Review: J. R. R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth

J. R. R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth by Daniel Grotta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I was reading this while waiting for my doctor to give a regular physical exam. He remarked that he had read it and recalled that it portrayed Tolkien a very Christian. Indeed, it does and thus neatly dovetails Tolkien with fellow Inklings, like C. S. Lewis.

However, this biography is much more than that. I especially like this 1975 work for clearly indicating how the master philologist needed to create The Hobbit and LOTR in order to flesh out the Elvish tongue. It was language and the handmade myth that truly compelled him.

"As Tolkien worked on Elvish, he discovered some very important principles that were later to lead him into writing both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. As he created his language, he realized that language presupposed a mythology. In his view, language developed from a desire to relate experience, and not merely to convey information. To tell the past is history; but explain the past, and to make it meaningful to the present, is mythology. Suddenly, Tolkien realized that Elvish was useless as a language unless it too had a mythology, or a meaningful history to explain its origin and justify its existence.”

Thus, this mytho-philoligical imperative led to the development of Middle-earth’s people, stories, and sorrows. He constructed his myths to fully invent the Elvish language.

Also, definitely, the author makes convincing arguments that Tolkien’s youth and moving from South Africa to a transforming Sarehole in England had much more to do with the birth of The Hobbit and LOTR than WWI or even WWII. Also, I had no idea “dwarves” was a thoroughly defended misspelling.
This books gives such detail on England in South Africa (Orange Free State), Oxford and English university history and systems as well as copyright laws between England and America that the book has very much a microhistory feel, making it feel modern like it belong on the shelf next to Mark Kurlansky, etc.




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