Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World, Revised Edition

by Verlyn Flieger

This is another of Flieger’s book that focuses on a specialized aspect of Middle-earth as the other book, A Question of Time, did. This one is more centered on The Silmarillion and on the idea of language. It speaks of Feanor’s creation of the Silmarils and what happened because of that event and his inability to let go of his possession, as later Frodo will be unable to do, and of Beren and Thingol and much else in that immensely detailed tapestry of the early history of the Elves, Dwarves and Men. It has also in the later chapters much of interest to say about Frodo and how not only was he “broken by a burden of fear and horror - broken down, and in the end made into something quite different,” as the Professor wrote in one of his letters. “Filled with clear light” he was to become, though we see but the beginning of that transformation and can only guess that it continued after he went West. There is also an analysis of “The Sea-Bell” poem which is my favorite of mine due to its association with Frodo. Another very interesting book from Flieger.