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109 of 126 people found the following review helpful:
C. S. Lewis: Midwife to Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS, 21 Jan 2001
It is often customary to sing the praise of Tolkien and his accomplishments, but in this review I purpose to bring out an aspect often neglected in the circle of Tolkien fans, and that is the influence his Christian brother C. S. Lewis had upon him. Because there is so much else covering Tolkien's achievements, I, in this review, will stress Lewis and how, in keeping a keen interest and continual encouragement in this work, is, in an indirect way, as much responsible as Tolkien is, though this book is none of Lewis's creation. I only choose to stress this because it seems it is not very often pointed out.C. S. Lewis has accomplished many things as a writer and a Christian, which an incredible amount to contribute to the world of literature. Some will argue what is his most important literary contribution, wether it be THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, TILL WE HAVE FACES, literary criticism, or his apologetic works. But these arguments always leave out what I feel is the single most important contribution he ever made to the world of literature. THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Without Lewis, we would not have the genre of fantasy as we know it, because Tolkien would not have finished his epic masterpiece. In Tolkien's own words, he says, "But for the encouragement of C.S.L. I do not think I should ever have completed or offered for publication THE LORD OF THE RINGS," in THE LETTERS OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN, #282. Although I do not remember where now, Lewis said that he had no influence on Tolkien in the conventional way - that is, Lewis had no influence on WHAT he wrote. His main contribution was just to listen. He said of his own role to his famous friend was that of a midwife to Tolkien's works, not a father. As far as any substance or influence goes, I think the only appearance of C. S. Lewis in the works of Tolkien is the character Treebeard, which, according to Carpenter's biography TOLKIEN, whose voice is modeled after the speech patterns of Lewis, with his great "ho hum" voice that had a tendency to be rather booming. In Lewis's own fiction, the character of Elwin Ransom from his space trilogy is modeled after Tolkien, for Ransom, like Tolkien, is a philologist, and according to Tolkien some of his ideas and concepts regarding the discipline of philology were "Lewisfied" (Tolkien's terminology, not mine) in the character of Ransom (again, Carpenter, and I think this information is also in THE LETTERS OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN.) Without C. S. Lewis, Tolkien would have never completed THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and it would not be published, and the fantasy market would be totally different today - if indeed it existed at all. As far as literature goes, C. S. Lewis has nothing that can compare to this (although his body of work is better than Tolkien's). It makes the accomplishment of Lewis even more drastic than before, and although it is none of his invention, in an indirect way Lewis is as much responsible, even barring THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, for the fantasy market as Tolkien (although Lewis's greatest accomplishment in life is leading people to Jesus through his writings). So much has been said of the accomplishments Tolkien did little needs to be said here. Essentially, with the publication of this book (it is NOT a trilogy, as Tolkien was always quick to point out) Tolkien single handedly invented the fantasy genre as we know it today. Almost every fantasy novel today has a debt to Tolkien and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, even if the writer has never read it (which is highly unlikely). This is fantasy's masterpiece, the one that started it all. Like the Amazon.com review said, this is the Bible of fantasy. It is also, perhaps, the single greatest Christian novel ever written (Tolkien was a staunch Roman Catholic, ans his views and worship came from Middle-earth). Several poles have been taken, naming this the book of the century. Without C. S. Lewis, none of this would have been possible, because Tolkien would not have finished it. (The same can be said of his son Christopher, who read it as it was being written). So you see, it is because of C. S. Lewis that and Tolkien's son Christopher that Tolkien finished what has been hailed as the most important novel of the twentieth century. We owe C. S. Lewis, a tremendous debt in the field of literature, and this only greatly increases that debt for the enrichment he as brought the realm of written word. This book is the single most important thing contribution he ever did in the field of literature simply because he stood fast and encouraged his friend Tolkien to see it to completion. Bravo Lewis! And of course ditto for Tolkien as well. Mike London
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