Tales From The Perilous Realm

[Michel Delving]

READ IT!

Picked it up in the Library out of a vague interest, not expecting too much or (more accurately) not knowing what to expect.

It's fantastic.

Tolkien has created his own fairy tales in the same way as he created a new Myth in LotR.

Leaf By Niggle is like Kafka meeting the Brothers Grimm and listening to John Lennon.

Bombadil proves that Tolkien can do poetry after all and gives us a few more insights into Middle Earth.

Farmer Giles is just a great story in the classic sense.

And I'm just coming to the end of Smith and it's a great fairy story.

Buy it, borrow it, but don't steal it (you'll be chased by the Dragons & Trolls of your Conscience into The Perilous Realm and they'll lock the gate).

[Michel Delving]

Unless you've already read it.

In which case, CONGRATS!

All those who post threads asking what shall I read next? after LotR/Da Hobbit, START HERE, in this realm of Faery.

[Inderjit S]

The 'Tales of Tom Bombadil' are for me to highlight, they are brilliant and it gives us more info. on that infamous enigma.

'Smith of Wooton Major' is also a highly enjoyable read.

[Tinuvien21]

I've read "Farmer Giles of Ham", and I really liked it. My favorite character was Chrysopylax Dives. Some of the lines in that book did remind me of LOTR. (I wonder why) But I liked it alot. :D

[cniht]

I have finished Leaf by Niggle. The idea struck me again and again that the painter Niggle was modelled on Tolkien himself and his never-finished picture the abundant materials on Middle Earth.
Here is the paragragh which could have concluded that story perfectly:

He was going to learn about sheep, and the high pasturages, and look at a wider sky, and walk ever further and further towards the Mountains, always uphill. Beyond that I cannot guess what became of him. Even little Niggle in his old home could glimpse the Mountains far away, and they got into the borders of his picture; but what they are really like, and what lies beyond them only those can say who have climbed them.

The following commentary is not necessary, or even redundant for the sake of Niggle's story itself. In fact, the story is not a fairy-story in the traditional sense. The commentors in the end of the story seem to belong to the company of the First Person Narrator, who turns up occasionally to forward the story. And their comments, are obvious hints at the project Tolkien himself was undertaking.
Two examples:

'Of course, painting has uses,' said Tompkins. 'But you couldn't make use of his painting. There is plenty of scope for bold young men not afraid of new ideas and new methods. None for this old-fashioned stuff. Private day-dreaming. He could not have designed a telling poster to save his life. Always fiddling with leaves and flowers. I asked him why, once. He said pretty. "What, digestive and genital organs of plants?" I said to him; and he had nothing to answer.

'It is proving very useful indeed,' said the Second Voice. ' As a holiday, and a refreshment. It is splendid for convalescence; and not only for that, for many it is the best introduction to the Mountains. It works wonders in some cases. I am sending more and more there. They seldom have to come back.'

It is evident that not everyone found agreeable Tolkien's indulgence in his project though I don't have the materials close at hand. Tolkien's work on ME must have been interrupted from time to time like Niggle's. Also like Niggle, Tolkien was a perfectionist who even didn't stop amending his manuscript in the last year of his life( according to Christopher Tolkien's editorial notes in The Silmarillion.

Although Tolkien disliked attempts to make up analogy between his works and the real world, there are some vague connections between Niggle's picture and Tolkien's works:

the perfect tree——the only complete story of grand volume Tolkien ever composed for his mythology, The Lord of the Rings

the forest with a good many inconclusive regions——the abundant materials Tolkien never stopped to make changes to

the mountains——the sources Tolkien borrowed or asembled

[Amarië]

I have it and will be reading it soon! Then i'm sure I will join you in singing its praises!
~A~

[Artanis]

I have finished Leaf by Niggle. The idea struck me again and again that the painter Niggle was modelled on Tolkien himself and his never-finished picture the abundant materials on Middle Earth.This was my conception too when I read Niggle. Interesting and beautiful story. :)
Isn't it ironic that Tolkien said he disliked allegory. :D

[cniht]

Isn't it ironic that Tolkien said he disliked allegory. :D

I think his own allegory was not included when he said he disliked allegory.
He might have got tired when the readers/critics kept on suggesting some silly theories to search his works for stuff that was "politically incorrect". For example, the question whether the orcs were referred to the black people has been raised several times if not many. C.S.Lewis mentioned this shortly after the first publication of The Fellowship, and I read another article about that months ago, which was full of resentment against the "racist propaganda" in the movies (the author didnot know Tolkien was not a politician and he actually died decades ago! )

[Starflower]

I don't have the book in front of me at the mo, but the last paragraph in 'Leaf by Niggle' is one of the most beautiful pieces Tolkien ever wrote. It's about how Niggle saw his tree, in all its glory, all the things he never painted, only imagined, and they were all there...

It is no secret that the Master himself considered this story to be an allegory of himself, and a very fitting one too. LoTR became his Tree... the one that he was forever perfecting and never finished.

[Walter]

There exists an older thread about Leaf by Niggle (http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?t=5303), which may turn out to be a worthwhile reading, and especially this post by jallan (http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showpost.php?p=296690&postcount=37) sums it up nicely...

[Starflower]

thank you Walter - that post by jallan is indeed worth re-reading.