A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien

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A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
OCLC
1204367569

A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien is a 2014 book edited by

Tolkien studies.[2]

Reviewers praised the book as a careful work and a valuable guide to the topic area.

Journal of Tolkien Research noted the distinguished line-up of scholarly contributors, and called it "joyous indeed" that Tolkien had finally attained acceptance by the literary establishment as measured by having a Blackwell Companion to his name.[1]

Context

Wiley Blackwell has published some 90 titles in its Companions to Literature and Culture series. These cover topics such as medieval poetry, the American short story, or the British and Irish novel; and major authors such as Mark Twain, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare.[4]

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[5]

Book

Wiley Blackwell published the Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien in hardback in 2014, and in paperback in 2020. A second edition appeared in 2022.[6][7]

The volume begins with a 12-page chronological table of Tolkien's life and works,

response to Tolkien, and the key elements such as Catholicism, war (by Janet Brennan Croft), the role of women, fantasy artists' responses to Middle-earth, and music in his fiction.[1][15]

The work is illustrated with a few tables in the text, and in the "Art" essay by Christopher Tuthill, present in the final section, nine monochrome reproductions of fantasy artworks by major

Tolkien artists such as Alan Lee, John Howe, and Ted Nasmith.[16]

Reception

Further information: Literary reception of The Lord of the Rings
The Lay of Leithian
.

The Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher, reviewing the book for Mythlore, called it a "sign of the growing maturity of Tolkien studies".[17] Observing that Lee had felt it necessary to apologise for a literary study of Tolkien; in response, Fisher commented it was time to "shake off this defensive note fifty years on" and ignore "those stodgy keepers of the canon who still dismiss Tolkien".[17] He stated that the book's "careful organization" means less repetition than in most works with many contributors, while its use of established experts "immediately conveys authority and confidence in the quality of the work".

Ursula Le Guin, Philip Pullman, and J. K. Rowling who recognised their debt to him while finding "their own distinct storytelling expression".[17]

The scholar Jorge Luis Bueno-Alonso, reviewing A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien for Tolkien Studies, described Lee as "one of the outstanding names of recent Tolkien critical scholarship and co-author of one of the most imaginative books on the relationships between Tolkien's fiction and medieval English literature".[3] Of the book, he wrote that it brought order to the morass of publications on Tolkien, and noted that it finally brought Tolkien into the canon of Anglo-American studies as it was one of the "prestigious" Blackwell Companion series. He called the challenge of making a brief 25-page overview of Tolkien's life, undertaken by John Garth in the volume, "an enta geweorc", ("a work of giants").[3]

Andrew Higgins, a Tolkien scholar, reviewing the book for the

foreign language adaptations of Tolkien's work or the significance of Beowulf as an influence on Tolkien, plus the need to update the volume with the analysis of Tolkien's The Fall of Arthur, a poem published only in 2013.[1]

The scholar of literature and curator of rare books Cait Coker, in her review for

Tolkien studies had come of age, from being the "bad boy" of academic inquiry into science fiction and fantasy. In her view, this Blackwell volume "aptly illustrates the singular author's claim on greatness".[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Higgins, Andrew (2015). "A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Stuart D. Lee, reviewed by Andrew Higgins". Journal of Tolkien Research. 2 (1). Article 2.
  2. ISSN 0950-4125
    .
  3. ^
    S2CID 170885143
    . Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  4. ^ "Series: Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture". Overdrive. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  5. ISBN 978-0-04928-039-7
    .
  6. ^ Lee 2020, p. Publication data page.
  7. ^ "A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien by Stuart D. Lee". WorldCat. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  8. ^ Lee 2020, pp. xxii–xxxiv.
  9. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 1–4.
  10. ^ Lee 2020, pp. vii–ix.
  11. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 7–24.
  12. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 25–76.
  13. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 77–214.
  14. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 215–366.
  15. ^ Lee 2020, pp. 367–544.
  16. ^ a b Lee 2020, pp. 487–500.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h Fisher, Jason (2016). "A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien". Mythlore. 35 (1 (Fall/Winter)): 191–200 (article 10).
  18. ^ Coker, Cait (2017). "A Comprehensive Overview of Tolkien Studies". Extrapolation. 58 (2/3): 331–333.

Bibliography

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