Wayne G. Hammond

I recently reread (for the nth time, although for the first time in years) “The Lord of the Rings” along with this reader’s companion. If you are one of those people who became a LOTR fan in your youth, learned how to write in Elvish, love the Simarillion, and read the book many times, I highly recommend reading it again along with this commentary. It helped me appreciate even more how the depth of Tolkien’s academic scholarship permeates every word in LOTR. It also helped change my mind and I now consider Tolkien not only a great story teller and world builder, but an incredible writer. I even for the first time appreciate and enjoy his poetry.

I should add that 57 years after I first read LOTR, I appreciate even more his incredible world building, and his deep exploration of human psychology in a fantasy setting. He is truly the master of the genre and has never yet been surpassed. But he also deserves to be appreciated as a great writer, not just in his genre.

As a side note, perhaps it is related to my current age, but I now find LOTR incredibly sad and depressing. The commentary just helped deepen that feeling. I never before fully appreciated how Catholicism is such a pessimistic religion and how deeply it’s despairing view of human nature permeates Tolkien’s writing.… (more)