Samwise’s mention of potatoes (in Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit) suggests an even later period. In the end, it is clear to me that Middle Earth combines a number of inspirations from different historical periods

That was my point, yes. The nobbits apparently live in 18th England, if you look at the food surplus they’ve managed to produce as well as a number of details of their daily lives.

A quick glance at Wikipedia (which I know has its faults) gives the term Middle Ages a broad definition, with it stretching from the 5th century to the 15th century AD. I think it is more likely that the early Middle Ages (post-Roman Empire) was inspirational for Tolkien rather than later centuries, certainly when one considers some of the descriptions of Minas Tirith, Gondor and Rohan. However, the knights of Dol Amroth have always given me the impression of the Crusader era and Samwise’s mention of potatoes (in Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit) suggests an even later period. In the end, it is clear to me that Middle Earth combines a number of inspirations from different historical periods and Tolkien’s main creative impulse came from providing a setting for his languages and reasons for the changes that occurred in them. Personally, after my last reading of Lord of the Rings I started reading about Proto-Indo-European. (After my first reading I started reading Narnia.)

Interzone didn’t put that quote there — my editor saw it in a review, took it as a compliment, and put it on the cover to help sell the book. All those cover quotes you see on various books — they’re called blurbs — are selected by the publisher. They’re not adverts for the people making them.

I’m sorry, but if you weren’t implying that Tolkien’s work is set in the Middle Ages, why drag him in at all? The book under review was discussing the reception and the treatment of the European Middle Ages in modern culture. Tolkien appeared to be your chosen example of a particular case of same.

There’s no doubt that Tolkien’s life as a professional medievalist helped him flesh out his world, but he started writing the stuff early in his life, long before he went to university, even. His main inspiration was philological, not historical — have you read Prof. Shippey’s THE ROAD TO MIDDLE EARTH? The thesis there: above all Tolkien wanted to “recover” the lost mythology of Gothic peoples, including the Anglo-Saxons, which Christianity had suppressed — an odd motivation for a practicing Catholic, perhaps, but one that grabbed Tolkien early and never let him go.

An example: One of his techniques was an almost mystical attempt to decipher the “true” meanings of certain words, such as vargr, as keys to lost concepts. Why are there 2 words for “wolf”, in the case of vargr, in many N. European languages? He came to the conclusion that one has to be a non-ordinary wolf, and the wargs were born. This method is historical, yes, but it’s certainly not the methodical analysis of historical data as practised by the modern historian . . .

We are definitely in the land of Folklore, in other words, not history. Hence my contention that there’s no reason that Tolkien should somehow inspire a serious study of medieval history. The people who’s heroic literature he was longing for are in no way shape or form medieval Europeans, as witness his Rohirrim.

I’m glad to hear that you’re innocent of that title, but I assumed an editor supplied it. The TLS has a habit of taking pot-shots at Tolkien’s work even when they’re not appropriate to the subject under discussion.

A digression: at about the same time as Tolkien was digging at the ancient language mines, a number of fringe figures in European culture were working the same vein, particularly Laura (Riding) Jackson, not that she and Tolkien would have been able to converse civillly on any subject, most likely.

You know, I should have said “philology,” not linguistics in my original post.

– Kit

As for the other, what can one really say? People will pass judgement on things they haven’t, well, read.

Tom Shippey wrote a splendid rebuttal to that article, in fact. I have hopes that he’s already fired off a letter to the TLS about this one, as he’s a regular contributor there and has doubtless read it. I thought about writing myself, but he’s got the eloquence and the authority I lack.

Another common slur against LotR is that it’s “children’s literature.” Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind your children having strange nightmares about the Dead Marshes and Mordor. Those who say this may have read THE HOBBIT, of course, and the first few pages of FELLOWSHIP, which, let’s face it, give no real hint of the tone to follow.