Monsters and the Critics
by J R R Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien
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Book Summary Information
Author: J R R Tolkien, J.R.R. TolkienEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-01-06
ISBN: 026110263X
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Grafton
Book Reviews of Monsters and the Critics
Book Review: Essential Reading for Tolkienian Linguists
Summary: 5 Stars
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it includes a number of lengthy examples of Qenya, Quenya and Noldorin -- both in the original and in translation -- unpublished elsewhere.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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