Road to Middle-Earth

The Road to Middle-earth, Tom Shippey’s classic work, now revised in paperback, explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s creativity and the sources of his inspiration. Shippey shows in detail how Tolkien’s professional background led him to write The Hobbit and how he created a timeless charm for millions of readers. Examining the foundation of Tolkien’s most popular work, The Lord of the Rings, Shippey also discusses the contribution of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Tolkien’s great myth cycle, showing how Tolkien’s more “difficult” books can be fully appreciated. He goes on to examine the remarkable twelve-volume History of Middle-earth, written by Tolkien’s son and literary heir Christopher Tolkien, which traces the creative and technical processes by which Middle-earth evolved.

Middle-Earth did not spring fully formed from the head of J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1950s, says Shippey (humanities, St. Louis U., Missouri), but precipitated from the British scholar's broad knowledge of literature, language, and mythology. However, he spends as much time tracing elements of the trilogy through Tolkien's earlier works as identifying them in outside sources. This is the third edition; no dates are noted for the other two. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Tom Shippey taught at Oxford University at the same time as J.R.R. Tolkien and with the same syllabus, which gives him an intimate familiarity with the works that fueled Tolkien's imagination. He subsequently held the chair of English language and medieval literature at Leeds University that Tolkien had previously held. He currently holds the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities at St. Louis University in Missouri.