The Nature of Middle-Earth: The Last Book of the Legendarium?

 

I ordered this book late on the evening of August the 31st and received it at 2 PM on September the 4th.  In the meantime I looked at several video reviews on YouTube in anticipation, trying to get a hint of what to expect and an idea of who Carl F. Hostetter (the editor) was. 

I found out plenty. Hostetter is a computer scientist employed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and has been involved with the study of Tolkien's languages and publication of articles on Tthat topic. In the course of his studies he became the "pen-friend" of Christopher Tolkien, who engaged him (and others) in the editing and publishing of his father's writing on the languages of Middle-Earth. In the study of Tolkien's papers Hostetter conceived the plan to order and publish various short (but interesting) bits of work that Tolkien had jotted down after LOTR was finished and when the author was considering getting "The Silmarillion" in order. Some Hostetter had already published in magazines dedicated to such matters; now he saw a way to draw these obscure pieces together along with previously unpublished material into one available volume. Christpher approved. He was able to show the nearly completed work to Christopher before he passed away last year.

His bona fides, thus far, are impeccable. But what won my eccentric approval and acceptance was that he had read "The Dark is Risng" at the age of 11 (just like me!) which led to his reading "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" (which is similar but the opposite to my experience). He is only about two years younger than I and thus I can see him as a sort of parallel life, a much more successful road not taken.

But to continue. Soon after I got the book and started devouring it in a rather piecemeal fashion, skipping around and flipping the pages to get the feel of it. The "Nature" of the title refers not only to the flora, fauna, and land of Middle-Earth, but also about its philosphy or essence. The book is divided into three sections. I settled down at 5 PM to do some serious reading until by 10 PM I had finished the first section of the book, "Part I: Time and Ageing". This is definitely the driest and most abstract section of the book, dealing mainly with Tolkien trying to match up the lifespan and development of the Elves with the age of the earth. There is much math (revealing a hitherto unsuspected aspect of Tolkien's creativity). I set the book down and tried to go to sleep.

I was up again by 6 AM and was soon back into it. "Part II: Body, Mind and Spirit" deals with descriptions of Elvish appearance, beauty, gender, fate, freewill, telepathy, spirit, reincarnation and death. We learn that male elves are not the androgynous figures popularized by modern media, that Aragorn (being of Numenorean descent) has no beard, that Elvish pregnancy lasted about 8 years (and was a joy to the mother, being unburdened by human pains)  and that Elvish children were unusually well-behaved and played finger games.

The third section, "Part III: The World, the Lands, and Its Inhabitants" deals with which most of us would consider "nature". Here is where for the first time I was sure that the talking Eagles were manifestations of embodied Maiar, that Elves eat meat, and contained the most detail about Numenor that I ever heard, including the men's special relationship with the bears of the island (I can't help but think this might somehow be connected to Priscilla's attachment to her teddy bears). 

There are two appendices, one a glossary and index of Quenya terms, but the other (more interesting to me) on metaphysical and religious themes, relating Catholic and philosophical ideas to their expression in Tolkien's work under guise of Elvish beliefs.

I finished the book at 5 PM today. I had taken breaks to do various duties and to rest; I did not particulary want to be finished. "The Nature of Middle-Earth" is almost solid 'lore' (much of it in tiny chapters of two or three pages) and little or no narrative. This book is touted to be the 'final' writings of Tolkien on Middle-Earth, not only being the last work he did on the legendarium but the last that there is to be published, and so the end of a long journey I started on in 1977 with "The Silmarillion", reading Tolkien's posthumous publications. There may be more of Tolkien's scholary philological work (I myself wouldn't mind an omnibus volume of Finn and Hengest, The Old English Exodus, and Ancrene Riwle) but no more of his Middle-Earth. There will be "no more shows like this show."