J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S SANCTIFYING MYTH
Understanding Middle-earth
By Bradley J. Birzer
Foreword by Joseph Pearce
List Item No. 327
ISBN: 1-882926-84-6 (cloth)
245 pages
List Price: $24.95
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Since the appearance of The Lord of the Rings in 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien's works have always sold briskly, appealing to a wide and diverse audience of intellectuals, religious believers, fantasy enthusiasts, and science fiction aficionados. Now, Peter Jackson's film version of Tolkien's trilogy—with its accompanying Rings-related paraphernalia and publicity—is playing a unique role in the dissemination of Tolkien's imaginative creation to the masses. Yet, for most readers and viewers, the underlying meaning of Middle-earth has remained obscure.
Bradley Birzer has remedied that with this fresh study. In J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth, Birzer explains the surprisingly specific religious symbolism that permeates Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He also explores the social and political views that motivated the Oxford don, ultimately situating Tolkien within the Christian humanist tradition represented by Thomas More and T. S. Eliot, Dante and C. S. Lewis. Birzer argues that through the genre of myth Tolkien created a world that is essentially truer than the one we think we see around us everyday, a world that transcends the colorless disenchantment of our postmodern age.
"A small knowledge of history," Tolkien once wrote, "depresses one with the sense of the everlasting weight of human iniquity." As Birzer demonstrates, Tolkien's recognition of evil became mythologically manifest in the guise of Ringwraiths, Orcs, Sauron, and other dark beings. But Tolkien was ultimately optimistic: even weak, bumbling hobbits and humans, as long as they cling to the Good, can finally prevail. Bradley Birzer has performed a great service in elucidating Tolkien's powerful moral vision.
What They're Saying...
"You've seen the movies-now read the book about the books. For those familiar with Gandalf & Co. only through Peter Jackson's films, Birzer's book provides an accessible and informative glimpse of further depths."
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth affirms that the stories of Middle-earth do in fact take place in our hearts by demonstrating how Tolkien knew that our hearts are the place where truth is found."
— Religion & Liberty
"A Must Read."
— Today's Books
"Mr. Birzer's excellent new book is the latest in a bumper crop of studies…that plumb the religious meaning of Middle-earth. Thanks in part to them, it has become increasingly obvious that Tolkien deserves a place alongside T.S. Eliot, Russell Kirk and C.S. Lewis as one of the 20th century's great Christian humanists."
— Wall Street Journal
"Birzer is a fine writer who does a wonderful job of integrating primary sources such as letters, reminiscences and journals into his text…. [A] fine tribute to the man who, Birzer suggests, 'resuscitated the notion that the fantastic may tell us more about reality than do scientific facts.'"
— Publishers Weekly
"Essential reading for all Tolkien enthusiasts."
— Booklist
"Substantial and intellectually authoritative, J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth is remarkable in its integrity. That is, rather than digitizing the great man, Mr. Birzer gives us him and his sub-creation whole, so that the reader "looks along," as C. S. Lewis puts it, rather than merely "at." The spiritual results are resonant and persuasive."
— James Como, York College
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