The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-Earth’s Magical Style (review)

W. H. Auden famously complained in his 1956 review of the concluding volume of The Lord of the Rings that “I rarely remember a book about which I have had such violent arguments” (Auden 5). Reviewers and critics have been poles apart in their estimation of this book from its initial publication to the present day, when it has topped a number of polls selecting the best books of the twentieth century while simultaneously being denigrated by other readers (in the minority, it is true, so the judgment of the Muses begins to seem pretty obvious). In his “Introduction,” Professor Walker (Department of English, Brigham Young University) summarizes the cacophony of opinions ranging from “trash” to “work of genius” that has characterized the critical reception for the last half-century, providing numerous quotations juxtaposed to highlight the remarkably divergent views, along with a good deal of wry humor that makes the five pages of summary a jolly read.

How, then, is one to write an apologia? It is Walker’s thesis in this study that Tolkien’s oeuvre inspires passionate love simply because he really does write very well and very carefully, but elicits widely varying responses because his writing is highly suggestive, not only allowing but asking the reader’s imagination to assist in the creation. Walker observes “how strikingly invitational this prose is, how it stakes so much of its success on reader response” (8), and again that it “stimulates among its readers not just vivid, but individual responses” (9). Tolkien’s technique “is essentially one of suggestion” (10) for “despite all the detail he puts in, Tolkien leaves more out” (93). Tolkien called this “applicability,” allowing the individual to fill in the picture of the tree or hill (et cetera) out of his or her own experience.

Also Tolkien’s style appears deceptively simple: “it is clear prose” (139) that, upon close examination, “searches semantic territory, disclosing implicit meaning at the levels of allusion and irony and pun and emblem and nuance of diction and syntax” (115).

This study, while relatively short, explores these points at some length. Chapter 1 on “Ordinary Everyday Magic” treats the essential realism of Tolkien’s most fantastic elements, along with his ability to show the numinous in familiar things. “Blade and Leaf Listening” (chapter 2) is largely about how very much alive is all of Middle-earth and everything in it, even the plant life not only sentient but perceptive (41), the very topography animate (43), and how this is achieved through careful word choice. “The Road Goes Ever On and On” (chapter 3) expands on the theme that “the journey is the essence of Tolkien narrative” (74), and “Always On and On” (chapter 4) the “underlying theme of onwardness” (73), growth, and change. “The Potency of the Words” (chapter 5) discusses Tolkien being “first and foremost a philologist. . . . He loves language, cherishes words with an ardor that looks beyond surface appearance to inmost potential” (115). “Just a Bit of Nonsense” (chapter 6) delves into how playful Tolkien could be, and how creative.

And every chapter does more, for Walker’s style is discursive, and the road on which he takes us winds in and out and round about, and no chapter is solely on the subject of its title. Also similar points come up in different sections. It is plain that this book grew out of lectures and wideranging class discussions (e.g., from his students comes an amusing list of “Top Ten Justifications for Not Being Married from The Lord of the Rings” 11). By ranging widely, however, we gain a fuller picture. The treatment of the hobbit characters, for example, begins with a discussion of how they are characterized by their simplicity (19–21), progresses to how the ones we mostly see (Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin) all grow dramatically (100–101), and culminates with a thoughtful depiction of how variable...