I really enjoyed this book. Nice read to get a little more into the origin of Tolkien's writing and see some cool connections. Keep in mind that this was written before works like the silmarillion and the histories of middle earth had been released so some things are speculative when it comes to history inside middle earth. On it being written that early it is cool to see the speculation of what the silmarillion could entail when it is eventually released.

Es por eso que en mi regreso a A Librería, y analizando la obra de Lin Carter, escritor del libro llamado El Origen de El Señor de los Anillos, voy a diseccionar una de las novelas más imprescindibles de todos los tiempos. Y es que pocos escritores han conseguido suscitar tanta atención en vida como lo hizo J. R. R. Tolkien, y tras descartar varias obras analíticas del universo de Tolkien, me he querido apoyar finalmente en la primera obra que se atrevió a explicarnos los orígenes de la obra cumbre de Tolkien, y como esta se relaciona con una enorme lista de sagas épicas de la que es, a su vez, un ejemplo vivo.

Crítica completa en: https://alibreria.wordpress.com/2017/...

Sci -Fi writer Lin Carter wrote this brief, breezy review of sources and influences behind JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

El Origen de El Señor de los Anillos es, en resumen, un estudio de las sagas épicas –desde la mitología grecorromana hasta la mitología nórdica, incluyendo grandes relatos conocidos– que, a través de los tiempos, se convirtieron en la inspiración de la obra más grande de uno de los mayores narradores del siglo XX. Tanto los fans más acérrimos a El Señor de los Anillos como los que deseen descubrir sus secretos más bien escondidos, deben intentar hacerse con un ejemplar de la obra de Lin Carter que complemente su lectura y, en caso de no poder, ¡deberéis tener paciencia! A Librería os irá trayendo sus secretos poco a poco.

Good account of the fantasy novels, myths, etc. that came before and influence the writing of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit books. It made me want to read some of those, but I have not read all of them.

I really enjoy Tolkien, but I did not like what was done with the Hobbit movies, expanding a single charming book into a trilogy of films, with a lot added. I mostly liked the LOTR trilogy of films though, even with some things changed.

Intento de explicar el origen y la composición de la obra de Tolkien. Interesante, aunque no aporta "claves cerradas", y tiene conclusiones cuando menos discutibles.

Immerhin ein recht solides Sachbuch, das man bequem dritteln kann. Zunächst gibt es einen kurzen Zusammenschnitt von Tolkiens Biographie (die sich mitunter etwas ungewohnt liest, da Tolkien, als Carter dieses Buch schrieb, noch lebte und ich diese Perspektive nicht gewohnt bin), gefolgt von einer Zusammenfassung des Hobbits und des Herrn der Ringe. Der zweite Teil ist eher ein Abriss über die Geschichte der phantastischen Literatur und erst im letzten Drittel widmet sich der Autor seinem eigentlichen Thema: Tolkiens Quellen. Ich denke kaum, dass jemand zuerst zu so einem Buch greifen wird, um sich in Tolkiens Werke einzulesen, sondern gleich zur Primärliteratur greifen wird. Daher halte ich die Zusammenfassung für ziemlich unnötig; ich hatte sie größtenteils auch überblättert. Der literaturgeschichtliche Teil war zwar durchaus informativ, hatte aber herzlich wenig mit dem Kernthema zu tun, das erst zum Schluss zu Wort kommt. Dort jedoch sprich Carter kaum neue Sachen an und kratzt eher an der Oberfläche, als dass er tiefer geht. Er nennt vor allem die Edda als Tolkiens Quelle und erwähnt anderes kaum bis gar nicht. Vieles von dem, was er ansprach, kannte ich bereits, und da ich hoffte, durch dieses Buch Neues zu erfahren, war ich doch recht enttäuscht. Nun muss man natürlich dazu sagen, dass zu diesem Zeitpunkt das Silmarillion sowie viele andere Werke noch gar nicht veröffentlicht waren, dennoch geben aber auch die Anhänge des Herrn der Ringe schon mehr dazu her als nur eine Auflistung von Namen, die Tolkien hier und dort entlehnt hat. Ich denke aber, dass dieses Buch für Leute, die bisher selbst nur an der Oberfläche des Legendariums kratzten, noch einige neue Dinge beinhaltet.


Mehr von mir auf meinem Blog: http://buchdrache.blogspot.de/

It is so strange to read a book written at the birth of a new genre (before so much of what we now almost take for granted), before The Simarillion...a lot of good points and some interesting new reads...

Fascinating! Truly, fascinating! I picked up this little gem at a used book store in 2024. It was written in 1969 just about the time that Lord of the Rings was taking off as a huge must-read hit. I wasn't sure what to expect, and the first few chapters, being just as a summary of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, were not particularly enlightening, and were, in fact, prone to error (Eowyn, for example is listed as Theoden's daughter, not his niece, or as stated in the book, his "sister-daughter")

But one may forgive such small errors, for the complete study of LOTR was only in its infancy and, in fact, The Silmarillion had not yet been published, so there is a *very* interesting set of guesses and hypotheses in here that don't quite pan out with what we now know.

But the truly fascinating part, to me, was the absolutely comprehensive study of all of the literary sources which led to JRRT writing LOTR. I was floored to learn that, for the most part, not a single name came from his own imagination, not for people, nor places, nor things. The last half of the book ranges over thousands of years of literature, from Gilgamesh through Beowulf and Shakespeare, from Homer to Virgil to the writers of the 1920s. It was like an AP English class all rolled into 100 pages, and from it I learned so many things about where myths began and how they have been recycled again and again in different forms in different places.

On the one hand it was somewhat dispiriting to think that Professor Tolkien hadn't made up everything in his story whole-cloth. On the other hand, he did something remarkable in that he more-or-less single-handedly revitalized the popularity of "fantasy stories". I once thought he had *invented* the genre, but this book proves that is wildly inaccurate. If you love LOTR and really want a look into where it all came from, read this.

Oh, final note: because this was written before the publication of The Silmarillion, the author hypothesizes the following, and/or concludes it solely from the Appendices of LOTR:

- Galdalf is a Valar (false: he is a Maiar, but that term did not come until The Silmarillion)

- The island if Numenor was in existence from the beginning of the world (false: it was raised out of the sea to serve as reward/home to the Men who helped the Elves overthrow Morgoth)

If you are going to read a book entitled "A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings", I think it's a fair expectation that you will have read The Lord of the Rings and most likely The Hobbit too. So, this book devotes four chapters to plot summaries of these books! The author then goes on to reference what they believe to be stylistic influences on Tolkien's works. Somehow, it just wasn't engaging enough and my attention kept wandering. There didn't seem to be enough relating it back.

Interesting stuff about how Tolkien is NOT the inventor of the genre, but that its roots can be traced back a long time. Starting with the ancient Greek, Carter describes many innovative works that directly influence and culminate in Tolkien's work.

A "revelação" da história de Tolkien, o modo como ele criou sua obra prima. Ótimo livro para quem queria saber mais