and, in doing so, turns The Lord of the Rings into much more than a sequel to The Hobbit, making it instead a continuation of the mythology of Middle-earth. Verlyn Flieger’s expanded and updated edition of Splintered Light, a classic study of Tolkien’s fiction first published in 1983, examines The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings in light of Owen Barfield’s linguistic theory of the fragmentation of meaning. Flieger demonstrates Tolkien’s use of Barfield’s concept throughout the fiction, showing how his central image of primary light splintered and refracted acts as a metaphor for the languages, peoples, and history of Middle-earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics, Language, Mythology

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2000

About the author

Verlyn Flieger is an author, editor, and professor in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park. She teaches courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Flieger holds an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from The Catholic University of America, and has been associated with the University of Maryland since 1976. In 2012, Flieger began teaching Arthurian studies at Signum University.

Reviews

[Brenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite honestly, this is perhaps the best work of literary criticism I have ever read. Concentrated, brief, convincing, and with a nice script, it invites the reader to go deeply into Tolkien's works, particularly how The Silmarillion completes The Lord of the Rings.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tolkien’s work is more relevant to the world today than it appeared to be when The Lord of the Rings was first published in the mid-1950s. Reader initially enchanted by its fantasy world return again and again to the story for its soberer reflection of the real one.”

Drawing from the entire corpus of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work and influencers such as Owen Barfield, Flieger opens the greater vista of Tolkien’s created universe, especially as it relates to his (and our) own world. First published in 1983 and heavily revised in 2012 as more posthumous works were published, Light analyzes Tolkien and his world.

“The Silmarillion can be fully understood without reference to The Lord of the Rings, but the reverse is not the case.”

While Flieger focuses on The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, she delves into his letters, non-fiction essays, and relevant works of others. Some connections, like “The Sea-bell,” stretch the readers credulity. Those who stay with it will be rewarded.

“It would be tempting, at this point, to say to the reader, ‘If you are not interested in Tolkien’s languages, you may skip the next several chapters; they are short but dense, highly technical, complicated, and focused on minutiae.’ Unfortunately, I cannot in good conscience give such permission. Tolkien’s languages are both the bed-rock and the atmosphere of his world. If you stand in Tolkien’s world and breathe its air (and you do, or you wouldn’t have read this far), then you must be interested in his languages, whether you know it or not.”

Much is written about Tolkien’s invented languages. Not just the idle musings of a professional philologist, though he was that, but Flieger also investigates the reality and meaning of his created universe. And ours. For as light and language is splintered into every finer gradations of color and meaning it also departs farther from its originating wholeness. Tolkien used the elves to represent mankind’s journey away from the primal light and men the return.

“ ‘Actually I am a Christian,’ he wrote of himself, ‘and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’—though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.’ The alteration between the vision of hope and the experience of despair—between light and dark—is the essence of both Tolkien and his work.” Flieger

Tolkien’s Christianity shapes and is shaped by his writings. Readers of other faith communities or of none will find Light reveals new depths to Tolkien’s works without forcing them into his mold.

“The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn.’ … does not deny the existence of the dyscatatrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of the deliverance; it denies (in the face of evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.” JRRT

For students of Tolkien’s works, this is a valuable companion. Yes, it’s dense and academic, but it is also accessible and enlightening. If you have read most of his works already; read this before re-reading them. If you haven’t, read Tolkien first. It’s not that this will spoil those stories so much as you may be distracted from the story into analysis.

“To have identified himself with Beren as he did, Tolkien must have known that, however flawed he might be as a human in a fallen world, however dark his vision of that world, he too had been allowed to bring a splinter of the light to Middle-earth.”

Do read the footnotes. Can’t do it justice in this review. Sorry this is so long.

“Mythopoeia” by JRRT (emphasis added)
Dear Sir,” I said—“although now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet not de-throned,
And keeps the fags of lordship once he owned:
Man, sub-creator, the refracted Light
Through whom is splintered from a single White
To many hues, and endlessly combined
In living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
With Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
And sowed the seeds of dragons—‘twas our right
(used or misused). That right has not decayed:
We make still by the law in which we’re made.”

