Browsing the Compleat Middle-Earth Library - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
Extensions to Tolkien's Middle-earth -- of a credible nature, at least -- are still rare. That is, there are role-playing games, fan fiction, and extrapolative essays galore, but you won't really learn much from the bulk of these materials, if anything at all. Not if your goal is to learn about Tolkien's Middle-earth. The purist might stop with Tolkien, but I think there is value in studying extensions of Middle-earth. Tolkien wanted it to become a living tradition, on his foundations for which others would build new layers. Sadly, his desire seems to have been ignored or misunderstood by some of the purists, but I think the linguistic community has taken his dream to heart, and I applaud them for doing so.
In a small way, these essays are my contribution to the extension of Middle-earth. My extrapolations may be no better than the next person's, but the more extrapolating we do, the richer the fabric of Middle-earth becomes. Tolkien's objective was to offer a new tradition for literary development. That dream will die if we attempt to freeze it in place with just his own works. That well has run dry, and the baton has changed hands.
In fact, the baton has changed hands twice. In my introduction to Visualizing Middle-earth, I said that my own essays are tertiary works. One reviewer took mild exception to my definition, which is admittedly not a standard rule applied by academia to the study of literary works. However, Middle-earth is not a literary work any more than Greek or Norse mythologies are literary works. Middle-earth is a modern mythological and linguistic tradition, and it is encompassed by a family of modern traditions, all of which were created by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The study of these traditions must concede that there are multiple levels of authority. Any work published by J.R.R. Tolkien himself would be a primary source. The posthumous works offered by Christopher Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter, and Douglas Anderson are secondary sources. And commentaries and analysese, including my own, are at best tertiary sources. At worst, they are quarnary sources. That is, any role-playing game, collectible card game, media adaptation, fan fiction, or other extension would provide a fourth level of authority. Such extensions should be received credibly though with restraint.
After all, two hundred years from now, there will almost certainly be books and libraries of books and journals which document and analyze the Middle-earth tradition. It has yet to be recognized as a phenomenon, but in reality the groundswell of popular extrapolation and extension has surpassed the levels of fad and phenomenon. Middle-earth will gradually be recognized less as the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and more as the product of a process Tolkien began. And it is important to understand and accept that this is, in fact, what Tolkien wanted, even if it does not happen in the way he anticipated or hoped for it.
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