As you read through these essays you can see how Tolkien's work as a philologist (both in the sense of a professional linguist and as someone who truly loved words) was one driving force in his fiction.

This is especially apparent in "A Secret Vice" and the last 6-7 pages of "English and Welsh." In these two places he shares with us his hobby of creating imaginary languages (based partly on what letters/phonemes/sounds he deems aesthetically pleasing) which demand/create their own mythology/history. You could almost say that his whole Middle Earth mythology was “sub-created” as a place in which his made up languages could exist. The essay “On Fairy-stories” (my favorite one) gives us his take on what elements should make a mythological world thus created.

Of course, the essays touch on many other topics as well. Some deal more with literary issues than purely linguistic or translation issues (though he seems to argue in "Valedictory Address" that this is not a helpful distinction). I especially appreciated his position, in “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” that these pieces of literature should be considered as a whole, well written unit rather than merely dissected for historical and linguistic research.

A few of Tolkien’s explanations become very technical and hard to follow if you are not a linguist, but I still found this collection fascinating and informative.

Fantastic essays, Tolkien's love for languages and myths permeates through all of them. I specially liked "Welsh and English".

I already loved LOTR, and this book made me love that series even more. My favorite essay out of the collection was "On Fairy Stories." Whether you're a writer or a reader, it's definitely worth investing some time into. You'll walk away from it with a new appreciation for the significance of stories in our lives.

Alcuni saggi della sua professione di insegnante

A series of essays that were mainly given as formal talks at Oxford. I got the book mainly for his seminal essay on Beowulf and his essay 'On Fairy-Stories', although his essay about creating new languages, 'A Secret Vice' is interesting for those who are curious about his creation of languages like the Elvish Quenya.

The essays that were originally lectures are quite long; I can't imagine sitting through them, especially as they are couched in an academic style as befitting an Oxford professor. But, times were different then.

Nie była to prosta i przyjemna lektura.

Tolkien sam przyznawał, że nie był specjalnie dobrym wykładowcą - i niestety lektura jego wykładów to potwierdza. Choć jego pasja dla podjętych tematów jest jasna, to sposób w jaki wykładał był bardzo chaotyczny. Skakanie od tematu do tematu, złożone sformułowania, nonsensowne wtrącenia i ogólne ścieżki rozumowania - wszystkie te elementy składają się na tekst który trudno jest zrozumieć gdy się go czyta, a co dopiero słucha. Ma tutaj znaczenie fakt, że bez jako-takiego zrozumienia tematyki danego wykładu (którego to rozumienia zabrakło mi w kilku miejscach), staje się on w zasadzie w całości przesadnie skomplikowany. Być może zawinił tu częściowo tłumacz, ale w dużej mierze skomplikowanie wykładów wynika nie tyle z ich treści, co struktury.

I tak dwa pierwsze eseje/wykłady, te dotyczące Beowulfa ("Potwory i krytycy" oraz "O tłumaczeniu") są stosunkowo przyjemne w lekturze, jeśli tylko zna się w miarę poemat - a nawet bez tej wiedzy wiele można sobie dopowiedzieć. Schody zaczynają się przy roztrząsaniu struktury poematu w drugim z esejów - tutaj bez wiedzy specjalistycznej większość tekstu pozostanie dla czytelnika bezużyteczna.

Tematyka wraca na dość przyjazne wody z trzecim esejem, o poemacie "Pan Gawain i Zielony Rycerz". Tolkien analizuje ten poemat i ponownie, dla tych którzy go znają, tekst powinien być w miarę zrozumiały - a elementy streszczenia w nim zawarte mogą ułatwić zrozumienie przewodnich tematów i bez lektury całości.

"O baśniach" - jeden z bardziej znanych esejów Tolkiena, to z kolei ciężki zawód. Tekst jest ni to dyskusją o definicji baśni, ni to argumentem na rzecz nie kojarzenia baśni tylko z dziećmi, ni to krytyką niektórych wydawnictw... jest tym wszystkim i jeszcze więcej, przedstawionym w nieskładnym tekście z wieloma wtrąceniami o elfach które nie mają absolutnie żadnego sensu, a brzmią chwilami jak bełkot szaleńca, na który zupełnie nie ma miejsca w takim tekście... o ile tezy tego eseju są przedstawione w miarę jasno, ciężko mówić o argumentacji, bo jego konstrukcja zwyczajnie nie przewidziała na nią miejsca.

"Angielski i walijski" to kolejny przykład tekstu o zbyt wielu prywatnych wycieczkach, a zbyt małej ilości konkretów. Fragmenty informacji i dyskusji na ich temat mieszają się z nagłymi zmianami zagadnienia, co utrudnia czytanie i rozumienie.

Ale te cechy esejów Tolkiena stają się naprawdę nie do przebrnięcia dopiero w tekście "Tajony nałóg", który w teorii traktuje o wymyślonych językach, w praktyce jest natomiast bełkotem na ogólny ten temat, z anegdotami i skomplikowanymi zdaniami nie pełniącymi konkretnej funkcji zajmującymi znacznie więcej miejsca niż konkretna dyskusja. Ciężko powiedzieć czy ten esej ma nawet jakąkolwiek tezę, czy jest też raczej pogadanką na ogólny temat, po której ciężko wyciągnąć jakiekolwiek wnioski.