[Othy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flieger's book 'Splintered Light' is one of the classics of Tolkien scholarship, and the book is full of really fascinating insights. But whenever I read Flieger I always feel that something is a little off. Some of her conclusions just -barely- don't work. It's like she's in the uncanny valley of scholarship, being so close to amazing but just far enough away to be odd. For instance, Flieger's understanding of Tolkien in this present book would be really fascinating if it weren't for her insistence that Tolkien's understanding of religion and aesthetics was dualistic. Such a viewpoint doesn't work in the long-run, but the ideas she discusses on the way are really very good. It's rather odd, I suppose, but it's the only rationale I have for finding her books difficult to fully accept.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would probably be ideal to read this right after reading The Silmarillion. I would have, if I had known about it at the time. I decided to read it now because I've started following Jeff LaSala's The Silmarillion Primer at Tor. (I've caught up to the Jan. 31 post, but there have been a couple of new ones since then.)

Splintered Light focuses on The Silmarillion, with chapters 18-20 examining the relationship between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Flieger says that although critical opinion is weighted in favor of LotR, The Silmarillion "provides needed evidence that as a writer (and also as a Christian) Tolkien was distinct from both Lewis and Williams, far more unlike than he was like them... Tolkien’s theology was manifestly darker and tougher than Lewis’s, less occult than Williams’s, and less hopeful than either man’s. Tolkien’s belief is precarious, constantly renewed, yet always in jeopardy. It is this precariousness that gives his work its knife-edge excitement."

In Chapter 2: "Dyscatastrophe" Flieger examines Tolkien's view of tragedy in "The Monsters and the Critics" and in Chapter 3: "Eucatastrophe" examines his view of fairy tales in "On Fairy Stories."

Several chapters after this focus on Owen Barfield's linguistic theory of the fragmentation of meaning, that originally "myth, language and humanity's perception of the world are interlocked and inseparable" but that these things become increasingly fragmented with time. Flieger ties this into her discussion of the Sundering of the Elves and the summons of the Valar. The summons of the Valar had mixed results, and Flieger thinks that it was a mistake; I think she's probably right.

At one point, Flieger says that the Quenya/Sindarin distinction should not be seen as a value judgment, and that we should not assume "because one is 'brighter' than the other that Quenya is therefore 'good' and Sindarin less good. Sindarin is farther from the light but closer to the activities and concerns of Middle-earth." I'm not sure that I buy it (that is, I'm not convinced that the narrative isn't making a value judgment for one over the other). (see this post & this one)

The Silmarillion presents mortals as having the unique capability (withheld from Elves) to go beyond the Music of the Ainur, "which is as fate to all things else" (The Silmarillion). Flieger has an interesting explanation of how to reconcile this with the apparent importance of choices made by the Elves:
"A possible distinction may be that Men are given the power to act beyond the Music (that is, to alter external events or circumstances) while Elves, though bound by the Music, have the power to make internal choices, to alter some attitude toward themselves of other creatures or Eru.)"

Chapters 12 & 13 focus on the Noldor, their quest for knowledge, and their inventiveness. Flieger writes that "Tolkien's characterization of the Noldor could stand as a historian's description of any of the great civilization builders of past ages; closer still to home, it is a telling depiction of our own Renaissance and post-Renaissance culture." I love that.

Flieger has several chapters on the tale of Beren and Luthien. She says, comparing the Silmarils and the One Ring, "No bearer can escape the evil power of the Ring, but those who touch a Silmaril will be affected according to their motives -- good or evil -- for having it." She compares Beren's attitude toward the Silmaril with Thingol's. Beren's quest for the jewel is unselfish, and when his hand is bitten off he is not corrupted by it; and clearly there's something more disturbing about Thingol's attachment to the Silmaril. But The Silmarillion's last word on Beren, Luthien & the Silmaril is: "the wise have said that the Silmaril hastened their deaths, for the flame of beauty of Luthien as she wore it was too bright for mortal lands" ("Ch. 22: Of the Ruin of Doriath").

