Saturday, November 30, 2024

Into the Archive: A Sense of Tales Untold

 


A Sense of Tales Untold: Exploring the Edges of Tolkien’s Literary Canvas (2021; this edition June 25, 2024, Kent State University Press; 154 pages) by Peter Grybauskas

“A Sense of Tales Untold examines the margins of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work: the frames, edges, allusions, and borders between story and un-story and the spaces between vast ages and miniscule time periods. The untold tales that are simply implied or referenced in the text are essential to Tolkien’s achievement in world-building, Peter Grybauskas argues … “A story must be told or there’ll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving,” wrote Tolkien to his son during the composition of The Lord of the Rings, cutting straight to the heart of the tension between storytelling and world-building that animates his work. From the most straightforward form of an untold tale―an omission―to vast and tangled webs of allusions, Grybauskas highlights this tension. A Sense of Tales Untold engages with urgent questions about interpretation, adaptation, and authorial control, giving both general readers and specialists alike a fresh look at the source material of the ongoing “Tolkien phenomenon.” – Amazon.

Gybauskas is the editor of 2023’s edition of The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by J. R. R. Tolkien. That certainly establishes his bona fides as a ‘leading Tolkien scholar’; he doesn’t seem to be one of those people who on a whim pick up a pen and whip out some sort of screed because Tolkien is popular and would give their work an immediate hook.

“[He] is an American, independent scholar of Medieval and fantasy literature and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

He teaches classes on Tolkien in the English department of University of Maryland, College Park, and had studied English literature with Verlyn Flieger.” – The One Wiki to Rule Them All ( https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page ).

I ordered this book on the 5th of November and have been awaiting its arrival since the 15th. I decided to go with the softcover edition for economy’s sake; I don’t have to have a hardcover unless it’s something by J. R. R. or Christopher himself. I was expecting it from the 15th to the 25th, but it finally came on the 29th. It was in great, pristine condition, however, indeed shrink-wrapped in that tight fashion that makes you think you might damage the book just getting it out.

The cover is by Ted Naismith, showing Tuor (and Voronwe) spotting Turin from afar, going on his own journey. This is the closest the two cousins ever come to meeting. Perhaps a good example of a ‘might-have-been’, a tale untold because it never happened.

I’m only a little way into reading it but am already finding it informed, informing, and insightful, drawing together thoughts and implications that I’ve never heard before, but which ring true with the source material. I can see that this is another invaluable addition to Tolkien scholarship, and I can hardly wait to get it all under my belt. It is slim, but not slight. Of its 160 pages, 38 are notes, a list of works cited, and an index.


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