Having long been a fan of Tolkiens fantasy creations as well as a avid reader of history, I was delighted to discover a fantastic book which goes some way to explaining the background to his world. Be warned though, this is not another Lord of the Rings related product, this is a pure history book, do not be fooled by the title. Tolkien freely admitted that the concept, culture and traditions of Middle Earth were not his creation, but were ideas borrowed from Norse and Anglo Saxon mythology. The book is about this historical concept of Middle Earth, but for those who want to know a bit more about Tolkiens sources, this is also a book for you. The Middle Earth of reality is as mysterious and dark as anything that flew from the pages of the great authors work.
The author of this book, Proffesor Brian Bates is a leading authority on many aspects of religion and mythology, and has studied and written on such subjects as, Shamanism, Magic, Paganism, Pyscology and tribal culture and is an expert on Father Christmas. He has alsoventured into the field of novel writtiing with his seminal book, The Way of The Wyrd, a brilliant book which brings a psychological perspective to the people and times of Dark Age England. What better author to examine the real world mythology of Tolkiens creations.
The Middle Earth of the Anglo-Saxon mind was not exclusivley a physical place, the world was held together by golden threads that only wizards could manipulate and these threads radiated from Middle Earth, but enabled access to the magical realms that joined this world.
"to these people of the real middle earth, the landscape took on a whole new meaning. Elvish spirits populated the trees, streams and stones,dwarves forged magical weapons,giants menaced from mountains, and fire breathing dragons slumbered under hills, guarding treasures which carried the fate of whole civilizations."
This is how the Dark Age inhabitant of northern Europe saw the world and by taking these ideas from the writtings of the time, Tolkien had the basis of his creation. He was luck in that as an Oxford professor of medieval literature, he had probably access to the biggest collection of historical documents available anywhere.
After a few chapters on the realities of Dark Age life, how they lived, where they lived and how they viewed the world around them, the book sets out to explore the mythology and beliefs of the times. The legends of the Dragons are eamined and the reasons for their presumed existance does make sense in the context of the times. With a poor understanding of science and a limited view of the way the world worked, it was easier to explain away the trials and tragedies of life by putting the blame on magic and mythical beasts, on gods and wizards. All of this made sense in a closed and sheltered community, but obviously seem niave to us today.
All of the familiar fantasy creations are present in the understanding of the Dark Age people, Elves and the powers of the plants and herbs, Shapeshifters and magical beasts, Dwarves, Giants and oversized spiders. Fans of Lord of The Rings may be surprised to know that even the Ents, the living tree-men, are not an original creation.
The book is easy to read, and flows in a conversational style, a nice departure for a book that covers a fairly specialised subject. Whether you are a fan of fantasy literature, interested in history or just looking for something different, then this book will suit your tastes, and will show you that despite the term fantasy being a somewhat derogatory phrase these days, most of it is based firmly in the ideas of our ancestors, there really is nothing new under the sun.
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