# Top 5 Secondary Sources on Tolkien and his Works



## Keith Mathison (Aug 5, 2020)

I have a modest sized Tolkien library - fills about four and half shelves, but I'm always wondering if there's some great hidden treasure out there that I have missed. Not counting works by JRRT himself or by Christopher, what would you consider to be the Top 5 books or articles about Tolkien and his works (doesn't have to be limited to 5, but I thought that would be an easy starting point). This could include anything from a reference work, to a book on a specific theme in Tolkien, to a really insightful article buried away somewhere in MInas Tirith. Thanks!

Keith


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## Olorgando (Aug 5, 2020)

It'll be more than 5, certainly ... and I'm assuming I do not need to mention Humphrey Carpenter's three books.

I'll start with Tom Shippey, who as a young man met JRRT to discuss what I believe was an essay Shippey was planning.
Shippey is unusual in JRRT scholars as he has many parallels with him: attending King Edward's School in Birmingham about half a century later; though he studied at Cambridge instead of Oxford, he is also a philologist of Old and Middle English. He was a fellow at St John's College of Oxford in the 1970s, and then in 1979 "inherited" the Chair of English Language and Medieval English Literature at the University of Leeds, a post once held by JRRT.
His (to my mind) two must-have books are "The Road to Middle-earth", probably peerless in the analysis of JRRT as a philologist, and an expansion on that essay he managed to talk to JRRT about; the first edition is from 1982. The newest edition is the third (expanded) from 2003 (I also have the 1992 second edition), and his 2000 "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century".

This takes up some points from Joseph Pearce's 1998 "Tolkien: Man and Myth". Pearce concentrates on JRRT's Roman Catholicism as a source to understanding the latter's writings.
As companion book, but a contrasting one, there would be Patrick Curry's 1997 "Defending Middle-earth - Tolkien: Myth and Modernity", which, to simplify, explains why non-Catholics, or even non-Christians, get something out of JRRT's writings.
I also have, no idea from where and when, Katharyn F. Crabbe's 1981 "J.R.R. Tolkien". Might be out of print.

Next I would name Verlyn Flieger. I have her 2001 "A Question of Time", in which she shows JRRT to be very much a modern writer, if definitely not a modern*ist* one. Despite two attempts, I have not been able to get a hold of her originally 1983 "Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World". Even the 2002 revised edition seem to be out of print. Flieger is unique in that she, and *not* Christopher, was the editor of two of JRRT's writings: in 2015 "The Story of Kullervo" (the "ur"-Túrin, so to speak), and in 2016 "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun".

Next would be John Garth and his 2003 "Tolkien And The Great War", which apparently was reprinted in 2019 due to the 2019 biopic film "Tolkien", for which it seems to have been a partial source of inspiration. This book could be seen as a companion to Carpenter's "Inklings" of 1978, and be subtitled in a way as "TCBS". Bought and read it very recently.

Last chronologically (I just finished reading it a day or so ago) is John D. Rateliff's originally two-volume 2007 "The History of The Hobbit" (another thing Christopher delegated). I bought (ordered) the 2011 hardcover single-volume extended "brick" extended edition. Very much a companion to Christopher's 12-volume "History of Middle-earth", including its exhaustion-inducing detail.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 6, 2020)

I second all of Olorgando's suggestions -- at least those I've read. I'm going to recommend two older books that, while dated in some ways, I found valuable: Master of Middle-earth, 1972, by Paul Kocher, which should at least be findable, as it was reprinted when the films came out; and Tolkien's World, 1974, by Randel Helms, which was unfortunately never reprinted, so may be more difficult to locate. 

The most useful book I've read for understanding Tolkien is one that never mentions him: Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, from 1957.


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