The Road to Middle-earth

The Road to Middle-earth (ISBN 978-0-618-25760-7), by Tom Shippey, is a thorough literary 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.

Overview Edit

Shippey shows in great detail how Tolkien's professional background lead him to write The Hobbit and how he created a timeless charm for millions of readers. Examining the philological foundation of Tolkien's most popular work, The Lord of the Rings, Shippey also 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, which tracing the creative and technical process by which Middle-earth evolved.

Table of contents Edit

• 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 Edit