Good News from Tolkien's Middle Earth by Gracia Fay Ellwood

Gracia Fay Ellwood, like hundreds of thousands of other Tolkien enthusiasts, has been for a time in Middle Earth. This two-part report on her discoveries begins with the good news that "Everything is Alive" --- not just people, but things as well. Middle Earth, of course, is a mythical land, but the author contends that there is reason to believe everything may be alive even in our own world. Perhaps, she suggests, myth should not be takn to mean nonsense, but instead to express a literal truth; perhaps, in fact, there are truths which can only be expressed in myth. In "The Good Guys," an exploration of the mythological Hero and his Adventures, Mrs. Ellwood considers Tom Bombadil, Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, and other heroic figures from Christianity and from nonwestern cultures. She reminds us again to take the myth seriously, to find in Gandalf or Aragorn a reality which transcends historical existence.