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	The Monsters and the Critics J.R.R. Tolkien HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1997 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien's approach to the whole genre.

The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique 'academic' lecture on his invention (calling it A Secret Vice) and concluding with his farewell to professorship, five years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.

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Good stuff for the serious student of Tolkien

This book is hard to find in the US, and in fact, my copy was sent from the UK. But, it was well worth it. This is a collection of Tolkien's essays and lectures on diverse topics - Beowulf; On Faerie Stories; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; English and Welsh, and others. None of them are for the casual reader... But if you're really a serious student of Tolkien, his works, and/or philology, they're extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Definitely rewarding for those who are into the "intellectual" background of Tolkien and his writings.


Mind of the Maker

What most people do not realize when reading Tolkien is that he shaped his world with a philosophy: the same philosophy that has inspired generations of readers, including his own colleagues (i.e. Lewis, Eliot, Auden, etc., etc.)

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Great Collection from a Great Writer

As an Early British Literature/English scholar, I must say, Tolkien is among my favorite scholars. If the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit displayed Tolkien's literary creativity and imagination, then these essays display his intelligence. While the lectures and essays are rather dull, actually something in which he took pride, if taken at face value, Tolken's sheer brilliance shines through with each new reading. Starting with Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, which may be the most important and influential criticism on Early British literature ever, this collection certainly does not disappoint. While you won't spend time on a journey with Frodo or Bilbo, you'll be taken into the mind of Tolkien, where you'll stand in awe of his insight. A must have.

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Essential Reading for Tolkienian Linguists


I think most of the other reviews are thoughtful and well-written; like them I would recommend this book largely for those who have a special interest in Tolkien's life and work beyond his fictional world of Middle Earth. This isn't another Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, but a collection of essays written at very different times in the Professor's life, and with correspondingly varied target audiences. To give one example, the essay "On Fairy Stories" appeals to many in that it provides Tolkien's own rationale for how/why fantasy ought to be written, but again this isn't for everyone.

But I would go further than the other reviewers and say that, given the noted disparity in the selection of essays in this volume, coincidence would have it that there is at least one audience for whom this book is quite simply a must-have, as well as another for whom it is either a place to begin or an equally clear "already got it, thanks". It is to these groups that this review is addressed.

For the serious student of Tolkien's invented languages, this volume is quite simply a must-have. The essays "English and Welsh" and "A Secret Vice" contain material of direct relevance to understanding Tolkien's work as an inventor or languages, as well as much primary material of interest to the researcher. These include, in the former essay, an enlightening discussing of Welsh and its influence on Tolkien's Goldogrin/Gnomish ~ Noldorin ~ Sindarin language of the Grey-elves of his legendarium. The latter essay is even more important in that it includes a number of lengthy examples of Qenya, Quenya and Noldorin -- both in the original and in translation -- unpublished elsewhere. Most notable are three seperate versions of the Q(u)enya poem Oilima Markirya (i.e., "The Last Ark"), with Tolkien's own etymological analyses, which trace the development of this poem (and the language(s) in which it was written) over some decades of Tolkien's linguistic invention.

For Beowulf enthusiasts, the two essays "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" and "On Translating Beowulf" are of course justly famous, very well-known and therefore often reprinted. If you are a serious Beowulf student you undoubtedly have several copies of each article in one or more of the numerous compilations in which they appear. (If you're unsure of this, best go check your volumes before purchasing your umpteenth exemplar.) If, however, you are just discovering Beowulf criticism, then this is an excellent place to begin indeed.

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The Mind Behind

The contrast between the elegant prose of LotR and the meandering academic style in these essays is astonishing. It's not hard to realize, after reading this, why Prof. Tolkien had a reputation as a dull lecturer (a reputation he cheerfully confesses to in his valedictory address). But if you can penetrate the prose, these writings are full of gems.

This collection will appeal to you if you are any kind of devotee of medieval English literature. Even if Tolkien had never written his great fantasy novels, he'd be revered for his work in Old English, especially as a champion of the poetic reputation of "Beowulf," a poem he almost single-handedly wrested from historians and philologists and set in its proper place at the root of English literature.

He also makes an eloquent case for the essential connection between the study of language and that of literature. If you consider yourself a student of great writing, but have only read Anglo-Saxon poetry in someone's "translation," Prof. Tolkien will politely shame you out of complacency.

In his valedictory address, speaking as a native of South Africa, he says, "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White."

The book will also appeal to you if you have spent years immersed in the world of Middle Earth. Though there are scarcely any direct references to LotR in these essays, they illuminate the mind behind the masterpiece -- the quirky love of languages, the vision of fantasy as a godly act of creation, the deep Catholic faith.

Tolkien couldn't write a grocery shopping list without adding at least two appendices, as these essays prove, and some of the best gems are in the footnotes. His theories on the unconnectedness of drama and literature are also provocative and well-argued.

The production on this edition is a bit shoddy: it looks like the fonts were squeezed, there are some typos, and the paper quality is poor.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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