Customer Reviews

The Road to Middle-Earth

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Shippey's "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" places Tolkien in the context of his time. "The Road to Middle-earth" has the more scholastically challenging job of placing Tolkien in the context of his tradition. As that tradition is primarily philological and philosophical, these are his subjects. He tells us what Tolkien meant the words and names in his stories to mean; he tells us how Tolkien used modern language to convey modern and ancient styles and philosophies in contrast; he tells us how the Ring mediates two mutually exclusive concepts of evil; he explains Tolkien's complex narrative strategies; he dresses down critics who misunderstand Tolkien and blame him for not fitting into their concepts of literature; and he does all this with such a blistering display of erudition and general intelligence that the reader sits back amazed.

The book is discursive, and the opening theoretical chapters may seem heavy going, but have patience: they provide necessary context. Shippey has Tolkien's measure in full throughout. He explains what was important to Tolkien, what Tolkien thought he was doing, and - no less vitally - why it is necessary to understand this if one is not to bash Tolkien in annoyance for not accomplishing something totally different.

If you read Shippey, will you necessarily understand Tolkien? No. But if you don't read Shippey, and if you also don't have his insight and knowledge, you will not fully understand Tolkien.

I only have one complaint about The Road to Middle-earth and that is that Shippey doesn't concede an inch to Tolkien's non-Anglo-Saxon influences. The only real flaw in the book is the fact that the reader can easily be led to believe that everything Tolkien put into The Lord of the Rings was drawn from something in Anglo-Saxon history or legend.

As long as people keep an open mind, however, The Road to Middle-earth sheds light on some of the most obscure details and references in Tolkien's work. Shippey admits in the foreword he may be stepping across the line, since Tolkien himself warned the author against reading too much into anything. But the ride is fun and in Shippey's whirlwind fashion the reader is treated to a torrent of near-mystical adulation for one of the 20th century's greatest authors.

The writing is straight-forward and well within the reach of most readers. One of the pitfalls of literary scholarship which Shippey avoids is an overdependence upon jargon. He knows his audience wants to read more about Middle-earth and less about what fancy words critics are most apt to use.

And despite Shippey's own tendency to accuse Tolkien of deception, he pounces with delightful vengeance and righteous anger upon many a critic who has sought to lay low the immensity of Tolkien's creation. One needn't agree with everything Shippey writes in order to appreciate the passion he has for Middle-earth, or the intense loyalty the writer feels toward Tolkien himself.

Of all the Tolkien commentators who have ever dared put pen to paper, T. A. Shippey is most probably the best qualified (after Christopher Tolkien) to say anything at all concerning how Tolkien may have viewed his creation, or what Tolkien might have intended to say between the lines.

This book is quite simply superb in every conceiveable respect. It is written by a scholar who understands and respects Tolkien's own scholarly passion for philology, the science and stories of the evolution of words and language. This is very different from the humanistic field of literary criticism, and Shippey explains at some length what a philologist can and cannot do. The close reader will end Shippey's book with a wistful feeling that some very wrong turns have been made in academia over the past one hundred years, and one of the reasons for Tolkien's greatness in his time was quite simply his refusal to accept or acknowledge that these wrong turns had been made. At bottom, a scholar of literature is, or at least ought to be, someone who loves words. We will always have a few of these people among us, and Tolkien's and Shippey's works remind us that no overgrown pathway is ever truly lost.

Tom Shippey has an intimate knowledge of the mind and creative processes of the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, perhaps nearly as intimate a knowledge as Christopher Tolkien himself. The degree of the schism between language and literature professors of his day was most startling, and how that affected the early critics' appraisals of his masterpiece was also not what I had expected. Tom Shippey's knowledge of JRR Tolkien's mind is most revealing and is encyclopedic, and his ability to explain how deeply the master philologist would see legends and myths in the most ordinary of names and words left me thunderstruck. I have read all five of the main Middle Earth volumes several times and have read some of the Lost Tales, but I had not gained any insight from previous volumes saying how Pr. Tolkien created his world. The authors of those books seemed to lack legitimacy. Tom Shippey does not have that problem, and his book demonstrates that he is Pr. Tolkien's bona fide pupil and linguistic heir. Fans of Middle Earth should be thankful for Tom Shippey's insight, an insight that could only be bettered by Christopher Tolkien, or Pr. Tolkien himself.

