Tom Shippey’s foreward in his book had quite a bit of insight on the life and work of Tolkien and the origins, making, and effect of his books on the world. I learned quite a bit on these subjects that I would’ve had no idea about otherwise. In all honesty it was fascinating and not at all what I expected.
Coming into this class and starting this book I had the preconceptions that Tolkien was a well known author before “The Lord of the Rings” and that his books were always critically acclaimed. I quickly learned this was not the case. I found that Tolkien was a Philologist and an expert of Anglo Saxon literature. And also that he basically created the books as a replacement mythology for the one that Britain had lost from the Norman invasion. I thought that was very noble of him and gave me an idea of what kind of person Tolkien was. That he had a great fealty for his country and wanted to patch the damage made by Norman and French influences.
I also found it rather intriguing that Tolkien basically invented the fantasy genre with “The Lord of the Rings.” I’m tremendously involved with a lot of fantasy and sci-fi fantasy, mostly in video games I play and a few books that I read. I’ve also played my share of Dungeons and Dragons. It wasn’t until now that I knew The Lord of the Rings was basically the forerunner of most the ideas and themes in these media and it makes a lot of sense now too. Most of the monsters and races in these stories are in someway derived from Tolkien’s creatures and the monsters he brought back from a lost page in Anglo Saxon mythology.
Another point that Shippey made that I found interesting was the polls that were so dismaying to critics of the books. According to my personal tastes, I thought the books were well written (if at times a bit verbose, however the genre lends itself to this). To me it was very odd that critics would frown down on “The Lord of the Rings” just because of the cult like following it had. It’s outrageous how it was talked badly about by critics who hadn’t even read it.
This introduction to Tolkien’s work sucked me in and whetted my appetite to learn more about him and what went into writing his books.
Brian Nacov October 19, 2008, at 10:56 PM