She doesn't mention that passage at all, but I'm not sure how to reconcile it with a reading that says there was nothing wrong with Beren and Luthien's attitude toward the Silmaril.

In one of the chapters on the connections between LotR and The Silmarillion, Flieger writes that there is no eucatastrophe in LotR: "This inadvertent victory, however, does not lessen the bleakness of Frodo's defeat. Here is no eucatastrophe, no consolation giving a glimpse of joy. What happens to Frodo is katastrophe, the downward turn in the action, where the hero is overcome."

I think it may be overstating things to say that the way things work out in LotR does nothing to "lessen the bleakness of Frodo's defeat." I really think that the end of The Lord of the Rings has a happier tone, despite a great deal of sorrow, than Flieger gives it credit for, especially compared to the end of The Silmarillion, where all the emotional emphasis in the last few pages is on the tragedy.

This was a difficult book to review, and I'm sure I will have to revisit some passages.

[Knox Merkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the Planet Narnia for Tolkien’s world. It expounds the theme which unites just about every detail behind the entire Tolkien legendarium down to the etymology of elvish names, and argues the point in such a way as to leave it indisputable and give a much deeper appreciation for the level of detail and insight Tolkien had. 11/10, awesome book!

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have included three of her books on my list, all of which I have read and appreciated very much. This is the first one I read and I found it thoughtful, in depth and very insightful. She understands Owen Barfield's thought (he was a member of the Inklings) and applies it to "The Silmarillian" and "The Lord of the Rings". I like Owen Barfield but find him sometimes hard to understand so I appreciate her thought even more. I would recommend her books to anyone seriously interested in Tolkien's thought and influence.

[Gwyndyllyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verlyn Flieger is amazing. She really and truly gets Tolkien and mythology. The depths of what it is Tolkien has created are elucidated by any of her works. I can't recommend this highly enough for any student of mythology or faery or lover of Tolkien's work.

[TJ West · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently had the pleasure of reading Verlyn Flieger's scholarly book Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World. Well-written and thoroughly-argued, the book is a stellar example of sound literary scholarship and is necessary reading for anyone looking for a more nuanced understanding of Tolkien's work and fantastic philosophy.

In essence, Fliger argues that, for Tolkien, the power of language and the power of light remain inextricably intertwined, with the former providing access to the latter. However, Tolkien's acts of subcreation, especially as represented in his invented English languages, also suggest that language undergoes a never-ending process of (de)volution. While it comes to provide a more nuanced understanding of the world, it also becomes more distanced from the light from which it originated. Given that in Tolkien's view language constructs and springs from reality, this has far-reaching consequences.

Most compellingly, in my view, Flieger suggests that Tolkien's work does not unambiguously elevate light over darkness. Instead, she suggests, Tolkien's various polarities that exist within the mythos rely upon each other for their construction. Motivated by his Christian (and specifically Catholic) worldview, however, Tolkien also argues that while life, and history, is a long defeat (a Fall), it is humankind's lot and duty to persevere and retain faith even in the certainty of that defeat.

She traces this motif through much of The Silmarillion. She has a clear, strong grasp of the nuances both of Tolkien's invented languages (she focuses primarily on Quena and Sindarin), as well as the many branches of the Elves that emerged after their emergence in Middle-earth. She traces a number of interesting features among the most important figures in Tolkien's most difficult yet ambitious work, including Feanor, Thingol, Beren, and Luthien.

Much of the book remains focused on The Silmarillion. It is only toward the end that Flieger shifts gears slightly and moves into a discussion of the ways in which the characters of The Lord of the Rings, pointing out how Frodo's sacrifice is so powerful precisely because he journeys, willingly, away from the light of the West and into the encroaching dark of the East. Frodo's fate, like so many tragic heroes, is to give up everything that he values so that others may possess them. He has given up and gone away from the light, yet there is hope, never entirely guaranteed, that he may regain it.

