In her preface to Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, editor Jane Chance asserts that this latest collection is intended as "an introduction to the complex subject of Tolkien's mythmaking" (xiii), and on one level, the volume succeeds admirably in this. Bringing together the thought of such established Tolkien scholars as Tom Shippey, Verlyn Flieger, and Michael Drout with that of relative newcomers to the field, Chance organizes their 18 essays into five topical sections: backgrounds to Tolkien's fiction, the influence of classical myth and thought upon it, and the author's use of Old Norse, Old English, and Finnish, respectively. Each section opens with a general theoretical essay on the topic, which is followed by others on more specific aspects of Tolkien's fiction. Individual contributions range from philological analysis and source studies to considerations of narrative technique and theories of (re)creating myth. Where the book does not serve so well as an "introduction" is that the majority of essays assume familiarity with all of Tolkien's fictional corpus, not just the widely read Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, as well as a grounding in his theoretical writings. While such is certainly not a drawback for scholars of Tolkien or fantasy, or for students in a Tolkien seminar, it will make the volume less accessible to non-experts or students encountering Tolkien in a more general context.
Part I, "Backgrounds: Folklore, Religion, Magic, and Language," is, however, indeed introductory. Its four essays concentrate on Lord of the Rings from well-established foci. Michaela Baltasar leads off, applying Tolkien's theories on the nature and function of myth, primarily as expressed in "On Faerie Stories," to his fiction, thus elucidating how the author approached mythmaking. David Jeffrey uses the same essay, combined with Tolkien's philological preoccupation, to interpret the concepts of "Subcreation" and "Recovery" as essentially an adaptation of medieval allegorizing. He also provides a short philological appendix on character names. Jeffrey, like Mary Zimmer in her analysis of name and incantation magic, sides with critical consensus that Lord of the Rings remains an essentially Christian work, despite Tolkien's insistence to the contrary.
An interesting departure from this mainstream reading comes in Catherine Madsen's argument for the trilogy as patently agnostic, evincing "religious feeling, and even religious behavior, without ritual, revelation, doctrine [or] God" (35). Rather, Madsen contends, it is rooted in "natural religion," concerned with the present and its attendant tragedy and apparent futility, as well as with generating the "hope" and "small measures of strength to keep acting in spite of it" (43). Here lies a key to The Lord of the Rings' wide and clearly non-Christian appeal.
Part II examines various classical influences on Tolkien. In "Saving the Myths," Gergely Nagy demonstrates how Plato and Tolkien both used myth to position themselves in reaction against the traditions within which they were working. Ultimately, says Nagy, both reveal the primacy of pre-existing Truths (Forms) and their recurring manifestations in the world, as well as how looking through those manifestations to the source can allow us to improve upon our own reality.
Jen Stevens demonstrates how Tolkien reworked Ovid's "Pyramus and Thisbe" in his romance of Beren and Luthien, itself an archetype for numerous other episodes in his fictional corpus. The parallels lie not only in the star-crossed lovers and plot details, but also in an imitation of Ovid's narrative style. However, more significant is Tolkien's transformation of the classical tale's catastrophe into eucatastrophe by introducing free, conscious choice on the part of the lovers, especially female choice. Stevens' conclusion admirably anticipates the following essay by Kathleen Dubs, which explains through episodes in The Fellowship of the Ring how Boethian relationships between Fate, Chance, Free Will and Providence work to govern Tolkien's fictional universe.
Sandra Straubhaar's contribution more tenuously relates to Part II's theme, for, despite a few general parallels between statements from Lord of the Rings with others made by Tacitus, it is primarily a defense of Tolkien's work against the charge of racism. Nonetheless, it does well in achieving this aim, using the author's philological impulse to demonstrate his celebration of the multi-cultural through the multi-lingual, for language can be and is acquired, while race is not.
As with Part II, Part III of Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, "Tolkien and Old Norse," contains an essay that doesn't quite seem to belong. Andrew Lazo's contribution, primarily a biographical account of Tolkien's various academic clubs and reading groups, is as much about C.S. Lewis and his friendship with the author as about Tolkien himself. The core of Lazo's argument is that the Kolbitar group "inevitably" led to the Inklings, and that both were essential for the production of The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings.
In contrast, Majorie Burns directly addresses Old Norse influence on Tolkien, asserting that the Valar are adapted Norse gods, modified by the Christian view to "evoke the ancient world and still satisfy the religious beliefs of the modern one" (176). In this, Tom Shippey and Andy Dimond agree with her, Dimond equating the departure of the Elves to Ragnorak in anticipation of a more mundane Christian era. Shippey, in the theoretical essay of this section and like Dimond, sees Tolkien's fictional universe evincing the Old Norse "flavor" of heroism in the face of a sense that "everything is slowly winding down, being lost, heading for extinction" (159), but with a covert Christian optimism. Such is, however, only one aspect of Shippey's examination of how Tolkien achieves a "rootedness," i.e., a genuine mythic system. As well, he needed to create a complete world view and "continual allusiveness" (154) among the component tales to achieve the illusion of "many minds, not just one, pouring their thought and emotions into the greatest issues of human life^×and death" (160). All this Tolkien learned, argues Shippey, from Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, drawing upon the narrative technique of this other Christian author relating pagan myths.
The three essays of Part IV explore Tolkien's use of Beowulf as a model for constructing aspects of Middle-earth in Lord of the Rings. Michael Drout posits that the interplay of three primary academic interests of Tolkien--Beowulf criticism, Anglo-Saxon pre-history, and language--led him to create the Rohirrim as fictional ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. Such centered on identifying Beowulf's Geats as Goths, and following a logical historic and linguistic evolution, not because Tolkien believed it was true but because, Drout says, "it should be true" (242).
Alexandra Bolintineanu examines how Tolkien adopts the Beowulf-poet's technique of allowing fictional past and present events to mutually "validate and exalt" each other, creating the allusive interplay evident in a mythic cycle. Also claiming Beowulf as a model for Tolkien's narrative touchstones, John Holmes explores his adaptations of patterns of "Oaths and Oath-Breaking," and of distinctions between types of oaths, in Lord of the Rings as techniques for characterization. Moreover, Holmes demonstrates how forgiving anticipated oath-breaking (such as Elrond of the hobbits at his council) serves to elevate the heroism of those who nonetheless keep them.
The final section of Tolkien and the Invention of Myth, "Tolkien and Finnish," offers three much shorter essays on Lonnrot's Kalevala as a source. Verlyn Flieger demonstrates how Lonnrot's work, in large part, gave rise to a "folklore movement" in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose concern was national identity. It was this climate, along with Tolkien's love of the Kalevala and appreciation of its role in creating Finnish myth and identity, that caused him to use it as a model for his own English mythology. In this latter aim, says Flieger, Tolkien failed, although he did succeed in creating a true mythology of universal appeal. Finally, Richard West explores the Kalevala's linguistic inspirations for Tolkien, as well as sources for plot episodes and characterization, while David Gay locates in it the originals for Tom Bombadil and Treebeard.
All in all, Chance's collection provides a wide range of approaches to Tolkien's mythology, offering new insights based on established approaches. Like any assemblage of papers, it frequently leaves certain issues incompletely explored; unlike many, it provides a myriad of starting points for the rest of us.