Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century: The Meaning of Middle-Earth Today

by Nick Groom

An original and thought-provoking reassessment of J. R. R. Tolkien’s world, revealing how his visionary creation of Middle-Earth is more relevant now than ever before.

What is it about Middle-Earth and its inhabitants that has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world? And why does Tolkien's visionary creation continue to fascinate and inspire us eighty-five years after its first publication?

Beginning with Tolkien's earliest influence—and drawing on key moments from his life, Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century is an engaging and vibrant reinterpretation of the beloved author's work. Not only does it trace the genesis and inspiration for the original books, but the narrative also explores the later film and literary adaptations that have cemented his reputation as a cultural phenomenon.

Delving deep into topics such as friendship, failure, the environment, diversity, and Tolkien's place in a post-Covid age, Nick Groom takes us on an unexpected journey through Tolkien's world, revealing how it is more relevant now than perhaps Tolkien himself ever envisioned.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, History, Literary Criticism, British Literature

469 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2022

About the author

Nick Groom, known as the “Prof of Goth,” is professor of English at Exeter University, UK. His previous titles include The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction, and The Seasons: A Celebration of the English Year, which was shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award and came runner-up for BBC Countryfile Book of the Year.

Reviews

[Beth Almquist · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing since the author never really did spend much time writing about Tolkien’s relevance in the 21st century. Mostly a rehashing of how LOTR+ came to be. For that sort of thing, you’re better off with Tom Shippey’s excellent books, The Road to Middle Earth and JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed that!

If I say it's 5⭐ then that's from a Tolkienista perspective, so you'll need to judge for yourself how trustworthy you find my rating 😏

Groom has interesting perspectives on Tolkien's process, intent and legacy. I found it most engaging when dealing with Tolkien's life and works, the chapters on other adaptations, principally Peter Jackson's films, marginally less so, though I'll return to the Hobbit films more open-mindedly.

[emnello · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We should treat adaptations of Tolkien in the same way that we would of a production of a Shakespeare play[…] all of these adaptations are simply ‘versions,’” has been a near constant refrain of mine for years!

A good read regarding Tolkien’s writings, his process and his continued influence on our culture in a post-pandemic world. Nick Groom covers Tolkien’s life as well as adaptations of his works both contemporary to him and those that are more modern, exploring music, radio and film. A generous section is devoted to Peter Jackson’s movies, though a walkthrough of the infamous 1970 John Boorman script is also provided which is very entertaining. Nothing is given to stage productions, though the 1980s BBC radio play is discussed which is a favourite of mine. I would love for more interest in video game adaptations, as I believe The Lord of the Rings Online is ridiculously underrated. Groom remains very much aware of the fact he cannot talk about everything, however, and what he does choose to delve into is well researched and well presented (though, again, perhaps the Jackson sections are overlong).

Overall this is a worthwhile read!

[C.J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

In pieces, astute and fascinating; in others, flat-footed, dead-droppingly, lead-headedly limping. The author makes some well-supported arguments that Tolkien is, in fact, a modern author -- not a throwback to ancient English ballad and epic. He also makes some insupportable claims that the screenplay written in the 70's sporting acid-dropping elves and brothels is "true to its source material at root". Can't see innocence or earnestness to save his un-furry feet from freezing, but has a nice eye for the interwoven, para-and-inter-text literary tools Tolkien may have used in building the brilliance that is the world of Middle-Earth.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven. Some great insights mixed with a load of waffle.

[Eduardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings on this book. Let’s start with this: it’s leagues above “The REAL Middle-Earth”; it’s still not that great of a book on Tolkien. The idea is to talk about Tolkien’s relevance into the modern day, and why it’s got such lasting appeal. The result is… this? Which has a basic summation of Tolkien’s biography, a chronicling of the composition and publication of “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings,” discussions of themes and ideas, and then talk of adaptations. And then a quick conclusion about WHY people still like these stories now, followed by a final epilogue of sorts talking about “Rings of Power” and why the author thinks it’s pretty great.

Groom has a lot of ideas about Tolkien’s works that range from insightful to surprisingly thick-headed. At one point he declares that “The Lord of the Rings” can’t *really* be a Christian work because there’s no overt religion and characters commit sins sometimes, pages after pointing out that the reason for no overt religion is because the state of the world in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth didn’t require it. I don’t think there’s anything as bone-headed as “Aragorn’s tax policy” questions, but that doesn’t make it all good.

