The Tower and the Ruin - J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation

No writer has surpassed the epic achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, who spent decades refining his world of Middle-earth. In The Tower and the Ruin, Michael D.C. Drout explores Tolkien's genius, allowing us to glimpse the making of works from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion to lesser-known books such as The Fall of Gondolin as well as his poetry. We see how Tolkien invented myths, legends, cultures, languages, histories and an intricate, multivocal narrative. We come to understand how, early on, Tolkien drew upon and modified material he found in Beowulf, the Kalevala and other medieval literature from Northern Europe, and how he later developed the complex form of sorrow that is the primary theme of his mature works. Sweeping and hugely perceptive The Tower and the Ruin illuminates Tolkien anew.

About the author

Michael D.C. Drout is a professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He specializes in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, science fiction and fantasy, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin, and is the author of How Tradition Works and Drout’s Quick and Easy Old English, among others. He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Product details

• Authors: Michael D C Drout, Michael DC Drout
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 23.12.2025
• EAN: 9781324093886
• ISBN: 978-1-324-09388-6
• Subjects: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Science Fiction, Fantasy, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, Biography: literary, LITERARY CRITICISM / Science Fiction & Fantasy, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Ireland, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Biography: writers