The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
First British edition
EditorJohn Garth
LanguageEnglish
SubjectJ. R. R. Tolkien
PublisherFrances Lincoln
Publication date
2020
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typeHardback
Pages208
ISBN978-0-71124-127-5

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth is a 2020 non-fiction book by the journalist and Tolkien scholar John Garth. It describes the places that most likely inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to invent Middle-earth, as portrayed in his fantasy books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Those places include many that Tolkien lived in or visited in his early life, as well as sites from history and literature. Most are real, for instance with England as the counterpart of the Shire, though some, like Atlantis, are mythical, and others, like Mirkwood, probably have roots in real places. He notes the ambiguities in some of the connections, and that others have made superficial comparisons, such as of Tolkien's towers with various modern towers in Birmingham, where Tolkien lived as a child. Garth presents his theories of the likely origins of some of these places, supporting these with maps and photographs.

Scholars broadly welcomed the book as a well-researched contribution to Tolkien studies. In their view, it avoids the trap of simply trying to map each feature of Middle-earth to a place in the real world; instead, Garth explains how Tolkien had skilfully interwoven geographic elements to suit his storytelling. The book's popular reception was more mixed; critics noted the book's handsome format and attractive illustrations, while remaining uncertain of its audience and whether its opinions were soundly based.

Author

John Garth read English at St Anne's College, Oxford. He trained as a journalist and worked for 18 years on newspapers including the Evening Standard in London. He then became a freelance author while continuing to contribute newspaper articles. After independently researching Tolkien's world for many years, he became known as an authority on Tolkien with his 2003 book Tolkien and the Great War.[G 1]

Book

Publication history

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien was published in 2020 in hardback by Frances Lincoln Publishers in the United Kingdom and by Princeton University Press in the United States. In 2021 it was translated into Czech, French, and German.[1]

Content

Garth states that the voyages of Brendan influenced Tolkien to create lands across the sea.[G 2] Painting by Edward Reginald Frampton, 1908

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien begins with a brief introduction in which Garth sets out his approach. He states that he brings "a particular interest in biography, history, landscape and language".[G 3] On his method, he explains: "I observe Tolkien's footsteps closely, consider the context, and try to enter sympathetically into his creative thoughts and feelings".[G 4] This is followed by 11 unnumbered chapters that group Tolkien's places by theme, and a detailed set of helps including an appendix, notes, and scholarly bibliography.

The book's chapters begin with England, the origin of many elements of Middle-earth including The Shire; this was the starting-point for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[G 5] Garth then looks in successive chapters at what he considers Tolkien to have viewed as the "Four Winds" (the title of a chapter) from the corners of the Earth, namely Norse myth for the North, Celtic faerie including the Tuatha Dé Danann for the West, ancient Greece for the South with such things as the legend of Atlantis, and Mesopotamia and medieval legends of Alexander the Great for the East.[G 6] He then examines the origins of Tolkien's mythology for England and his early attempts to connect specific places like Warwick with places such as Kortirion in Middle-earth, and more broadly to map England to his lost western realm of Beleriand.[G 7]

The chapter "The Shore and the Sea" looks at Tolkien's use of the sea, from his own painting at the Lizard peninsula to the voyages of the Irish saint Brendan.[G 8] Garth then illustrates Tolkien's mountains, showing what they owe to his sole visit to Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland in 1911 in the "Roots of the Mountains" chapter, including Tolkien's painting of Rivendell.[G 9] The chapter "Rivers, Lakes, and Waterlands" argues that they have both personalities and symbolic significance; Garth also argues they are connected to places Tolkien knew, like the willow-meads of the River Cherwell, and to the books he read.[G 10] A chapter entitled "Tree-Woven Lands" illustrates how important trees were to Tolkien, along with the mythical wild men who inhabited them. Trees and forests are found in abundance in Middle-earth, and the forest of Mirkwood has ancient roots in medieval legends of the Huns and the Goths. Garth notes that these state that Myrkviðr, upon which Mirkwood is based, is by the River Dnieper of Eastern Europe – a fact that Tolkien mentioned in a poem.[G 11]

Tolkien was a philologist with a side-interest in archaeology. These concerns are reflected in his many uses of the medieval in Middle-earth, along with earlier elements of the landscape such as long barrows, stone circles, and lake towns, as described in the chapter "Ancient Imprints".[G 12] Garth devotes a chapter, "Watch and Ward", to the fortified towers of Middle-earth, including Minas Tirith and Orthanc. He points out that the title of Tolkien's The Two Towers was intentionally ambiguous as to which of the five possible towers were intended. Garth discounts superficial comparisons with modern towers in Birmingham, pointing out multiple origins in landscape and literature, from Faringdon Folly to Dante's Divine Comedy.[G 13]

