J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth

by George Clark, George Clark (Editor)

Although Tolkien's literary works have, over the past few decades, attracted a considerable and varied body of criticism, much of this material is inaccessible, unreflective, and repetitive. Most criticism has concentrated on his sources and biographical influences, but such studies generally do not look beyond his interest in medieval literature. Nonetheless, Tolkien's writings have links and resonances with the whole of English literature from Old Norse traditions to contemporary literary thought. This book corrects a striking imbalance in Tolkien scholarship by placing his works within a larger literary context.

The volume ranges over the entire history of English literature, including oral narrative tradition, Anglo-Saxon poetry, medieval romance, Renaissance poetics, 19th-century adventure stories, modern art, and contemporary fantasy. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor who demonstrates Tolkien's relation to an earlier literary movement and examines the literary resonances of his works from a variety of informed perspectives. By grounding Tolkien's writings within the larger canon of literature, the book argues that his works actually fall within the mainstream literary tradition.

Genres: Nonfiction

214 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2000

Reviews

[Scott Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished this excellent volume of Tolkien scholarship today as well. GOOD book. I especially liked the last two articles: Tom Shippey's "Orcs, Wraiths, and Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil," and the penultimate article dealing with the unrelenting theme of loss in Tolkien's fiction, "Loss Eternal in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth" by W. A. Senior. These essays speak to the power of Tolkien's fiction, and to the elements that I feel most firmly situate as a writer in and of his time, despite whatever anachronisms his fiction/writing style may include. In fact, the articles in the volume grew as the volume went on in my opinion, interesting at the beginning and growing in strength to culminate in the final two. How anyone can see work of this diversity and quality and then turn around and dismiss Tolkien as worthy of study is beyond my ability to comprehend. If they read the volume and paid any attention at all they wouldn't necessarily have to love Tolkien, but they'd have to at least recognize the merit of his work.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of scholarly essays on literary influences on The Hobbit and LOTR, some of which are very interesting (the ones on Tolkien's views of loss, evil, and darkness (in comparison with Milton), as well as the generally ignored complexities of his ecological consciousness, but others of which (the one on the structure of his poetry, particularly) did nothing for me. Unlike a lot of the Tolkien-related books out there, this one is not light reading.