A review by tamarasaurusrex
Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien

5.0

This collection of disparate stories and poems was new to me and...I can't believe how much I loved them. They touched my heart in a real way. I was going to leave a quote or two here, but it would be hard to pick one. Just. Okay I'm feeling incoherent but the poems had a sort of beautiful writing (even though all of Tolkien's writing is beautiful) that is more whimsical and musical than in some of the other work and reminds me a little of W.B. Yeats ('come away O human child...'). Some of the stories are recognisably set in the Middle Earth/Aman/Eä universe, some are set in our own world in the distant past (though Tolkien would say that they are one and the same). The Sea-Bell was my favourite poem, Smith of Wootton Major my favourite story because both show the 'peril' of the Perilous Realm (Faërie), a brief contact with something that is too beautiful and too bright, before we are forced to return to the grey world. Okay I'm all in my feelings but this collection is amazing - it has joined the ranks of my favourite books of all time - and I don't know how to talk about it or convey that.