A Useful Companion

Most books on Tolkien are organized thematically. This one is arranged episodically, following the history of Middle-earth from its creation in the first chapter of The Silmarillion to the hints about the Fourth Age in the Appendices of The Return of the King. It offers a reader's commentary on those episodes, bringing out the artistry behind their composition and the meaning behind their narrative to enhance the reader's experience of the story as it unfolds. The meaning that emerges is a profoundly Christian meditation on the advice of Ulmo: "Love not too well the work of thine own hands." The conflict between those who love the work of their own hands appropriately and those who love it idolatrously forms the history of Tolkien's world-and of ours.