RE: Tolkien among the Greeks
Michael > January 1st, 2024, 05:30 PM
"If an eyebrow is raised at the thought of Tolkien and the classics, the eyes positively pop at the thought of Tolkien as a utopian."
Really ...
"The premise of the book is an intuition ably validated by Williams, though perhaps with overreach. The premise is that Tolkien’s pre-WWI elite education meant his mind was saturated with the classics."
The reviewer seems to be trolling the Tolkien scholarly community with nonsense.
J.R.R. Tolkien viewed himself as a classicist, not a medievalist, and he often referenced Greek literature (and the Bible) in his letters. His private essays and notes about Middle-earth - in fact, The Book of Lost Tales, deeply reflect Greek and non-Germanic influences. These aren't obscure secrets the Tolkien scholarly community have overlooked for decades.
The review itself acknowledges these influences further on. I think that's a terrible lead, meant to arouse suspicion rather than pique interest in the book.
Then again, I wouldn't have expected to find a review of Tolkien scholarship on a site called Law & Liberty.
Tolkien's classical influences (and leanings) deserve more attention, to be sure. I don't know if Hamish Williams did a good job of exploring those influences or not - haven't heard of this (new) book before. But I certainly hope people stop all this "Tolkien was a medievalist" nonsense someday. He deserves better than that.