The Nature of Middle Earth

 

The Nature of Middle-earth is an interesting book. It's a collection of JRR Tolkien's writings as he fiddled and reevaluated his legendarium- the vast world behind the story. Tolkien clearly was revising and thinking about things throughout his life- the nature of his world, the relationship between elves and the Valar, the lifespan of various races-there's a lot here. At the same time, I'm not sure if Tolkien ever intended every last thing he wrote- even fragmentary notes- to be published. 

This volume is edited by a Tolkien scholar and is not really essential, to my mind, for the casual fan. If you're a purist and want to know everything, then this may be for you. It's well known that Tolkien often changed his mind or revised the history or background of certain characters, so once you get past The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, there maybe is no definite canon. What he went with in the 50's he may have changed his mind about ten years later. But for reading his thoughts on everything from elven reincarnation to how tall certain characters are can be illuminating. 

So again not essential except for die-hards, and certainly not the Silmarillion- I got this primarily because I love that world and wanted to read more about the geography so I was a little less than impressed, I was expecting more essays and not just note fragments- but for a Tolkien fan there is some interesting material here for a night of tea and reading pleasure.