Splintered Light

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World
Author	Verlyn Flieger
Publisher	Eerdmans Publishing Company
Released	1983
Format	Paperback
Pages	144
ISBN	0802819559

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World is a scholarly book on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, written by Verlyn Flieger. The book was first published in 1983, but it was expanded in a second edition in 2002 after the publication of The History of Middle-earth gave much light on the matter.

Synopsis of the publisher (revised edition)

J.R.R. Tolkien is perhaps best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but it is in The Silmarillion that the true depth of Tolkien's Middle-earth can be understood. The Silmarillion was written before, during, and after Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A collection of stories, it provides information alluded to in Tolkien's better known works and, in doing so, turns The Lord of the Rings into much more than a sequel to The Hobbit, making it instead a continuation of the mythology of Middle-earth.
Verlyn Flieger's expanded and updated edition of Splintered Light, a classic study of Tolkien's fiction first published in 1983, examines The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings in light of Owen Barfield's linguistic theory of the fragmentation of meaning. Flieger demonstrates Tolkien's use of Barfield's concept throughout the fiction, showing how his central image of primary light splintered and refracted acts as a metaphor for the languages, peoples, and history of Middle-earth.

Revised edition
Author	Verlyn Flieger
Illustrator	Ted Nasmith (cover)
Publisher	Kent State University Press
Released	November 2002
Format	Paperback
Pages	208
ISBN	0873387449

Contents (revised edition)

• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Introduction

1. A Man of Antithesis
2. Dyscatastrophe
3. Eucatastrophe
4. Poetic Diction and Splintered Light
5. Fantasy and Phenomena
6. Splintered Light and Splintered Being
7. Theme and Variations
8. A Disease of Mythology
9. Perception = Name = Identity
10. Ourselves as Other See Us
11. amazing wine and cellar doors
12. Light and Heat
13. Making versus Hoarding
14. Light Out of Darkness
15. Beyond the Music
16. Light for Light
17. Beren and Thingol
18. The Smallest Fragment
19. Filled with Clear Light
20. One Good Custom

• Afterword
• Notes
• Works consulted

See also

• Light of Valinor
• Owen Barfield