Tree and Leaf (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

'A haunting and successful demonstration of the qualities of faerie' New York Times 'The book must be read! it goes far to explain the nature of his art and justify his success' The Cambridge Review 'While springing from deep-rooted convictions, his art has imaginative magic of a very rare quality' Birmingham Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Repackaged to feature Tolkien's own painting of the Tree of Amalion, this collection includes his famous essay, 'On Fairy-stories' and the story that exemplifies this, 'Leaf by Niggle', together with the poem 'Mythopoeia' and the verse drama, 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth', which tells of the events following the disastrous Battle of Maldon. Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre from those who would relegate it to juvenilia. The haunting short story, Leaf by Niggle, recounts the story of the artist, Niggle, who has 'a long journey to make' and is seen as an allegory of Tolkien's life. The poem Mythopoeia relates an argument between two unforgettable characters as they discuss the making of myths. Lastly, and published for the very first time, we are treated to the translation of Tolkien's account of the Battle of Maldon, known as The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. Tree and Leaf is an eclectic, amusing, provocative and entertaining collection of works which reveals the diversity of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, the depth of his knowledge of English history, and the breadth of his talent as a creator of fantastic fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T); 4th printing edition (October 1965)
• ISBN-10: 0395082536
• ISBN-13: 978-0395082539
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #432,369 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insight in this creation, October 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Tree and Leaf: Including the Poem Mythopoeia (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful book. Reading through it, the intentions of Tolkien are revealed. It makes all of the stories of middle earth more real, tangable, comforting. It can be read and reread; each time more layers, more connections are made. Tolkien confronts reality of fantasy in this essay and poem. He justifies our human need for subcreation, and comfort in art.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Master's Voice, September 30, 2008

By	Theoden Humphrey "Dusty" (Oregon, US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tree and Leaf: Including "Mythopoeia" (Paperback)

I've always wanted to read Tolkien's other works; I've read the Silmarillion a couple of times, and never really enjoyed it as much as the Hobbit or LOTR. But nonetheless, I've had an old copy of a Tolkien book called Tree and Leaf for years -- it was my parents' originally -- and I finally dove into it.

It's short, only two pieces, but it was excellent -- and excellent in a way that makes me ten times more eager to look for other Tolkien ephemera than The Silmarillion ever did. The first part of this is an essay, expanded from a lecture Tolkien gave, called On Fairy-Stories. And not only was it interesting and well-written, it had some absolutely brilliant insights; I don't know if they were Tolkien's or simply common knowledge among Oxford literature dons, but I loved reading about the power of adjectives, and the concept of the sub-creator, and the idea that a fantasy world does not require a suspension of disbelief, but rather an acceptance of an internal continuity that allows a sub-creation of a new world within the pages, a world that, if well done by the author and well-read by the audience, requires no suspension of disbelief but merely a shift in sensory input, from direct input to that which is imagined from the words. Great idea that I'm not doing justice to, but intend to revisit and clarify further in my own mind, and use to my advantage. It certainly reaffirmed my belief that Tolkien was the leading light of the fantasy genre, both because of his immense gifts as a writer, and because he understood fantasy, its advantages and disadvantages, its requirements and its place in literature and our lives.

And as a final piece of proof, the second piece in the book is a fairy-story that Tolkien wrote, called "Leaf by Niggle," which was simply lovely from start to finish. Twenty pages, and it encapsulated the sense of being a frustrated artist in the real world, and the advantages of living, therefore, in an invented world -- advantages that are not just for the artists, but also for their neighbors -- in addition to having a nice moral on the power of art to lead us home. Once again, Tolkien takes his place in the big chair.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars understanding Tolkien, May 16, 2008

By	bethj "bethj" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tree and Leaf: Including "Mythopoeia" (Paperback)

This collection should be on the shelf of any admirer of JRTT. The pieces, which vary in medium (poetry, short story, essay) are actually strikingly similar in content -- you cannot read them without coming to better understand what Tolkien himself was after in his writing of LOTR. 'Leaf by Niggle' is simply a beautiful and fun short story to which no artist -- or lover of life -- could be deaf. It's Tolkien's story about himself, really. The poem 'Mythopoeia' deserves several read throughs -- it took me a while, but once it starts to become clear, it won't let go. And of course, this collection includes the famous lecture "On Fairy Stories" -- which will help you to better understand not only JRRT, but also CS Lewis (see: 'Tree of Tales', ed Hart)