Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century: The Meaning of Middle-Earth Today

University of Macau English professor Groom (The Vampire) delivers a loving ode to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Groom contends that one of the greatest apparent shortcomings of Tolkien’s work—the worlds he builds are full of “loose ends... ambiguities, contradictions, undeveloped details” that don’t add up—is also its greatest strength: “Tolkien has a capacity to describe different understandings simultaneously without insisting on the ultimate primacy of one version of events.” For example, The Hobbit’s “completely straightforward account” of how Bilbo Baggins acquired the One Ring is revealed in The Lord of the Rings to be false. Elsewhere, Groom argues that Tolkien’s fiction serves as a “panoramic celebration” of English literature, as when Bilbo wakes the dragon Smaug while stealing a gold cup, echoing a similar dragon scene in Beowulf. Groom also surveys the various adaptations of the books, suggesting that while many succeed on their own merits (he lauds Andy Serkis’s performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s films), they all streamline the unruliness of Tolkien’s originals. The enthusiastic meditations on the power of Tolkien’s oeuvre will please Lord of the Rings aficionados, though Groom’s assumption that readers will bring a high degree of familiarity with even bit players from the original books may leave casual fans in the cold. Still, it’s an adventure worth taking. (Sept.)