| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Tree and Leaf: Including MYTHOPOEIA for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent introduction to Tolkien's aesthetics,
By
This review is from: Tree and Leaf: Including MYTHOPOEIA (Paperback)
The book was originally a publishing concoction consisting of only two items, short story 'Leaf by Niggle' and essay 'On Fairy-Stories'; both have since become readily available in other editions. But even if you already have the texts in your collection, know that 'Tree and Leaf' has sprouted new branches since its first publication in 1964, as is only fitting. First, in 1988, Tolkien's poetic dialogue 'Mythopoeia' was added; this new 2001 edition also includes 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth' - the only sequel to another author's work by JRRT that I know of (albeit one nameless, and dead for a milennium). The four works now form a strong whole: the essay lays out the groundwork for virtually all of Tolkien's fiction and sheds much light on the value system underlining his creative choices. This is literary theory of a sort that is almost extinct in university courses nowadays - and feels like a breath of fresh inspiration after so many postmodern dead ends, frankly. 'Mythopoeia' brings this argument with modernity out in a style reminiscent of classical dialectics (in verse and quite amusing to boot); but then 'Leaf by Niggle' explodes in a flash of what the book has previously only talked about: it is the real thing, one of Tolkien's most poignant works, and the sheer concentration of emotion in it rivals his best mythological stories. 'Beorhtnoth' now gives the end of the book a sombre tone, an elegy of times and heroes gone and on the way to be forgotten - written in a prime example of Old English verse. Maybe not meant to be experienced in this order, the four items certainly form a strong whole, one essential to the understanding of the author - more so than anything you might see in cinema these days...
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant book that I will remember always.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tree and Leaf (Paperback)
I bought this in my "Must read everything by Tolkien" phase having just read Lord of the Rings. It is essentially an essay on Fairy Tales, but it has some wonderful theories and concepts. When I re-read the book years later, it hit me so hard I'll never be the same, as it dawned on me just what amazing things Tolkien was saying. The ideas from this have doubled my enjoyment of every book I have read since.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of words, and of adventure,
By The bookloving Norman (Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tree and Leaf: Including MYTHOPOEIA (Paperback)
Although the other texts included in "Tree and leaf" (Mythopoeia, Leaf by Niggle and the Homecoming of...) are interesting and valuable, the reason to purchase this slim volume lies in the essay "On fairy-stories": in this terse piece of writing, originally meant for a lecture, Tolkien defends the right of writers to create beautiful stories with little or no apparent connection to "The real world", and the right of readers to find consolation in the healing power of beauty. This way he doesn't only justify the work of his entire life, the creation of Middle Earth and the stories of men, hobbits and magical rings, but he claims its connection to ancient mythology and especially to the world of heroes such as Beowulf.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
|
|
|