Overview

"Exploring the uncanny perception of depth in Tolkien's writing and world-building A Sense of Tales Untoldexamines the margins of J. R. R. Tolkien's work: the frames, edges, allusions, and borders between story and un-story and the spaces between vast ages and miniscule time periods. The untold tales that are simply implied or referenced in the text are essential to Tolkien's achievement in world-building, Peter Grybauskas argues, and counter the common but largely spurious image of Tolkien as a writer of bloated prose. Instead, A Sense of Tales Untold highlights Tolkien's restraint—his ability to check the pen to great effect. The book begins by identifying some of Tolkien's principal sources of inspiration and his contemporaries, then summarizes theories and practices of the literary impression of depth. The following chapters offer close readings of key untold tales in context, ranging from the shadowy legends at the margins of The Lord of the Rings to the nexus of tales concerning Túrin Turambar, the great tragic hero of the Elder Days. In his frequent retellings of the Túrin legend, Tolkien found a lifelong playground for experimentation with untold stories. ""A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving,"" wrote Tolkien to his son during the composition of The Lord of the Rings,cutting straight to the heart of the tension between storytelling and world-building that animates his work. From the most straightforward form of an untold tale—an omission—to vast and tangled webs of allusions, Grybauskas highlights this tension. A Sense of Tales Untold engages with urgent questions about interpretation, adaptation, and authorial control, giving both general readers and specialists alike a fresh look at the source material of the ongoing ""Tolkien phenomenon."

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9781606354902

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Reviews

"""By examining the tales untold, the ways they influence the 'main' stories, and the effects they have on the reading, Grybauskas makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Tolkien's work.... A superb study."" --Mythlore ""Grybauskas's book...provide[s] a fresh look at the subject matter, all the more valuable on account of his comprehensive studies of individual works. All in all, the volume is a must-have for any scholar who is keenly interested in Tolkien's narrative art and world-building techniques."" --Journal of Inklings Studies ""The detail of the work's critical apparatus alone would make A Sense of Tales Untold a useful addition to the library of any Tolkien scholar or fan, but the content contained therein warrants a prominent place on the shelf for this book. .... A Sense of Tales Untold is...an excellent treatment, not just of Tolkien's work, but of the theoretical groundwork of worldbuilding in speculative fiction."" --SFRA Review ""Peter Grybauskas offers, in thoughtful and engaging prose, a close examination of a subtle but important phenomenon in Tolkien's writings: that what is unsaid is often at least as important as what is said. The unelaborated glimpses and untold tales of things far off, in time as well as distance, give to the reader the palpable sense that Tolkien's legendary world has a deep and significant history preceding and informing the narrative present--a sense that is often remarked upon though not often examined, and that is an important part of the emotional and intellectual allure of The Lord of the Rings."" --Carl F. Hostetter, editor of The Nature of Middle-Earth ""This essential book is a guided journey across the edges of Tolkien's canvas, taking readers beyond the Middle-earth they know into a world they always hoped was there."" --Verlyn Flieger, Professor Emerita, English, University of Maryland College Park, author of Green Suns and Fa�rie: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien ""A Sense of Tales Untold allows us a glimpse into the stories and wonders only hinted at in The Lord of the Rings and the wider legendarium. Peter Grybauskas pulls together Tolkien's understudied musings on half-forgotten characters and stories and endows them with new life and relevance."" --Amy Amendt-Raduege, author of ""The Sweet and the Bitter"" Death and Dying in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings ""Tolkien felt driven to fill gaps in his mythology: to create backstories for situations and characters, to provide histories for nations and peoples, to devise etymological development for his invented words. Yet filling in the gaps invariably created new gaps, stories hinted at but never told. Peter Grybauskas explores Tolkien's gaps, showing that the 'Tales Untold' contribute more to the sense of historical depth of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings than do the myriad details Tolkien provides."" --Sam McBride, author of Tolkien's Cosmology: Divine Beings and Middle-earth"

Author Information

Peter Grybauskas is senior lecturer in English at the University of Maryland. He has collaborated with the Roman Association of Tolkien Studies and is a regular reader in the Tolkien Archive at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. His work has appeared in Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, and collections in English and Italian.

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