The chapter "Places of War" summarises Garth's research for his earlier book Tolkien and the Great War, showing the profound effect Tolkien's wartime experiences had on his writings.[G 14] Finally, Garth looks at the influence of craft and industry on Tolkien's writings, from William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement to the creeping enlargement of industrial Birmingham which swallowed up Tolkien's boyhood home at Sarehole.[G 15]

The appendix sets out Garth's views on two matters. First, he explores the possible origins of the One Ring in the Temple of Nodens at Lydney Park, and the possibly associated Ring of Silvianus (the Vyne Ring), which he discounts. Second, he examines Tolkien's much-debated written remark that "Personally I do not think either war (and of course not the atomic bomb) had any influence upon either the plot [of The Lord of the Rings] or the manner of its unfolding. Perhaps in landscape. The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains."[2] Garth explains Tolkien's remark as two separate statements, with invisible parentheses bracketing the second and third sentences. This would mean that while Tolkien found Morris's writings useful, the war perhaps influenced the shattered landscapes of the Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon (the Black Gate). Other scholars have puzzled over the remark; Garth mentions that Tom Shippey takes it to mean that soldiers in the Great War found Tolkien "more realistic ... than the genteel novels favoured by literary critics".[G 16]

The book is illustrated with numerous photographs of places and artefacts that could have inspired Tolkien, maps (both hand-drawn and historic), artworks by Tolkien of Middle-earth and real-world subjects, and artworks that Tolkien might have seen or which illustrate similar themes.

Reception

Garth compares Cerin Amroth, a grassy mound in Lothlórien surrounded by two circles of trees, to the Motte of Warwick Castle, known as Ethelfleda's Mound (pictured), where a young Tolkien went with his future wife Edith Bratt.[G 17]

The Tolkien scholar Mike Foster writes in a long review in Mythlore, describing the contents of each chapter, that "Tolkien scholarship is much the richer" for the book. Its "prodigal detail" includes drawings never previously published, maps, and paintings that exploit the book's large (8"×10") format as well as Garth's well-researched text and informative sidebars.[3]

The scholar Matthew Fisher, writing in Tolkien Studies, comments that Tolkien scholarship has considered his concern for nature and the environment, and to some extent the geography of Middle-earth, with some "geographic source criticism" that made "an attempt to compile a list of equalities where A in the real world equals B in Middle-earth". In his view, Garth does not do this, but rather looks at the places that inspired Tolkien and shows how he made use of them in varied ways to construct Middle-earth. Fisher quotes Garth's introduction on what he considers a richer approach: "The book ... examines the influences that shaped his imagined cultures and cosmology. It counts place as a combination of location, geology, ecology, culture, nomenclature, and other factors."[4]

Laura Schmidt writes in VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center that Garth is following up on multiple studies of Tolkien's locations, not to mention the tourist industry around some of them in Oxford and elsewhere, but that he separates fact from fiction, listing both his reasoning and his sources. Schmidt states that the book gave her the "revelation" that Tolkien's use of places is like the way he weaves his languages from many materials until, with philological skill, they fit snugly together. Similarly, he mixed and matched places and geographic elements until he had what he wanted.[5]

John L. Murphy, reviewing the book for New York Journal of Books, writes that Garth adds "a careful eye and steady step" to the "ever-proliferating pile of Tolkien-related media". He notes Garth's description of Tolkien's literary approach as using "a paint-box, in which the author dipped, daubed, and mixed layers of color, depth, hue, form, and drama into his vast legacy of narratives." He quotes, too, Garth's "astute caution" to readers that Tolkien described "races and places as seen by medieval poets and chroniclers, not necessarily as they actually were". He notes Garth's correction of Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, who equated Birmingham to the dark land of Mordor; Murphy writes that Garth instead examines "that city's toy industry, and its buildings preserving the Gothic Revival and William Morris' Arts and Crafts Movement of Victorian times", and thus influencing Middle-earth's artistry and craftsmanship. In Murphy's view, both those new to Middle-earth and "veteran pilgrim[s]" will learn much from the book.[6]

