Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity (review)

During the early days of Tolkien scholarship, little recognition was paid to influence from the Celts. A few writers noted similarities between Merlin and Gandalf, as Ruth S. Noel did in her 1977 Mythology of Middle-earth and Verlyn Flieger did in her 1978 dissertation, but the emphasis was on Arthurian connections rather than Celtic influence behind Arthurian tales. Ten more years passed before J. S. Ryan (in an essay on perceptions of the ancient Celts) wrote that "serious attention" should be paid to Celtic elements, particularly Welsh elements, in Tolkien's writing. Even then, well over a decade passed before the serious attention Ryan called for began to make a difference in Tolkien scholarship.

Knowing what we know now, this reluctance to give the Celts their due seems odd, to say the least; but as Dimitra Fimi points out in a 2007 article on Tolkien's "Celtic type of legends," the dislike Tolkien expressed for "Celtic things" in a 1937 letter seems to have turned most researchers away (Letters 26). Readers took Tolkien at his word, focusing on this one derogatory comment without taking note of far more favorable statements expressed in other letters and without paying attention to the full range of Tolkien's scholarship, lectures, and writings.

Today it is no longer possible to claim familiarity with Tolkien and not believe the Celts—their language, literature, and mythology—had a major influence on him. And since we now know that the Welsh meant more to Tolkien than any other branch of Celtic people, a Tolkien book focused specifically on Wales is a welcome book indeed.

Carl Phelpstead's Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity (2011) is an important book for scholars as well as for serious followers of Tolkien. It is not a long book (116 pages of text), but within those pages Phelpstead brings together all essential information about Tolkien and his relationship with Wales.

Before and after the text are two persuasive additions. The first, a chronology, is not a full accounting of Tolkien's life but sets out "the main events and publications discussed in this book." What the chronology makes obvious is how early in Tolkien's life a Celtic interest— especially a Welsh interest—began and how persistent this interest remained. As Phelpstead points out, Tolkien's "last significant contribution to scholarship" (of those pieces Tolkien saw through to publication) was "English and Welsh," a 1955 lecture published in 1963. After Phelpstead's final chapter comes an appendix, a list of Welsh-related books once owned by Tolkien and now found predominantly in the English Faculty Library in Oxford. Like Phelpstead's Chronology, this three-page appendix offers quick, convincing proof of Tolkien's attachment to Wales.

The text is divided into three parts. Part I (Language) includes "Encountering Welsh," "Linguistic taste" (primarily on Tolkien's preference for Welsh), and "Inventing language" (with much to say about Welsh influence on the Elves' Sindarin language). Part II (Literature) covers "Mythological sources," "Arthurian literature" (focusing largely on the Welsh roots of Arthurian tales), and "Breton connections" (a chapter on Tolkien and the Breton Celts and how they connect to the Welsh). Part III has only one chapter "Insular identities." This final chapter circles back to earlier material, summarizing and expanding on Tolkien's allegiance to that area of England bordering on Wales, the area he identified with home.

Much of what Phelpstead writes about has been dealt with by earlier scholars or by writers focusing on Tolkien's life, but in order to give a full accounting of Tolkien and the Welsh, Phelpstead needed to cover what was already known before moving on to new discoveries and new information (including material from unpublished Tolkien drafts). It is also true that Phelpstead is more an investigator than an interpreter, more a gatherer of information than a literary critic. This does not lessen the value of Phelpstead's book. Both skills are needed. Few...