 Book cover | |
| Author | Verlyn Flieger andCarl F. Hostetter, editors |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | History of Middle-earth |
| Genre | Tolkien studies |
| Publisher | Greenwood Press |
Publication date | 2000 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 978-0-313-30530-6 |
| OCLC | 41315400 |
| 823/.912 21 | |
| LC Class | PR6039.O32 H5727 2000 |
Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth is a collection of scholarly essays edited byVerlyn Flieger andCarl F. Hostetter on the 12 volumes ofThe History of Middle-earth, relating toJ. R. R. Tolkien's fiction and compiled and edited by his son,Christopher. It was published by Greenwood Press in 2000. That series comprises a substantial part of "Tolkien's legendarium", the body of Tolkien'smythopoeic writing that forms the background to hisThe Lord of the Rings and which Christopher Tolkien summarized in his construction ofThe Silmarillion.
It includes abibliography of works by Christopher Tolkien compiled byDouglas A. Anderson.
Tolkien's Legendarium won the 2002Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies.[1]
John S. Ryan, reviewing the book forVII, called it a "luminous companion" to the 12 volumes ofThe History of Middle-earth, and "clearly indispensable".[2] Ryan stated that it "pays a much merited tribute"[2] toChristopher Tolkien's six decades or more of work on his father's writings, indeed from his childhood as one of the original audience forThe Hobbit. Ryan describes the 14 essays as "carefully argued", noting among other things Bratman's description of the 4styles Tolkien used in the Legendarium as "Annalistic, Antique, Appendical, and Philosophical".[2] The Catholic scholarStratford Caldecott reviewed the book forThe Chesterton Review.[3]
Michael D. C. Drout and Hilary Wynne praise the book in their survey ofTolkien criticism since 1982 inEnvoi, calling it "more specialized" and "of even higher scholarly quality" than George Clark and Daniel Timmons' essay collectionJ.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances.[4] They callCharles Noad's essay "painstaking", writing that it "will not be easily surpassed"; and describeVerlyn Flieger's essay as "essential for understanding the links between English history, legend, and Tolkien's work".[4] They single out, too, Paul Edmund Thomas's "admirable job" of analysing the style of Tolkien's narrators.[4] And they call Patrick Wynne and Carl F. Hostetter's essay the "clearest and most approachable" study of elvish verse modes they had ever seen.[4]
The Tolkien Society called Noad's essay "a critically important document" on the interpretation ofThe Silmarillion.[5]