If there is one quibble I have with the book, it is the lack of a broader sense of the historical context in which Tolkien was writing. Admittedly, this sense may be due more to my own scholarly inclinations (I am an unashamed historicist), but to my mind it goes a long way toward explaining how Tolkien was not an escapist, but rather a writer struggling to come to terms with the world in which he lived.

For the most part, however, Flieger's is an accessible yet nuanced exploration of Tolkien's work. Her writing, clear and lucid throughout, makes her an ideal gateway for those non-academics seeking a richer understanding of the works of Tolkien. However, it is advisable to read The Silmarillion in its entirety before tackling Splintered Light.

There is something profoundly satisfying in reading a solid piece of scholarship. As one of those responsible for elevating Tolkien into the ranks of "legitimate" literature, Flieger's work deserves especial praise. Rather than seeing Tolkien's work as mere escapist fantasy, or indeed as mere fiction, Flieger allows us to see the way(s) in which it they work as a profoundly subtle and nuanced explorations of the deepest and most troubling philosophical questions haunting the 20th (and now the 21st) Century.

This review originally posted at Queerly Different

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at Tolkien's use of the Word, words, language and light in the world that he created. Actually, he called himself a sub-creator, as there is only one true Creator. He believed that it was important to go back to the roots of words, even to their ancient Indo-European meanings, to understand what a word truly means, in all of its nuances. As language got more complex, as more dialects proliferated, as words were more tightly defined, he felt that it has inexorably separated us from one another and from our surroundings. The more the meaning of something is splintered in this way, the more it will be seen as Other than we are.

[Jens Hieber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't possess enough nuance of language to encapsulate just how brilliant this work is. It's the best piece of literary criticism I've ever read and I can't imagine a better work. Flieger is a master of clear, purposeful, insightful, and revolutionary analysis. I'll never read any of Tolkien's work the same way again. I look forward to rereading this in a few years.

[emma june · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Silmarillion can be fully understood without reference to The Lord of the Rings, but the reverse is not the case. Any attempt to read, to understand, and to evaluate Tolkien’s fiction and his contribution to twentieth-century thought and fiction should begin where he began— at the beginning. Only then can there be any understanding of where he is going and, even more important, of why he is going there.”

[James Madsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb presentation of the effect that the seminal ideas of Owen Barfield's Poetic Diction had on J.R.R. Tolkien. This is exceptionally rewarding literary analysis and a great supplement to The Silmarillion. Very highly recommended!

[Norman Styers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent literary criticism. Thorough and judicious.

[Clare Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly one of the foundational works of Tolkien scholarship. I wish I had read it earlier! A great place to start for those interested in delving deeper into interpretations of Tolkien’s work.

[Wesley Schantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination opens with the distant music of jazz in a French memoir; Verlyn Flieger's Splintered Light: Language and Logos in Tolkien's World, with the distant music of the medieval worldview taken on for the creation of new worlds. Published decades apart and a generation or two ago, nevertheless both supply readers and students with excellent models for reading and scholarship to recur to. The idea of putting the two in conversation with one another has been hovering on the staircase of my mind for some time. Let's see how it goes here. In the scheme of things, if I am to take on board all they have to say to one another, however long it takes the lading will always be timely enough, because the ideas here are perennial.

How to compare the light and dark of Flieger and Morrison? First, we should note that each is a practitioner and a theorist, writer and teacher. There was an anecdote shared by Morrison's student, Mohsin Hamid, on the Ezra Klein show recently: "she used to say that you should keep your reader a half heartbeat ahead of the action of your novels, and that they shouldn’t know what’s coming next, but when it happens it should feel inevitable." Flieger's continued commitment to teaching and writing is likewise in evidence in her work with Signum University, just half a heartbeat away from anyone, anywhere, online. She kindly took the time to speak with me about my project investigating Philip Pullman's place in the wake of the Inklings, whose importance in literature she has done so much to explicate.

