The Monsters and the Critics

Rating:
Summary: The man from Middle Earth
Review: At times, Tolkien expressed regret that he had become famous as a novelist rather than a scholar of language and culture--but these essays reveal that "Lord of the Rings" and his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary were two products of the same mental universe... and what a dazzling place it was.

Rating:
Summary: The man from Middle Earth
Review: At times, Tolkien expressed regret that he had become famous as a novelist rather than a scholar of language and culture--but these essays reveal that "Lord of the Rings" and his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary were two products of the same mental universe... and what a dazzling place it was.

Rating:
Summary: The Mind Behind
Review: The contrast between the elegant prose of LotR and the meandering academic style in these essays is astonishing. It's not hard to realize, after reading this, why Prof. Tolkien had a reputation as a dull lecturer (a reputation he cheerfully confesses to in his valedictory address). But if you can penetrate the prose, these writings are full of gems.

This collection will appeal to you if you are any kind of devotee of medieval English literature. Even if Tolkien had never written his great fantasy novels, he'd be revered for his work in Old English, especially as a champion of the poetic reputation of "Beowulf," a poem he almost single-handedly wrested from historians and philologists and set in its proper place at the root of English literature.

He also makes an eloquent case for the essential connection between the study of language and that of literature. If you consider yourself a student of great writing, but have only read Anglo-Saxon poetry in someone's "translation," Prof. Tolkien will politely shame you out of complacency.

In his valedictory address, speaking as a native of South Africa, he says, "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White."

The book will also appeal to you if you have spent years immersed in the world of Middle Earth. Though there are scarcely any direct references to LotR in these essays, they illuminate the mind behind the masterpiece -- the quirky love of languages, the vision of fantasy as a godly act of creation, the deep Catholic faith.

Tolkien couldn't write a grocery shopping list without adding at least two appendices, as these essays prove, and some of the best gems are in the footnotes. His theories on the unconnectedness of drama and literature are also provocative and well-argued.

The production on this edition is a bit shoddy: it looks like the fonts were squeezed, there are some typos, and the paper quality is poor.

Rating:
Summary: Monster and the Critics - An Understanding
Review: The Monsters and the Critics is a useful addition to any Tolkien Linguist's collection. With essays on many topics, a whole new world is revealed.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a brilliant author, and The Monsters and the Critics, although a collection of essays, was no different.

Useful to anyone who wants information on Middle-Earth or J.R.R. Tolkien should try to obtain a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Want Tolkien's point of view?
Review: This is a great book by one of the greatest writers ever. It explaines in detail his opinion on certain matters such as how people call stories "Fairy Tales" when they are not at all a fairy tale and others of the sort. It is a great addition to any Tolkien fan's collection. It is not as interesting as some of his work so I gave it 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Good collection of lectures/articles
Review: This volume contains several essays/articles by Tolkien, most of which were originally delivered as lectures. The essays included are: "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", "On Fairy Stories", "English and Welsh", "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", "On Translating Beowulf", "A Secret Vice" (about imaginary languages), and a Valedictory address given at Oxford upon his retirement. Most of these had been published before, of course. Some, like "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" and "On Fairy Stories" have been republished and reprinted many times, while others, like "English and Welsh" have only appeared a handful of times in obscure locations. Many of these others, however, appear in print here for the first time.

Of these essays, the two most interesting are undoubtedly the two that have appeared most often in print-- the first Beowulf essay and "On Fairy Stories". "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", of course, is the most important article on Beowulf of the 20th century. Incredible as it may now seem, prior to Tolkien, Beowulf had been seen primarily as a curious linguistic-literary artifact, useful as a source of information about the early Germanic past (customs, language, laws, toponymy, etc.). Tolkien was the first critic to draw attention to the poem *as* a poem and to point out that the central literary structure of the tale revolves around the hero's battles with them monsters, which previous critics had dismissed as mere fabulous emendations to a tale whose primary value was historical. "On Fairy Stories", of course, has been much cited by Tolkien fans and scholars as a theoretical model for understanding Tolkien's neo-Romantic approach to fiction (especially fantastic fiction), with its Coleridgean emphasis upon authorship as the subcreation of a "secondary world" within the broader primary world. Personally, I think the merit of this essay is vastly overrated, as is its usefuless as a means of understanding Tolkien's own fiction-- but it's something that Tolkien fans/scholars should probably read, if only because others have spent so much time harping on its importance.