"Adres pożegnalny", ostatni tekst w kompilacji, skupia się na strukturach Oxfordu i jako taki czyta się go w porządku, ale głównie bez zrozumienia - przynajmniej w moim wypadku. Jest zdecydowanie najmniej ciekawym fragmentem książki, ale ma przynajmniej lepszą strukturę i konkretniejszą treść niż "Tajony nałóg"...

Inny słowy - tylko dla fanów Tolkiena, lub tematyki poematów staroangielskich - gdyż to właśnie eseje które tym się zajmują są najlepsze. Jeśli, nawet będąc Tolkienowskim fanatykiem, nigdy nie przeczytasz pozostałych tekstów z tego zbioru, niewiele Cię ominie.

I picked this for the title essay, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," and also the one on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Those did Not disappoint, and "On Fairy-Stories" was also very good (I'd read it before, but it had been a while!). With the other essays in this collection, there was always Some interesting stuff, but also a fair lot that was either beyond my understanding (especially the case with "On Translating Beowulf," although, having just read Tolkien's newly released Beowulf, I really did enjoy this one) or simply not of much interest to me (particularly the "Valedictory Address"). Still, the good definitely outweighed the uninteresting here -- those top three essays are excellent.

It's a good thing that this is a book of essays because it's easy to read about one a day (although it's not a light read). The Monsters and the Critics is a collection of essay/lectures given by J. R. R. Tolkien. The essays are:

Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics: I realised how rusty the 'literature' part of my brain was because this was difficult for me and it's not aimed at a scholarly audience!

On Translating Beowulf: see comments above

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: this was interesting and didn't feel as hard - perhaps because I have some knowledge of Arthurian legends?

On Fairy Stories: love, love, loved this! (see quotes below)

English and Welsh: I will never be able to pronounce Welsh words and I doubt I will learn it but it was a cool essay

A Secret Vice: Tolkien's made-up language appears here.

Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford: on his department and even though he claims to be a poor lecturer, I wish I had the chance to attend one of his lectures based on the essays here

The essays here, while not scholarly, are definitely not as easy as a TED talk. They take work while reading, but the effort is definitely worth it.

And by the way, I have tons of saved quotes from On Fairy Stories, like:

"Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold."
"The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all mannethe of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and starts uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever or sent peril; both joy and sorrow sharp as swords. "
"Faerie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted."
And lots more. But too many quotes and I would probably just end up transcribing the entire essay. n addition, I think it's worth reading the footnotes here too, because Tolkien's footnotes feel like he's talking directly to you which makes them entertaining and unlike most footnotes.

I'm not going to say that all Tolkien fans should read this because it's not really aimed at them (I think). But if you're interested in mythology or philology, this is for you. And if you're a fan of Chesterton, or just a fan of fairy stories, On Fairy Stories is definitely a must-read.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

The Old/Middle English bits were surprisingly interesting, and I'd give them individually an easy 5/5. The one on Welsh was surprisingly good. The rest was of no personal interest to me. I read this because a certain writer I like occasionally mentions "On Fairy Stories", but it really wasn't what I was expecting and found it to be quite a slog.

Part of me wants to read everything Tolkien has ever written. Part of me is telling me I shouldn't because it will take some of the magic away.

Tolkien is brilliantly insightful on a level that few achieve. His knowledge of language and literature shines in these essays. The five star rating is for a literary scholar. For a fan only of Tolkien's fiction, this may or may not be interesting. But for anyone interested in Anglo Saxon or medieval lit, or in linguistic distinctions, this book is a treasure.

Essays include an analysis of Beowulf as a poem, Gawain, the process of creating languages, and drawing distinctions within the discipline of literature. If anyone ever wanted to know where Tolkien got his ideas for his fantasy, this is a glimpse into his genius.

***********
Reread review: This time, I just read the essays on Beowulf, Gawain, and Fairy Stories. After spending more time reading Beowulf and Gawain, those essays were even richer and more beneficial to me as a reader and teacher. "On Fairy Stories" is simply inspired. Again, the target audience is definitely an academic one, but any Tolkien fan would, I think, enjoy at least "Fairy Stories."

Tolkien is clearly philologically interested, even when he tries to depict the fair lady Poesis in all her glory. His style of writing is more elitist and conventionally academic than that of C. S. Lewis (who, as a scholar, were a brilliant and popular orator, with fantastic lectures). Tolkiens interest in inventing languages, understanding languages, medieval literature and its fantastical elements, all contribute to see the Scholar Tolkien who made the Author Tolkien (the one who wrote those books about fellows and rings). For Tolkien you can't seperate language from culture, history, literature etc. and you can't seperate history from poetry as long as it is embeded in a language (Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Celtic, Middle English etc.) that confused history and myth, fact and fiction, as both a rule, convention and ideological way of thought. I liked it very much.

5 Stars because I'm biased on anything Tolkien. :) I skipped the Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight essays because I haven't read the stories yet and I want to read them before I read Tolkien analyze them.
On Fairy Stories is an excellent essay that I enjoyed thoroughly.
The Valedictory Address was a bit tricky to follow but maybe when I read more about what Tolkien did when he was working at University it will make more sense.

5 Stars because it's Tolkien and he writes very well.