The author’s also really into “Rings of Power” from what I can tell by that last chapter. Which, admittedly, I haven’t watched, though the impression I’ve gotten from reviews and summaries is that it’s certainly not that good of a representation of Tolkien’s work, or as detailed as Groom thinks. He suggests that the Rotten Tomatoes reviews proves that it’s good, and that’s never been a good measure for me.

Then again, he also seems to think Boorman’s unmade “Lord of the Rings” film would have been a good thing to watch, when by his summary of the script it’s quite obviously drug-fueled garbage.

Like I said, there’s also some good information in here, so it’s not like the book is completely worthless as a Tolkien book. The book also has tons of really dumb observations and I can’t say that I’d recommend it, unless you really want a sample of every little bit of scholarship and you need it for completion’s sake.

It’s ‘eh’.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first time reading a lit-crit analysis of Tolkien, so I can't compare the ideas here to others. It's a fascinating dive into origins, biography, comparisons with other media adaptations, and Tolkien's role in a post-COVID world. Highly recommended, though with some reservations as it is a bit analytical and dry at times.

[Ivana Ilieva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe he had nothing bad to say about The Hobbit films

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting in places but felt like a slog most of the time! I felt the title misleading as very little content was about what Middle Earth means to us today. Only the last few chapters dealt with this. As a big LOTR fan I was surprised this bored me quite a bit, the overlong chapters didn't help I guess. Simply not engaging or entertaining enough to be enjoyable!

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"From Covid to Eucatastrophe”

I picked this up while on a short break in London, in Borders Bookshop on Charing Cross Road. Had not heard of the book and it was the last copy in the shop so decided on a whim to buy it.
I have recently read various works and studies on Tolkien with varied perspectives, and found this a very different and refreshing take on the Professor’s profound (and continued )influence on literature and Pop Culture, right up to present Post Covid times.

In depth but never tedious or repetitive I learned a lot of things I had not previously considered and also added a few more tomes to my “to read” list a result.

I did in particular find fascinating the study on the many attempts to bring Lord of the Rings to the silver screen, in particular the breakdown of the Boorman/Pallenburg treatment which I would love to have seen brought into reality in some parallel universe ! Mr. Groom also makes a very convincing case for the much derided Hobbit trilogy.

A highly recommended read for anyone with more than a passing interest in Professor Tolkien and his Legendarium.

[Eleanor]

I wasn’t expecting quite such a heavy focus here on the adaptation history of Tolkien’s legendarium works, but actually, it proved very interesting to assess why some adaptations work and some don’t, what different media require in terms of storytelling structure, and the enormous effects of money and changing artistic tastes. (A 1970s treatment for an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that was mercifully never filmed is so sexual, and strays so far from the book, that at one point it has Galadriel taking Frodo’s virginity in a kind of Elf brothel. Amazon could never.) I’d have liked more sustained attention paid to contemporary readings; there are lots of ways to bring queer theory, eco-theory, and considerations of race and gender into Tolkien interpretation, and Groom only touches on these in the final chapter, really. (I’m still threatening to write an essay entitled “Ungoliant’s Hunger and Bombur’s Couch: Appetite, Gender, and Fatphobia in JRR Tolkien’s Legendarium”.) Still, this is a chunky and gorgeous book which has given me, amongst other things, a very intriguing playlist of Middle-earth-inspired music.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an in-depth look at Tolkien's life, how he came to write The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and other works. It takes a deep dive into Tolkien's thought processes as he wrote these books and many of his other works. The author also writes about the various media that came about after the initial publications, such as Ralph Bakshi's version of LOTR, Peter Jackson's first trilogy films that were done in the early 2000s, and the Hobbit trilogy in 2013-2015. The book concludes with the recent Rings of Power series shown on Amazon Prime. It also has a complete bibliography of books, music, and movies.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

This book scratched the itch I had to learn about Tolkien rather than simply read it. Past experiences reading Tolkien's works left me underwhelmed, and I could feel that there were so many more interesting things about them than one reading could bring. Nick Groom's book did just that: I wanted an expert taking me by the hand and pointing at interesting things and offering their own reflections and analysis. I skim-read several chapters because I did not find them as intriguing (details about how adaptations differ from one another for instance), but I still finish this book having gained many kernels of knowledge and new ways of looking at Tolkien.

