Review by Booklist Review
This is the fourth volume of Christopher Tolkien's edition of his father's unfinished and preparatory manuscripts related to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. It consists of fragments of the Lost Tales collected in the first two volumes, the earliest version of The Silmarillion, a history of gnomes called the Quenta, the first Silmarillion map, the ``Earliest Annals of Valinor,'' and the ``Earliest Annals of Beleriand.'' None of these selections provides the ideal, or even a very good, place to strike up an acquaintance with J. R. R. Tolkien. Written in a style redolent of the translations of medieval sagas and the Arthurian legends, the prose is much drier and more plodding than that of the books Tolkien published during his lifetime. They are made yet more arid by son Tolkien's copious commentary, as dogged a scholarly exegesis as any father Tolkien might have expended upon his beloved Old English texts. For utterly fanatical Tolkien devotees only. Index. RO. 823'.912 Middle Earth (Imaginary place) Literary collections / Fantastic literature, English [OCLC] 86-10338
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
This volume in the History of Middle-earth presents the earliest version of the Silmarillion as well as the ``Quenta,'' which further develops this material. The ``Annals'' are a chronological presentation of the major events in Tolkien's vast mythology. There is also a copy of the earliest map Tolkien created of Middle-earth. Original material is followed by copious annotations relating each part to the others as well as to material presented in other volumes. This collection will be most useful to scholars interested in tracing the development of Tolkien's work. A small group of serious and sophisticated fans of fantasy may also be interested. Suggested for comprehensive literature collections. Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This fourth installment of Tolkien's early notebooks, carefully edited by his son Christopher, is made up of all-but-unreadable fragments dated between 1926 and the 1930's--years during which Tolkien was more profitably engaged in writing The Hobbit. There is a very early and mercifully brief version of the impenetrable elf-epic, The Silmarillion. The Annals of Valinor and the Annals of Beleriand fill in more pre-history leading up to the action later depicted in Lord of the Rings. There are maps drawn by Tolkien (including the earliest Silmarillion map) that show how early Tolkien's imagination settled into specifics of time and place. But the charismatic heroes that made The Lord of the Rings such a compelling heroic narrative--The Aragorns, the Frodos--are nowhere to be found. It was characterization that came last to Tolkien--after many years of the repetitive five-finger exercises painstakingly (and misguidedly) preserved here. It could be said that Tolkien showed better sense than his editor in choosing not to publish these elaborate and ingenious but dry-as-dust background scenarios. The fragments have been edited with an attention to variant spellings and first appearances of themes and characters that should be helpful to some Tolkien scholars. But Tolkien himself will surely be remembered by his admirers for the extraordinary people be imagined so fully--as well as for the subtle geographical and political/cosmological backdrop against which they moved in Lord of the Rings. These scratchings and faulty early drafts will add nothing to his reputation. . .except among those skeptics who have always derided him as a bore. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
