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leesmyth's review
4.0
It's a beautiful book, and it was fun to see some familiar names from the Tolkien community.
ehays84's review
4.0
I have yet to read Tolkien and the Great War, which is Garth’s previous contribution to Tolkien scholarship, so I am not sure exactly what type of book that is. I should say right off the bat about The Worlds of JRR Tolkien: the Places that Inspired Middle Earth that it is not exactly the book I was expecting when I bought it. By that, I mean that I was certainly expecting the highest levels of scholarship, knowing that Garth is one of the most respected Tolkien scholars writing now, but I also mean that I was expecting this book to be a little bit more of a coffee table book than it turned out to be. I think its large size was the main reason I was expecting that, but also the many pages devoted to images, and then even just the title made me expect that the book would be mostly about links between actual places on earth and then places sub-created by Tolkien, with probably a good bit of quoting from Tolkien’s actual description of setting in his various works. This book really wasn’t that, although there is some of that.
My two favorite parts of the book, the Roots of the Mountains section and the Places of War section, were probably the parts of the book that ended up being the most like what I was expecting from this book. It is also not surprising that Garth did such an excellent job with the Places of War section because that is his true area of expertise given his previous book. The Roots of the Mountains section was so good because we do know about Tolkien’s mountaineering holiday in Switzerland and can link it even to exact drawings of his or passages in his writing. That was fascinating, and why I really wanted to get my hands on the book in the first place. And to be fair, Garth certainly could have “forced it” and tried to find more “direct” links from earthly places to places in Middle Earth, but to his major credit he never did that. Tolkien was always careful to avoid any hint of allegory, and wanted people to be able to imagine and live inside his sub-creation for themselves, without him telling them how to do that. Garth very much reinforces that.
So, what was this book if it wasn’t mostly what I thought? Probably the simplest way I can describe it is to say that if you want to read THE book to bring you up to speed on current Tolkien scholarship, you should probably read this book. Yes, it’s not that long, but Garth is in conversation with all of the other major scholars and has also clearly read and re-read all of Tolkien’s original material.
I wouldn’t consider myself to be a Tolkien scholar, but I have read much more than just The Hobbit (too many times to count), the Lord of the Rings (also too many times to count), and the Silmarillion (I think 4 times). I have read some other secondary scholarship, but more so with the lens of The Inklings as a whole. I have also read 2 of the History of Middle Earth series, and then I think 3 other Christopher Tolkien edited works (Sigurd and Gudren, Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien). So I am in a decent spot to appreciate the mastery of Tolkien scholarship that Garth shows here. I am sure there would be scholars who would argue with some of Garth’s conclusions on the various inspirations for Middle Earth, but I think most would have to agree with his conclusions based on his comprehensive research and arguments. I wasn’t expecting that that would be what I mainly got out of reading this book.
Because, again, it’s really not so much about linking earthly places to places in Middle Earth. It’s really more about anything from earth that can be traced to a certain location on earth, from as specific as one beach in Yorkshire or Cornwall to as general as Northern Europe, that then provided some sort of inspiration for Tolkien’s legendarium. Not always the places in his legendarium, but the fact that he even had the idea to write parts of the legendarium at all.
