The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (review)

Ever since 1982, when Tom Shippey concluded the first edition of his Road to Middle-earth with an appendix listing works medieval and modern that influenced Tolkien, one itinerary for traveling that road became clear: read everything on Shippey's list.

The trouble is, it is a big list, and many of the items are hard to find. In recent years, however, a few editors have responded to the need in Tolkien studies for usable editions of the most influential predecessors of Tolkien's fiction. For the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century predecessors in fantasy fiction there is Douglas Anderson's Tales before Tolkien (2003); for medieval influences there is Turgon's The Tolkien Fan's Medieval Reader (2004). The latest effort in the struggle to fill the gap between Beowulf and The Hobbit is an anthology of medieval works edited and translated by Stuart D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova under the title of The Keys of Middle-earth.

Its focus is somewhat narrower than that of Turgon's Medieval Reader—for one thing, it excludes the Irish, Welsh and Finnish sources prominent in the Reader. What it lacks in breadth, however, it makes up in depth: excerpts in original languages (Old English, Middle English, Old Norse), with fresh, literal translations, and minute examination of parallels to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Even here the scope is intentionally limited: no sources for The Silmarillion (else the omission of the Finnish Kalevala would have been intolerable), no medieval echoes for Farmer Giles. All Tolkien works are alluded to, however, including Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-earth volumes, where appropriate.

Even if there are other anthologies, The Keys of Middle-earth is still a much-needed book. So manifest is the need for a good anthology of the medieval works that most influenced Tolkien that the Tolkien reader is puzzled by the apologetic question posed on page 2, "Why another book about Tolkien?" Perhaps an index of how far the project of legitimizing Tolkien studies still needs to go is the persistence of such disclaimers in recent Tolkien monographs (Peter Kreeft's The Philosophy of Tolkien comes to mind). When was the last time you heard an apology for "Yet Another Book On Yeats," "One More Monograph on Milton"?

Perhaps it is this dithering about what the rest of the academic world thinks of Tolkien studies that gives The Keys of Middle-earth something of a split personality. As an anthology of medieval texts it is first rate. The texts, in Old English, Old Norse, and Middle English, are faithfully presented—and despite the authors' modest disclaimer that their book cannot accommodate a "full discussion of textual issues" (55), textual notes are remarkably thorough. With equal modesty they call their textual notes "highly selective," but their selection is impeccable. Commentary is just as painstaking: major critical controversies are fully represented. And as an encouragement to further study in three medieval languages, which the authors identify as its main purpose (19), the book is eminently successful.

But as a guidebook to Tolkien's works, this volume seems to look nervously over its shoulder for the reaction of academe, both in terms of medieval studies and Tolkien studies. The first sign is another sectional disclaimer on page 3 "This is not a source book" (there is no exclamation point, but there might as well be). Aversion to source criticism (or at least to the accusation of source criticism) even, it seems, influences the prepositionally-correct choice of the book's title. We are told that if this were a book of source-criticism the title would be "The Keys to Middle-earth" rather than of Middle-earth (3). Come again? How is it that the keys to a door open...