Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
My favorite of Tolkien’s short stories, and I love it even more each time I read it.
Lovely and whimsical, a lesson on understanding how to accept people, help and your limits.
Made all the better having it narrated by Derek Jacobi. Made for a lovely companion piece to my morning run!
Made all the better having it narrated by Derek Jacobi. Made for a lovely companion piece to my morning run!
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly just delightful, any distaste for allegory notwithstanding
funny
lighthearted
Even in a short story format Tolkien knows how to beautifully portray day to day life in an immersive and descriptive way.
What a lovely little story that I had no idea existed even a month ago! It's a profound story for any artist of any genre of Art, and reading the Afterward by Tom Shippey were compelling words to me personally. I actually think I would like to own this to re-read from time to time and remind myself of the importance of staying on task with one's life-work.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
Charming tale if a bit heavy handed.
I know Tolkien claims to not like stories with morals driven into them, but if this isn't with a moral driven into it, it is a story that grew around a moral.
Definitely a good short story to read for Tolkien completionists, but not much to so for strict LOTR fans.
I know Tolkien claims to not like stories with morals driven into them, but if this isn't with a moral driven into it, it is a story that grew around a moral.
Definitely a good short story to read for Tolkien completionists, but not much to so for strict LOTR fans.
66th book of 2024.
I read this yesterday sitting in Waterstones in Piccadilly, with the pounding music and noise of Pride only slightly muffled by the walls. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, having never read any of Tolkien's non-Middle-earth stories; but I was pleasantly surprised. I can admit to looking down on Fantasy somewhat as a genre, which is hypocritical of me because it annoys me that Tolkien has been overlooked so long as a 'fantasy writer', rather than a writer of literature. If you consider Middle-earth and all its creations in a post-war context, like the writings of Hemingway, Woolf, Fitzgerald, etc., then you start to see it in a wider and more impressive scope. Tolkien's presence at the Battle of the Somme, for example, sheds light on so much of Middle-earth's scenery and philosophies.
Leaf by Niggle is a different sort of beast. It's a strange, surreal little story about Niggle, a painter. It was written when Tolkien was struggling through the writing of The Lord of the Rings; at this point, he had been working on the tales we later see in The Silmarillion for twenty years of his life and nothing had been published save a few poems and The Hobbit. The publishers were desperate for a sequel. Tolkien was at a loss. He had a dream and immediately went to write it down: this is said dream on the page. It is a story about fear, the fear of never finishing something. Towards the end, it felt Beckettian, but incredibly gentle, comic, but with just a touch of fear, the kind that all aspiring artists will be familiar with.
I read this yesterday sitting in Waterstones in Piccadilly, with the pounding music and noise of Pride only slightly muffled by the walls. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, having never read any of Tolkien's non-Middle-earth stories; but I was pleasantly surprised. I can admit to looking down on Fantasy somewhat as a genre, which is hypocritical of me because it annoys me that Tolkien has been overlooked so long as a 'fantasy writer', rather than a writer of literature. If you consider Middle-earth and all its creations in a post-war context, like the writings of Hemingway, Woolf, Fitzgerald, etc., then you start to see it in a wider and more impressive scope. Tolkien's presence at the Battle of the Somme, for example, sheds light on so much of Middle-earth's scenery and philosophies.
Leaf by Niggle is a different sort of beast. It's a strange, surreal little story about Niggle, a painter. It was written when Tolkien was struggling through the writing of The Lord of the Rings; at this point, he had been working on the tales we later see in The Silmarillion for twenty years of his life and nothing had been published save a few poems and The Hobbit. The publishers were desperate for a sequel. Tolkien was at a loss. He had a dream and immediately went to write it down: this is said dream on the page. It is a story about fear, the fear of never finishing something. Towards the end, it felt Beckettian, but incredibly gentle, comic, but with just a touch of fear, the kind that all aspiring artists will be familiar with.
