Jackson Compton’s Reviews > The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays > Status Update

Second time reading that one. Overall, I enjoy it in the sense that it gives a lot of insight into Tolkien’s mind and his obsession with creating languages. If you really want to understand Tolkien more, this is a must read. I’ll just add, there is now a separate publication of this with much more context and information which this published version lacks.

I was not very interested in this one. Note 33 that mentions The Lord of the Rings was really one of my only takeaways. I’m always fascinated by Tolkien’s insistence on linguistic predilections and taste. I don’t doubt that he found Welsh beautiful but does anyone else really think this deeply about it.

This may have been my third time reading this and I’m definitely understanding more. To me it feels like a love letter to the fantasy genre. The parts I get lost on are when Tolkien references other sources that I have never heard of.

Very thankful I’m reading this directly after reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I actually followed very closely and enjoyed Tolkien’s essay on that poem but I’m sure I would have been completely lost without having just read Tolkien’s translation.

“The effort to translate, or to improve a translation, is valuable, not so much for the version it produces, as for the understanding of the original which it awakes.” (pg. 53) An example of Tolkien’s mastery of the English language. He has a deep understanding of the images conjured in readers minds by every word as well as the poetical qualities of each. You must be a master of synonyms to translate poetry.