This combination of openness and demandingness is what draws me to them most as role models. For all the difference of their focus, both Morrison and Flieger are engaged with a project of expanding the circle of legitimacy and modeling the depth of thought with which readers and writers are rewarded by taking seriously, respectively, the presence of Blackness and whiteness in literature, and of eternal themes in fantasy and myth.

On that note of myth, we pick up with Flieger's Splintered Light. Of the two authors, she is of course the less celebrated; of the two books, hers is the less influential. Yet, as the preface and introduction show, she is just as dedicated to the project of uncovering truth in unexpected readings of literature. She brings a spirit of seriousness and play to her approach to the question, 'Why read Tolkien?' (viii) and her account of his 'myth for England' (xiv). As she argues, the key to understanding his accomplishment lies in the overlooked Silmarillion.

The predominating image of the book, and Flieger's metaphor for reading it, is light, that 'glittering white' which is the unity and origin of colors (1, 46). Together with this, she naturally associates an energetic, life-giving heat or warmth, which connects with the struggles of Tolkien's family in South Africa, particularly his mother (2). These unities contain the essential dualities of Tolkien's nature, his hope and despair, visualized in the play of light and dark (4). The fascinating early work of Tolkien on the word for black people and their land in Old English comes in for brief discussion (8, recalled in the story of the lamps and trees later 63). Like her subject, Flieger is careful, exact and exacting (8). She takes Tolkien's student Simonne d'Ardenne at her word when she suggests that through his study and fiction alike, he 'broke the veil' and saw realms lost to others' sight (9).

From this introduction to the 'Man of Antitheses,' Flieger embarks on arranging foundational material from Tolkien's two great essays, on Beowulf and fairytales. The former is 'dark '(11), in her reading redolent of the 'shadow of despair' underlying all Tolkien's efforts (17). And yet, through this dark shines the 'cosmic' (17), much like the opening sequence of Final Fantasy VII in a later medium. The centrality of monsters, such as Grendel, because of the clarity of their reflections on humanity--this becomes Tolkien's great insight into the story of Beowulf and into story writ large, so far overlooked by the critics (18, but certainly well recognized by Morrison).

From the equally seminal 'On Fairy-stories,' Flieger singles out the importance of such 'recovery' in Tolkien's scholarship as well as his fiction (25). 'Technology' and 'the speech of beasts' come to reinforce our dependence on story, the one a push, the other a pull (26), and to the end of stories of this sort, 'eucatastrophe' or the good turn (27). For instance, when Snow White opens her eyes (28, though perhaps we can only fully recover the wonder of this moment in the light of reading whiteness back into it, with the aid of Morrison and scholar-practitioners since). Out of this 'reversal,' Tolkien and Flieger bear witness, we experience not only the promise but the actuality of future, eternal 'joy' (29)

For the central chapters which follow, Flieger endeavors to show how the eternal light, the human dark, and their myriad gradations collaborate in the unfurling of Tolkien's vision. We might single out the imagery of the color green (41) from among the movement from white to 'many hues' (43, 158), given the pressing importance now for an environmental-stewardship reading of fiction and the world through it. We can infer this through Tolkien's reimagining of the diminutive fairies as 'elves,' and their fascinating migrations and descent along the lines of 'race,' echoing a colonial empire crumbling in the course of Tolkien's life (51). Once more, we encounter that 'Green sun' unifying the language and literature, the scholarly and imaginative, for Tolkien as for Flieger (60) in the midst of many shades of linguistic change and visual shades of grey and black (70). Theories of 'Indo-European peoples' come in for comparison with the family trees of languages and peoples in Tolkien's legendarium (77). As the 'dark' grows and prevails, (82) still it is in service of the essential contraries of human nature (86, 83, or as on 87 correlates).

In the beauty of the silmarils, 'jewels' recalling the etymology of Tolkien's early work on Africans as seen or imagined by Europeans, there lies the inevitable 'fall' of the overweening sub-creators (108-9). Flieger highlights the motif of 'appropriation' in the most literal sense, the 'desire to possess,' as a theme Tolkien took to be the heart of his plotting and narrative causation (110). In the horrible figure of Ungoliant, consuming and perverting light itself, she indicates a monstrous fear at the back of all the hopeful happy endings and theoretical tendencies of her subject (112). Yet another overlooked instance of the same process is the spoiling of the original 'white ships' whose role in the main story of the Lord of the Rings is one of saving and healing (115).

