The title of this chapter alone interests me. I would have never thought that the work of Tolkien’s heart would be nothing other than the Lord of the Rings which he is the most known for.
The chapter was a little hard to follow because I have never read The Simarillion and, honestly, have no intentions of doing so. It would have been even harder to follow if Brian had not given us a little background information in the mini-presentation that he gave during class.
I was interested in the section of the chapter about Tolkien and his theme of death and the escape from death. I did not know that Tolkien was technically an orphan and the fate of his parents. As Shippey hints at, these experiences with the deaths of loved ones might be why Tolkien decides to have the elves be immortal.
I know we talk about this a lot in class but I find it completely amazing how Tolkien created the world for the languages that he invented instead of the other way around. This shows me that he truly in the end was a linguistic and loved language above everything else. To me, this is the true work of his heart.
Elizabeth Delano? November 12, 2008, at 08:42 PM
