Sprookjes & vertellingen by J.R.R. Tolkien, Max Schuchart

4.01 AVERAGE

kfaraldi1522's profile picture

kfaraldi1522's review against another edition

4.0
3.5 ⭐️
basbleu_dans_labiblioteque's profile picture

basbleu_dans_labiblioteque's review against another edition

4.0
adventurous emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
Favorite story was definitely Smith of Wooten Major. I also really enjoyed his essay On Fairy-Stories.
tammer400's profile picture

tammer400's review against another edition

3.5
adventurous slow-paced
My two fav stories were farmer giles of ham and the adventures id to  bombaldi

saffysarah's review against another edition

3.5
adventurous slow-paced

dajhek's review against another edition

4.0
Some of Tolkien's best writing in my opinion. Leaf by Niggle was pure fantasy and Farmer Giles of Ham a wonderful adventure. Both of these short stories are worth re-reading several times a year.

yoshionsax's review against another edition

3.0
inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

johnnareadsallthebooks's review against another edition

4.0
Tolkein for the younger set!
msjennywye's profile picture

msjennywye's review against another edition

3.0
This collection of tales is not my favourite set of tales by Tolkien, although the intriguing narrative about Niggle and his neighbor "Leaf by Niggle" brought tears to my eyes.

The poems in the Stories of Tom Bombadil tickled my fancy, though I would like there to be a longer history of him somewhere... I fear my desires will remain unquenched until I write them or do some sleuthing through Christopher Tolkien's works, perhaps.

Overall, it was a fun bit of fancy, but not my favorite.
ceallaighsbooks's profile picture

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad fast-paced
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
“FAERIE is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold... The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.” 
 
author: JRR Tolkien 
audiobook narrator: Derek Jacobi 
published: 1997 
publisher: HarperCollins 
 
genre: fantasy stories & poems for children & adults 
setting: our world, Middle-earth, & Faërie, & all the places in-between (the moon, the mer-kingdom, the Little Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom &c.) 
 
main themes/subjects: 
  • Roverandom: an enchanted toy dog, adventures, wizards & dragons, the Moon, the valley of Happy Dreams, seagulls & spiders, mythology, Uin the oldest of the Right Whales, kingdom of the mer-folk, English beachside town, family & childhood, industrialisation & environmental destruction
  • Farmer Giles: a comic medieval fable / children’s fantasy / mock charter myth / a local legend featuring a brave farmer & his cowardly dog & his determined mare, a comic & light-hearted narrative voice, mock etymologies of actual place-names, a silly giant, an inconvenienced dragon, a selfish king, a vindictive miller, a morose blacksmith, & a bunch of useless knights
  • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil: the Man in the Moon, elves, trolls, talking animals, spooky supernatural creatures (barrow-wights, mewlips, etc.), Tom Bombadil, fae English country & forest imagery, interesting meters & rhyme schemes, wandering, madness, shadows, water-worlds, embodied nature, comic animal fables, nursery tales, bestiary lore, nonsense rhymes, fairy poems
  • Smith of Wootton Major: village life, the magic of Faery, mid-winer festival, childhood, the imagination, respect for Faery, the relationship bw magic & cooking, inheritance by spirit rather than blood, travels & traveling, Fae in disguise among humans, beautiful descriptions of Faeryland, lots of thematic & motif echoes from The Lord of the Rings
  • Leaf By Niggle: dreams vs duties, anti-capitalism—how capitalism stifles creativity & demeans art, anti-industrialization, allegory for the artist, art & creativity, symbolism of the Tree / Forest / Mountains & painting / the Workhouses / the Voices / the shepherd, collaboration & inspiration, friendship & community, the tendency to introversion of the artist, death, gardening
  • On Fairy-Stories: the Perilous Realm = the Land of Faërie, fairy-tales, history of fairy-tales, fairy-tales vs myth / fantasy, history & language, on fantasy as “escapism”, Sub-creation, folklorists, Victorian fairy stories

CW // environmental destruction, some stressful situations with dogs, some stressful situations with female characters
 
“…fairy-stories are not in normal English usage stories about fairies or elves, but stories about Fairy, that is Faërie, the realm or state in which fairies have their being. Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted… Most good ‘fairy-stories’ are about the aventures of men in the Perilous Realm or upon its shadowy marches.”
 
my thoughts:
I’d read all of these stories before but ages & ages ago, so to revisit them now, in my late-30’s, with a group of Tolkien lovers & readers as wonderful as the Fellowship of the Readers group (now the Deep Roots Bookclub) was the perfect end to two years of deep-diving into the Professor’s greatest tales.

There is so much to love on their own in these tales from flights (literally) of fancy (also, literally) to wholesome storylines, relatable characters, the themes of childhood & aging, grief & longing, creation & curiosity, friendship & love, & everything that makes the human experience so much more than can be explored merely in our “Primary World.”

In the Appendix, which contains Tolkien’s 1947 lecture, ‘On Fairy-Stories’, all the threads of the stories in his collection as well as the parts & pieces from his greater works from The Lord of the Rings to The Silmarillion & through all his Great Tales, we get more of his personal opinions, takes, & interpretations of the genre & history of “Fairy-Stories” as well as some extremely clever (& yes, sassy <3) rebuttals to claims re: things like fairies, fairy stories, the genre of fantasy, & even some of Tolkien’s own writing. It’s a bit dense but well worth the effort. (See more of my notes & annotations for this lecture as well as my full review for each story in their individual posts on my blog.)
 
“I read some of the stories in this volume for the first time just a few months ago, and regretted that I hadn't had it to hand when my children were expecting bedtime stories every evening.” — from Alan Lee’s Afterword
 
i would recommend this book to readers who appreciate whimsical, wholesome, hilarious, & heart-breaking stories from the Perilous Realm—especially readers with children (though these stories are just as rewarding for adults). this book is best read aloud, especially with children.

final note: If you have always been curious about Tolkien or are looking for a good reason to revisit his works, I highly recommend joining us (the Deep Roots Bookclub) for our slow re-read of The Silmarillion which starts this week!
 
“…for there is no true end to any fairy-tale… The verbal ending - usually held to be as typical of the end of fairy-stories as ‘once upon a time' is of the beginning - ‘and they lived happily ever after' is an artificial device. It does not deceive anybody. End-phrases of this kind are to be compared to the margins and frames of pictures, and are no more to be thought of as the real end of any particular fragment of the seamless Web of Story than the frame is of the visionary scene, or the casement of the Outer World.”
 
season: Autumn or Spring, also Midwinter
music pairing: English folk music

further reading: 
 
Tolkien’s bookshelf— 

Click on the star ratings beside the titles I’ve read to read my reviews/thoughts about the book.

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Check out my review on StopAndSmellTheBooks.com for more!

julia_zbeth's review against another edition

3.0
I listened to this with the kids on a car trip and it was ok. It was done as a live performance then read as a book which was not as enjoyable for me. The stories weren't Tolkien's best stories, but they were interesting to listen to overall.