From J.R.R. Tolkien's Library: Let's dive into his favourite books!

Here's a list of books / authors that our beloved professor Tolkien appreciated.

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[darth_hylian]

This is a great idea because I've thought about the same thing. It's likely that I'd enjoy several stories that inspired my favorite author. It's always interesting to go further back and see even older books. Thanks!

[Yesica]

Wow, many of these I had never even heard of before! Thanks for all the research. It's always interesting to see what authors like to read.

[zsuzsufunkenstein]

i absolutely love this, very helpful and just what i wanted to see!

[davidmccalip]

Hello Emmelie! I hope all is well with you. I caught your video just as it was about to start and it is very interesting and informative. I knew that he and CS Lewis were friends and members of a reading/writing group that had other members. I have been to the place where the street gas lights inspired him in his Narnia books (Great Malvern UK) as well as doors for the wardrobe (The Priory located in Great Malvern). I also knew that Lewis wrote many books, but I had never heard of those books. I have never really been interested in any of Lewis' books although a high school teacher had us read The Screwtape Letters in our religious class. I have read Beowulf, the Aenied and King Solomon's Mines and enjoyed all three. It has been a while since I read them and I do confuse Beowulf with The Epic of Gilgamesh. I know that H. Rider Haggard wrote his book on a dare from his brother who dared him to see if he could write a book just as good as Robert L Stevenson's Treasure Island. I then bought Haggard's book She about a year ago, but have not gotten to it yet. Keep up the excellent work and have a great week!

[ValzainLumivix]

One prominent author that you’ve missed whom Tolkien admired greatly is G. K. Chesterton. I quote from an article:

"Tolkien read widely in Chesterton’s work, both literary and non-fiction. He knew the apologetic works Heretics and its follow-up,  Orthodoxy, and George Sayers recalls that Tolkien had “a great liking and appreciation for The Everlasting Man” and that Tolkien found its arguments to be “absolutely valid.” He enjoyed Chesterton’s literary works, but not in the ways one might predict, disliking the detective stories featuring Father Brown, the Catholic priest. (A great fan of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, Tolkien seems to have preferred his detective fiction to focus on the puzzle plots, not on character and theme.)

He delighted in Chesterton’s more antic works: he knew The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and used to chant aloud his comic poems, most notably “The Song of Quoodle, ” “The Song against Grocers, ” and “The Rolling English Road.” These are all featured in The Flying Inn,  a satiric tale of a near-future England in which the personal freedom of ordinary people, in particular the poor, is under attack from a paternalistic government intent on improving public health by abolishing alcohol. We may perhaps see a Chestertonian influence upon one telling detail in The Return of the King,  where we learn that Lotho Sackville-Baggins, after taking over the Shire as ‘Chief, ’ “didn’t hold with beer, save for his Men, and closed all the inns.” In its way, this amounts to a capsule summary of The Flying Inn, with its exposé of the way that Prohibition is used in order to gain social control of the working classes for the benefit of a bureaucratic elite.

Of Chesterton’s other poetry, Tolkien had once upon a time enjoyed The Ballad of the White Horse. When he revisited the ballad to help Priscilla (Tolkien's daughter) understand it, he found the poem unsatisfactory on the ground of its historical inaccuracy, but even on a second, less enthusiastic reading, he still approved the “brilliant smash and glitter of the words and phrases.” Tolkien also admired the poem Lepanto without, as far as we know, any second thoughts; Priscilla recalled that her father enjoyed reciting it."

Holly Ordway From the March/April 2021 Issue of Gilbert Magazine.

[ArthurKain]

Tolkien's own commentary and revised verison of Beowulf is fantastic! Its simply titled Beowulf A Translation And Commentary.

[rianneorgellinnetje]

Tolkien also liked the Poetic Edda. It is an epic poem of Norse mythology. I started reading it recently and in one of the first poems it lists the first dwarves that were created. Tolkien picked names from that list and used them to name the dwarves in the Hobbit. I knew he had found those names in a poem, but I had forgotten which poem it was, so it was a fun surprise to encounter Durin, Thorin, Bivor, Bomber, Nori and more familiar names.

[MchArt]

What an amazing idea for a video! Thank you for giving me new input for my to be read pile! (Not that it needed to get even bigger😂).

[nohely]

Oh my gosh the Princess and the Goblin is one of my absolute favorite childhood movies!! I bought the movie for my kids before I had any because I knew i wanted them to watch it too!! I've never heard anyone talk about it before and i didn't realize that there's a book- I'm definitely going to go buy it thank you SO much for this list ❤❤❤

[LadySapling]

Nice video!
I think it's important to note that while Andrew Lang was the editor of the Fairy Books, most of the work of collecting and translating the various stories in them was done by his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang (née Alleyne). He himself has acknowledged this in the introduction to the Lilac Fairy Book, but most still think of him as the sole mind behind the series.

[eshi]

Thank you for such a nice video! The idea is very unusual and now I want to read those books ❤❤
Also you're very pretty

[csabrendeki]

He also very much loved (and got influenced by) the Eddas and the icelandic Sagas.

[TheCatholicSamurai]

Hyperion to satyr! I love Hamlet, enjoy!
Edit: The Kalevala would be one that was influential for Dr. Tolkien.

[johnbarham]

I should really get around to reading the Maria Dhavana Headley translation of Beowulf. Thanks for rhe reminder!

[ellon]

I had tried to read King Solomon’s Mine. It wasn’t for me as well. Thank you for posting videos. It has inspired me to get back into reading. Just finishing Fahrenheit 451. Next is Lud-in-the-Mist, a book recommended by Neil Gaiman.

[jameskingsbery]

Another of Tolkien's influences was GK Chesterton... worth checking out!

[larrymarshall]

C.S. Lewis is better known for the Narnia series of fantasy novels. He wrote them while Tolkein was writing his own fantasy novels.

[achantus]

Beowulf and the Icelandic sagas are obligatory.

[hhstark]

You forgot to mention the book *Mere Christianity* by C.S. Lewis.

You also forgot to mention the *New Testament*, which was the most important book in the life of Tolkien and shaped everything that he did.