And that leads me to my next point about the book: it constantly references other parts of the book. At first this kind of annoyed me, to be honest, but then I kind of thought more about it, and realized that I couldn’t really think of any better structure by which to go about writing this book than the one Garth landed on. Everything ties in to everything else, so ultimately, you have to just organize it one way and stick with it. For example, Garth could have chosen to essentially go through Tolkien’s biography chronologically and tie experiences Tolkien had (vacations he is known to have gone on, where he was stationed with the army, etc.) to places he sub-created. But that would have caused at least as many problems as it would have solved, I believe, because Tolkien was constantly writing and re-writing and changing so much in his stories. But if you look at the titles of the chapters, you will see what I mean about the challenge of the way he did choose to organize it. The first one is called England to the Shire and the second is called the Four Winds (which is essentially about the places outside England that inspired parts of the legendarium). Those fit together pretty clearly: they are clear earthly political/cultural geographic locations, and they each inspired Middle Earth in different, often overlapping ways (in many ways Garth is trying to map Tolkien’s memory and mind in this book—quite a task). But then a little later, you start to get chapters on types of physical geography (the sea, mountains, rivers, forests, etc.). Because all of these physical geographic locations are also located inside those same political geographic locations I mentioned above, you start to get overlap, hence the constant references to other parts of the book. It happens a third time, then, when the final 4 chapters switch to kind of themed geographic locations (ancient archaeological places, places of defense, places of war, and places of industry). So, it’s like he switched his organizing principles three times in the book to cover everything he wanted to. As I have already said, I can’t really think of any other way to do it, and if you like me, like reading pretty much anything about Tolkien, then you will still very much enjoy every page of Garth’s writing. To be quite honest, though, I do not think I would recommend this book to a non-Tolkien person, though, because I think this overlapping style might be kind of tiresome to him or her.
One other little quibble, and this is probably much more so the publisher, I found 3 typos in the book. There were two times that periods were left out, and the first time that Siegfried Sassoon is mention, the f in his first name is left out. I didn’t mark the page for any of the three because I was just reading it for pleasure while my two little kids were falling asleep, but 3 typos is more than I usually notice. And since I am lucky enough to have the first of what will, I hope, be more editions, someday I will be proud to own the original version with Siegried in it.
All that said, I loved this book, and I wouldn’t have taken this long to write a critical review if I didn’t. The layout of the book is absolutely gorgeous. I learned many things about Tolkien that I did not know. I am much more in conversation with the best of Tolkien scholarship now than I was before. Ultimately, if you are serious Tolkien fan, you really must read and own this book.
My two favorite parts of the book, the Roots of the Mountains section and the Places of War section, were probably the parts of the book that ended up being the most like what I was expecting from this book. It is also not surprising that Garth did such an excellent job with the Places of War section because that is his true area of expertise given his previous book. The Roots of the Mountains section was so good because we do know about Tolkien’s mountaineering holiday in Switzerland and can link it even to exact drawings of his or passages in his writing. That was fascinating, and why I really wanted to get my hands on the book in the first place. And to be fair, Garth certainly could have “forced it” and tried to find more “direct” links from earthly places to places in Middle Earth, but to his major credit he never did that. Tolkien was always careful to avoid any hint of allegory, and wanted people to be able to imagine and live inside his sub-creation for themselves, without him telling them how to do that. Garth very much reinforces that.
So, what was this book if it wasn’t mostly what I thought? Probably the simplest way I can describe it is to say that if you want to read THE book to bring you up to speed on current Tolkien scholarship, you should probably read this book. Yes, it’s not that long, but Garth is in conversation with all of the other major scholars and has also clearly read and re-read all of Tolkien’s original material.
I wouldn’t consider myself to be a Tolkien scholar, but I have read much more than just The Hobbit (too many times to count), the Lord of the Rings (also too many times to count), and the Silmarillion (I think 4 times). I have read some other secondary scholarship, but more so with the lens of The Inklings as a whole. I have also read 2 of the History of Middle Earth series, and then I think 3 other Christopher Tolkien edited works (Sigurd and Gudren, Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien). So I am in a decent spot to appreciate the mastery of Tolkien scholarship that Garth shows here. I am sure there would be scholars who would argue with some of Garth’s conclusions on the various inspirations for Middle Earth, but I think most would have to agree with his conclusions based on his comprehensive research and arguments. I wasn’t expecting that that would be what I mainly got out of reading this book.
Because, again, it’s really not so much about linking earthly places to places in Middle Earth. It’s really more about anything from earth that can be traced to a certain location on earth, from as specific as one beach in Yorkshire or Cornwall to as general as Northern Europe, that then provided some sort of inspiration for Tolkien’s legendarium. Not always the places in his legendarium, but the fact that he even had the idea to write parts of the legendarium at all.
