Triangle Tolkienists

Our next book club selection was chosen by you all in our server poll! It was a very close race.

Let’s follow up our months-long Unfinished Tales deep dive with some light nonfiction.

This Very Short Introduction by Matthew Townend offers an accessible and authoritative guide to the full range of Tolkien’s extensive writings, including his academic and posthumously published work. It places Tolkien’s writing in the time and context of their composition, and it takes a thematic approach by exploring recurrent ideas and preoccupations in his writings.

And all that in just about 100 pages! If you’re someone who hasn’t yet delved into the Letters or the Carpenter biography, I invite you to dip your toes in with this shorter and more approachable volume. If you’re someone who has read the aforementioned books, I invite you to join me in looking for new details!

Matthew Townend is a professor at the University of York, where he specializes in the language, literature, and history of Viking Age England; Old Norse poetry; post-medieval receptions of the Middle Ages; and the relationship between philology and literature. Laura N. Van Dyke for Mythlore calls this book “a well-researched, clearly written and engaging analysis of one of the twentieth century’s most creative and original writers” (full review here).

You can support independent bookstores by picking up a copy from Bookshop.org.

Quick rundown of how our virtual book club meetings work:

We meet on Discord – click here to join.

Before or during the meeting, submit your questions or topics for discussion in the designated Discord thread (which is separate from the discussion channel). Throughout the meeting, the moderator will pull from the submitted questions and invite attendees to ask their own questions.

You don’t need a camera or a microphone to participate – most of us prefer to type. If you want to hop into voice chat during the meeting, you are welcome to do so, but the voice channel will not be moderated.