The Making of Middle-Earth (Christopher Snyder)

In The Making of Middle-Earth, Christopher Snyder takes us through the three 'worlds' of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien:

- "the physical world in which he was born and educated, and in which he taught, wrote, made friendships, worshipped, and raised a family."

- "the intellectual realm where Tolkien spent much of his time, beginning with his first fascination with fairy stories through his adult obsessions with Northern languages and legends."

- "the world most familiar to Tolkien fans: Middle-earth, a land of elves and dark powers and Tom Bombadil."

In sum, Snyder summarizes the first two worlds (providing a brief Tolkien biography and summary of the history/literature/languages he loved) and shows how they influenced the third world. He walks us through the best-known works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), but also The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, and other Tolkien tales. He then discusses the movies (both the animated versions, from the '70s/'80s, and the Peter Jackson films) and 'Tolkieniana' in general. 

I enjoyed this book- particularly the insights into Tolkien's influences. There are historical and literary inspirations behind the characters, places, and stories in the Tolkien books that I never noticed before.

I also liked that the book covered these topics briefly, without delving too deeply into any of them. (There are a ton of footnotes for those who wish to do so.) Overall, this is a nice book for the Tolkien fan who wants to learn more but does not want to dedicate their life to studying the man.

Rating: A-