And that leads me to my next point about the book: it constantly references other parts of the book. At first this kind of annoyed me, to be honest, but then I kind of thought more about it, and realized that I couldn’t really think of any better structure by which to go about writing this book than the one Garth landed on. Everything ties in to everything else, so ultimately, you have to just organize it one way and stick with it. For example, Garth could have chosen to essentially go through Tolkien’s biography chronologically and tie experiences Tolkien had (vacations he is known to have gone on, where he was stationed with the army, etc.) to places he sub-created. But that would have caused at least as many problems as it would have solved, I believe, because Tolkien was constantly writing and re-writing and changing so much in his stories. But if you look at the titles of the chapters, you will see what I mean about the challenge of the way he did choose to organize it. The first one is called England to the Shire and the second is called the Four Winds (which is essentially about the places outside England that inspired parts of the legendarium). Those fit together pretty clearly: they are clear earthly political/cultural geographic locations, and they each inspired Middle Earth in different, often overlapping ways (in many ways Garth is trying to map Tolkien’s memory and mind in this book—quite a task). But then a little later, you start to get chapters on types of physical geography (the sea, mountains, rivers, forests, etc.). Because all of these physical geographic locations are also located inside those same political geographic locations I mentioned above, you start to get overlap, hence the constant references to other parts of the book. It happens a third time, then, when the final 4 chapters switch to kind of themed geographic locations (ancient archaeological places, places of defense, places of war, and places of industry). So, it’s like he switched his organizing principles three times in the book to cover everything he wanted to. As I have already said, I can’t really think of any other way to do it, and if you like me, like reading pretty much anything about Tolkien, then you will still very much enjoy every page of Garth’s writing. To be quite honest, though, I do not think I would recommend this book to a non-Tolkien person, though, because I think this overlapping style might be kind of tiresome to him or her.
One other little quibble, and this is probably much more so the publisher, I found 3 typos in the book. There were two times that periods were left out, and the first time that Siegfried Sassoon is mention, the f in his first name is left out. I didn’t mark the page for any of the three because I was just reading it for pleasure while my two little kids were falling asleep, but 3 typos is more than I usually notice. And since I am lucky enough to have the first of what will, I hope, be more editions, someday I will be proud to own the original version with Siegried in it.
All that said, I loved this book, and I wouldn’t have taken this long to write a critical review if I didn’t. The layout of the book is absolutely gorgeous. I learned many things about Tolkien that I did not know. I am much more in conversation with the best of Tolkien scholarship now than I was before. Ultimately, if you are serious Tolkien fan, you really must read and own this book.
pam_sartain's review
4.0
The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien; The Places that Inspired Middle-earth by John Garth is a beautiful book about the places that Tolkien drew inspiration from for his Middle-Earth.
There's information about Tolkien's family and background that he has drawn on for his stories, so if you're a Tolkien fan, then this is going to be a book you'll enjoy a lot!
The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien; The Places that Inspired Middle-earth was published on 9th July 2020, and is available on Amazon , Waterstones and Bookshop.org.
You can follow John Garth on Twitter , Facebook and his website .
I was given access to this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Quatro .
There's information about Tolkien's family and background that he has drawn on for his stories, so if you're a Tolkien fan, then this is going to be a book you'll enjoy a lot!
The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien; The Places that Inspired Middle-earth was published on 9th July 2020, and is available on Amazon , Waterstones and Bookshop.org.
You can follow John Garth on Twitter , Facebook and his website .
I was given access to this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Quatro .
sea_adame's review
4.0
Abt to reread the lord of the rings through the lens of processing war trauma i feel like that’d change my life
taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
It was just taking me so long to read and I found I was just a bit bored sometimes whilst reading. Certainly interesting though! It's me, not the book!
sanihachidori's review against another edition
4.0
INHALT:
Das Buch „Die Erfindung von Mittelerde“ umfasst wirklich viel geballtes Wissen um die Orte dieser wunderbaren Fantasy-Welt, die so viele Leser begeistern konnte. Dabei überraschte mich vor allem, dass die Analysen sehr viel Sachbuch-Charakter hatten und sicherlich auch für eine Untersuchung im Rahmen einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit geeignet wäre. Es werden Symboliken erläutert, Bezüge zu antiken Figuren oder nordischen Mythen aufgezeigt.
