The Tolkien Fan's Medieval Reader

by David E. Smith, Verlyn Flieger (Foreword)

This is a selection of many of the medieval texts that were important to Tolkien's fiction.
An anthology selected by Turgon (=David E. Smith) and divided into five sections (Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Celtic, and Finnish).

Genres: Fantasy, Reference

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2004

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable overview of texts that Tolkien was familiar with, which in some degree or other influenced him in his creative work as well as in his academic work. It's a handy collection, but it doesn't contain the most readable versions of some texts -- I disagree, for example, with the decision to mostly include prose translations rather than poetic versions -- and the introductions are rather sparse. Your average reader probably needs more by way of introduction, explanation, footnotes, and possibly even glosses.

Besides which, the text is incredibly small and close in the texts included (though not in the brief introductions), which no doubt saved on space and page numbers, but not on reading ease.

More useful for reference than for fun.

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and useful.

[Ethan Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea behind this book, and it's a good introduction to several medieval works that had an influence on Tolkien's fiction. However, particularly with the works of Old and Middle English poetry, it seems odd to present them in prose translations. Of course Beowulf has to be translated, and the Gawain-Poet probably too, but the Beowulf translation is an obscure one from 1911, and rendering Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in prose, without those wonderful bob-and-wheel stanzas, just takes the life out of it. Even Chaucer, who can be read fairly easily in the original with the help of marginal notes, is translated here.

It sounds like I'm being harsh, which I regret, since the whole concept of this book is wonderful, and the introduction to Norse and Icelandic literature, etc. is very welcome.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for observing where Tolkien's inspiration came from, but a difficult read nonetheless. Many of the stories contained in the compilation are incredibly old, and sometimes have a significantly different mode of writing, compared to modern standards.