Tolkien on Play

John S. Ryan

Perhaps the most universally known writer of the 20th century, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973), an Oxford professor of earlier English 1925–59, was arguably also the most communicative writer on play of his generation. A classicist initially, a lover of “sources and word forms,” he would later become recognized globally as establishing the fantasy genre. From a British following for his The Hobbit (1937), he attained world stature in the mid-1960s for The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) concerned with “Middle-earth,” which seemingly resembles Western Europe with England still a part of the continent. The core focus of all these texts, despite splendid horse-lords, great battles, and fortified cities, is a race of small people, hole-dwellers with furry feet, ...

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