Atherton - There and Back Again: J R R Tolkien and the Origins of The Hobbit

Mark Atherton is Lecturer in English Language and Literature at Regents Park College, Oxford. He is the author of Teach Yourself Old English/ Anglo Saxon and contributed to A Companion to J R R Tolkien (edited by Stuart Lee, forthcoming).

C S Lewis wrote of his friend and academic colleague J R R Tolkien praising his unique insight at once into the language of poetry and into the poetry of language. Generations of readers have responded to the power, precision, and delicacy of J R R Tolkiens linguistic imagination. This absorbing new study of The Hobbit brings a philologists eye to that works creation, structure, and expression, positioning it within the broader development of Tolkiens professional thinking about philology and the evolving mythography of his creative writings. Mark Atherton, himself what Tolkien calls a scholar of gramarye, imaginatively shows how Tolkiens academic interests in philology, linguistic-aesthetic and in reconstructive philology spilled over into the crucible of his own mythography, and was catalysed by the alchemy of his own reading in myths and contemporary fairy stories by writers such as William Morris, Edward Thomas, Francis Thompson and Robert Graves. This book gives them new ways of appreciating the interplay between his narratives and the linguistic enchantment of their imaginative world. Athertons insights bring to mind Tolkiens own comment: How those old words smite one out of the dark antiquity!

Vincent Gillespie,
J R R Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language,
University of Oxford

There and Back Again is essential reading for all Tolkien fans and also for anyone interested more broadly in medievalism, or the ways in which later writers have responded to the culture of the Middle Ages. Mark Atherton is that ideal combination: a reader and critic deeply appreciative of Tolkiens literary artistry, his imaginative scope and his linguistic invention, who is also, like Tolkien himself, a distinguished scholar of medieval language and literature. In this highly readable and accessible study, Atherton brings his own scholarship to bear on Tolkiens sources for The Hobbit, and in the process illuminates the whole of Tolkiens remarkable oeuvre.

Heather ODonoghue,
Vigfusson Rausing Reader in Ancient Icelandic Literature &
Antiquities, University of Oxford

Mark Athertons treatment of one of the most famous books of the twentieth century is timely and welcome. On the face of it, The Hobbit appears an engaging fantasy adventure for young readers; but, as it later transpired, Mr Bilbo Baggins exploits there and back again were simply a prelude to the apocalyptic drama that was to unfold in The Lord the Rings. One reason for the enduring appeal of both of these works is that J R R Tolkien imbued his tales of a fictional realm with resonances of ancient themes and universal truths. In this detailed exploration, Mark Atherton provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the many origins, influences and inspirations biographical, historical, geographical and literary that, combined with a unique imagination, resulted in the crafting of a new mythology.

Brian Sibley,
author of The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy
and of Peter Jackson: A Film-makers Journey

Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU

175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

www.ibtauris.com

Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan

175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright 2012 Mark Atherton

The right of Mark Atherton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 1 78076 246 3

eISBN 978 0 85773 268 2

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Designed and typeset by 4word Ltd, Bristol

Illustrations