Rating: 
Summary: Not about Tolkien
Review: The title and blurbs are misleading: it isn't about Tolkien at all. It's an attempt by an English redbrick university psychology professor to use Tolkien's popularity as an awkward kicking-off point for a rather woo-woo account of the civilization and worldview of late first-millennium Celtic and Germanic Europe. His constant reference to these peoples as "the real Middle-earth" grates, and correlations with Tolkien's creation are only cursory.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Real
Review: This book never claims to be about Tolkein - it is about the Real Middle Earth that Tolkein uses as a background for his fantasy work.This book is engaging and filled with lots of wonderful information that leads us to the truth about the time in which our ancestors lived. It communicates to us how they viewed the world. If one looks at Brian Bates other book "THe Way of The Wyrd" you begin to realize this is fundamental to his life work not a rip off of Tolkein. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to understand our indigenous backgrounds - or just likes a good book to read for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant and timely
Review: This excellent book turns the anthropological magnifying glass back on the West. This is about "our (if you are of anglo celtic ancestry) Dreamtime". If we understood our cultural heritage as well as this book articulates it then may be we wouldn't have treated others (such as indiginous peoples) so poorly. A very important book that should be studied in High Schools...
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