In the Nameless Wood: Explorations in the Philological Hinterland of Tolkien’s Literary Creations by J. S. Ryan (review)

Dr. John S. Ryan is emeritus professor of folklore and heritage in the School of Arts at the University of New England, New South Wales, where he specializes in the folklore of the non-Indigenous peoples of Australia and their language in relation to its British antecedents. Ryan was visiting professor in folklore at the University of Sheffield in 1995 and again in 1999. The chief editor of Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies, Ryan was a student under J.R.R. Tolkien in the late 1950s during Tolkien’s tenure as Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. Ryan’s essay “Othin in England: Evidence from the Poetry for a Cult of Woden in Anglo-Saxon England” was published in Folklore (Autumn 1963), and he later acknowledged that it was heavily indebted to Tolkien, who he said was “desperately keen to have his students publish work which was in large measure his.”¹

Ryan followed this with another essay in Folklore, “German Mythology Applied: The Extension of the Literary Folk Memory” (Spring 1966), which was a seminal look at Tolkien’s application of the nomenclature and motifs of Germanic mythology and legends in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, especially comparing the echoes of various Old English words and names in Tolkien’s work. Ryan was in his enthusiasm sometimes led astray by chance resemblances, and Tolkien, who apparently read the article, privately characterized it as “nonsensical.”² Ryan included this essay in one of the earliest book-length studies of Tolkien’s work, Tolkien: Cult or Culture? (1969), the proceedings of a seminar at the University of New England, with lectures by Ryan and his colleague Hugh Crago, both in the Department of English at the university. This book is now seen as “ahead of its time: an attempt to comprehensively cover all of Tolkien’s published oeuvre, with particular attention to the influence his medieval scholarship had on his literary work” (Rateliff 340).

Ryan has continued writing about and encouraging others to study Tolkien. He has been a member of the editorial board of Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review since 1997. He took a leading part in the Summer School for Tolkien Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2007. Walking Tree Publishers included a collection of Ryan’s essays in its Cormarë Series under the title Tolkien’s View: Windows into His World, in 2009. At that time, it anticipated including a second collection in the series, which has now been published under the title In the Nameless Wood: Explorations in the Philological Hinterland of Tolkien’s Literary Creations. This presents 21 essays by Ryan, originally published between 1979 and 1995, some in the journals of professional academic institutions but the majority in those of “fan” organizations: Amon Hen, Angerthas, the Book of Mazarbul, Inklings-Jahrbuch, Mallorn, Minas Tirith Evening-Star, Mythlore, Orana (Journal of School and Children’s Librarian-ship), Quadrant, Quettar, and the Ring-Bearer.

The essays republished in this collection have been divided into four thematic groups: “The Ancient Middle East and Its Associations” (essays 1 to 5), “Romano-British Lydney and Its Remarkable Importance for Tolkien’s Œuvre” (6 to 9), “The North and West Germanic Tradition and Christianity” (10 to 18), and “Twentieth Century Oxford & England” (19 to 21). The book also includes a prequel called “‘The Nameless Wood’ and ‘The Narrow Path,’” an expanded version of Ryan’s welcoming address to the second annual conference of the Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia, held at the University of New England in 1986, and an appendix (which continues the theme of the fourth part) called “J.R.R. Tolkien and the Ancrene Riwle, or Two Fine and Courteous Mentors to Women’s Spirits.” The arrangement of the essays in the book, devised by the series...