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The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous
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433 pages, Hardcover
First published December 5, 2005
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About the author
Tom Shippey
57 books169 followersThomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
Shippey's education and academic career have in several ways retraced those of Tolkien: he attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, became a professional philologist, occupied Tolkien's professorial chair at the University of Leeds, and taught Old English at the University of Oxford to the syllabus that Tolkien had devised.
He has received three Mythopoeic Awards and a World Fantasy Award. He participated in the creation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, assisting the dialect coaches. He featured as an expert medievalist in all three of the documentary DVDs that accompany the special extended edition of the trilogy, and later also that of The Hobbit film trilogy.
Also publishes as T.A. Shippey.
Shippey's education and academic career have in several ways retraced those of Tolkien: he attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, became a professional philologist, occupied Tolkien's professorial chair at the University of Leeds, and taught Old English at the University of Oxford to the syllabus that Tolkien had devised.
He has received three Mythopoeic Awards and a World Fantasy Award. He participated in the creation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, assisting the dialect coaches. He featured as an expert medievalist in all three of the documentary DVDs that accompany the special extended edition of the trilogy, and later also that of The Hobbit film trilogy.
Also publishes as T.A. Shippey.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 17, 2016
I enjoyed this book so much that I can hardly express it; which is ironic as it's very linguistic/philological in emphasis.
It should be stated at the outset that this is NOT a 'book about Tolkien;' however, if you are in any way serious about Tolkien you should not miss this volume.
Published in 2005, it began its life as a series of papers delivered in 1997 at the Medieval Institute Conferences at Kalamazoo and later at Leeds.
Tom Shippey opens and closes the book with pieces that anchor the papers to their basic focus on Grimm's context and aims in his work on what eventually became the four volumes of 'Deutsche Mythologie' ('Teutonic Mythology' in the translation of the fourth edition, by Stallybrass.)
The volume is worth reading for this opening piece alone, as it explained and pinned down for me, a lay person in these areas of scholarship, the 'paradigm shift' that took place in the humanities in the early 19th century and what the achievements and limitations of Grimm's work, and that of other scholars, were in that setting.
The other papers cover in a scholarly and readable way, beings from Germanic literature; dwarfs, giants, trolls, Elves, Grendel, dragons, Valkyries, werewolves.
Don't miss this book.
It should be stated at the outset that this is NOT a 'book about Tolkien;' however, if you are in any way serious about Tolkien you should not miss this volume.
Published in 2005, it began its life as a series of papers delivered in 1997 at the Medieval Institute Conferences at Kalamazoo and later at Leeds.
Tom Shippey opens and closes the book with pieces that anchor the papers to their basic focus on Grimm's context and aims in his work on what eventually became the four volumes of 'Deutsche Mythologie' ('Teutonic Mythology' in the translation of the fourth edition, by Stallybrass.)
The volume is worth reading for this opening piece alone, as it explained and pinned down for me, a lay person in these areas of scholarship, the 'paradigm shift' that took place in the humanities in the early 19th century and what the achievements and limitations of Grimm's work, and that of other scholars, were in that setting.
The other papers cover in a scholarly and readable way, beings from Germanic literature; dwarfs, giants, trolls, Elves, Grendel, dragons, Valkyries, werewolves.
Don't miss this book.
December 15, 2024
This collection of essays is insightful and inspiring. An indispensable resource for serious students and scholars.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews