For some reason, when I read his writing, I am just hooked. His prose is just so elegant. I've seen many try to replicate his style, but it just has not work. What do you think about Tolkien's prose?
Tolkien's Writing Style
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Elegant is a good word for Tolkien's writing style. Not too dry, not too florid, and every scene the right length. Very carefully crafted. I like it a lot.
Mind you, I have issues with certain aspects of his books, most notably the female characters. And some of the folks on this thread have harsh words to say about the LoTR books as compared to the movies.
Mind you, I have issues with certain aspects of his books, most notably the female characters. And some of the folks on this thread have harsh words to say about the LoTR books as compared to the movies.
I agree that his books can be sluggish to complete. He did a fantastic job on The Fellowship of the Ring though. It's just that his prose is quite melodic if you analyze it.
I think even in terms of LOTR, Tolkien has multiple styles.
There's a super article about this very issue, by Tolkien scholar, Michael Drout:
"Tolkien's Prose Style and its Literary and Rhetorical Effects"
There's a super article about this very issue, by Tolkien scholar, Michael Drout:
"Tolkien's Prose Style and its Literary and Rhetorical Effects"
Ahh, yes. I have read that article. His influences as a linguistic must have helped him. His references to Old English are fantastic.
I can live without the 'let's describe the countryside the nth degree' style, but it's worth it for the 'sagas style' prose that makes me gawp at the beauty. His flaws are actually part of the beauty of it, if that makes sense?
Out of doubt, out of dark I rode, to heart's breaking....
ETA: I wonder how much he'd be edited these days. Judging by the big fat stuff I see/try to read on the shelves, not all that much?
Ditto. Love the story, but if I have to read another descriptive passage about the hills of Rohan... Watch out.
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I'm sorry, but Eomer was my first ever literary crush - that's got to count for something. I even have the tatt to prove it. Parts of those books I love with an abiding passion...but those are the bits I skip to, so as to avoid the 'oh look, it's a green, stinking marsh. Again.'
The good parts outweigh the bad parts (IMO obviously). Some of the lyricism is sublime
Not that much, actually.
He was re-edited, fairly recently (2002?), and Houghton-Mifflin in fact restored editorial changes that Tolkien objected to, to his preferred versions.
For anyone who likes Tolkien's "saga style," check out the Mabinogi, preferably in the Patrick Ford or Sioned Davies translations.
Way cool.
Way cool.
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I think is style is perfect for the time that it was written, and for the audience that it was written for. I personally think his command of the English language was stunning.
If you ever wanted to learn more about how he wrote and edited, pick up The War of the Ring by Christopher Tolkien. It's a multi-volume series available in many libraries that goes through hundreds of Tolkien's notes, letters, and drafts, and shows his thought process in a way that just has to be read to be understood.
If you ever wanted to learn more about how he wrote and edited, pick up The War of the Ring by Christopher Tolkien. It's a multi-volume series available in many libraries that goes through hundreds of Tolkien's notes, letters, and drafts, and shows his thought process in a way that just has to be read to be understood.
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I had difficulty reading the books, even as an adult, even though I love the movies. But, I've heard other people say they have difficulty reading authors I don't have trouble with, such as Andre Norton. Probably someone somewhere has done a computer analysis of Tolkien so you could get statistical data on what gives it its flavor. But putting that into your own writing would still be quite challenging.
Well said. I have tried to put it into my writing, but it sounds odd, so I stay away. Still, I never get old reading his books.
I read 'The Hobbit' when I was ABOUT 7 or 8 (I think) and despite my Dad, the person I got the copy of the book from, telling me it was pretty arduous for someone of my age at the time, I share your "hooked" feeling about it.
It's just...unusual in it though, I find. Any other book that is written in that round-about way would bore me to tears unless there's something fantastically interesting going on, preferably involving either sex or a gunfight, or both.
But with Tolkien's stuff, it just seems to flow so naturally. More than once I've told myself I was going to quit reading after a certain paragraph, but then carried on because every paragraph just flows so well it sweeps you right into the next one, to the point where I've found myself finishing a chapter at 4 in the morning when I'd originally intended to quit reading 5 chapters and a couple hours beforehand.
So...yes, I love Tolkien's writing style.
Incidental note: love C.S. Lewis's prose as well.
It's just...unusual in it though, I find. Any other book that is written in that round-about way would bore me to tears unless there's something fantastically interesting going on, preferably involving either sex or a gunfight, or both.
But with Tolkien's stuff, it just seems to flow so naturally. More than once I've told myself I was going to quit reading after a certain paragraph, but then carried on because every paragraph just flows so well it sweeps you right into the next one, to the point where I've found myself finishing a chapter at 4 in the morning when I'd originally intended to quit reading 5 chapters and a couple hours beforehand.
So...yes, I love Tolkien's writing style.
Incidental note: love C.S. Lewis's prose as well.
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From what I know about Tolkien, I get the feeling he would be an unpublishable author today. It takes LOTR nearly 100 pages to start, the story is preceded by a general history of the hobbits and the river-folk, which doesn't really hook you, and the pacing is practically non-existent, especially in Two Towers and Return of the King, where the two stories are not even interlaced together, but told utterly seperately (to get through this, I've found alternating chapters works well).
In point of fact, LOTR violates nearly every rule we learn for getting published. So thank god he was born when he was, because I love the books.
Also, he would have been unpublished because he refused to be edited. You just didn't edit Tolkien - Tolkien edited you (I recall his editor saying that Tolkien would send the editors hand-written comments back themselves edited).
To answer the OP: his style is amazing, melodic, almost a form of prose-poetry, and I think the reason is that he had suffused himself in the world of epic poetry. Yeah, he was a linguist, but he had breathed so long in these forms of thinking that their common expressions shaped the way he thought.
Nearly the best argument I can find for making your kids suffer through a classical education!
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Actually, he wasn't a linguist, and, quite frankly, would have bristled at the very notion that he was.
Tolkien was a philologist; that is, one who studied dead languages in context. These days, it's typically a sub-specialty of either Indo-European studies, Asian Studies, etc., or of medieval studies.
I like Tolkien, although I did find myself skimming over some of the longer descriptions. I could never write in his style myself, though.
Not really.
Tolkien was already known as the writer of a very high-selling children’s book, “The Hobbit”. That was enough to cut him quite a bit of slack on a book that was a sequel to “The Hobbit”. The same would apply today. Especially when the publisher thought this sequel to be a “work of genius”.
I never heard that Tolkien refused to be edited. He did have occasional problems with copy-editors, but nothing serious. The same often happens today.
Tolkien was extensively edited, and really, wasn't that argumentative.
Frankly, he was generally correct--which is why many of the editorial emendations that irked him so have been reverted.
What few we have and how rarely they appear in LotR...Eowyn and Galadriel are pretty much the only notable female character in LotR for me. Arwen is in there, but she appears in the first book for a while, and then later pops up in the third book and at that point it's just kind of like "Arwen-who?"
I find it kind of odd because females feature much more heavily in the mythology of Middle-Earth. Varda, Luthien, Celebrian, Idril, and for some reason I like the story of Aredhel. And there's Dis, the only dwarf woman in existence apparently...
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I'm in the camp that Tolkien is one of the best prose writers ever. Having said that, his style in Lord of the Rings was very much in the romantic style, and even back in the 50's, the style was considered a bit cumbersome (keep in mind, this is the same time Hemingway and Faulkner were publishing). If it weren't for the success of The Hobbit, which is a little lighter to read prose-wise, I doubt LOTR would have ever been published. Today, who knows. Not sure modern readers have the patience for Tolkien's style. In any case, I'm for one very happy LOTR did get published.
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