The Tolkien Iceberg

Posted on by Shovas

This is my journey, over decades, discovering an appreciation of Tolkien’s stories, an appreciation of Tolkien, himself, and a fascination with his intricate handiwork.

  1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
  3. The Return of the King: Appendices by J.R.R. Tolkien
  4. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
  5. The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth by Robert Foster
    • A very accessible high level primer that begins to reveal the ever-widening depth and breadth of Tolkien’s world
  6. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
  7. On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien
  8. Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien
  9. Author of the Century by Tom Shippey
    • The single best introduction, in my opinion, to the literary depth that Tolkien was going to in even his most popular works.
    • “The argument that fantasy is intrinsically less truthful than realistic fiction could be extended to say that realistic fiction is intrinsically less truthful than biography.” -Tom Shippey
    • “[Critics] were looking for a literary revelation, but when one came they denied it. It was not what they expected. Populist, not elitist. It did not provide that comfortable sense of superiority to the masses without which the English-speaking literary intellectual, it seems, cannot cope at all.” -Tom Shippey
  10. Mythopoeia – Tolkien’s Silmarillion and its Hidden Mysteries [Video]
    • Mythopoeia as internal psychological mythology, or private symbolism
  11. Tolkien’s “Contrasistency.” [Post]
    • “I felt Tolkien was like an iceberg, something to be reckoned with above water in both its brilliance and mass and yet with much more below the surface. In his presence one was aware of a single totality but equally aware of various levels of a kind of consistent inconsistency that was both native-perhaps his genius-and developed, almost deliberate, even enjoyed.” -Clyde Kilby, Tolkien and Middle-Earth
  12. The Book of Ishness by J.R.R. Tolkien
    • “The Book of Ishness was a sketchbook, begun by J.R.R. Tolkien on 6 January 1914, where he collected illustrations devoted to “imaginative subjects”.
    • The Art of J.R.R. Tolkien including artwork from The Book of Ishness
    • Shares similarities and synchronicities with Carl Jung’s Red Book
  13. The Red Book: Liver Novus by Carl Jung (Wikipedia)
    • Shares similarities and synchronicities with Tolkien’s Book of Ishness
    • I can recommend the Audible audiobook
  14. Tolkien and the Silmarillion by Clyde Kilby
    • “Actually he told one of his closest friends that he had the whole world of his mythic world in his mind as early as 1906. He told me that he writing the Silmarillion (doubtless yet untitled) about 1910, and he wrote me that the story, meaning possibly the account as a whole, began in 1916-17 “and has been with me ever since”. -Clyde Kilby, Tolkien and Middle-Earth
  15. Breaking the Tolkien Code by Priya Seth
    • “Early grounding in geometry, taught by his aunt, led to paintings and drawings that displayed a mathematical sense of proportion and scale. When it came to the legendarium, Clyde Kilby asked how he had invented the hundreds of names and places.” -Priya Seth, Breaking the Tolkien Code
  16. Alchemy in Middle-earth by Mahmoud Shelton
    • “I was very uncomfortable with it at the time because I knew almost nothing about Tolkien. I hadn’t even read his letters. I termed it ‘linguistic alchemy’. I then accidentally came across this about a year later in ‘On Fairy Stories’…” -Tolkien’s “Contrasistency”, thewindrose.net

Many, of course, these days come by way of The Lord of the Rings films and that is high praise in both directions.

Honourable Mentions

Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.