Tom Shippey

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:07 pm

This looks interesting:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2007/10 ... more-27938

I have no idea where this college is!

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:38 pm

Merry, Bates College is in Lewiston, Maine. That's a bit too much of a hike for me!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:18 pm

Thanks, Lindariel. Too bad that it's too far away: a Shippey lecture is a wonderful experience on many levels!

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:44 pm

I wonder if there will ever be a transcript of it? I really enjoy all this thoughts on the films on the LotR extras. He does more than anyone to clarify some of the changes.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:55 pm

Yes, I'd like to read it, too.

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:29 pm

Merry wrote:This looks interesting:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2007/10 ... more-27938

I have no idea where this college is!

Ironically enough it's in my back yard.

However, I've only just found out about it after the fact when I posted an article from his discussion in the news thread just now.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:38 am

Bad timing, Philipa--you could have been our special correspondent!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:35 pm

Another big snow day here in the Middle-west, so I've been browsing on-line and saw that Shippey has another new book out. It's called Roots and Branches and it's a collection of his essays, some from out of print sources and some new ones. It's published by Walking Tree Publishers--we met the publisher, Tom H., at Oxford, Iolanthe.

I also saw that Ring of Words, the story of JRRT's time at the OED, is on bargain special--5.99--at Amazon. So I finally broke down and bought it!

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:33 pm

Now you have me interested Merry. A review at amazon.com...

I may need to get my credit card out today as well.

By Jason Fisher (Dallas, TX USA)

Most people know Tom Shippey by his two seminal books on Tolkien (The Road to Middle-earth and Author of the Century), and rightly so. But he has also published a great many individual essays and reviews on Tolkien over the years. The present collection brings together 23 essays by the man most of us consider the primus inter pares of Tolkien studies.

The collection is grouped into four broad categories, each representing a part of the larger metaphor of the ramifying Tree of Tales. These are 1) The Roots: Tolkien and His Predecessors, 2) Heartwood: Tolkien and Scholarship, and 3) The Trunk: The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and 4) Twigs and Branches: Minor Works by Tolkien.

Of the 23 essays, five of them are previously unpublished (having been delivered as conference papers but never printed). Many of the others have been expanded or revised, making this a fresh and up-to-date body of work easily the match of any comparable collections being published on Tolkien today. The topics and approaches to Tolkien are varied, as are the works Shippey considers. Even the Peter Jackson film trilogy is not left out.

The only criticism I would make is that most of the essays are in fact still in print and could -- with time and expense -- be assembled by any dedicated collector. This seems to be in contradicton with the stated purpose of the collection, as stated by Thomas Honegger in his Preface. In fact, many of Shippey's older, more genuinely rare essays are not reprinted here, though one expects they could have been. And this would have made the collection even more valuable. But regardless, the book is a tremendous coup for Walking Tree and deserves a place on the (overburdened) bookshelves of any serious admirer of Tolkien.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:20 pm

While your plastic is out, there is a new book on the flora in Tolkien--can't remember the title, but something about Botany and Subcreation. It's by a woman, and it has made me remember that you and I sat at the banquet in Milwaukee with a botanist who was contemplating a book. I wonder if she did it!

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:52 pm

I have looked at that before Merry, and all of the reviews say that she does a credible job on the Shire but leaves a lot to be desired on the rest of Middle-earth. They call the rest of the book 'filler'. She was one of the first ones I thought of when starting my landscape series for RRA.

I would LOVE to see someone do a well researched job on the flora of Lothlorien.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:59 pm

And Ithilien! That's too bad--such a lot of interesting stuff missed.

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:06 am

Maybe that's our next research project.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:47 am

Well, I thought about that. But what can you say about elanor other than what Tolkien said?

I do think it would be interesting to muse about the place of plants in M-e. It's obvious JRRT loves them more than animals, and they tell us a lot about where in the world we are. But maybe that's what the critic meant by 'filler'!

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:55 am

I will be checking The History of Middle-earth volumes to see if there are any more clues...also Unfinished Tales.

Fonstad has also done great research into the geography and lay of the land.