The Road to Middle-earth

The Road to Middle-earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology
Author	Tom Shippey
Publisher	George Allen and Unwin (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released	1982
Format	Hardcover; paperback
Pages	264
ISBN	0048090182

The Road to Middle-earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology is a scholarly study of the Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is written by professor Tom Shippey, first published in 1982. It is one of the most highly regarded books in the Tolkien scholarship.

The book explores Tolkien's creativity and the sources of his inspiration, discusses the origins of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, shows how they contribute to Tolkien's mythology and how they can be appreciated.

A second edition was published in 1992, to incorporate discussions on the History of Middle-earth series. And a third edition in 2003, to reflect on the new publications and new views on Tolkien studies.

Four Tolkien's poems are included in the appendix, which first appeared in Songs for the Philologists:

• "Bagme Bloma"
• "Éadig Béo Þu!"
• "Ides Ælfscýne"
• "Ofer Wídne Gársecg"

From the publisher

A detailed and fascinating journey to the roots of The Lord of the Rings, by award-winning Tolkien expert Professor Tom Shippey.

The Road to Middle-Earth is a fascinating and accessible exploration of J.R.R.Tolkien's creativity and the sources of his inspiration. Tom Shippey shows in detail how Tolkien's professional background led him to write The Hobbit and how he created a work of timeless charm for millions of readers. He discusses the contribution of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Tolkien's great myth-cycle, showing how Tolkien's more 'complex' works can be read enjoyably and seriously by readers of his earlier books, and goes on to examine the remarkable 12-volume History of Middle-earth by Tolkien's son and literary heir Christopher Tolkien, which traces the creative and technical processes through which Middle-earth evolved. The core of the book, however, concentrates on The Lord of the Rings as a linguistic and cultural map, as a twisted web of a story, and as a response to the inner meaning of myth and poetry.

By following the routes of Tolkien's own obsessions – the poetry of languages and myth – The Road to Middle-earth shows how Beowulf, The Lord of the Rings, Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Elder Edda and many other works form part of a live and continuing tradition of literature. It takes issue with many basic premises of orthodox criticism and offers a new approach to Tolkien, to fantasy, and to the importance of language in literature.

Contents

• Acknowledgements and Abbreviations
• Preface to the Third Edition

• Chapter 1. "Lit. and Lang."
  • Old Antipathies
  • The Nature of Philology
  • Lost Romances
  • "Asterisk-Reality"
  • The wilderness of dragons, the shrewedness of apes

• Chapter 2. Philological Inquiries
  • Roads and Butterflies
  • Survivals in the West
  • Allegories, Potatoes, Fantasy and Glamour

• Chapter 3. The Bourgeois Burglar
  • The word and the thing: elves and dwarves
  • Creative anachronisms
  • Breaking Contact
  • The Ring as "Equalizer"
  • The bewilderment of Smaug

• Chapter 4. A Cartographic Plot
  • Maps and Names
  • Getting started
  • Stars, shadows, cellar-doors: patterns of language and of history
  • "The Council of Elrond"
  • The horses of the Mark
  • The edges of the Mark
  • "Magyk natureel"

• Chapter 5. Interlacements and the Ring
  • A problem in corruption
  • Views of evil: Boethian and Manichaean
  • Conceptions of evil: shadows and wraiths
  • The opposing forces: luck and chance
  • Apparent paradoxes: happy sadness and hopeless cheer
  • The ethics of interlace
  • Just allegory and large symbolism
  • Eucatastrophe, realism, and romance

• Chapter 6. "When All Our Lathers Worshipped Stocks and Stones"
  • Stylistic theories: Tolkien and Shakespeare
  • The poetry of the Shire
  • The elvish tradition
  • Middle-earth and Limbo: mythic analogues
  • Fróda and Frodo: a myth reconstructed
  • The styles of romance
  • Some contradictions mediated

• Chapter 7. Visions and Revisions
  • The Shaping of "The Silmarillion"
  • The Dangers of Going On
  • Philosophical Inquiries
  • Pride and Possessiveness: another view
  • Eärendil: a Lyric Core
  • Characters and Cobwebs
  • Etymologies and ambiguities
  • The Tale of Beren
  • Túrin Turambar turún' ambartanen
  • Some Conclusions

• Chapter 8. "On the Cold Hill's Side"
  • Of Birch Hats and Cold Potions
  • An End to "Glamour"
  • The Lost Straight Road

• Chapter 9. "The Course of Actual Composition"
  • The bones of the ox
  • Lost road, waste land
  • A mythology for England
  • Creating depth
  • "Mere 'escapism' in literature"
  • "So deeply stirred his generation"

• Afterword
• Appendix A: Tolkien's Sources: The True Tradition
• Appendix B: Four "Asterisk" Poems
• Appendix C: Peter Jackson's Film Versions

• Notes
• Index

Publication history and gallery

1982 first edition   1992 second edition   1992 second impression   2003 third edition (US)   2005 third edition (UK)

• First edition
  • George Allen and Unwin, hardcover (1982), pp. 264. ISBN 0048090182

• Second edition
  • HarperCollins paperback (1992), pp. 352. ISBN 0261102753
    • 1992 second edition, second impression

• Third edition
  • Houghton Mifflin, paperback (2003), pp. 416. ISBN 0618257608
  • HarperCollins paperback (2005), ISBN 0261102753

External links

• Book review by Gergely Nagy, from Tolkien Studies. 2