Tales From The Perilous Realm

honestpuck writes "I find it surprising that with the current popularity of the The Lord of The Rings movies and subsequent rise in sales of the trilogy and The Hobbit that so few bookshops stock more of the Professor's other works. Fortunately this volume makes it easier. It puts four of his works in one, Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil Leaf By Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major." The first and fourth of these I've read elsewhere (and enjoyed), so I'm glad to learn of the other two. Read on for honestpuck's capsule description of each. Tales From The Perilous Realm author J.R.R. Tolkein pages 192 publisher Harper Collins rating 9 reviewer Tony Williams ISBN 0261103431 summary Excellent short stories and poetry from a master story-tellet Farmer Giles of Ham This is a marvelous tale of a reluctant, and accidental, hero and a dragon who doesn't quite live up to the stereotype. The style is a little old fashioned, making it seem more like the fairy tales of your childhood than even The Hobbit, with a dry sense of humour. That said, it also seems to be the hardest for a child to enjoy (my sample size is only two, however), though personally I liked it when I first read it and enjoy it still.. It is the longest of the four works and by far the earliest written and published, 1949. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil The Adventures is a collection of 16 assorted poems, most are either partially quoted or referred to in The Lord Of The Rings. The poems are a mixed bag, ranging from the short and amusing "Oliphaunt" through to the more adult and wistful "The Last Ship" that closes the collection. All are enjoyable for the adult reader, some enjoyable for children. Iâ(TM)ve never really liked Tolkienâ(TM)s verse when he tries to be serious, in this collection I only really like "Oliphaunt." Leaf By Niggle The shortest of the three stories, in this one Niggle, whose dreams far outweigh his talent, sets out to paint the perfect tree and is caught up in his own variation of the Pygmalion myth (though it is a tree that comes to life.) It is a marvelously written tale that unfolds beautifully. Smith of Wootton Major My favourite of them all, a tale in which Smith voyages to the land of the faeries via a magical cake. Another story that revolves around the dreams and fantasies in a life. This one is a perfect fairy tale and perfect for reading aloud to a small person, full of magic and charm and whimsy it brings to mind everything I loved about The Hobbit. Conclusion

While the three tales and 16 poems all have their differences there is certainly a distinctive style across them all. Just a little old-fashioned, a little formal - in fact almost exactly how you'd expect an Oxford Professor to write fiction. This volume is worth reading, and an enjoyable read but does not quite have the magnificence of language in The Lord of The Rings nor the wonderful light touch of well-crafted children's tale in The Hobbit. They are good short pieces, that sort of excellence is hard to craft into such short works.

Anyone who enjoyed The Hobbit will find this a wonderful volume. Tolkein always talked of writing both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings as a way of creating truly English myth and fairy tales (he felt that Arthur was too much a tale borrowed from the French). While both of those 'grew in the telling,' this small volume gives us three marvelous (and English in feel) fairy tales and some good poetry. A must for all Tolkein fans.

Tales from the Perilous Realm is harder to find than Tolkein's better-known works, but is available from online merchants including Amazon. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Tolkein's Translation of Gilgamesh

[codefool]

Hopefully someone here can help with this.

I remember reading a couple of months back that some researcher requested someo f Tolkein's papers from the Oxford archives, and found within it a line-by-line translation of Gilgamesh, in Tolkein's own hand, with his comments. The article said that the translation was to be published this summer. I can find no reference to this on the web, however.

Anyone else here of this?

Another Great Accomplishment

[ElitusPrime]

Also worth noting is that Tolkin was one of the original translators of the New Jerusalem Bible.

yes... yes... I know that many of you don't believe in God, etc. But, hopefully, you'll recognize that translating the entire Bible to English is quite an accomplishment for one of our favorite authors. And, just maybe, you'll even appreciate how happy it makes us Christians to have this great author bring his talents to scripture.

Then again, maybe I'll just get modded to oblivion...

