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mjwatt1's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
gav_ferreira's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
lillanaa's review against another edition
5.0
I had no idea what to expect with this, and I do agree that some parts are rather dry, but this is a trove of background information that I'd highly recommend to anyone as in love with the universe Tolkien has created as I am. This is definitely for the hardcore fans only, not meant in a gatekeeping way, as the first chunk being mostly math can be fairly daunting, but I would absolutely use this as a masterclass in worldbuilding and a fabulous peek into the writing process.
verbadanga66's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
leesmyth's review against another edition
4.0
I skipped Part I, but found Parts II and III interesting. So the star rating reflects only the parts I read.
gps1138's review against another edition
This is a tough book to rate or review. This is a collection of notes made by Tolkien about everything from the gestational period of elves to making lembas. Included with each note is a description of the type of writing implement used and what kind of paper it was written on. (Tolkien used the blank backs of a variety of papers for a lot of these.) Some parts, like the math about the aging of the elves, are pretty dull, but I found myself drawn into the incredible details of the specifics of the elves' immortality and linguistics. This is definitely for hardcore fans only, but if you are interested at all in the minutia of Tolkien's impressive world-building, you should probably check this out.
ashndean88's review against another edition
2.0
This review is written with typescript text, which is unfortunate because black-nib pen is the preferred method of writing in regards to this book. To be frank, the best thing this book can do is sit pretty beside the rest of my collection of a shelf.
I honestly haven't had a worse time with a Tolkien book ever, and I know that was not due to Tolkien himself. This was slow, repetitive, dull, and full of so much math. I haven't read the word "gestation" in a book more than I have here. And I've read some baby books prior to this.
Were there some interesting parts? Yes.
Was this information useful to further understand Middle-Earth? No, most of it was not.
Did I think every incomplete scribble of Tolkien needed to be published, including what writing utensil was used and on which stationary type? Also a giant no.
I guess I wanted more of a story and not a cash-grab info-dump full of things that can mostly be found in other, more enjoyable Tolkien works. Originally I was not going to give this less than 3 stars based on my biasm for this series, but when I realized the thought of reading more of it was in itself agonizing, I knew I had to go one lower. I don't find this particular book necessary to read in order to comprehend all the lovely things Tolkien has to offer.
I honestly haven't had a worse time with a Tolkien book ever, and I know that was not due to Tolkien himself. This was slow, repetitive, dull, and full of so much math. I haven't read the word "gestation" in a book more than I have here. And I've read some baby books prior to this.
Were there some interesting parts? Yes.
Was this information useful to further understand Middle-Earth? No, most of it was not.
Did I think every incomplete scribble of Tolkien needed to be published, including what writing utensil was used and on which stationary type? Also a giant no.
I guess I wanted more of a story and not a cash-grab info-dump full of things that can mostly be found in other, more enjoyable Tolkien works. Originally I was not going to give this less than 3 stars based on my biasm for this series, but when I realized the thought of reading more of it was in itself agonizing, I knew I had to go one lower. I don't find this particular book necessary to read in order to comprehend all the lovely things Tolkien has to offer.
isabellarobinson7's review against another edition
5.0
INCOMING BIAS ALERT PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Rating: 5 stars
Ok, it's about time I made some sense of this gobbledygook because I finished this book over two weeks ago. But I can't help it. I loved every page of this cash grab. These Tolkien ramblings. These incoherent notes he probably never really meant to be published. They were great. Information I never knew I needed, but now can't imagine how I got by without. Tolkien, you can do no wrong!
Weeeeell... The Nature of Middle-Earth is far from perfect. Yes, I loved it, but my opinions on Tolkien books are probably best ignored because I have the most absurd amount of bias towards him that it is quite ridiculous. That is to say that most people will not like this book. In fact, I think most people will hate this book. This is for a very select few people who have these weird wonderings about Middle-earth. I suppose the foreword puts it best:
So if you are also one of "those who take particular interest" in Tolkien's works, you will (probably) also love this book. It is full of small tidbits of knowledge that no one else would think was of any value. Like Elf birth. Elf periods are an important topic in this book, and I can’t wait to tell my mum that Elves don’t have any pain in labour (I told her; she was very jealous). See? Who else needs that information? (Huh, it’s also kind of like Bajoran labour “pains” now that I think about it.)
