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| J.R.R. Tolkien circa 1916 |
J.R.R. Tolkien was the
brilliant man behind "The Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit,"
"The Silmarillion" and more. His books have captured the imaginations
of generations of adults and children while engaging them with complex stories
and characters. There is not one story by Tolkien that is simple; there is not
one character that can be easily defined. He was obviously a meticulous writer
and an educated man. The thing that made him a bit different was his
imagination. He combined his intellect with his creativity and gave us a
fantasy world to rival all fantasy worlds. He was the master of his craft.
One of the things that has to be
pointed out when you are discussing J.R.R. Tolkien as a writer, is the depth
and history of his fictional world. Middle Earth is only one of the places he
describes, but it is the setting for most of his tales, so we will use it as an
example. If you put all of his novels together, you would find an in-depth
history of Middle Earth, including what amounts to a bible really in the "Silmarillion."
He includes snippets of languages used by the creatures of Middle Earth (and
sometimes nearly complete languages), histories of wars, mythological history and
much more. These novels are quite the singular accomplishment when you take all
that Tolkien did into account.
The characters of Tolkien’s
novels required quite a bit of history as well. Many of them lived very long
lives and Tolkien often included lengthy descriptions of them, in some form or
another. Even Shelob’s (the spider creature in "The Lord of the Rings")
ancestry was described a bit in the "Silmarillion." The amazing part
of these histories is that despite the length of these novels, there are no
discrepancies. It is even said that only three mistakes in "The Lord of the
Rings" were caught during editing. That takes some serious concentration on the
part of an author.
All of this detail and history
could easily have amounted to a very dry and boring bunch of novels. There is
an awful lot of information to soak up in these novels, but because his
characters and settings were so interesting, it is easy to enjoy his in-depth
histories and descriptions. J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters range from the epitome
of evil to the epitome of morality and everything in-between. He also took
wizards, hobbits, trolls, dwarves, dragons, giant eagles, elves and other
creatures and gave them personality and depth.
Then of course, you have the
plot of these novels. J.R.R. Tolkien took much of the suffering and hope that
we see in our own world and applied it to a world full of magical creatures and
otherworldly settings to create books that were imaginative and far-fetched,
yet realistic and relatable. We’ve heard of soldiers marching into battle over
long distances and overcoming nearly insurmountable opposition. It is sad when
we read it about our own world, but when Tolkien wrote about it as it pertained
to his characters in Middle Earth, we were able to escape true horrors for awhile. Other
novelists have done it since, but none quite as perfectly as Tolkien did.
For people who enjoy fantasy
novels, Tolkien’s are usually referred to as the best. There is nothing to be
said that is negative about his ability to write a good novel. Sure, some may
think that his stories are drawn out, but those who appreciate the work that
must have gone into them can only respect his talent all the more for it.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s ability to understand and create languages, war, love,
friendships and of course a slew of mythical creatures, allowed him to become
the fantastic author that he was. Any writer would be hard-pressed to match
him, and it is doubtful that he will ever be surpassed in his genre.
Shelly Barclay
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