A Tolkien Compass [Mass Market Paperback]

Jared Lobdell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1980

This guide to travels in Middle-Earth includes an original chapter by Tolkien himself, explaining the meaning and origin of the names in Lord of the Rings. Can hobbits be psychoanalyzed? Does Tolkien’s Christianity shine through his imitations of pagan legends? Do his books offer a useful guide to everyday life? These and many more questions are addressed in the eleven chapters of this book. Contributors analyze Gollum’s character transformation, the psychological journey of Bilbo, the regime set up by Saruman at the end of Lord of the Rings and its parallels to fascism, the books’ narrative technique, and Tolkien’s rich use of myth and symbol. This is an insightful book that will appeal to both old and new Tolkien fans.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (May 12, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345288556
• ISBN-13: 978-0345288554
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,157,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892.1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good collection, but incomplete, March 11, 2003

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Tolkien Compass (Paperback)

"Tolkien Compass" was long out of print, along with a lot of other good books on and by J.R.R. Tolkien. Now with the release of the live-action movie trilogy, virtually all the Tolkien-related books are being pulled off the shelves and rereleased -- this among them. It's a good, insightful collection of essays, but there's something vital missing...

It's a compilation of essays, by various people. Among them are Bonniejean Christensen's
study of Gollum in "The Hobbit" -- there were two versions of the "Riddles in the Dark"
chapter; Walter Scheps's "Fairy-Tale Morality of Lord of the Rings," which studies the ethics
of Tolkien's trilogy as well as traditional fairy-tales; Agnes Perkins and Helen Hill's essay on
power, corruption, the lust for power, and the One Ring; Deborah C. Rogers's study of
humanity both in the "everyman" hobbits and in the noble Aragorn; Robert Plank's study of
the Scouring of the Shire and how it reflects fascism; and several others. On the downside, Dorothy Matthews' "The Psychological Journey of Bilbo Baggins" is okay, but rather off-balance because it explains a hobbit's mind in complex jargon -- those don't go together.

But there is a major problem. I was fortunate enough to find a first-edition paperback of this book, from the 1970s, and the last part of it is a special meaning and pronunciation guide by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. It's a wonderful bonus, and worth the price of the book alone. But for some reason, the chapter has been removed from the reprinted "Tolkien Compass." It's just essays, no Tolkien -- I'm not sure why it was removed, but it was.

"Tolkien Compass" is a good collection of scholarly essays on various facets of Tolkien's
work, which aren't dumbed down but also aren't too hard to understand. If the extra guide chapter had been included, this would have been a reissued treasure. As it is, it seems very incomplete.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Missing Appendix, March 19, 2003

By 

San Valentino (Villanova, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tolkien Compass (Paperback)

Reviewer la solinas complains that the new edition fails to include Tolkien's "Notes on Nomenclature," which the 1975 edition offered. A glance at page 157 would have explained why. The Tolkien Estate would not permit its reprinting, because the Estate plans to republish it another book. "A Tolkien Compass" is a splendid book. Jared Lobdell appreciated the depth of Tolkien's genius long before most Americans.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A literary analysis excellent in its scope, May 16, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tolkien Compass (Paperback)

Fans of Tolkien and his fantasy will thrill to A Tolkien Compass, a handbook which provides reflections on his political, religious, and psychological principles. Ten writers explore these concepts, offering very different backgrounds of expertise and approaches to Tolkien's art. The result is a literary analysis excellent in its scope.