[goose]

wildly misleading title - groom only knuckles down into an exploration of tolkien’s modern resonance in the concluding pages - but some great analysis nonetheless. we should make more old white men have to learn about the aragorn/boromir tag on deviantart.

[Ian]

Well, this is a bit of a grab bag. The quality of the research is clear. The writing is fine.

It feels like two books crammed together.

The first, so to speak, is a history of the conception, writing, revision, and publishing of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Groom provides plenty of information about Tolkien's other activities, including authoring other texts, teaching, grading, and consulting other authors on their writing and translations. These first few chapters also cover much of the source material of The Hobbit and the Rings trilogy, but it is a bit sparse and meandering.

The second book covers the adaptation of The Hobbit and the Rings trilogy in various media, including as radio plays, feature-length films, and videogames, as well as some discussion of its impact on recording artists and songwriters. This is good content to get in one place, but I would have preferred that the author focus on a smaller number of examples in greater depth and detail. At times, entire pages feel like lists of denatured facts that could be culled from an online encyclopedia (this part of this one of Tolkien's novels influenced this song by this singer: and?).

The chapter covering cinematic adaptations is worth a read as it not only mentions but partially redeems several 1970s-era adaptions of Tolkien's Ring novels (The Hobbit included). Bakshi's adaptation, in particular, now has a cult following but was excoriated for decades as incomplete (featuring only one released film of two that were planned) and deviating sharply from Tolkien's story. Indeed, Groom documents instances in which scenes from Bakshi's adaptation directly influenced Peter Jackson in his adaptation of the Rings trilogy.

In further discussion of Peter Jackson, Groom offers that Jackson's approach to filming The Hobbit films mirrors that of Tolkien is writing The Rings novels: improvisational and given to constant updating as the story revealed itself. The comparison feels forced and even disingenuous. I have more sympathy for Tolkien than for Jackson, and I felt that The Hobbit films were overwrought, too long, and in bad need of trimming.

A final chapter about Amazon Prime's Rings of Power feels rushed and tacked on.

Still, Groom has his moments. Encouraging us to think about Gollum as a stateless person with PTSD? Quite masterful. I wish thoughts like this had been developed more. What this book needed was to have thematic chapters or vignettes interspersed amidst the recounting of Tolkien's writing of the original novels (and the histories of the major cinematic adaptations, namely Jackson's). This would have done a better job of highlighting what matters in Tolkien's history as an author by showing where his ideas might have come from and how they might apply today. I think Groom himself would agree that we have to locate Tolkien in the twentieth century ourselves, as his stories are too weighted down by the cumulative heft of self-referential adaptations. Otherwise: history becomes legend becomes myth (according to voiceover at the beginning of the "Fellowship" film. I have not read the novel enough times to say whether it is in there or not).

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Groom's book looks at the background of Tolkien's legendarium, the way the text evolved over the years and decades, depiction of Tolkien's work in media, and the applicability of various themes as they apply today. I most enjoyed the history of the changing text. Aragorn was at one point a Hobbit named Trotter! Frodo was Bingo, Bilbo's son! It gave me insight into Tolkien's process of writing, which is to say, he wrote something, and then edited, then edited again. In this book he comes accross, not as a "grand architect", with everything planned in advance, but a tinkerer constantly changing, reworking, and rediscovering his text. Groom reveals how the process took decades, during which finances, overcommittment in work, and general life challenges made it nearly impossible to make progress on the text. I came away with a profound appreciation and wonder that Tolkien actually managed to finish "Lord of the Rings" at all. This, to me, was the most interesting and satisfying part of the book.


I was less entertained by the media explorations, but still found value in the review of the various radio dramas, movies, and game adaptations. (I'm newly inspired to listen to the BBC Radio Drama of Lord of the Rings staring Ian Holm as Frodo.) Groom waxes eloquent on Peter Jackson's interpretation of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He gives the Hobbit more credit on face value than I would, but I suppose his focus was on the choices made in adaptation and not the quality of the movies as cinema.


The exploration of Tolkien themes, was, in my opinion, the least compelling part of the book. Partly this was because Groom examines not only the books but also the movie adaptations and the things they have to say about war, environmentalism, and death. It's possible that I liked this part the least because I already have my own opinions on the themes and disagreed with Grooms interpretations. I grumbled quite a bit to my partner when the author (offhand, and perhaps as a joke) likens Faramir's resistance group in occupied Ithilien as "terrorism", or how he seemed to think that Orcs deserve sympathy because they would rebel against Sauron if they could. I was amused, more than anything, by the authors continual shots at Bilbo as "the most dishonest character" in Tolkien's legendarium. The reason I picked up the book was I was interested in reading about Tolkien's environmentalism. There is some discussion of that topic here, but it is not the principal focus.


