Tolkien’s World

Description

Tolkien's World is a study by Randel Helms, an American professor of English, published by Houghton Mifflin in Boston and Thames and Hudson in London in 1974. The Panther paperback of 1976 was titled Myth, Magic and Meaning in Tolkien's World.

Helms looks at how the ideas Tolkien set out as a scholar, in his lectures on Beowulf and on fairy stories, are put into practice in his fiction. He studies The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, with heroism as a central theme. It was one of the first books on Tolkien's fiction, written before The Silmarillion was published.