Customer Reviews

Tolkien's world

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If you love poetry and Art (generic), this is for you. If you don't, it is not. It can appeal to a teenager of a certaind type and a fifty-year-old of the same type. But it is not everybody's cup of tea.

Randel Helms looks at Tolkien's major works, "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", both separately and in relation to each other, and traces the development of Tolkien's world through early essays and lectures, to "The Hobbit", to its culmination in "Lord of the Rings". The theme of power, the origins of orcs, the meaning of being a 'hero', as viewed and developed by Tolkien through these works, are all discussed. Helms also makes a (largely mocking) psycho-analytic analysis of "The Hobbit" as a child's tale of growing up, and, more importantly, compares the structures of "The Hobbit" to the structure of "Lord of the Rings" to show how the later work was influenced by the earlier, yet was also a maturation of Tolkien's vision. Finally, Helms looks at some of Tolkien's later short works as allegories about his own relation to his art. An entertaining and recommended critical study of Tolkien, which is always insightful and never heavy-handed.

Tolkien's World was a bit of a disappointment. I had Dr. Helms as an instructor at ASU in Bible As Literature and I was very impressed with his scholarship and ability to convey his message. In that class I found out that he was a Tolkien scholar as well and sought out this book in 2003. Having only just now gotten around to reading it I found I couldn't get into it; found that I couldn't quite understand exactly what Helms was trying to portray.

Much of the book revolves around everything that is not The Lord of the Rings. The first three chapters is a lead into Tolkien and how he came to write about fantasy and the world he created, as well as showing how he was preparing an audience through his lectures and essays, most notably his essay on Beowulf. All this is understandable. Then Chapter IV revolves around a comparison with Blake. The irony here is the comparison is based off of an Orc, yet each Orc is the complete opposite: Blake's foils repression and Tolkien represses the Orc. I have never read a comparison that is based off of opposites, yet Helms does it. Chapter V is the best chapter and shows really why Helms is a Tolkien scholar as he was able to analyze and deconstruct The Lord of the Rings in a very orderly and succinct way. Then Chapter VI is about allegory and how Tolkien was against allegories, and yet he wrote two allegoric tales to help transition him into completing The Lord of the Rings.

All very confusing and perhaps I had to be more familiar with Blake. Perhaps I should have read Tolkien's works right before reading this to have them fresh in my mind. What is certain though is that this is a somewhat confusing literary critique of a classic fantasy book. Perhaps I missed something, but I wish I could have come away with something more than a shrug of the shoulders. Recommend Helms, don't recommend this book.

2.5 stars.

I have to second the previous reviewer. This book is a wonderful work of Tolkien scholarship. He is also one of the greatest college professors I ever had the pleasure of taking. He's a great guy too.