Clea Simon, in her review for the arts fuse, called the book beautifully produced and "replete with illustrations" with "evocative landscapes", maps, architectural details, and Tolkien's own paintings, making it in her opinion "a lovely keepsake for fans". She found the works of "lesser artists" to be "less lovely", undercutting Tolkien's own imagination. She called it "a short book ... more an essay than a full manuscript", and repetitive. She noted that Garth was "a painstaking scholar", but that in the book he "ignores the poetry and creativity underpinning Tolkien's classic, dissecting it in an over-thought (and, at times, overwrought) search for connections to the author's real-life experiences". She notes that Garth quotes Gandalf's remark that "he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom", and states that Garth is guilty of just that. In her view, the text might have worked well as "a series of speculative essays", but its packaging as a definitive work did a disservice both to Garth and to "the underlying scholarship".[7]

Darragh McManus, reviewing the book for the Irish Independent, considers it best for a general audience that is already familiar with Tolkien's books, since Garth expects detailed knowledge of Tolkien's placenames from his readers. He grants, however, that even specialists would appreciate its visual appeal.[8]

Tom Chivers, reviewing the work for The Times, writes that The Lord of the Rings is not so much an escapist adventure as a tale of heartbreak and the loss of innocence as the world is threatened by overwhelming dark. In his view, Garth takes the book that way, bringing out Tolkien's "elegiac tone", ostensibly describing landscapes that inspired Middle-earth, but "unavoidably, a history of the man and his ideas". Chivers comments that the book is physically beautiful, richly bound and wonderfully illustrated, giving it the look of a coffee-table book. He adds that much of it is "surely speculative" as it expresses many of Garth's opinions and theories.[9]

Bibliography

References

Primary

  1. ^ Garth, John. "About". John Garth. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  2. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 60–81
  3. ^ Garth 2020, p. 6
  4. ^ Garth 2020, p. 6
  5. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 10–23
  6. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 24–41
  7. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 42–59
  8. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 60–81
  9. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 83–99
  10. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 100–111
  11. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 112–131
  12. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 132–145
  13. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 146–157
  14. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 158–173
  15. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 174–185
  16. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 187–188
  17. ^ Garth 2020, pp. 118–121

Secondary

  1. ^ Formats and Editions of 'The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth'. WorldCat. OCLC 1203557739. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  2. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. letter 226 to L. W. Forster, 31 December 1960. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
  3. ^ Foster, Mike (2020). "The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth, by John Garth". Mythlore. 39 (1). article 19, pages 220–229. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  4. ^ Fisher, Matthew A. (2021). "[Review of] 'The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien'". Tolkien Studies. 18 (18): 245–249. doi:10.1353/tks.2021.0015. S2CID 241940126.
  5. ^ Schmidt, Laura (2020). "[Review of] 'The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien'". VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center. 37 (2): e172–e174. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  6. ^ Murphy, John L. "[Review:] The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth". New York Journal of Books. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  7. ^ Simon, Clea (1 June 2020). "Book Review: "The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien" — Ignoring the Poetry". the arts fuse. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  8. ^ McManus, Darragh (15 August 2020). "The Worlds of JRR Tolkien: A scenic guide to the lands that inspired Tolkien". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  9. ^ Chivers, Tom (4 June 2020). "The Worlds of JRR Tolkien by John Garth review – on the trail of the hobbits". The Times. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.

Read other articles:

Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada Agustus 2018. Amanda StottLahir06 Mei 1982 (umur 41)AsalBrandon, Manitoba, KanadaGenreCCM, pop, countryPekerjaanSinger-songwriterTahun aktif2000–sekarangLabelHis Grip, EMI Canada, Warner CanadaSitus webwww.amandastott.com Amanda Stott (lahir 6 Mei 1982) adala...

 

Регіон Монреаль Адм. центр Монреаль Країна  Канада Регіон Квебек Межує з: сусідні адмінодиниці Монтережі, Лаваль ? Населення  - повне 2 074 068 осіб (2020)[1],2 004 265 осіб (2021)[2] Площа  - повна 684,61 км² Вікісховище має мультимедійні даніза темою: ...

 

Lijn 7 Totale lengte8,9 kmAangelegd doorRETGeopend2 februari 1981Aantal sporen2MaterieelCitadisTramdienst doorRET Traject Burgemeester Oudlaan Erasmus Universiteit 's-Gravenwetering Essenlaan Voorschoterlaan Mecklenburglaan Jericholaan Vlietlaan Boezemsingel Boezemstraat Crooswijksestraat Lijn 8 Zaagmolenbrug Noorderbrug Meent Pompenburg Lijnen 4, 21, 23, 24 & 25 Weena Lijn 20 Rotterdam Centraal perron B Rotterdam Centraal perron D Lijnen 21, 23 & 24 Kruisplein Lijnen 8, 20 & 25 E...

