An original review of the Fellowship...

[Mithalwen]

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1124990.ece

As well as the article WCH links to about the illustrations, the TLS also reprints its original review of the fellowship. Really interesting to see how the first installment was perceived.

[Morthoron]

Both W.H. Auden's and C.S. Lewis's reviews of various Tolkien publications both almost read like poetry. That was back when reviews were as artful as they were critical.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

This review really speaks to me, and reminds me what it is I love about Lord of the Rings.

To me, it is not the story alone that does it, but it's place in a larger mythology. I love that the characters are surrounded by remnants of ancient greatness and splendor. When reading Lord of the Rings, I get almost as excited about the lost past of Middle-Earth, as I do about the quest at hand.

So thanks Mith for posting this review, as you said, it is interesting to see the initial reaction to Tolkien's work.

[Mithalwen]

Yes, and I while any reviewer for the TLS is likely to be extremely erudite, he really seems to have grasped it very well - both the scope (and the arguable flaws). I must see if I can find any thing about the reviewer and if (like Auden and Lewis he knew Tolkien and would have been aware of the wider mythology. I really do think it is most perceptive. I think I need to get a paper copy of this weeks TLS..

Edit... assume it was this chap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Duggan

An Oxford man but not of an era to have been taught by Tolkien so assume not a favour to a friend....

[Lalwendë]

I like this:

All right-thinking hobbits, dwarfs, elves and men can combine against Sauron, Lord of Evil; but their only code is the warrior’s code of courage, and the author never explains what it is they consider the Good. Lacking the Grail, lacking romantic love, even the world of Malory would seem empty.

Yes, it is a very odd thing that there is no visible code in the book by which goodness is measured - there's nothing to crusade for. But then this is what I have always liked. The good characters know instinctively what is right.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Both W.H. Auden's and C.S. Lewis's reviews of various Tolkien publications both almost read like poetry.

But the Shire, the placid home of the hobbits, is set in an ancient and ruinous world; the surrounding waste is dotted with the vestiges of vanished kingdoms, and by half-known roads uncanny wanderers bring rumours of unpleasant doings in the south.

Not quite poetry but as well as having a concise grasp on the situation there are some poetic phrases -"vestiges of vanished kingdoms" and "uncanny wanderers"...

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally Posted by TLS

Perhaps, after all, this is the point of a subtle allegory. Against Russia, the western world can draw together, but if the Iron Curtain vanished the rulers of Yugoslavia and Spain and Britain would find it hard to agree together on the next step. Whether this is its meaning, or whether it has no meaning, The Fellowship of the Ring is a book to be read for sound prose and rare imagination.

It's interesting that such a profound fallacy is followed up by a brilliantly simple summary. The prose is more than sound, but the imagination is certainly rare. I prefer this more balanced approach to the lavish praise and condemnation of other reviewers (you know who I mean). It's more useful to the new reader considering that first Tolkien purchase, although I'm not sure that this review would persuade me to part with twenty-one shillings. It's fascinating to see The Fellowship of the Ring being received as just another book in a long line of 1954's publications, since I doubt it will be reviewed in that context again in my lifetime.

[VarTalman]

Good article.

The Hobbits also seem Amish - both in culture and tradition.
Imagine if Tolkien asked the Amish to save the world against malvolent forces found only at the end of long treacherous journey...

Venturing into the world causes the Hobbits who return to be somewhat shunned or considered apart.

Bilbo's return from his adventure - only to discover he was pronounced dead - and trying to regain all of his lost property caused great upheaval.

We have amish shirefolk... of little stature from the the outside world.
We have a factory overseer in Saruman the Wise - as he builds his army.
Gandalf plays a sort of a Mr. Tesla inventor with his fireworks, light and lightning.
We have Mody Dick- the spirit of rogue nature playing the Ent Treebeard.
The Elves could be mobster-like city-dwellers. The dwarves like deputies.
Aragorn is like an underdog boxer awaiting his first title.
Sauron is like Homeland Security and his One Ring like survelliance - the power to see while being invisible.

When the news headlines asked the nation if Peter Jackson's LOTR was the only right way... the answer is "nope".

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by VarTalman

The Hobbits also seem Amish - both in culture and tradition.

Ummm...no. Not at all. Not even close. There are almost no Amish folk that are three feet tall, there are hardly any Hobbits with beards, and as far as I know there are no Hobbits in Pennsylvania or Ohio. Top it off with the fact that the Amish speak in a vernacular akin to the King James Bible, while the Hobbits wouldn't know a thee from a thy or a thou, and, in addition, Harrison Ford has been in a movie about the Amish, but he's never appeared with Hobbits. Those were ewoks.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

...in addition, Harrison Ford has been in a movie about the Amish, but he's never appeared with Hobbits. Those were ewoks.

I heard PJ's going to have ewoks make a cameo at the Battle of Five Armies! They're to follow the Eagles in hang-gliders.

Originally Posted by VarTalman

Venturing into the world causes the Hobbits who return to be somewhat shunned or considered apart.

I wouldn't say they're "shunned'; just looked at somewhat askance.

Originally Posted by VarTalman

Aragorn is like an underdog boxer awaiting his first title.

YO ARWEN!!

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

It's interesting that such a profound fallacy is followed up by a brilliantly simple summary. The prose is more than sound, but the imagination is certainly rare. I prefer this more balanced approach to the lavish praise and condemnation of other reviewers (you know who I mean). It's more useful to the new reader considering that first Tolkien purchase, although I'm not sure that this review would persuade me to part with twenty-one shillings. It's fascinating to see The Fellowship of the Ring being received as just another book in a long line of 1954's publications, since I doubt it will be reviewed in that context again in my lifetime.

If the average weekly wage in 1954 would be around £13 (and averages in terms of wages usually mean that the majority earned much less while some earned much, much more) then that would be a whole morning's pay on one book. So, you might have gone to the local library!

If the Alfred Duggan who reviewed it is the same as the one in the Wikipedia link then he sounds like he was part of the fashionable set, being friendly with Evelyn Waugh. And he was also a novelist. At odds with Tolkien's preferences and potentially a rival writer, but he still gave a very fair review.

[Mithalwen]

I think it is most likely to be. It isn't that common a name and he is the right age and has the right sort of credentials. It is still fairly usual for professional reviewers in serious publications to be published authors in their own right.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

"Top it off with the fact that the Amish speak in a vernacular akin to the King James Bible"

No, actually the Old Order Amish speak Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch, or Pennsylvania German.