A close colleague of Tolkein for many years, Zettersten offers here a personally informed analysis of his fiction. In light of his unusual life experience and enthusiasm for the study of languages, Zettersten finds in Tolkein's fiction the same animating passions that drove that great author as a youth, a soldier, a linguist, and an Oxford Don.

ARNE ZETTERSTEN Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Foreword Our First Meeting Language Like Lightning from a Clear Sky Tolkien's Double Worlds Middle-earth From Bloemfontein to Birmingham From Sarehole to Shire An Orphan Drawn to Reading Student Life in Oxford Soldier at the Front Experience of War in Tolkien's Fiction Research as Motor Interlude at Leeds Interplay between Research and Fiction A Don on a Sidetrack The AB Language - A Unique Discovery Fantasy for Children and Adults The Final Years Facts and Fiction On the Truth of Myths The Reception of The Lord of the Rings in the World New Media Epilogue