You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Editor Carl F. Hostetter compiles and edits a scholarly book split into three distinct parts[image]
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Editor Carl F. Hostetter compiles and edits a scholarly book split into three distinct parts: 1) “Time and Ageing”, 2) “Body, Mind, and Spirit”, and 3) “The World, Its Lands, and Its Inhabitants”. Utilizing J.R.R. Tolkien’s philological essays, linguistic papers, and various manuscripts written late in his life, Carl F. Hostetter invites his readers to familiarize with a largely unknown facet of Middle-earth that helps better grasp the scale of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination.
If anything, Carl F. Hostetter did a commendable job in trying to turn the material he had at his disposition into something more accessible for a general audience. However, I wouldn’t say that he succeeded in making any of it particularly entertaining. Detailed and, surprisingly, full of mathematics and tables, readers will surely find themselves astonished at the amount of information on growth and time in these various pages. The precision with which J.R.R. Tolkien attempted to conceive his characters and world is indeed astonishing, but not everything he creates is necessary to his stories. It’s this level of attention to detail that brings many fans to further appreciate his various work beyond The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
While the countless essays coherently organized throughout this book does give readers a better understanding of the chronology of events and the underlying mechanisms that dictates his world, readers shouldn’t expect any kind of story-telling here. It is purely informative, it gives readers an extra layer of unprecedented detail about Middle-earth, and it is done so without emotion or sensation. In fact, it is done with an almost scientific rigour, making sure that readers know where every information comes from and what it all means. I can assure you that the insane amount of footnotes will guarantee you of all that. Often, readers will also obtain very few details about certain elements because J.R.R. Tolkien never developed them in the first place, making some information quite irrelevant and mostly frustrating to a reader who would have expected more on the subject.
If anything, this is definitely for the most die-hard of Tolkien fans and all the curious minds out there. Oh, and for those who just want an extra book for their Tolkien shelf, of course.
The Nature of Middle-earth is a difficultly palatable yet analytical examination of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s world through its visible and sensible manifestations of Middle-earth....more
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Originally published under the title The Father Christmas Letters, this revised edition is a[image]
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Originally published under the title The Father Christmas Letters, this revised edition is a beautiful collection of correspondences written and illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien from 1920 to 1943. Wonderfully impersonating Father Christmas, he writes to his children adventures and tales from the North Pole, sometimes implicating his assistant North Polar Bear, his elvish secretary Ilbereth, or even a horde of goblins waging war against him. Edited by Bailie Tolkien, his second wife and mother of Christopher Tolkien, these letters unveil an intimate and kind-hearted facet of J.R.R. Tolkien’s life, one that revolves around his love as a father for his family.
There’s praiseworthy dedication that can be noted and attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien’s annual letters to his children. Each of these letters are presented within an envelope stamped from the North Pole, gorgeously handwritten with a unique spidery writing style that reflects the shivering cold in the North Pole and Father Christmas’s old age, while also being often accompanied by charming illustrations that make each letter impressively unique. He also takes the time to write from different viewpoints, each with their own handwriting, and sometimes their own language; some habits die hard.
Unsurprisingly, he also makes tremendous use of his unparalleled imagination to conceive his tales from the North Pole, stories that any children would always be delighted to read. Any fan of his Middle-earth material will be also pleased to know that there’s one small single reference to it with the mention of hobbits! The fact that J.R.R. Tolkien is also a part of the lives of his children, and inevitably knows them personally, helps add a touch of familiarity in how Father Christmas speaks and what he says to them. Whether it’s about the importance of being nice, the art of giving, or the horrors of war that prevents other children from having a roof over their heads, there’s always something subtle to extract from his letters without being overwhelming to the mind of children.
It’s also lovely to see the original letters and illustrations within this enchanting edition, offering readers the chance to escape into the world of Father Christmas, fancied by J.R.R. Tolkien, with his own mythos. It is, however, unfortunate, that this collection doesn’t contain the letters sent by his children to Father Christmas, which could’ve probably added elements of contextualization. Then again, some things are better left in the realm of privacy, if said things even exists today. While the stories within these letters aren’t excessively innovative, they remain enjoyable, especially as outsiders permitted in having a look at what was being told between a loving father and his precious children.
Letters From Father Christmas is a gorgeous and admirable collection of heartfelt letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien as Santa for his children....more
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