Tolkien in the 21st Century was thought provoking, and surfaced a lot of things I didn't know about the story. It's worth a read!

[mysilicielka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trudno, muszę w końcu zdecydować się na jakąś ocenę. Długo przeglądałam tę książkę, myślałam o niej, rozważałam za i przeciw. Pomimo ogromu włożonej pracy (100 stron bibliografii i przypisów!) i tematu, który bardzo lubię (tak niesamowicie złożone Śródziemie, które wydaje się pełnoprawną, inną rzeczywistością), nie podoba mi się to, co dostałam od Nicka Grooma.

Tolkienowi stworzenie ostatecznej wersji „Władcy Pierścieni” zajęło wiele lat. Pisał, dochodził do pewnego momentu, coś mu nie pasowało, po czym wracał do początku, by odtworzyć te same wydarzenia wprowadzając zmiany tu i tam. To opowieść go prowadziła, a nie on ją. Biorąc pod uwagę jego tendencje do rozpoczynania i niekończenia projektów, ostateczne wypuszczenie „Władcy…” w świat jest małym literackim cudem.

Przywołuję taki charakter pracy, bo wydaje mi się, że w podobny sposób ukształtowany jest „Tolkien w XXI wieku”. Autor jakby kręcił się w kółko, zmusza czytelników do uczestniczenia w maratonie, gdzie każda meta jest jednocześnie kolejnym startem. Przechodzimy przez szczegółową biografię Profesora, następnie przez jego zainteresowania uniwersyteckie i zawodowe, odtwarzamy od początku proces pisania „Hobbita”, dostajemy jego finalne streszczenie nie zapominając o alternatywnych rozwiązaniach i tak dalej, i dalej. Potem odrywamy się od literatury, żeby czytać o innych twórcach budujących to samo Śródziemie tylko po swojemu. Kiedy przewracałam kolejne strony szczegółowego omawiania scenariusza filmu, który nawet nie powstał, zaczęłam się zastanawiać, co tu się właściwie dzieje?

Gdzie jest odpowiedź na pytanie zawarte w podtytule „Co dziś znaczy dla nas Śródziemie?”, gdzie jest analiza ponadczasowości prozy Tolkiena? Może się zgubiłam i czegoś nie zrozumiałam, ale sprawdzę jeszcze raz - po ponad połowie książki autor wciąż tkwi w latach 70. Tak naprawdę tylko ostatni rozdział i bardzo króciutkie omówienie nieszczęsnych „Pierścieni Władzy” są tym na co czekałam w tej pracy.

Wszystko, co opisuje autor, jasne, jest ciekawe, ale nie na to liczyłam. Biografię Tolkiena poznałam już z innej pozycji, „Władcę Pierścieni” czytałam i oglądałam, więc jestem w stanie porównać, czym się różnią, tak samo rzecz ma się z „Hobbitem”. To dla mnie oczywistości, których nie trzeba było wyjaśniać, bo po taką książkę nie sięgnie osoba, która nie ma pojęcia, z czym to się je. Miałam nadzieję na coś więcej, a dostałam dosyć chaotyczną sałatkę ciekawostek, często bez puenty.

Tak jak napisałam wcześniej, może nie umiem zrozumieć Grooma, może padłam ofiarą własnych błędnych wyobrażeń, a ta książka jest dobra i właśnie taka miała być. Polecam ocenić samodzielnie.

(Współpraca barterowa)

[Chris E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I distinctly remember picking up a yellowed paperback copy of “The Two Towers” at my maternal grandparents’ home outside Houston when I was in elementary school. It was my first encounter with Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. In the years that followed, I always knew that Tolkien’s “legendarium” mattered, but I never really thought that his written works merited the same kind of scrutiny and evaluation that I was trained to give other written texts in my history and religion classes in college.

Nick Groom has changed that. I had only recently become aware of so-called “Tolkien studies,” and I just so happened to come across “Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century” while browsing a Phoenix-area Barnes and Noble. This book makes the case for Tolkien as a literary voice and for his created works as equally significant English literature — and it succeeds. Working through available archival material, Groom depicts a Tolkien who “discovered” his way through his works, rather than “inventing” them through omniscient design, drawing from a deep love of languages and a vast knowledge of Northern European myth and legend.