Of the remaining essays, the most interesting is probably the previously unpublished lecture on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is essentially an analysis of the poem, focussing on the (central) theme of temptation. It should be of interest both to those interested in what is now an old-school reading of the poem and to those interested in how Tolkien himself read and taught the poem. In the course of his explication, he makes some interesting side comments that show he was aware of the myth-and-ritual approach to this poem (which held that it drew upon on ancient rites regarding the annual death and regrowth of vegetation)as well as pointing outing out that the key to the poem's success lies in its having such 'deep roots', rather than simply being an mere moral allegory. This, I think, sheds some additional light on Tolkien's aesthetics and why his fiction ends up having such a 'pagan and mythic' feel to it (in spite of its undeniably Christian values system), quite unlike the rather obvious allegories of his friend, C.S. Lewis.

The other essays, although certainly worthy of being put into print, are not necessarily all that insightful. The true Tolkien fan-- and maybe the Tolkien scholar who's really interested in Tolkien's philological work-- may find them of some mild interest.

One final point I should make is that this collection, edited by Christopher (naturally), does have a good number of notes about textual history. Since several of these essays were previously published-- and since Tolkien was an endless reviser, slightly different versions of certain passages appear in different published versions. Christopher has, in the footnotes, indicated where such differences exist and provided the alternate versions.

Rating:
Summary: Good collection of lectures/articles
Review: This volume contains several essays/articles by Tolkien, most of which were originally delivered as lectures. The essays included are: "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", "On Fairy Stories", "English and Welsh", "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", "On Translating Beowulf", "A Secret Vice" (about imaginary languages), and a Valedictory address given at Oxford upon his retirement. Most of these had been published before, of course. Some, like "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" and "On Fairy Stories" have been republished and reprinted many times, while others, like "English and Welsh" have only appeared a handful of times in obscure locations. Many of these others, however, appear in print here for the first time.

Of these essays, the two most interesting are undoubtedly the two that have appeared most often in print-- the first Beowulf essay and "On Fairy Stories". "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", of course, is the most important article on Beowulf of the 20th century. Incredible as it may now seem, prior to Tolkien, Beowulf had been seen primarily as a curious linguistic-literary artifact, useful as a source of information about the early Germanic past (customs, language, laws, toponymy, etc.). Tolkien was the first critic to draw attention to the poem *as* a poem and to point out that the central literary structure of the tale revolves around the hero's battles with them monsters, which previous critics had dismissed as mere fabulous emendations to a tale whose primary value was historical. "On Fairy Stories", of course, has been much cited by Tolkien fans and scholars as a theoretical model for understanding Tolkien's neo-Romantic approach to fiction (especially fantastic fiction), with its Coleridgean emphasis upon authorship as the subcreation of a "secondary world" within the broader primary world. Personally, I think the merit of this essay is vastly overrated, as is its usefuless as a means of understanding Tolkien's own fiction-- but it's something that Tolkien fans/scholars should probably read, if only because others have spent so much time harping on its importance.

Of the remaining essays, the most interesting is probably the previously unpublished lecture on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is essentially an analysis of the poem, focussing on the (central) theme of temptation. It should be of interest both to those interested in what is now an old-school reading of the poem and to those interested in how Tolkien himself read and taught the poem. In the course of his explication, he makes some interesting side comments that show he was aware of the myth-and-ritual approach to this poem (which held that it drew upon on ancient rites regarding the annual death and regrowth of vegetation)as well as pointing outing out that the key to the poem's success lies in its having such 'deep roots', rather than simply being an mere moral allegory. This, I think, sheds some additional light on Tolkien's aesthetics and why his fiction ends up having such a 'pagan and mythic' feel to it (in spite of its undeniably Christian values system), quite unlike the rather obvious allegories of his friend, C.S. Lewis.

The other essays, although certainly worthy of being put into print, are not necessarily all that insightful. The true Tolkien fan-- and maybe the Tolkien scholar who's really interested in Tolkien's philological work-- may find them of some mild interest.

One final point I should make is that this collection, edited by Christopher (naturally), does have a good number of notes about textual history. Since several of these essays were previously published-- and since Tolkien was an endless reviser, slightly different versions of certain passages appear in different published versions. Christopher has, in the footnotes, indicated where such differences exist and provided the alternate versions.