Book reviews

[Estelyn Telcontar]

As our book gets better known in the world of Tolkien literature, it will hopefully be reviewed and evaluated in publications. The first review I have found is in the June 2010 issue of "Beyond Bree", written by Nancy Martsch. I would like to quote her final statement:
It is very interesting; and full of stimulating ideas for the philosopher and literary analyst as well as the musician. A fresh approach after so many stale academic retreads. I highly recommend it.
What a great start! If you find reviews elsewhere, please post them here - thanks!

[Faramir Jones]

Thanks for letting us know about this review, Esty! :) I'll keep a look out for any others.

[shadowfax]

A review has been published (in German) in Inklings Jahrbuch 28.

The author and editor kindly agreed to let me use their text online so here it is:

http://review.walking-tree.org/?book=cormare20&published_in=inklings-jahrbuch_28_2010&rev_lang=de

Thomas Fornet-Ponse's review is very positive (as the book deserves) while giving a good but compact cross-section on what to expect.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Thanks for the link, Shadowfax!

There's also a very positive review to be published in Tolkien Studies 8! I don't know when the volume will be published, so we'll have to wait until then to quote it...

[Bêthberry]

The review of Music in Middle-earth is now available in Tolkien Studies, vol. 8.

For those who don't have access to the journal online (or their own copy), here's a very brief selection of comments from the review, which I hope falls under the 'fair use' guidelines for quoting material. This is the first paragraph and the last sentence.


[The editors*], along with their collaborators, have produced a very good book on a topic that, from a scholarly perspective, is crucial to the study of Tolkien’s literary project and overall mythology. Readers interested in the central and serious subject of music in Tolkien will want to add this volume to their shelves. It covers the vast terrain of music, song, and instruments carefully and judiciously and fills an important space in the scholarly discussions of Tolkien’s fiction. . . . . This volume has many benefits and no obvious dead-ends; it sets before us a direction for scholarship to follow productively into the future.

*In the interests of maintaining pseudonymity here on the Downs, I've omitted the editors' names. :Merisu: ;)

And to think that it started here on Barrow Downs Street!

[Faramir Jones]

Belated thanks to you three, Shadowfax, Esty and Bêthberry, for telling us about these last two reviews! :D