Peter Gilliver

A slender, but interesting little volume, which, in spite of the title, is far more about Tolkien's use of language than about the OED. Tolkien's short career with the OED is covered, with interesting discussion of particular words that he worked on, but the bulk of the book treats our his philological expertise affected his use and coinage of words to give the appropriate flavor to the fantasy worlds he created. It is, perhaps, a little disconcerting to see the full-gunned philological show more treatment normally reserved for older and greater writers extended to a work of fantasy literature, but whether your interest is in Tolkien or in the history of English, this section is entertaining and enlightening. show less

One of the most intelligent books ever written about Tolkien; up there with Shippey's The Road to Middle-Earth.

This was an interesting book that should interest people who like reading about reading and the OED. The authors are current editors of the OED, which Tolkien spent two years working on in its first edition, which makes for an interesting perspective. The basic idea is to look at Tolkien as a philologist and to examine how he used and created words and how those words played a role in creating Middle-Earth. The most canonical example is that of Ents: Tolkien first knew the word as an Old show more English word for 'giant' and then created Ents and that whole corner of his world to fit the word. The book also interestingly points out the many new layers of meaning that Tolkien gave to the elements of his world through the linguistic resonances of the words he "invented" from ancient, dis-used roots. There is a whole level of subtle puns and linguistic meaning that informs Lord of the Rings that goes largely unnoticed to those unfamiliar with the ancient languages that Tolkien lived and breathed.

This was a good book, although it had its flaws, too. It read more like a long journal article than a book, and the first section- on the work Tolkien actually did for the dictionary- was relatively uninformative. The final section is a collection of word studies of the origins of Tolkien's words , and that was very interesting. Overall I'd give it 4 stars, or perhaps a bit less, since the writing style was not very engaging. show less

The Ring of Words is a book in three parts, with the first two focusing on Tolkien's work on the Oxford English Dictionary and on his own personal word-creation respectively, and the third being essentially a kind of glossary detailing some of the more obscure words he used and those that he essentially created or gave new meaning so. It sounds like three books squished in one, but it works surprisingly well. This is a book that would appeal to anyone with an interest in the OED, the history show more of the English language, dictionary creation, and word and language creation, as well as Tolkien fans. If you fall into any of those groups, I can highly recommend this book. show less