The Road to Middle-Earth
OCLC 60000827 | |
The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the
The book's various versions, including new editions in 1993 and 2005, have been welcomed by Tolkien scholars and others as rigorous, convincing, and "the single best book written on Tolkien".[1] Shippey won the 1984 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies for the book.
Book
Background
Synopsis
The book discusses Tolkien's inspiration in creating the world of Middle-earth and the writing of works including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. A recurrent theme is that of Tolkien's detailed linguistic studies (particularly of Old Norse and Old English) and the creation of languages (such as Sindarin and Khuzdul) which feature prominently throughout his works.
The book begins by explaining Tolkien's
An appendix discusses
In the third edition, the book concludes with a chapter on Peter Jackson's film version of The Lord of the Rings; it notes the film trilogy's enormous popular and commercial success, and considers how far the films are faithful to the book. In Shippey's view, the films tend both to "democratisation" and to "emotionalisation" of the narrative, though he welcomes the fact that Jackson has brought a fresh audience to Tolkien's work.[4]
Publication history
The book was first published in 1982, by
The book has been translated into at least four languages. A Polish edition was published in 2001 by Zysk i S-ka in Poznań. A Spanish edition was brought out by Planeta-De Agostini in Barcelona in 2002. A Russian edition appeared in 2003, published by Limbus Press of Saint Petersburg. A German edition was published by Klett-Cotta in Stuttgart in 2018.[5]
Reception
Jessica Yates, in
Kirkus Reviews in 1983 called the work "In sum: the most useful book on Tolkien since the Carpenter biography". The review describes the book as an "erratically enlightening study", one that sometimes goes into great detail on minute points, but that powerfully sets out a major thesis. This is, states the review, that clues from philological study – Tolkien's profession – of Old English and other languages of that period suggested "the greatness of some hidden pre-literate Northern past", and that Tolkien set about inventing "the world that should have existed for legend to take place in, and constructed the epic that should have lain behind the 'asterisk-world' of philogical conjecture".[7]
Gergely Nagy, in Tolkien Studies, writes that the 2005 revision is "the good old Road", with useful additions. The book was in his view from 1982 "emblematic" of the "source-study" or "comparative study" approach to Tolkien criticism. Nagy calls it "the seminal monograph",[8] and recalls that Glen GoodKnight, founder of the Mythopoeic Society, had called it "the best single book written on Tolkien". GoodKnight noted, too, Shippey's comments in the preface to the second edition that he had not had to make many changes despite the publication of Christopher Tolkien's detailed The History of Middle-earth, meaning that his early predictions had proven accurate.[1]
Charles Moseley, in The Observer in 2000, writes that the book demonstrated that Shippey was "one of Tolkien's most acute critics and convincing apologists".[9]
The historian Bradley J. Birzer, reviewing another of Shippey's books, his 2000 J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century in Catholic Social Science Review, writes that it contains similar information to his scholarly The Road to Middle-Earth, but aimed at a well-educated general audience.[10]
Awards
In 1984 the first edition of the book received the
See also
- Beowulf in Middle-earth– the influence of Tolkien's favourite medieval work on his own writing
References
- ^ a b GoodKnight, Glen (1993). "The Road Goes Ever On". Mythlore. 19 (3). article 14.
- ^ "Publication information for The Road to Middle-earth". Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-1486-1. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
- ^ Shippey 2005, Peter Jackson's Film versions.
- ^ a b "ti:The Road to Middle-Earth au:Shippey". WorldCat. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
- ^ Yates, Jessica (1984). "The Road Goes Ever On". Mythlore. 9 (4). article 15.
- ^ "The Road to Middle-earth". Kirkus Reviews. 1 April 1983. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
- S2CID 170416664.
- ^ Moseley, Charles (7 October 2000). "A Creature of Hobbit". The Observer. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
- .
- ^ "Mythopoeic Awards - List of Winners". The Mythopoeic Society. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
- ^ "Mythopoeic Awards - About the Awards". The Mythopoeic Society. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0261102750.