The movement from east to west proves fundamental in Tolkien's work, setting up the contrary movement towards the east in Frodo's quest (121, 124). The figure of the 'white lady,' likewise, has many iterations in his stories (122). Flieger's accumulation of evidence, with her patient application of the core prevalence of light and language across the examples, recovers from cliche such formulations as the movement from 'dark to light' (125) and the 'fall' (128). Her work, too, becomes a 'tapestry' (129) woven 'in the dark' (130). From an 'aristocracy of light' (131), drawn as they are by love and enchantment (133, 140), the elves proceed athwart the universal imperative toward darkness (145).

Only towards the end of the book does Flieger assign a place within this framework to the humble hobbits whom Tolkien found the 'accidental' heroes of his better-known stories. In their humility we have transmitted the 'unsullied light' of a reworked early poem on the morning star, Earendil (148), and clinging to their earthiness we have the 'dust' or 'mote' that Tolkien likened himself to back in the opening chapter's epigraph (150, 156, 7). With reference to the psychology of Jung, Flieger restates once more the urgency of confronting and accounting for our 'shadow' (151), and recognizing the meaning behind what we take to be 'invisible' (157). Finally, she identifies a counterpart to the ring in the 'phial' lighting the hobbits' way, drawing our attention to that fascinating way in which Galadriel abjures her love as perilous if it is not freely given and received (159). Over against the early poems of Earendil and 'Mythopoeia,' we have Frodo's Dreme and the dream of the veil rolling back (165).

Flieger concludes her work there, having bridged the then-inaccessible backdrop of The Silmarillion, Tolkien's poetry and scholarship on myth and language, with his perennially popular fantasies. She remarks, with Tennyson's Arthur, that 'The old order changeth' (171)--and this is well.

With such admirable scholarship to draw upon, where do we go from here? The work of Marilynne Robinson, her fiction and essays and her dialogues with President Obama; contemporary speculative fiction from NK Jemison or Colson Whitehead; or perhaps a talk by Marlon James, the seventh annual Tolkien lecture at Pembroke College, on why he turned from Booker-prize winning literature to fantasy, and is now engaged in creating a collective African mythology in response to Tolkien. Or, knowing me, most likely, inexorably, incorrigibly, back to Philip Pullman.

[Mythlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr Flieger is lively and interesting, as always. I did find myself strongly resisting her take on the scene at Mt Doom where Sam sees Frodo as "the dear master of his sweet days in the Shire." She says: "This is wishful thinking. The view is through Sam's eyes and Sam is blinded by love and hope. Frodo is not what he was. He is not the same, nor will he ever be." She focuses on Frodo as failure, broken and maimed, and diminished, broken and broken down.

There's truth to this, for sure, but it's not the whole story. Frodo has been restored to something much more like his prior Shire self, in many respects (even if only temporarily). Sam is not wrong to notice that Frodo has regained a large measure of peace (his inner struggle with the Ring has ended, his burden has been relieved, and he is peacefully resigned to his assumed imminent death); of virtue (he is no longer a stage villain seeking domination of others); of human warmth (he is no longer monomanically fixated on the Ring and can now remember and experience ordinary emotions of affection and gratitude); and of broader perception (again, he is no longer obsessed with the Ring to exclusion of all else). In all these ways, he is much more himself than he has been.

Of course Frodo is not unchanged, and Dr Flieger is correct that he is permanently broken. Sam cannot see that Frodo is broken and will never be whole again -- but not necessarily because he is blinded by love and hope. It's the kind of thing that manifests itself over time, and it's just too early to know the long-term effects. Sam also cannot see that Frodo's peace is only temporary, but he's right if he sees Frodo's current peace.

