If you have followed my blog or been around me for very long, you know I am passionate about J.R.R. Tolkien, his books, media inspired by his books, games inspired by his books, and his scholarship. A stroll down more of his scholarship leads to this compilation of some of his scholarly essays and presentations published posthumously by his son, The Monster and the Critics and Other Essays by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The seven ‘essays’ by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this new paperback edition were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien’s work in medieval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, given in the University of Glasgow in 1953.Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien’s approach to the whole genre.
The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique ‘academic’ lecture on his invention (calling it A Secret Vice) and concluding with his farewell to professorship, five years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
This includes the essay of his that has had the most impact on my scholarship and passion for fantasy literature and fairy folklore, “On Fairy-Stories,” the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture at St Andrew’s University which is a defense of the fantasy genre. I have read this compilation before but have not owned my own copy, and now it comes in an inexpensive and very portable paperback. If you ever wanted to understand better Tolkien’s passion for fantasy literature, folklore, and especially Beowulf, then I highly recommend finding an opportunity to read this compilation.