Arthuriana

Over the years, the person and works of J.R.R. Tolkien have generated books enough to line the road from Rivendell to Mordor, covering every aspect of the subject. Into this crowded space, Christopher Snyder offers The Making of Middle-earth: A New Look Inside the World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Others have trod this ground before him: authors such as J.E.A. Tyler (1976) and David Day (1995) have collated encyclopedias, and devotés like Ruth S. Noel (1980) and David Salo (2007) have described Middle-earth’s languages; writers such as Mark Foster and Mark Oxbrow (2012) and scholars like Tom Shippey (2003) have offered insights into Tolkien’s inspirations, and enthusiasts like Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have explored his artwork (2000); biographers such as Humphrey Carpenter (1977) and Joseph Pearce (2001) have documented Tolkien’s life extensively. Snyder’s own book stands out because it explores each of these various paths, compiling a single, comprehensive map along the way. [End Page 149]

The Making of Middle-earth is a lovely book, with early maps, manuscript illuminations, illustrations, and photos adorning pages that are printed to resemble vellum. The images sometimes seem gratuitous, but they often help to characterize or illustrate the kinds of sources Tolkien knew and make otherwise esoteric catalogues concrete or turn abstract places into realities. Snyder uses call-out boxes to highlight aspects of Tolkien’s work, such as elements of Sindarin (49) or parallels among Tolkien’s characters and figures from European mythology (185). Other call-out boxes are used to elaborate on Tolkien’s development of particular characters, such as Gollum (108), or to make connections to history and archaeology, such as the Tollund Man (150). The brevity of these elements points to a general readership who may not be deeply versed in Tolkien or his works. As such, The Making of Middle-earth may best be read as a primer on the subject.

Snyder himself describes The Making of Middle-earth as a source study, in keeping with Tolkien’s own scholarly interests, and divides his book into five chapters. The first, ‘Learning his Craft,’ provides a brief biography, covering Tolkien’s youth and education, his wartime experience, and personal and professional lives, with a particular emphasis on the friendships Tolkien lost and maintained. More detailed and comprehensive biographies exist, but Snyder offers a finely distilled narrative that contextualizes the later chapters. The second chapter, ‘Tolkien’s Middle Ages,’ sketches the broad variety of sources that may have influenced Tolkien’s creation of Middle-earth. Snyder includes the ancient and medieval worlds as well as Victorian and Edwardian authors whose work Tolkien encountered as a boy. These chapters provide an excellent foundation for what follows by introducing readers to the experiences and texts that inspired and shaped Middle-earth.

The three subsequent chapters take up The Hobbit (Chapter 3), The Lord of the Rings (Chapter 4), and The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin (Chapter 5), each working systematically through the plots to highlight story points that can be connected to either elements of Tolkien’s life or the texts he knew and, in some cases, was consciously reworking. At some times, Snyder’s discussions feel incomplete, with no mention, for example, of the epic tradition of the nekyia in Aragorn’s descent to the Dimholt or the influence of Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter on Tolkien’s own writing. As one presses deeper into the book, moreover, Snyder’s treatments of The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin seem to revert to plot summary with little discussion of sources or biographical influences.

Snyder concludes The Making of Middle-earth with four appendices that expand areas the book does not treat at any length. Appendix 1 does an admirable job of reviewing critical appraisals of Tolkien’s...