Canadian neuropsychologist Donald Olding HebbBorn(1904-07-22)July 22, 1904Chester, Nova Scotia, CanadaDiedAugust 20, 1985(1985-08-20) (aged 81)Chester, Nova Scotia, CanadaNationalityCanadianAlma materDalhousie University (BA, 1925), McGill University (MA, 1932), Harvard University (PhD, 1936)Known forCell assembly theoryAwardsFellow of the Royal Society[1]Scientific careerFieldsPsychologyInstitutionsMontreal Neurological Institute,Queen's University,Yerkes Laboratories ...

 

هذه مقالة غير مراجعة. ينبغي أن يزال هذا القالب بعد أن يراجعها محرر مغاير للذي أنشأها؛ إذا لزم الأمر فيجب أن توسم المقالة بقوالب الصيانة المناسبة. يمكن أيضاً تقديم طلب لمراجعة المقالة في الصفحة المخصصة لذلك. (نوفمبر 2020) هذه المقالة يتيمة إذ تصل إليها مقالات أخرى قليلة جدًا. ف...

 

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for geographic features. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is like...

هذه المقالة بحاجة لصندوق معلومات. فضلًا ساعد في تحسين هذه المقالة بإضافة صندوق معلومات مخصص إليها. جزء من سلسلة حول في المسيحيَّة المسيح علم المسيحيَّات (الكرستولوجيا) الأسماء والألقاب حياة يسوع الأناجيل تجانس الأناجيل الأماكن الولادة العُذريَّة الميلاد المعموديَّة الت...

 

Neighborhood and pier in Norway TangenTangen Pier seen from Høivold Pier.TypePier and parkSpansOtra, SkagerrakLocaleKristiansand, Agder, NorwayCharacteristicsTotal length1.504 kmHistoryCoordinates58°08′50″N 8°00′31″E / 58.1472°N 8.0086°E / 58.1472; 8.0086 Tangen and Bystranda Tangen is a pier and neighborhood in the city of Kristiansand in Agder county, Norway. It is a part of the Kvadraturen (Kristiansand)|Kvadraturen borough and is mostly populated ...

 

Online bingo company This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view. (March 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) TombolaTypeSubsidiaryIndustryGamblingFounded2006HeadquartersSunderland, EnglandKey peopleMarion Ryan(Managing Director)James Beard(Chief Operating Officer)ProductsOnline bingoPare...

Right to collective action Part of a series onLibertarianism Concepts Abstention Age of consent reform Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Antimilitarism Anti-statism Class struggle Counter-economics Crypto-anarchism Decentralization Departurism Direct action Economic freedom Egalitarianism Evictionism Expropriative anarchism Federalism (anarchist) Free association (Marxism and anarchism) Free love Free market Free-market environmentalism Free migration Free trade Freedom of association Fre...

 

Battle of CarrizalPart of the Mexican Border WarCaptured U.S. soldiers after the battleDateJune 21, 1916LocationCarrizal, Chihuahua, MexicoResult Mexican victoryBelligerents Carrancistas  United StatesCommanders and leaders Félix Gómez  † Charles T. Boyd  † Henry R. Adair †Strength 150 200Casualties and losses 27 killed 39 wounded[1][2][3] 12 killed 28 wounded 24 capturedvteU.S. involvement in the Mexican Revolution Mexican Revol...

 

Lance Nayek in East Pakistan Rifles Munshi Abdur RoufBir SreshthoNative nameমুন্সী আবদুর রউফBorn8 May 1943 (1943-05-08)Faridpur District, Dhaka, Bengal Presidency, British India (Now, Bangladesh)Died8 April 1971 (1971-04-09) (aged 27)Rangamati, Chittagong, BangladeshAllegiance Bangladesh Pakistan (Before 1971)Service/branch East Pakistan RiflesYears of service8 May 1963 – 8 April 1971Rank Lance NayekUnitSector - IBattles/warsBanglade...

