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A review by alexmatzkeit
Sauron Defeated by Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien
3.0
Unlike the last three Histories, this one contains only about 130 pages of Lord of the Rings (Book VI) in which there is no longer as much observable change to the narrative as in previous stages. The most interesting reads are the development of "The Scouring of the Shire" and the eventually abandoned epilogue with Sam Gamgee's family.
The largest part of the book is consumed by "The Notion Club Papers", a weird text that I found extremely boring to read (it consists basically of minutes from conversations between fictionalized "Inklings") and of which I eventually skipped large parts. Together with the variations of "The Fall of Númenor" in the last part of the book, however, it perfectly showcases Tolkien's way of thinking - how interested he was in describing myth and oral tradition. Even though he knew and reflected that his writings and fictional languages were conceived purely in his own head, it was very important to him to give them a path from a mythic past through time into this world. Thus, "The Notion Club Papers", in which the main character describes how a language and its corresponding story (recognizably a variation on the Atlantis mythos, as all characters agree) came to him in a sort of dream state, like transmissions from a realm just outside our own.
It's interesting to observe the mind of Tolkien at work like this, who was apparently never satisfied just to be an isolated craftsman and inventor, but always had to conceive of himself, his characters and tales as mere glimpses into a large river of the Whole Story. Christopher Tolkien puts it very well at the end of the book with respect to the discontinued Adunaic language: "[H]ad he returned to the development of Adunaic (...) it would doubtlessly have been reduced to a wreck, as new conceptions caused shifts and upheavals in the structure. More than likely, he would have begun again, refining the historical phonology - and perhaps never yet reaching the Verb. For 'completion', the achievement of a fixed Grammar and Lexicon, was not, in my belief, the over-riding aim. Delight lay in the creation itself, the creation of new linguistic form evolving within the compass of an imagined time. 'Incompletion' and unceasing change, often frustrating to those who study these languages, was inherent in this art." (Emphasis mine)
The largest part of the book is consumed by "The Notion Club Papers", a weird text that I found extremely boring to read (it consists basically of minutes from conversations between fictionalized "Inklings") and of which I eventually skipped large parts. Together with the variations of "The Fall of Númenor" in the last part of the book, however, it perfectly showcases Tolkien's way of thinking - how interested he was in describing myth and oral tradition. Even though he knew and reflected that his writings and fictional languages were conceived purely in his own head, it was very important to him to give them a path from a mythic past through time into this world. Thus, "The Notion Club Papers", in which the main character describes how a language and its corresponding story (recognizably a variation on the Atlantis mythos, as all characters agree) came to him in a sort of dream state, like transmissions from a realm just outside our own.
It's interesting to observe the mind of Tolkien at work like this, who was apparently never satisfied just to be an isolated craftsman and inventor, but always had to conceive of himself, his characters and tales as mere glimpses into a large river of the Whole Story. Christopher Tolkien puts it very well at the end of the book with respect to the discontinued Adunaic language: "[H]ad he returned to the development of Adunaic (...) it would doubtlessly have been reduced to a wreck, as new conceptions caused shifts and upheavals in the structure. More than likely, he would have begun again, refining the historical phonology - and perhaps never yet reaching the Verb. For 'completion', the achievement of a fixed Grammar and Lexicon, was not, in my belief, the over-riding aim. Delight lay in the creation itself, the creation of new linguistic form evolving within the compass of an imagined time. 'Incompletion' and unceasing change, often frustrating to those who study these languages, was inherent in this art." (Emphasis mine)