I especially appreciated the way Groom captured Tolkien’s “lengendarium” as an evolving body of work that Tolkien himself was constantly revising and reshaping. I never knew, for example, that Tolkien refined the text of “The Hobbit” over the course of several initial printings in order to more closely hew the text toward what would become the “Lord of the Rings” tri-volume novel. And Groom’s treatment of Tolkien’s affinity for the theme of “eucatastrophe,” clearly borne out of, among other things, his Christian faith, was fair and humane. At the same time, Groom makes a convincing argument that the commercial world inspired by Tolkien’s original compositions — most notably the six films directed by Peter Jackson — forms as much a part of the interpretive landscape as the texts themselves. It’s an argument not too dissimilar from what one might encounter in a Biblical hermeneutics class, and it further underscores the seriousness of Tolkien’s works in the canon of modern English literature.

[Katarzyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

W dzisiejszych czasach wiele uniwersów fantasy powstaje i upada w zawrotnym tempie, 🤷‍♀️ ale świat stworzony przez J.R.R. Tolkiena trwa niewzruszenie, przyciągając kolejne pokolenia czytelników i widzów. „Tolkien w XXI wieku. Co dziś znaczy dla nas Śródziemie" Nicka Grooma stanowi fascynującą próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie, dlaczego tak się dzieje.❓️

Autor przedstawia tu biografię Tolkiena z niezwykłą wnikliwością. Nie ogranicza się do suchych faktów, 🙅‍♀️ ale wydobywa z życiorysu pisarza kluczowe momenty, które ukształtowały jego literacką wizję oraz pokazuje, jak wszystkie te elementy przełożyły się na stworzenie wielowymiarowego Śródziemia. 👍 Groom prezentuje jednak Tolkiena nie jako wszechwiedzącego kreatora fantastycznych światów, ale raczej jako filologa i badacza, który "odkrywał" swoje uniwersum krok po kroku, czerpiąc z głębokiej wiedzy o językach i mitologiach. 🧐 Szczególnie ciekawa jest część, w której autor ukazuje ewolucję dzieł profesora, które przez lata przeszły proces doskonalenia i przeobrażania. 🤩 Dla przykładu - "Hobbit" był wielokrotnie modyfikowany przez Tolkiena w kolejnych wydaniach, aby mógł lepiej współgrać z rozwijającym się światem Śródziemia. Dzięki tej interesującej perspektywie jesteśmy w stanie spojrzeć na twórczość pisarza jak na żywy organizm, a nie skończony produkt, co samo w sobie jest intrygującym doznaniem. 😯 W książce znajdziemy też wnikliwe omówienie m.in. ekranizacji trylogii "Władca Pierścieni" Petera Jacksona, czy serialu „Pierścienie Władzy". 📽 Groom wskazuje, jak te produkcje wpłynęły na postrzeganie uniwersum przez masową publiczność. Istotnym punktem książki jest też analiza uniwersalnych wartości obecnych w twórczości profesora i ich znaczenia dla współczesnego czytelnika. 👌 Groom udowadnia, że Śródziemie to nie tylko wymyślona kraina, lecz lustro, w którym odbija się wiele dylematów naszych czasów. 🙂‍↕️

#tolkienwxxiwieku to lektura obowiązkowa dla każdego, kto kiedykolwiek zastanawiał się nad fenomenem nieprzemijającej popularności Tolkiena. ❤️ Ta fascynująca #lektura stanowi zaproszenie do ponownego odkrycia bogactwa świata, który stworzył ten wybitny pisarz. Gorąco polecam❗️☺️

