The Road to Middle-earth

The Road to Middle-earth (ISBN 978-0-618-25760-7), by Tom Shippey, is a thorough "diachronic"^[1] analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien's stories from the perspective of a fellow philologist; last revised 2003, and first published by Allen & Unwin in 1983.

It preceded J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, a book by Shippey for a slightly wider readership.

Overview

Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey shows in great detail how Tolkien's professional background led him in his philological exploits, and to writing The Hobbit. Examining also the philological foundations of The Lord of the Rings, Shippey discusses the contributions of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Tolkien's myth cycle, revealing how his denser works can be fully appreciated.

He goes on to examine the twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth, which Christopher Tolkien wrote and compiled, tracing the creative and technical process by which Middle-earth evolved.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements and Abbreviations

1. 'Lit. and Lang.'
2. Philological Inquiries
3. The Bourgeois Burglar
4. A Cartographic Plot
5. Interlacements and the Ring
6. 'When All Our Fathers Worshipped Stocks and Stones'
7. Visions and Revisions
8. 'On the Cold Hill's Side'
9. 'The Course of Actual Composition'

• Afterword
• Appendix A: Tolkien's Sources: The True Tradition
• Appendix B: Four 'Asterisk' Poems
• Notes
• Index

Translations around the world

References

1. ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, Foreword, xxvii