But then again, in some ways, Frodo has changed for the better; he is wiser, more virtuous and more compassionate, and more humble. And I'm not sure Sam sees this either at the moment of recognizing him as the "dear master of the sweet days of the Shire."

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2494949.html

Flieger's Tolkien analysis was recommended to me last year, and this is her most popular book (also seems to be the only one available in ebook format). I found it very interesting. I was less convinced by her strong thesis, that Tolkien's core message is to do with splintered light v darkness, but rather more so by her incidental detail, that when choosing words Tolkien was very aware of their Indo-European roots and some of his choices of phrase particularly need to be understood in that light. She does have some good evidence, notably the Silmarils and the undoubted intellectual and personal links between Tolkien and Owen Barfield who had ideas along the lines, but I think there is so much going on in Tolkien's work taht it can't really be reduced to just this theme (and I thought her treatment of Tolkien's own personality was a bit awkward).

It's rather dated - the first edition is from 1983, and perhaps is an attempt to explain the Silmarillion; the second edition, from 2003, draws rather less on the History of Middle-Earth, which had all been published by then, than I would have expected. Also absent is any mention of how the light/dark good/evil dichotomies might be read in terms of Tolkien's attitudes to race, which feels like a big omission.

[Carl]

Been wanting to read this for years, at least since reading Owen Barfield's "Poetic Diction" (which I need to reread). I'm interested to see if this account of Tolkien's and Barfield's philosophy of language will fit in an interesting way with the hermenuetic phenomenology I'm getting into, or whether they will be at odds with each other-- I'm inclined to speculate that while both parties, say, Ricoeur and Barfield, would possibly fight over how to define things, etc, there is still a common passion behind the differing perspectives, and even the perspecitves are closer than one might thing, at least taken in opposition to the rest of the field. I'd love to spend enough time with all this to write something which would bring together the two schools of thought, but doubt I'll have the time. Too much mythology to read and write about.

[Barbara K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have a serious interest in literature, Tolkien, or even in Gnosticism, this is a fascinating look at the world created by Tolkien, and its mythical and linguistic cosmology.

Knowledge of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helps. I'd recommend having a copy of The Silmarillion on hand, and having at least started to read it. A prior familiarity with Tolkien's essay, "On Fairy-stories" is helpful as well.

[Tommy Grooms · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at theme of fragmentation of both light and language in Tolkien's mythology. Fleiger's assertion that the conflict between good and evil is dualistic is I think questionable based on certain characterizations of evil in LOTR, but beyond that Fleiger illuminates (pun intended) aspects of Tolkien's work that I had never seen or considered. I'm very much looking forward to tracking down her other books.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent interpretation of Tolkien through his works, with special attention to the Silmarillion. Flieger plays heavily upon an antithesis in Tolkien's psyche (or whatever you wish to call a person's internal makeup) that is probably to neat and tidy, but it is nonetheless helpful in highlighting some excellent themes in Tolkien's writings.

[Norbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendido testo che analizza come, nella storia della Terra di Mezzo, si abbia un progressivo impoverimento, rappresentato con la distruzione prima delle Lampade e poi dei due Alberi. Libro non banale. L'autrice, d'altronde, è una garanzia

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best book about Tolkien not by a Tolkien I have ever read, possibly even enlightened my reading more than the official biography.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes the Silmarillion.

8/10

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the connections are tenuous. Persona cannot always be so closely tied to author. Remember Jonathan Swift. The Sea-Bell may not be connected to ideas as stated. Her prose is at times laborious.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex but enlightening analysis of the themetic structure underlying all of Tolkien's writing, particularly The Silmarillion.

[Timothy Widman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an awesome book, but really meant for those serious about delving deeper into Tolkien's works.

[DMae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just purchased on Amazon

[Adam Shaeffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, fascinating, and deeply insightful, Flieger's work is well and truly worth the read for anyone who loves or even admires Tolkien's work.

[Ted Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers of the Silmarillion may find the analysis of Tolkien's work presented here quite interesting and gain an even deeper respect for his 'sub-creation.'

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scholarly. Deals mainly with the contents of the Silmarillion.