‘The Lord of the Rings’ by J.R.R. Tolkien set the fantasy genre on its foundation and opened the door to other fantasy series. It was published in three parts ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ (1954), ‘The Two Towers’ (1955), and ‘The Return of the King’ (1955). According to Corday in her ‘Master of the Middle Earth’, Tolkien had a special interest in ‘obscure’ languages, even to the point of creating his own. He called it ‘High-Elven’ and often in his stories he used the language. Tolkien also invented an entire world called Middle-earth, where ‘The Lord of the Rings’ takes place. Because he had invented this world, it had to bow to his will and rules. He was an accomplished linguist, and this greatly helped his ability to vividly portray and create in the reader’s mind Middle-earth, a place that no person has ever been.
Nevertheless, Tolkien received criticism as all writers do. In essence, the possible objections of this paper will include the following. First, critics and objectors dislike fantasy, to begin with, and see it as worthless unless it’s an allegory. Second, it uses archaic and unusual words. Lastly, it has a long detailed description of the landscape and travel. For instance, Burton Raffel takes the opinion that “his [Tolkien’s] descriptions often fail to create ‘sense impressions’ needed to make language ‘more deeply felt and more deeply worked’”. Raffel also claimed that “Tolkien’s nature descriptions are frequently somewhat overwrought” (20).
Since it was published and written just recently after World War II, it’s understandable that the writing is ‘old-time’, and difficult to comprehend for today’s readers. It has underlying problems that from a modern critical perspective should not be the standard for modern fantasy.
However, there is little doubt that J.R.R. Tolkien has become, in his short reign within literary fiction, nothing short of legendary. Despite the strength of the counterarguments, I firmly believe that my position is still the best one. To support this, I will present facts and my own perspective. His works, while only recently presented to the world, have captivated thousands of readers around the world. While many ‘cultured’ critics still scoff at this work, the effect Tolkien has had on this world is nearly as profound as the control he had over Middle-earth in his novels. Tolkien, while certainly a master of all elements of fiction, displayed unquestionable proficiency in the areas of character and setting. In her essay, ‘Master of Middle Earth’, Alina Corday stated that Tolkien’s, “penchant for perfectionism slowed his progress mightily” while writing his novels (Corday, 3). She also mentions that Tolkien found it necessary to learn how to stew a rabbit before including such an event in his novel (Corday, 3). This perfectionism is evidenced greatly in his development of the setting.
Personally, I never read a story besides ‘The Lord of the Rings’ that covers so much about the regions, the geography, the peoples, and the languages. I can visualize the landscape, feel the bitter cold winds, the snow piling up, and the days getting darker like I’m really there. It is not only about the powerful wizards or disciplined and supernatural elves or mighty humans. It is also about hobbits, small creatures, Gollum, trees, and nature. It is about our hunger for power, whilst we know the chances are high that it will corrupt us. It is about friendship, loyalty, determination, and courage of everyone who is part of it. It is about the truth of war, what is it actually like. The story attracts you and you wish to be part of it. Generally, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is essentially a story about the struggle of good versus evil. The setting helps the story personify the difficulties the characters face. The characters go through trials and share their feelings of fear and triumph with us.
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