One part I almost fist pumped the air when reading (I whooped loudly instead) was when Tolkien, yes J.R.R. Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien author and creator of any and all stories set in Arda, said this on page 343: "[...]Middle-earth, the European-African-Asiatic contiguous landmass". That's right. Tolkien himself has written that the continent of Middle-earth was based on not only Europe, but the amalgamation of Europe, Africa and Asia. (I did all the editing thingys to make that part stand out.) This means that all the flack the movies get because of having all white cast members has some basis because since ME is based on Asia and Africa as well as Europe it is not "inaccurate" or a "disservice to the source material" to have actors of colour. (That's right. You heard me. I don't exclusively defend Peter Jackson's adaptations, I can see when they are in the wrong. I am reasonable. But also IF YOU EVER INSULT-) That's not to say that there are no POC in Europe, but... I'm on thin ice here I can feel it... ok, no I don't want to go any further. You know what I mean. I guess the summary of this paragraph is that it is totally in line with Tolkien's original vision (with an underline, get it?) to have Nigerian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian... actors and actresses from across all three continents playing roles in any and all Middle-earth adaptations. In fact, it would be inaccurate not to.
Before starting this book, I knew that there was going to be lots of maths. By golly there was lots of maths. Tolkien really thought through every single thing in regards to his fantasy races. He was like if I’m going to write these things called elves and dwarves and hobbits, I’m going to make them as believable as possible. He has charts to show you how the Eldar age or Númenóreans age and they were actually very helpful for me. As someone who has been reading about these races since I was eight years old, I just kind of went along with it that these people were just really old, not really thinking about the specifics, like Legolas seems like a young elf even though he’s 2931 years old. Now I know that due to the ageing of the body versus the mind, and the different rates of maturation of both between races, makes it so that two characters feel a similar age despite one being physically on the earth for twelve times as long as the other. Make sense? It's a little confusing. Fortunately it is discussed at length multiple times throughout The Nature of Middle-Earth. With full on in-depth graphs and charts, equations and formulas and everything. Philologist? Pfft. I think Tolkien was an amateur mathematician on the side.
Sometimes the book can get a little bit confusing. While it is Tolkien writing the background information about his world, it is also Tolkien working out the background information about his world, often as he goes. Again, the foreword best explains the reason behind the existence of this book:
You can be reading one train of thought thinking you’ve got this, you understand where Tolkien’s going, but then he notices an inconsistency and thinks "hang on a second, that doesn’t work. That would mean that this person is born too late for him to be part of this thing, so scrap that I’m gonna start something else" and you just have to erase the past chapter from your mind. I suppose it makes the "book" more of a working document of Tolkien's, one where he can iron out any contrarieties and contradictions that had turned up unnoticed as he was constructing his universe.
Because these were notes and never meant to be actually read by a wider audience, sometimes Tolkien uses terms or ideas before he actually explains/introduces them to us. For instance, he starts talking in the fourth chapter, only 18 pages in, about fëa and hröa which made me go "ok, whatever, Tolkien words" without actually stopping to try and see if I remembered/knew what they meant, but before long they became a central aspect of what was being discussed and I had to use the Tolkien Gateway (think Wikipedia but for Tolkien stuff) to figure out what these words were. Then, in a later section of the book (can't find it at present), Tolkien introduces the reader to fëa and hröa like we were reading them for the first time... but because of the content of that section it can't come before the other part where the terms were first used, and to preserve narrative authenticity Tolkien's original manuscripts have as little outside additions to them as possible, which then makes the unannounced appearance of the unfamiliar words confusing to the reader, yet more accurate to the initial authorial intent... etc. etc. etc. You can see the cycle going round and round.
Eh. I have been writing this review for ages. It's done. Whatever. This book was great. Not the best Tolkien, but that is one high bar.
Rating: 5 stars
Ok, it's about time I made some sense of this gobbledygook because I finished this book over two weeks ago. But I can't help it. I loved every page of this cash grab. These Tolkien ramblings. These incoherent notes he probably never really meant to be published. They were great. Information I never knew I needed, but now can't imagine how I got by without. Tolkien, you can do no wrong!
Weeeeell... The Nature of Middle-Earth is far from perfect. Yes, I loved it, but my opinions on Tolkien books are probably best ignored because I have the most absurd amount of bias towards him that it is quite ridiculous. That is to say that most people will not like this book. In fact, I think most people will hate this book. This is for a very select few people who have these weird wonderings about Middle-earth. I suppose the foreword puts it best:
These texts and this book are very much of a piece with significant portions of the aforementioned volumes, and will be of greatest interest to those who take particular interest in them.
