Tolkien in the Real World

  Hey there fellow Tolkienian followers! It’s your boy NoahtheBlue2003 again, this time with a book suggestion for you! I recently stumbled upon Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity by Patrick Curry . I personally, loved this book and suggest it to all Tolkien fans and scholars alike, as I felt like it was a good way to learn more about the man himself, J.R.R. Tolkien and how his life influenced his creation of my home away from home, Middle-Earth. Seeing as this book directly analyzes the influences of Tolkien’s life on his creation of Middle-Earth it seems only fitting that it belongs in a blog dedicated to his writings. By reviewing the themes presented in this secondary source, this book review highlights the connections that are drawn by the author, Patrick Curry, between Tolkien’s life and upbringing and the liveliness and depth of Middle-Earth’s role in The Lord of the Rings .   “Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity” The intersect...

Book Review by LOTRfanMiguel I love fantasy novels as much as the next guy. When I get wrapped up in the lore of an author– especially when that author is J. R. R. Tolkien– I try to learn as much as I can, and that’s why this time around I dived into Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans’ Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien . In this book, the two scholars really get into the nitty gritty of Tolkien's love for nature manifested within Tolkien’s work, especially The Lord of the Rings . Dickerson and Evans’  main argument throughout the book is as follows: through his writings, Tolkien establishes a formula for environmental stewardship, and from this, we can add ways to preserve and conserve nature to the greater conversation of environmentalism. Although their argument is no surprise to Tolkien fans, these authors really shine in the depth of their research and their application to our world. All this being said, the book was far from perfect in th...

If you’re anything like me, when you finished TLOR, you were still curious. Maybe (like me) you didn’t really care all that much about how Aragorn spent the rest of his days, or if Frodo ever finished his book. But instead wondered about the guy behind such a story. I mean, I don’t think I could ever spend that much time world building and crafting such a elegant and complex interconnecting novel…and all in my head too. So when I saw this book by Dr. Lonconte, I saw a possibility to learn a bit about the life this guy (Tolkien) lived, what his friends were like, what he enjoyed, and just what might have made him tick. And heck, I might learn some history while I’m at it. Lonconte supports three audiences in this book: historians, Tolkien-academics, and, oddly enough, Church officials. Now, wer’re all Tolkien lovers here, so I’ll trim around the other fat and focus on what we care about. Nonetheless, history did play a key part in the forming of Tolkien as we know him… so let’s take a...

  The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth , by John Garth. A Review The landscapes and world of Tolkien’s legendarium, so brilliantly conceived and illuminated by the author’s words, inspire extensive commentary. John Garth’s new book The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien offers this and more, as it provides – along with an extensive collection of beautiful imagery including artwork from J.R.R. Tolkien himself - thoroughly researched insights into Tolkien’s life and experiences, and their inspirational power in shaping Tolkien’s fictional worlds. The beautifully constructed and informative final product is one that should be of interest to both casual fans of Tolkien’s work as well as Tolkien scholars, providing a background on Tolkien’s life and his development of his legendarium which should contain at least some new insights for any reader, whether they’ve read all Tolkien’s writings or only his most iconic. I would echo Garth’s own sentiment in his Introduct...