The Novant Health Thanksgiving Day Parade The Novant Health Thanksgiving Eve Parade, previously known as the Novant Health Thanksgiving Day Parade from 2013 until 2020, Carolinas' Carrousel Parade and in 2008 and 2009 as the Carolinas' Thanksgiving Day Parade, [1] is a Thanksgiving Day parade held in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina the night before Thanksgiving Day. The parade was founded in 1947, and in 2013 Novant Health became the parade's title sponsor, taking over sponsorship fr...

 

Conte Lopes Deputado Estadual de São Paulo Período 15 de março de 2019até atualidade 15 de março de 1991até 14 de março de 2007 Vereador de São Paulo Período 1º de janeiro de 2013até 14 de março de 2019 Dados pessoais Nome completo Roberval Conte Lopes Lima Nascimento 14 de maio de 1947 (76 anos) São Paulo, SP, Brasil Partido PDS (1986-1993)PPR (1993-1995)PP (1995-2005)PTB (2005-2016)PP (2016-2022)PL (2022-presente) Religião Protestante Profissão Capitão PM da ROTA a...

 

Gereja KelahiranMuka gedung Gereja Kelahiran (kiri) dan biara Kristen Armenia (kanan) pada tahun 2012AgamaAfiliasi agamaMilik bersama Gereja Katolik Roma, Gereja Ortodoks Yunani, dan Gereja Apostolik Armenia, serta sebagian kecil dimiliki pula oleh Gereja Ortodoks Koptik dan Gereja Ortodoks Suriah[1]StatusAktifLokasiLokasiBetlehem, Tepi BaratKoordinat31°42′15.5″N 35°12′27.3″E / 31.704306°N 35.207583°E / 31.704306; 35.207583Koordinat: 31°42′15.5...

一般県道 徳島県道120号 徳島小松島線一般県道 徳島小松島線 地図 本道の区間 路線延長 13.815 km 制定年 1996年(平成8年) 起点 徳島市万代町1丁目【北緯34度3分56.1秒 東経134度33分25.1秒 / 北緯34.065583度 東経134.556972度 / 34.065583; 134.556972 (県道120号起点)】 終点 小松島市大林町森ノ本【北緯33度58分36.6秒 東経134度36分48.0秒 / 北緯33.976833度 東...

 

Indian politician and member of the 17th Lok Sabha Sunil Kumar PintuMember of ParliamentLok SabhaIncumbentAssumed office 2019Preceded byRam Kumar SharmaConstituencySitamarhiCabinet MinisterGovernment of BiharIn office26 November 2010 – 16 June 2013MinistryTermMinister of Tourism26 November 2010 - 16 June 2013Member of Bihar Legislative AssemblyIn office2003–2015Preceded byShahid Ali KhanSucceeded bySunil KumarConstituencySitamarhi Personal detailsBorn (1961-08-22) 22 August 1...

 

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Heredia et Campuzano. Ne pas confondre avec son cousin germain, le poète français d'origine cubaine José-Maria de Heredia (1842-1905) José María Heredia y CampuzanoBiographieNaissance 31 décembre 1803Santiago de CubaDécès 7 mai 1839 (à 35 ans)Toluca ou MexicoNationalité royaume d'Espagne (d)Domicile CubaActivités Poète, critique littéraire, écrivain, traducteurAutres informationsA travaillé pour Instituto Literario de Toluca (d) (à parti...

Charly García Retrato de García por Alejandro Kuropatwa, 1989Información personalNombre de nacimiento Carlos Alberto GarcíaNacimiento 23 de octubre de 1951 (72 años)Buenos Aires, ArgentinaResidencia Palermo Nacionalidad ArgentinaReligión Católico[1]​Características físicasAltura 1,94 m (6′ 4″)[cita requerida]FamiliaPadres Carlos Jaime García LangeCarmen MorenoHijos Migue GarcíaInformación profesionalOcupación Cantante músico compositor productorAños activo 1...

 

Valentina PopovaPersonal informationKebangsaan  Uni Soviet  Slowakia Lahir21 November 1960 (umur 63) Rekam medali Putri Tenis meja European Championships Mewakili  Uni Soviet 1976 Prague Team 1978 Duisburg Doubles 1978 Duisburg Mixed Doubles 1980 Berne Singles 1980 Berne Doubles 1980 Berne Team 1982 Budapest Singles 1982 Budapest Mixed Doubles 1984 Moscow Singles 1984 Moscow Doubles 1984 Moscow Mixed Doubles 1984 Moscow Team 1986 Prague Team 1988 Paris Singles 1988 Paris T...

 

Strategi Solo vs Squad di Free Fire: Cara Menang Mudah!