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| Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959 | |
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| Publication Information | |
| Author | John M. Bowers, Peter Steffensen |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Released | Kindle: 21 September 2024 Hardcover: 17 October 2024 |
| Format | Hardcover, digital |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | 978-0192848888 |
Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959 is a scholarly book by John M. Bowers and Peter Steffensen, published in 2024 by the Oxford University Press.
It traces J.R.R. Tolkien's critical engagements with Geoffrey Chaucer from his undergraduate Oxford essays in 1913 to remarks in his retirement lecture in 1959. It reprints and analyses Tolkien's major articles such as "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale", along with his unpublished edition of the Reeve's Tale and his lectures on the Clerk's Tale and the Pardoner's Tale.
For a guide on the book's content, see below.
Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Chaucerian in Training, 1913-23
- "The Language of Chaucer" (1913)
- "Chaucer and his Contemporaries" (1914)
- Troilus and Criseyde
- Oxford English Dictionary (1918-20)
- Tolkien at Leeds: TLS and YWES
- 2. Editing Chaucer, 1924-28
- Oxford University Press correspondence (1924-51)
- Tolkien Editing Skeat's Chaucer
- The Glossary (1925)
- The Notes (1928)
- 3. The Reeve's Tale, 1928-44
- "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
- Oxford's Summer Diversions (1939)
- The Reeve's Tale for Navy Cadets (1944)
- 4. Merton Professor of Chaucer, 1947-54
- The Clerk's Tale (1947)
- The Pardoner's Tale (1947)
- The Parlement of Foules (1948)
- The Pardoner's Tale (1951-1954)
- 5. The Middle English Losenger
- "Neck Verse" for the Oxford Dante Society (1947)
- Letter on faynights (1951)
- "Middle English Losenger" (1953)
- 6. The Pardoner's Tale: The Story and its Form, 1955-56
- 7. Valedictory to Chaucer, 1959
- Coda: Tolkien on Chaucer's Retracciouns
- Works Cited
- Index
Guide to the content
The book's 300-more pages are packed with J.R.R. Tolkien's primary materials, printing (and reprinting) a wide selection of writings that reveal Tolkien's scholarly involvement in Middle English and Chaucer.
Chapter 1 focuses on Tolkien's undergraduate period in Oxford and the early years of his career, included here are: excerpts from Tolkien's tutorial essay "The Language of Chaucer"; notes taken from a lecture series "Chaucer and his Contemporaries"; private study notes on Troilus and Criseyde; some detail of Tolkien's working on the Oxford English Dictionary; and quotes from some of his early essays published in the Times Literary Supplement and The Year's Work in English Studies.
Chapter 2 publishes much material from the abandoned "Clarendon Chaucer" project, which Bowers' previous book Tolkien's Lost Chaucer didn't do. These are: the full eight letters by Tolkien that bear on the project's progress; some of Tolkien's editing work on Chaucer's texts; samples from the project's "Glossary"; and samples from the project's "Notes".
Chapter 3 reprints, first Tolkien's essay "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale", then his edition of the Reeve's Tale. Both of these have been reprinted before in the Tolkien Studies 5, but the latter in this book incorporates some newly discovered materials.
Chapter 4 contains Tolkien's lecture notes on three works by Chaucer: the Clerk's Tale, the Pardoner's Tale, and the Parlement of Foules.
Chapter 5 includes a talk by Tolkien titled "A Neck Verse", a letter that discusses the word faynights, and reprints the essay "Middle English 'Losenger'".
Chapter 6 publishes an entire lecture series by Tolkien on the Pardoner's Tale, titled "The Pardoner's Tale: The Story and its Form".
Chapter 7 reprints some excerpts from Tolkien's "Valedictory Address".
The book's Coda includes a letter in which Tolkien shares his thoughts on the Retracciouns, a brief text found at the end of the Canterbury Tales.
From the publisher
"Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-59" traces J. R. R. Tolkien's critical engagements with Geoffrey Chaucer from his undergraduate Oxford essays in 1913 to remarks in his retirement lecture in 1959. Reprinted with both Tolkien's own annotations and new notes from the authors, this book analyses his major articles such as "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale", as well as his unpublished edition of the Reeve's Tale and his lectures on the Clerk's Tale and the Pardoner's Tale.
Though his scholarship was best known for his work on Beowulf, Tolkien was also an expert on Geoffrey Chaucer. He lectured on Chaucer, edited Chaucer, and published essays on Chaucer. "Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-59" reprints many of these works for the first time, and documents Tolkien's career-long engagement with the poet and traces his influence in Tolkien's own works. Bowers and Steffensen reveal how the Reeve's Tale was a source for Tolkien's description of Merry and Pippin's battle with Saruman, and how the Pardoner's Tale influenced Tolkien's own story of men fighting to the death over a gold treasure. Chaucer emerges as a major source of inspiration for Tolkien's creative writings and profoundly formative in the creation of The Lord of the Rings.
See also
External links
- Kindle edition on Amazon US and Amazon UK
- Tolkien on Chaucer on OUP.com