Es beeindruckte mich vor allem, wie vielfältig und groß die Einflüsse klassicher Literatur auf Tolkiens Schaffen waren. Da gibt es nicht nur starke Parallelen zur Artussage, sondern auch zu Homer oder der nordischen Schöpfungsgeschichte.
All das ist so detailliert unter die Lupe genommen worden, dass ich zugegebenermaßen manchmal etwas überfordert mit der Menge an Informationen war, die auf einen einprasselten. Dennoch kann der interessierte Leser und Tolkien-Fan hier viele Infos erschließen, die ich so noch nirgendwo anders in dieser Aufmachung konzentriert vorgefunden hätte.
Besonders begeistert hat mich die Idee der Strukturierung des Inhalts. Dabei wird sich vor allem auf geografische Besonderheiten konzentriert und kategorisiert. Zunächst wird auf England und das Auenland eingangen, was auch eng mit Tolkiens Kindheit verwoben ist. Auch die kartographische Entstehung wird sehr genau beleuchtet.
Das Kapitel „Vier Winde“ erläutert Mittelerdes Entstehung anhand der Himmelsrichtungen und fasst zusammen, was hier jeweils ganz allgemein einen Einfluss ausübte.
Danach folgen „Lúthiens Land“, „Küste und Meer“, „Wurzeln der Berge“, „Flüsse, Seen und Wasserwelten“ sowie „Baumdurchwirkte Lande“. Zum Abschluss wird nochmals eine andere Perspektive eingenommen, die wegführt von den geografischen Merkmalen und mehr hin zur eigentlichen Handlung von Mittelerde. Beleuchtet werden dort „Altertümliche Spuren“, „Wacht und Hut“, „Kriegsschauplätze“ und „Handwerk und Industrie“.
Untermalt werden alle Beschreibungen durch alte Fotografien, Karten, originale Zeichnungen Tolkiens und großformatige Landschaftsbilder, so wie der wissende Leser es bereits von anderen Büchern des Verlags kennt.
SCHREIBSTIL:
Vorweg muss gesagt werden, dass ich sehr überrascht war, wie klein dieses Buch gedruckt ist. Somit ergibt sich eben auch die erwähnte Informationsfülle auf diesen wenigen Seiten. Es wird also trotz geringer Seitenanzahl sehr viel geboten. Die Texte sind aus meiner Sicht sehr wissenschaftlich formuliert, sehr analytisch und zuweilen auch ein kleines Bisschen trocken. Wer also kein Sachbuch, sondern lediglich ein unterhaltsames Feuilleton erwartet, der sollte erneut prüfen, ob das Buch wirklich die richtige Lektüre für ihn ist. Auf jeden Fall liest es sich nicht schnell weg und ist auch kein Buch für Zwischendurch, da es einiges an Hirnschmalz verlangt, um die ganzen Zusammenhänge übergreifend zu verstehen. Die jeweiligen Beschreibungen sind allerdings von solch sprachlicher Schönheit und Informationstiefe, dass der Leser das gern verzeiht.
FAZIT:
Dieses Buch ist zwar keines, was ich einfach zwischendurch lesen würde, aber es ist einfach so vollgepackt mit interessanten Informationen, dass ich nicht umhin komme, es euch wärmstens ans Herz zu legen, wenn ihr mehr über Mittelerde und deren Entstehung erfahren wollt. Zugegebenermaßen hätte ich mir noch die ein oder andere biographische Information mehr zu Tolkien gewünscht, doch das tat der Qualität des Buchs keinen Abbruch.
Ein Buch für echte Tolkien- und Mittelerde-Fans in anspruchsvoller Umsetzung und wunderschöner Aufmachung. Geballte Informationen treffen auf gelungene Bildauswahl. Lesenswert!
