A close colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years during their editorial work on the various manuscripts of the Ancrene Wisse at Oxford University, Arne Zettersten offers here a personally-informed analysis of Tolkien's strongly visual fantasy fiction. In light of Tolkien's unusual life experience and enthusiasm for the study of languages, Zettersten locates the same animating passions in the well-known fictions that drove that great author as a youth, a soldier, a linguist, and an Oxford don.

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.