Re:Another Great Accomplishment

[kiwimate]

Well...um...yes...but...

He worked on a couple of books (eg, Ruth, maybe, if my memory serves?), but (as was typical throughout his life) he got far too involved in the details. Being a lover of language above all else, he contributed vast reams of notes on the linguistic history of each phrase and missed out on the bigger picture. It's a bit of a stretch to talk about him translating the entire Bible.

This comment, by the way, is not a criticism of Tolkien as such, more an observation. If you read his Letters, time and time again you'll come across apologies for being late with submissions to his publishers, having neglected this or that work...he always bit off far more than he could chew and inevitably produced rich fragments. That's why Christopher Tolkien has such a magnificent stash of notes to exploit^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpublish.

Interestingly enough, this happens to be perhaps the major failing of Niggle in Leaf by Niggle, despite Tolkien's oft-misquoted distaste for allegory. (The other major theme you may well see in that work is an allegory of Purgatory, which some critics claim stems directly from Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs.)

Tolkien, in fact, was a very staunch Catholic, and his Catholic beliefs pervaded everything he did (although for his views on this you really have to read his Letters, where he disclaims allegations of religious parallels in certain of his works). A long evening stroll that he took with C.S. Lewis was instrumental in Lewis' renewed interest in Christianity. Tolkien was naturally happy about this, but at the same time a bit disquieted and not a little hurt that Lewis went on to become so famous and well-regarded given he was almost a johnny-come-lately, having reconverted to Christianity at a later age in life. (Tolkien was also a bit miffed that Lewis became an Anglican (Episcopalian in the U.S.); he viewed Anglicanism as being a watered-down imitation of Catholicism, whose main recommendation was their beautiful cathedrals which had been perverted from their rightful Catholic purpose.)

Letters from Father Christmas

[RealAlaskan]

Letters from Father Christmas .

Every year for 23 years, Tolkien wrote his children a letter from Father Christmas, from the late 20's into the 40's. The great depression and WWII get mentioned in passing, but Father Christmas always triumphs.

This one is good for reading to children, with wonderful pictures by Tolkien. For older children, you can sprinkle in a bit of history by telling why Father Christmas had such trouble delivering toys in 1932, and so on. For the Tolkien fancier, the book gives some insight into the author's mind. For example, my edition has samples of the ``elvish writing'' which Father Christmas sent to the children.

Re:Really good book: Simarillian

[j0hnfr0g]

Just a word to the wise, it ain't exactly light reading. Its practically the ME equivalent of the Bible, and reads similiarly in terms of style.

Just to be a little more specific, it is more like the Old Testament of the Bible.

The New Testament narratives are usually easier to read for the modern English reader. Many people compare The Hobbit and LoTR to the New Testament, especially in the light of prophecy being fulfilled.

As a side note, you may want to look into the books of Luke and Acts in the New Testament, which are two narratives that are relatively easy to read and are based on manuscripts with excellent Greek style (IIRC). And these two flow together, sort of like a part 1 and part 2.

Seriously, Tom Bombadill == Väinämöinen

[hey!]

Or at least Tolkien must have been aware of the similarities with this hero of the Finnish Kalevala when he was writing his poems. The Kalevala wizards employed a style of magic much like Bombadil's. The Bombadil poems read, unfortunately, like a rather watered down and less earthy copy of the orginal.

I think it's probably significant that the Bombadil chapters occur so early in LotR, when Tolkien was casting about for a theme. He was trying to create a new English folkore, and the Kalevala was an obvious model, having virtually redefined the Finnish national identity when it was published. The Bombadil chapters of LotR just feel like an unsuccessful graft from a different story. Indeed while with some effort Tolkien managed to accomodate Bombadil in his world by giving him an unique role in it, he rather ignores Goldberry, whose nature is equally problematic.

The simplest answer is that they both belong to a different story, one that Tolkien thought he might be writing before he found his own voice in Rivendell.