Das Buch „Die Erfindung von Mittelerde“ umfasst wirklich viel geballtes Wissen um die Orte dieser wunderbaren Fantasy-Welt, die so viele Leser begeistern konnte. Dabei überraschte mich vor allem, dass die Analysen sehr viel Sachbuch-Charakter hatten und sicherlich auch für eine Untersuchung im Rahmen einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit geeignet wäre. Es werden Symboliken erläutert, Bezüge zu antiken Figuren oder nordischen Mythen aufgezeigt.
Es beeindruckte mich vor allem, wie vielfältig und groß die Einflüsse klassicher Literatur auf Tolkiens Schaffen waren. Da gibt es nicht nur starke Parallelen zur Artussage, sondern auch zu Homer oder der nordischen Schöpfungsgeschichte.
All das ist so detailliert unter die Lupe genommen worden, dass ich zugegebenermaßen manchmal etwas überfordert mit der Menge an Informationen war, die auf einen einprasselten. Dennoch kann der interessierte Leser und Tolkien-Fan hier viele Infos erschließen, die ich so noch nirgendwo anders in dieser Aufmachung konzentriert vorgefunden hätte.
Besonders begeistert hat mich die Idee der Strukturierung des Inhalts. Dabei wird sich vor allem auf geografische Besonderheiten konzentriert und kategorisiert. Zunächst wird auf England und das Auenland eingangen, was auch eng mit Tolkiens Kindheit verwoben ist. Auch die kartographische Entstehung wird sehr genau beleuchtet.
Das Kapitel „Vier Winde“ erläutert Mittelerdes Entstehung anhand der Himmelsrichtungen und fasst zusammen, was hier jeweils ganz allgemein einen Einfluss ausübte.
Danach folgen „Lúthiens Land“, „Küste und Meer“, „Wurzeln der Berge“, „Flüsse, Seen und Wasserwelten“ sowie „Baumdurchwirkte Lande“. Zum Abschluss wird nochmals eine andere Perspektive eingenommen, die wegführt von den geografischen Merkmalen und mehr hin zur eigentlichen Handlung von Mittelerde. Beleuchtet werden dort „Altertümliche Spuren“, „Wacht und Hut“, „Kriegsschauplätze“ und „Handwerk und Industrie“.
Untermalt werden alle Beschreibungen durch alte Fotografien, Karten, originale Zeichnungen Tolkiens und großformatige Landschaftsbilder, so wie der wissende Leser es bereits von anderen Büchern des Verlags kennt.
SCHREIBSTIL:
Vorweg muss gesagt werden, dass ich sehr überrascht war, wie klein dieses Buch gedruckt ist. Somit ergibt sich eben auch die erwähnte Informationsfülle auf diesen wenigen Seiten. Es wird also trotz geringer Seitenanzahl sehr viel geboten. Die Texte sind aus meiner Sicht sehr wissenschaftlich formuliert, sehr analytisch und zuweilen auch ein kleines Bisschen trocken. Wer also kein Sachbuch, sondern lediglich ein unterhaltsames Feuilleton erwartet, der sollte erneut prüfen, ob das Buch wirklich die richtige Lektüre für ihn ist. Auf jeden Fall liest es sich nicht schnell weg und ist auch kein Buch für Zwischendurch, da es einiges an Hirnschmalz verlangt, um die ganzen Zusammenhänge übergreifend zu verstehen. Die jeweiligen Beschreibungen sind allerdings von solch sprachlicher Schönheit und Informationstiefe, dass der Leser das gern verzeiht.
FAZIT:
Dieses Buch ist zwar keines, was ich einfach zwischendurch lesen würde, aber es ist einfach so vollgepackt mit interessanten Informationen, dass ich nicht umhin komme, es euch wärmstens ans Herz zu legen, wenn ihr mehr über Mittelerde und deren Entstehung erfahren wollt. Zugegebenermaßen hätte ich mir noch die ein oder andere biographische Information mehr zu Tolkien gewünscht, doch das tat der Qualität des Buchs keinen Abbruch.
Ein Buch für echte Tolkien- und Mittelerde-Fans in anspruchsvoller Umsetzung und wunderschöner Aufmachung. Geballte Informationen treffen auf gelungene Bildauswahl. Lesenswert!