[Jackspear217 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pierwszy raz po Hobbita i Władcę pierścieni sięgnąłem chyba w wieku 13 lat, nie znając tych tytułów ani ich sławy i pozycji wśród dzieł literatury. Potem miałem sporą przerwę od Śródziemia, chyba aż do czasu ekranizacji tych książek przez Petera Jacksona. Teraz w moje ręce trafiła ta pozycja, która próbuje odpowiedzieć na pytanie jak ma się Tolkien w XXI wieku i co znaczy dla nas świat przez niego wykreowany, nie tylko w tych dwóch jego najsłynniejszych powieściach. Otóż całkiem nieźle. Tolkien i jego spuścizna wydają się ciągle inspirować nowych twórców do tworzenia nowych adaptacji, gier czy innych form, które opierają się na pomysłach angielskiego pisarza. I to nie jest tylko prosta wyliczanka. Pierwsza część książki to coś na kształt biografii Tolkiena, którą można by zatytułować życie i twórczość, bo poznajemy go dosyć dokładnie, jego ścieżkę kariery, losy, życie rodzinne i tego co go fascynowało i miało wpływ na jego pisarstwo i jakim był człowiekiem. Nick Groom przechodzi następnie do pokazania nam, a wie o czym mówi, bo bada zawodowo życie Tolkiena, wielu ukrytych znaczeń jego książek, niuansów, na które może nie zwróciliśmy uwagi podczas lektury. W końcu dostajemy analizę tego, jak J.R.R. oddziałuje na wyobraźnie dzisiejszych twórców i tu dochodzimy do wniosku, że fenomen Tolkiena to multimedialny miszmasz literatury, grafiki, muzyki czy kina i że nie można już wrócić do czysto literackiego wyobrażenia o Śródziemiu przez filmy Nowozelandczyka, bo choć nie uniknęły błędów adaptacyjnych, stanowią i będą stanowić najbliższe oryginałowi obrazy, a ich sukces sprawił, że bohaterowie Hobbita czy Władcy pierścieni już zawsze będą miały twarze aktorów z tych filmów. Sama książka Nicka Grooma to pełna ciekawostek praca, prawdziwego badacza tematu, która zachęca do sięgnięcia po inne książki Tolkiena. Zdecydowanie godna polecenia!!! Za książkę dziękuję @insignis_media

[Emilia Sierny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bardzo dobra książka, widać gruntowną znajomość tematu i wielką pasję do twórczości Tolkiena u Autora. Nick Groom podchodzi do dzieł Tolkiena oraz ich spuścizny w postaci książek, filmów, seriali, słuchowisk i gier komputerowych w bardzo oryginalny sposób, zapewniając wiele perspektyw i błyskotliwych konkluzji. Podobają mi się rozważania na temat dwuznaczności moralnej w legendarium, niejednoznaczności dobra, pozornego ładu i dokładności w dziełach, które z bliska okazują się nieuporządkowanym, zagmatwanym chaosem (ale w tym wlasnie tkwi cały urok) oraz tego, o czym właściwie jest Władca Pierścieni. Szczegółowy opis kariery akademickiej Profesora, wiele ciekawostek o nim samym oraz o jego dziełach, jak również elementy pierwotnej wersji Władcy Pierścieni (Frodo miał się nazywać Bingo??? Aragorn zakochuje się w Éowinie??? Drzewiec jest zły???), ale chyba najbardziej zafascynowała mnie teza Autora, że akcja Władcy Pierścieni, pełna zamętu, niepewności i wahania odzwierciedla pracę Tolkiena nad samą książką, ponieważ Profesor sam dopiero odkrywał sens swojej opowieści oraz jej ciąg dalszy w miarę jej pisania, wielokrotnie zmieniając fabułę. Tak samo postacie z książki zastanawiają się, mają wiele wątpliwości, probuja razem z autorem zrozumieć otaczajacy je swiat. Jest to fascynujący motyw autotematyczny i myślę, że w dużej części dzięki temu niesamowitemu powiązaniu przeżyć pisarza z przeżyciami swoich bohaterów ta opowieść jest tak autentyczna i wciągająca. Również czytelnik, który zapoznaje się z książką po raz pierwszy, dolacza do tego grona i razem z autorem oraz bohaterami odkrywa kolejne złożone tajemnice Śródziemia.
Mimo że czytałam Władcę Pierścieni wcześniej, dopiero teraz zauważyłam niektóre motywy oraz zdałam sobie sprawę z jeszcze większej głębi tego dzieła. Teraz będę musiała przeczytać je jeszcze raz :)) Bardzo polecam!!!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive into Tolkien's world: how he came to write both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and how his works have been interpreted in radio, film, and television. This book is not for the casual reader: it is literary criticism written by a British person with a large vocabulary. Some things I didn't know (like the details of Tolkien's drafting process over the years he worked on LotR). Some things I had forgotten (like Ringo Star's possible role in a 1960s version of the books). Some things I strongly disagreed with (Bilbo is amoral? Dude: FIGHT ME). I also think the author underplayed the spiritual underpining of the text (see The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings for much more detail). And some things had never occured to me, like viewing the entire work as a sort of elegy.