This is one of the best books I know. Far superior to The History of Middle-Earth (which, though superbly informative, can get very dry, and makes one wonder how many real-world histories and/or mythologies have got this detailed a treatment of their creation).

I got this as a present when I was 13. It was my first introduction to Tolkien's 'scholarly' side, and I found it fascinating and accessible even though I was young, inexperienced with academic writing, and English isn't my mother tongue.

12 years later I am still reading it. Through the years new aspects of the book have opened up; Prof. Shippey's writing is the very best of academia, erudite in a way which makes the layers upon layers of accumulated knowledge open up like the rolling meadows of Rohan (say).

I have even started doing academic work myself on some issues which concerned Tolkien - and Shippey remains my great, solid stepping-stone (whoops, online alliterative reviews?) to understanding Tolkien and Tolkien's sources of inspiration and academic interest.

While most literary criticism about Tolkien focuses on the plots of the stories, this book follows Tolkien's own explanation by looking at the words that inspired Tolkien. Instead of just being told that Tolkien's languages are based on Old English, Old Norse, Gothic, or whatnot, Shippey explains how, based on his own knowledge of these languages. His familiarty with the ancient works that may have inspired Tolkien lend a credibility to his analysis. Those who have read Tolkien's work, but remain ignorant of his "scholarly" interests will learn much from this book, and maybe even find something else to read with the same enthusiasm, ie, the Kalevala. I found that this approach of studying the language employed by Tolkien led to a more thorough and accurate analysis of his work. IT was an accute contrast to those who analyzed the work as a traditional quest, pointing out the similar events. Tolkien's genius lies in his words, his names, and his storytelling. His plots are secondary, though of course important as well. Those who analyze just the plots miss this genius, and tend to make mistakes in their interpretations. The only disappointment I had in this book was perhaps a tendency to ascribe ideas to Tolkien that seemed more likely to be Shippey's, and perhaps an over-confidence in interpreting the allegorical meanings of Leaf by Niggle and such.

Overall, this was a brilliant and different analysis of Tolkien's work, and well worth reading by anyone who wishes to understand why his work has such an appeal to such a wide audience. Also, fans will find greater understanding of the language from a philological perspective.

Tom Shippey's book focuses on the creative process leading to LOTR and the Silmarillion and draws from all of Tolkien's other works as well as a variety of other appropriate works that were familiar to Tolkien. It is dense with interesting information and analysis, and was quite engaging for a work with a rather academic focus. The book is wide-ranging covering topics from the philological origins of Tolkien's names and languages to the various types of literature from romantic to epic to lower modern forms represented by the various characters and passages, to the possibly religious aspects of Tolkien's story and the various compromises he made in the process of finishing his never-finished work (And many other aspects, as noted in previous reviewers' comments). "Much food for thought" is an understatement. Shippey's book is a must-read for any true Tolkien fan.

Although it has been almost a year since I read this book, I can't stop thinking about what I found within its pages. Expecting a dry tome of literary criticism, instead I found an exciting account of the path Tolkien walked as he discovered Middle Earth. T. A. Shippey takes us on a quest to follow the gradual creation of Tolkien's fantasy world. With Shippey as our guide, we retrace the literary steps of this century's Bard as he delved into ancient languages and unearthed the meanings of forgotten words.

Shippey uses a friendly, common-sense order that avoids scaring off newcomers to literary criticism, and simultaneously draws in the most discriminating philologists and literary critics. This book would be an invaluable treasure to anyone who loves Tolkien's work, or who wants to better understand the art of creative writing for their own endeavors.

Tom Shippey is a profound student of Tolkien with a deep love of middle-earth and a deep understanding of it and its origins.

Unlike so many academics, he is a fine writer. He has style, insight and erudition. Professor Shippey succeeded to Tolkien's chair at Oxford and he has the feeling of Tolkien's world in his bones. He knows Tolkien not only as a fantasist but also as a philologist and understands - and can explain in simple and lucid language - how Tolkien's studies of words influenced his creative work. He has also written interesting critiques of science-fiction.

This is a most valuable book that will contribute proufoundly to any reader's understanding and appreciation of Tolkien's greatness without - and this is very important! - destroying the magic.

I know Tolkien's work well and cannot fault this book.

Shippey walks the reader through Tolkien's lifelong fascination with and love and study of language, which is the golden thread of Tolkien's depiction of humankind through the mists of our earliest time on the planet.