J. R.R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam ed. by Mary Salu, Robert T. Farrell (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER Medieval Latin writers (p. 116}--a gap bound to be noticed in a volume concerned with the editing of texts from medieval England. Still,recognizing that it is always easy to criticize a book for what it does not include,we should look beyond the inadequacies of this volume and be pleased that it offers as much as it does. EDMUND REISS Duke University MARYSALU and RoBERT T. FARRELL,eds.,}.R.R. Tolkien, Scholarand Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Ithaca and London: Cornell Uni­ versity Press, 1979. Pp. 325. $25. Hobbit lovers should not be misled. This book is not mainly con­ cerned with J. R. R. Tolkien, scholar or storyteller. Part One, "an introduction to the man himself " (Preface, p. 7), consists of only three short pieces. Tolkien's obituary notice from The Times provides a brief summary of his life and work. His "Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford" is a delightful,if curmudgeonly, Apology for Philology and proclamation of the mystical union of Lit. and Lang. And S. T. R. 0. d'Ardenne's "The Man and the Scholar" gives a brief (four-and-a-half page) view of Tolkien as "paterfamilias" and asserts the essential unity of the philological and creative sides of his character. Part Three, devoted to Tolkien's popular writings, adds only two new essays to the two dozen books and doctoral dissertations and one hundred and fifty articles that have appeared in the past ten years or so. Although taking little note of such efforts,DerekS. Brewer's "The Lord of the Rings as Romance" is a wise and pleasant essay. T. A. Shippey's "Creation from Philology in The Lord of the Rings" develops a theme introduced by d'Ardenne and demonstrates impressively how Tolkien's philology forms an essential part of his fiction. Part Three also reprints, with revisions,William Dowie's "The Gospel of Middle-Earth Accord­ ing toJ. R. R. Tolkien." Dowie may not entirely succeed in demonstrat­ ing the Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings (in spite of Tolkien's own claims) but he does discuss one of the main critical controversies concern­ ing it. The volume concludes with a "Handlist of the Published Writ­ ings of]. R.R. Tolkien," from which, however, "Juvenilia and poems published in magazines or anthologies have been omitted." This was prepared by Humphrey Carpenter. 204 REVIEWS Part Two is to "represent Professor Tolkien's major interests-Old Norse, Old English, and Middle English." Old Norse is given but one essay; three of the works to which Tolkien devoted some of his most extensive scholarly labors are scarcely mentioned (Ancrene Wisse, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Reeve's Tale); and this part offers no substantial discussion of Tolkien's scholarship. However, there is some fine work here. A. J. Bliss examines a difficult and important passage in "Beowulf Lines 3074-3075," a study no serious reader of the poem should over­ look. P. J. Frankis takes issue with E. G. Stanley's earlier conclusions concerning La3amon's antiquarianism, basing his theory on some rather tenuous parallels between La3amon and /Elfric. In "God, Death, and Loyalty in The Battle ofMaldon," Fred C. Robinson offers the best overall reading of Maldon that I have seen. For all its learning and critical subtlety, this essay is accessible enough to the non-specialist to be used effectively in teaching the poem in translation to undergraduates. E. G. Stanley's "GeorweorJ,a: 'Once Held in High Esteem' " is an exciting study ofthe rich implications ofa piece ofOld English word play. Ursula Dronke begins "Narrative Insight in Laxdaela Saga" with the intriguing statement that "it was growing familiarity with the narrative art of Chaucer that first helped me to see comparable subtleties of structure in the greatest ofthe Icelandic sagas" (p. 120), but she then leaves "compa­ rable subtleties" pretty much aside while presenting an attractive read­ ing ofLaxdaela. And in "Nosce te ipsum: Some Medieval Interpretations," J. A. W. Bennett adds several interesting developments from later medieval writings to Pierre Courcelle's monumental Connazs-tois toi-meme de Socrate a Saint Bernard. Readers of this review will...