David Day. An Encyclopedia of Tolkien. Canterbury Classics, 2019.
Yes, An Encyclopedia of Tolkien is a reference book. But unlike most reference works, this is a book your reviewer read from cover to cover (well, not the endnotes or index). It is truly a literary approach to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Anyone interested in the inspiration and main themes of his work, this is your book.
The entries are about evenly divided between items that appear in Tolkien’s legendarium and items that inspired or influenced his work. For example, we read about Galadriel, Middle-Earth, and Aulë. We also encounter entries about White Ladies from Welsh mythologies, Midgard (Middangeard) from Norse and Anglo-Saxon legends, and the trio of Hephaestus, Vulcan, and Wayland legendary smiths from Greek, Roman, and Norse myth—the characters and places from older works that inspired the elf queen, the land, and the skilled smith from the Tolkien tales.
This is not a dictionary or glossary. The appendices that appear in the Christopher Tolkien edited works such as The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales contain those. The entries here may describe the character, place, or theme from Tolkien’s work but the focus is on the literary connection and significance.
In other words, if you want to find out what Galadriel did or who she is, you will have read the applicable works. In her case, she appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion (“The Rings of Power”), and Unfinished Tales. What An Encyclopedia of Tolkien tells us is that she is an immortal elf queen, daughter of Finarfin and ruler of Lothlórien. Its appendix lists the works of Tolkien where she can be found. It also names works that Tolkien read that may have inspired her creation.
Throughout the book we are reminded that Tolkien was a Medieval scholar. He was familiar with both the tales and the history of Europe during that time period. So, yes, there are entries about the Ring Cycle, King Arthur stories, and the Kalevala. There are entries about the Holy Roman Empire and the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields of A.D. 451.
That battle in what today is northeastern France put an end to the expansion of the empire of Attila the Hun. The empire would fall apart altogether a few years later after Attila’s death. The victory was caused by an alliance of traditional enemies, the Romans and the Visigoths, who understood that the Huns were a threat to both of them. Tolkien based his battle of Celbrant described in The Two Towers on this historical event.
A recurring theme is that Tolkien sought to improve or make more interesting some of the Medieval tales (or tales set in Medieval times). For example, he thought the prophecy in Macbeth about Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Castle was sketchy. After all, it was not the woods itself that moved, but simply cut branches used for camouflage. What if there were really actual trees that moved? That is where the Ents come in. By the way, The Encyclopedia of Tolkien does share derivations of many words Tolkien invented. Ent in Anglo-Saxon means “giant.”
Jewel and ring legends were popular throughout Medieval Europe. Tolkien clearly was inspired by the rings of the Volsungaga and Niebelungenlied as well as the Sampo of the Kalevala and even the Holy Grail of the Arthurian tales. Tolkien, according to Day, made his versions more chaste for the most part. He wanted to concentrate on the story, no the sensationalism.
The Appendices have some interesting additions. There are charts listing the ancient Valar of Middle Earth and comparing them with the gods and heroes of the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. There is a outline of the history of Middle Earth which Day tells us covers 37,000 years. There are descriptions of key battles, some genealogies, and few miscellaneous timelines.
Particularly interesting and helpful to readers and researchers are summaries of the three Norse ring legends: the Volsungsaga, the Niebelungenlied, and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. A fourth essay probably reflects the editor’s own experience in becoming a Tolkien student. It details how The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings became adopted by the hippie counterculture of the sixties. My one reaction to that—there were also many non-hippies and non-peaceniks from that era who enjoyed Tolkien, too.
While there is not exactly a glossary of Middle Earth, the appendix contains a list of people, places, and events with references of where to find them in the Tolkien oeuvre. For example, if we want to read about Galadriel, look in “S Quen, RofP, App; UT II 4; LR II 7,9; III 6, V 2, App. A.” In other words The Silmarillion (“Quenta Silmarillion,” “On the Rings of Power,” and the Appendix); Unfinished Tales Part 2 Section 4; The Lord of the Rings, Book 2 chapters 7 and 9, Book 3 chapter 6, Book 5 chapter 2, and Appendix A. There are many more names in the list than entries in the encyclopedia’s body. Day uses the abbreviations to save much space as many reference works do.
Clearly, there is much more. Use The Encyclopedia of Tolkien for research, literary studies, background, and references in the Tolkien legendarium. There is a lot to it.