Ummagumma

The three 'Great Tales' of J.R.R. Tolkien, conceived early in his life, are now the final word on his fantasy world of Middle-earth.   As I have mentioned previously , I have been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings since I was in high school.  I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy several times throughout my life.  Tolkien was, hands down, the most important fictional writer of the first half of my life.  I bought a first edition of The Silmarillion (1977) at the University of Georgia bookstore when I was a freshman.  I grabbed a first edition of Unfinished Tales in 1980.  The depth and breadth of his work astonished me and, as is my way with most things of interest, I absorbed everything I could about his stories of Middle-earth. By the time The Book of Lost Tales came out (in two volumes, 1983-1984), I was starting to think that Tolkien’s family, and his eldest son, Christopher, in particular, were trying to milk more money ...

The Withered Tree in the Court of the Fountain at Minas Tirith Over the past three weekends my daughter and I have watched the three extended versions of The Lord of the Rings movies . From beginning to end the single film runs about 11.5 hours, so it requires quite an investment in couch potato time. No problem for my daughter. She loves television and visual arts in general. Nor do I mind being entertained by Peter Jackson's rather apt interpretation of this Tolkien masterpiece. Seeing how important Tolkien is to me, I think watching these films once every couple of years is reasonable. The books are better though. I was introduced to Tolkien when I was 16 by a fellow high school student. I read the novels (including The Hobbit , the prequel written in the style of a children's story) eagerly. This was also about the same time I discovered Henry David Thoreau . So, all of this coalesced in my fervent young mind as an expanded way of looking at the world. My sense of wonder di...

Long before my disappointment with Amazon's The Rings of Power , I read two books on Tolkien this year.  Both were of a more religious than literary bent, which I don't mind but they failed to impress me as much as other scholarly writings such as Splintered Light (2002).  Still, I found each to be worthy of owning.  They privilege Tolkien's Catholicism in a way that I am sure Tolkien himself would approve.  So really understand Tolkien you have to understand his religious point of view no matter your preference for belief. Richard L. Purtill's J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion (1984/2003) is as much a primer on how Christianity relates to The Lord of the Rings as it is anything.  Being raised a Christian and once accepted to theology school myself, I am aware that Tolkien wrote in his letters that the trilogy is basically “ a Catholic work. ”  This book delves deeply into that aspect of things.  It contextualizes the value of all the myt...

Note: This is the third part of a high-level review of my 9th reading of Tolkien's classic prelude and trilogy. All quotes and page numbers are from my original 1975 paperback edition. The Fellowship of the Ring (FOTR) ends with a chapter entitled “The Breaking of the Fellowship.” That break is so severe that it separates more than the primary characters. In The Two Towers (TT) the narrative itself is split down the middle. This creates an interesting story-telling challenge for J.R.R. Tolkien . How do you maintain interest in the main story line when whole groups of characters are missing for hundreds of pages? It is an unconventional approach but Tolkien makes it all work in his favor. Instead of becoming confused, the reader is caught up in a “what happens next?” mentality. Pippin and Merry are taken prisoner by fierce Uruk-hai and end up in Fangorn Forest . Aragorn , Legolas , and Gimli are tracking them through Rohan and end up in the novel’s second largest battle at He...

I just reread JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit for either eighth or ninth time in my life (I can't remember which exactly). My first reading was when I was in high school and I have always begun my reading of The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) with Tolkien's "enchanting prelude" to his famous trilogy. Unlike LOTR, The Hobbit is a children's book. More specifically, it is written for early teens. That doesn't take anything away from the enjoyment of reading it as an adult, obviously, since I have done so many times. Each tour is a special treat. Tolkien is very informal in this narrative. He pokes a bit of fun at the reader now and then. The story itself is rather straightforward, with surprising (if a bit formula-matic) twists and turns to keep young minds (and older ones) engaged. The Hobbit is a perfect read for someone like myself who usually reads a lot of rather heavy books. It is comparatively light without being simpleton, it is well-written, and has some d...