I also have never studied film, so the authors insights into the movies (and now the tv show) were very interesting to me. Yet another thing I know nothing about.

This is an excellent, thoughtful book that had me writing notes in the margins, underlining, and circling footnotes like a madman. Well done, Professor Groom! Now take back what you said about Bilbo...

[Mary Koepke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a niche read - I would call myself a Tolkien fan but even for me some of this was just a little too detailed and long. But interesting - you come out of the book feeling like you have learned a lot. The only very annoying thing is the author's arrogant style of writing that seems more concerned with showing how much better he understands Tolkien than everyone else than to celebrate who Tolkien was and is. Also, any author who dismisses Tolkien's Catholic faith as having virtually no influence on the book does A) not understand faith and cannot detect its traces in literature and B) is dismissive of Tolkien himself while, contradictorily, professing to be a fan. Again, this is either because of a lack of understanding of how the absolute, primary centrality of faith in someone's life from which all other aspects take meaning and purpose or a conscious choice to just see what the author wants to see.

[Samuel Nouvellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Broadly interesting, but doesn't really do what the title implies: I was expecting an exploration of the various readings of Tolkien's work and why he continues to resonate with modern audiences. Instead, the book is mostly an account of Tolkien's life as a writer and the process by which he wrote the Lord of the Rings (which was interesting nevertheless, especially the fact that he did not use an overarching narrative plan to guide his book but "discovered" the plot as he went along), followed by a good deal of literary analysis and a study of the various adaptations.

This is all fine and I definitely took away some fresh ideas, but it wasn't what I was looking for. For example, Tolkien's environmental and anti-materialist themes must be a key aspect of his appeal today, and so I would have thought this worthy of exploration, but this sort of stuff isn't really covered at all.

[Leelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of this book is fantastic. It describes in great detail how "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" came to be starting with Tolkien himself. I learned so much that really enriches my enjoyment of Tolkien's books. But the book fails when it tries to praise "The Hobbit" movies and Amazon's "Rings of Power". The author bends over backward to not seem to apologize for what went wrong and tries to convince the reader that Tolkien would have done it this way himself. If he would have then he would have. But he didn't so he wouldn't. If it wasn't for the first part of the book I would throw this book away.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

This is a very insightful book on Tolkien's backstory and personal life, and I feel like I learned a lot about the development of Middle Earth through his childhood and both the world wars. I will say, there is little going towards 21st century commentary up until the final chapter(s), and I went into this book fully expecting the entirety of it to be about that. I was also expecting more of the modern commentary to be about Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, rather than Rings of Power.

That said, this book was an interesting read, and I'm glad I read it. I don't think I'll be rereading it anytime soon though.

[Stefan Fourie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing the book I can honestly say I have even more respect to the person Tolkien was as an academic, scholar, author, husband / father and just overall remarkable human being. I won't say this book goes as in depth as the biography written by Humphrey Carpenter but what it does well is illustrates not only Tolkien's influence on fantasy and literature even cinema as a whole but also the relevance of his writings in a modern/post covid age

[Gschmssr MP-40 · Rating 1 out of 5]

More academic than I anticipated.
Leans too much on and unnecessarily promotes fad politics of the early 2020s.

This would have been a better book without the exhausting political opinion interjections. If that was what I wanted there are shelves filled with irrelevant opinions on politics written by dozens of uninfluential self proclaimed pundits.

Do us a favor Nick, if for nothing else for the sales of your next book, stay in your lane!

[Liz Busby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed for Mythopoeic Awards. I do want to go back and read the whole thing. I liked the approach, something like a history of the concept of Lord of the Rings, from Tolkien's early drafts, through publication, and all the various cultural productions that have derived from it. It's an interesting way to approach a novel that both draws from folklore and has become a source of folkloresque cultural production.

[Ryan Laferney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disjointed, and more focused on how LOTR and The Hobbit was concieved and written (which, for that, there are more authoritative works written). Groom really doesn't spend much time writing about Tolkien’s relevance in the 21st century besides examining the movies and TV show. I'm not sure if I learned anything new about Tolkien or Middle Earth from reading this. However, you can tell this was a passion project for Groom and I applaud his efforts, I just think the title is misleading.