THE LORD OF THE RINGS: A READER'S COMPANION by Hammond & Scull
★ ★ ★ ★ .5
“Many readers of The Lord of the Rings would like fuller answers to the questions of who or what is Tom Bombadil, but Tolkien never provided them. He wrote to Naomi Mitchison on 25 April 1954: ‘There is of course a clash between ‘literary' technique, and the fascination of elaborating in detail an imaginary mythical Age. . . . As a story, I think it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation actually exists); and I have perhaps from this point of view erred in trying to explain too much, and give too much past history. . . . And even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally). . .’”
TITLE—The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion
AUTHOR—Wayne G Hammond & Christina Scull
PUBLISHED—2005
PUBLISHER—HarperCollins
GENRE—literary commentary & analysis
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—language & linguistics, archaic vocabulary (definitions of archaic terms & discussion of etymology), Tolkien’s writing process, letters, philosophy, fantasy world-building, character arcs, creative vision, editing & publication (both during his lifetime & posthumously), trivia, letters to & from fans, publishers, family members, etc., discussion of various Tolkienian themes such as hope, faith, friendship, love, rustic wisdom, nature (especially trees), romance tales, choice & free will, & good vs evil
“If Tolkien had hurried Frodo and his companions into adventure . . . we would not appreciate so well the arcadia that Frodo is willing to give up for the sake of his people. . . . Proceeding at the author's deliberately casual pace, we grow to love the Shire as we never loved Bag End in The Hobbit (though we found it a desirable residence), having visited there so briefly before Bilbo was hurried away.”
Summary/Blurbs/Premise:
“…offering expert insights into The Lord of the Rings’s evolution, structure, & meaning” through discussion of “important literary & historical influences” & “connections between Lord of the Rings & other writings by Tolkien, errors & inconsistencies,” as well as “significant changes to the text during its fifty years of publication…”
My thoughts:
What I loved most about this book was how it demonstrated that the reason Tolkien was able to write the way he did with such intricate worldbuilding, kinship lines, histories of different peoples, mythology, original languages, etc. etc. was due to his internal & spiritual consistency—he was able to expand & explore & challenge not just his individual characters but also elements of the world-building from landscape to history to language while having faith in their ultimate cohesiveness because of this: a sort of subconscious versus conscious creation.
I was also very fascinated by how many different references to & inspirations from other fairy tales & mythological systems there are in his work & how most of those things were just popping out of his subconscious as they served his original vision. Connecting his mythology to the larger scope of human mythology was intentional, but the way he succeeded magnificently in accomplishing this vision was nothing short of inherent genius—made all the more impactful due to his deep humility in regards his work.
I was less interested in the exhaustive enumeration of the inconsistencies in his work—particularly as they related to moon phases & travel distances, though it was interesting to see how invested Tolkien was in making this all as accurate as possible.
[Tolkien] “But if you have, as it were taken a vow of poverty, renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless. It is a natural pacifist view, which always arises in the mind when there is a war. But the view of Rivendell seems to be that it is an excellent thing to have represented, but that there are in fact things with which it cannot cope; and upon which its existence nonetheless depends. Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron. [Letters, PP. 174, 178-9)”
I would recommend this book to readers who have read The Lord of the Rings at least twice. Minimum. This was probably closer to my 10th or 12th 😅 reread of The Lord of the Rings, & I don’t think I would have gotten as much out of it as I did without having read The Silmarillion, the Great Tales, & Unfinished Tales (& The Hobbit too obviously) first as well.
This book is best read alongside a reread of The Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend doing the LOTR read on audiobook (especially Serkis’s narration) because that will help you keep the pace up so you don’t get too bogged down in switching back & forth between the two.
Final note: This book is a really good introduction to more nonfiction about Tolkien’s life (especially his Letters) & analyses of his work written by scholars other than Christopher (i.e. Tom Shippley, John Rateliff, etc.) since much of their work is quoted in the text. I’m particularly interested in reading Tolkien’s Letters myself now.
“’And they lived happily ever after’ is, of course, a traditional ending for fairy-stories, on which Tolkien comments in On Fairy-Stories… There he says that such an ending is 'an artificial device. It does not deceive anybody. End-phrases of this kind are to be compared to the margins and frames of pictures, and are no more to be thought of as the real end of any particular fragment of the seamless Web of Story than the frame is of the visionary scene, or the casement of the Outer World' (Tree and Leaf, p. 72).”
★ ★ ★ ★ .5
Further Reading—
THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH: Vols. VI-IX, edited by Christopher Tolkien
THE ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH by Tom Shippley
THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT by John D Rateliff
& I would recommend all of Cadwell Turnbull’s books because a) The Silmarillion was one of Turnbull’s influences, & b) the writing process & manner of worldbuilding that Turnbull uses is very similar to Tolkien’s in that it is predicated on a very consistent worldview & philosophical mien (with the patterns that organically emerge & reinforce themselves informing the world, the story, & the characters) being the driving force behind his works. [Start with THE LESSON & read in order of publication.]
Longlist Titles—
TREE AND LEAF by JRR Tolkien
ON FAIRY STORIES by JRR Tolkien
ANNOTATED HOBBIT by Douglas A Anderson
ANNOTATED ROVERANDOM by Scull & Hammond
ANNOTATED FARMER GILES OF HAM by Scull & Hammond
COMPLETE GUIDE TO MIDDLE-EARTH by Robert Foster
Vinyar Tengwar Journal
JRR TOLKIEN: ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR by Scull & Hammond
JRR TOLKIEN: A BIOGRAPHY by Humphrey Carpenter
‘Stargazing in Middle-earth’ by Naomi Getty in Beyond Bree (April 1984)
‘JRR Tolkien & the Kalevala: Some Thoughts on the Finnish Origins of Tom Bombadil & Treebeard’, by David Elton Gay in Tolkien & the Invention of Myth: A Reader (2002)
‘Frodo’s Delay’, by Todd Jensen in Beyond Bree (May 1991)
Following Gandalf: Epic Battles & Moral Victories in The Lord of the Rings, by Matthew T Dickerson (2003), pp. 83-94
‘Settled Spells’, by Carl F Hostetter in Amon Hen 122 (July 1993)
Perilous Realms: Celtic & Norse in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, by Marjorie Burns
The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature by Hilda Roderick Ellis (1943)
‘And the Word Was Made Flesh’, by Clive Tolley in Mallorn 32, about Beowulf & Rohan (1995)
Non-Middle-earth-related Titles—
SHE by H Rider Haggard
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts, trans. by TH White
MORE ENGLISH FAIRY TALES collected by Joseph Jacobs (1894)
THE DENHAM TRACTS, a folklore collection by Michael Aislabie Denham (1895)
A TALE OF THE HOUSE OF THE WOLFINGS by William Morris (1888)
NORSE FOLKE EVENTYR by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen & Jørgen Moe (1852), Soria Moria Castle an inspiration for Moria
“East o' the Sun & West o' the Moon”, a Norwegian folk tale included in Popular Tales from the Norse (1859), translated by George Webbe Dasent
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