So if you are also one of "those who take particular interest" in Tolkien's works, you will (probably) also love this book. It is full of small tidbits of knowledge that no one else would think was of any value. Like Elf birth. Elf periods are an important topic in this book, and I can’t wait to tell my mum that Elves don’t have any pain in labour (I told her; she was very jealous). See? Who else needs that information? (Huh, it’s also kind of like Bajoran labour “pains” now that I think about it.)
One part I almost fist pumped the air when reading (I whooped loudly instead) was when Tolkien, yes J.R.R. Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien author and creator of any and all stories set in Arda, said this on page 343: "[...]Middle-earth, the European-African-Asiatic contiguous landmass". That's right. Tolkien himself has written that the continent of Middle-earth was based on not only Europe, but the amalgamation of Europe, Africa and Asia. (I did all the editing thingys to make that part stand out.) This means that all the flack the movies get because of having all white cast members has some basis because since ME is based on Asia and Africa as well as Europe it is not "inaccurate" or a "disservice to the source material" to have actors of colour. (That's right. You heard me. I don't exclusively defend Peter Jackson's adaptations, I can see when they are in the wrong. I am reasonable. But also IF YOU EVER INSULT-) That's not to say that there are no POC in Europe, but... I'm on thin ice here I can feel it... ok, no I don't want to go any further. You know what I mean. I guess the summary of this paragraph is that it is totally in line with Tolkien's original vision (with an underline, get it?) to have Nigerian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian... actors and actresses from across all three continents playing roles in any and all Middle-earth adaptations. In fact, it would be inaccurate not to.
Before starting this book, I knew that there was going to be lots of maths. By golly there was lots of maths. Tolkien really thought through every single thing in regards to his fantasy races. He was like if I’m going to write these things called elves and dwarves and hobbits, I’m going to make them as believable as possible. He has charts to show you how the Eldar age or Númenóreans age and they were actually very helpful for me. As someone who has been reading about these races since I was eight years old, I just kind of went along with it that these people were just really old, not really thinking about the specifics, like Legolas seems like a young elf even though he’s 2931 years old. Now I know that due to the ageing of the body versus the mind, and the different rates of maturation of both between races, makes it so that two characters feel a similar age despite one being physically on the earth for twelve times as long as the other. Make sense? It's a little confusing. Fortunately it is discussed at length multiple times throughout The Nature of Middle-Earth. With full on in-depth graphs and charts, equations and formulas and everything. Philologist? Pfft. I think Tolkien was an amateur mathematician on the side.
Sometimes the book can get a little bit confusing. While it is Tolkien writing the background information about his world, it is also Tolkien working out the background information about his world, often as he goes. Again, the foreword best explains the reason behind the existence of this book:
Meditating long on the world that he had brought into being and was now in part unveiled, he had become absorbed in analytic speculation concerning its underlying postulates. Before he could prepare a new and final Silmarillion he must satisfy the requirements of a coherent theological and metaphysical system, rendered now more complex in its presentation by the supposition of obscure and conflicting elements in its roots and its tradition.
You can be reading one train of thought thinking you’ve got this, you understand where Tolkien’s going, but then he notices an inconsistency and thinks "hang on a second, that doesn’t work. That would mean that this person is born too late for him to be part of this thing, so scrap that I’m gonna start something else" and you just have to erase the past chapter from your mind. I suppose it makes the "book" more of a working document of Tolkien's, one where he can iron out any contrarieties and contradictions that had turned up unnoticed as he was constructing his universe.
Because these were notes and never meant to be actually read by a wider audience, sometimes Tolkien uses terms or ideas before he actually explains/introduces them to us. For instance, he starts talking in the fourth chapter, only 18 pages in, about fëa and hröa which made me go "ok, whatever, Tolkien words" without actually stopping to try and see if I remembered/knew what they meant, but before long they became a central aspect of what was being discussed and I had to use the Tolkien Gateway (think Wikipedia but for Tolkien stuff) to figure out what these words were. Then, in a later section of the book (can't find it at present), Tolkien introduces the reader to fëa and hröa like we were reading them for the first time... but because of the content of that section it can't come before the other part where the terms were first used, and to preserve narrative authenticity Tolkien's original manuscripts have as little outside additions to them as possible, which then makes the unannounced appearance of the unfamiliar words confusing to the reader, yet more accurate to the initial authorial intent... etc. etc. etc. You can see the cycle going round and round.
Eh. I have been writing this review for ages. It's done. Whatever. This book was great. Not the best Tolkien, but that is one high bar.