J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The publication of the Ace Books and Ballantine paperbacks in the United States helped it to become immensely popular with a new generation in the 1960s.

Aside from introducing the essays, he notes that none of them attempt Quellenforschung, the search for Tolkien's sources, but suggests that the matter is worthy of study.

He argues that Tolkien's morality, revealed in his Middle-earth books, is "radically different from our own" and indeed much like that of fairy tales, so it is not a concern that orcs are black, that trolls are working class, or that enemies come from the south and east.

Of the three wise and ancient characters in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf and Galadriel see the temptation, and reject it.

"[6] The Hobbits are in her view "small, provincial, and comfort-loving" but not John Bull English: in short, they are cloddish antiheroes.

Richard C. West "The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings" shows that the novel has a complex medieval organisation, in which story threads are interwoven to create a subtly cohesive narrative.

West notes that this is also modern, as writers like James Joyce and Marcel Proust "once again began experimenting" with the medieval technique.

"Narrative pattern in The Fellowship of the Ring" looks at other story structures, noting that with the road as a setting, the "there and back again" novel (he includes The Hobbit) is picaresque.

Plank comments that "the outstanding characteristic of [the chapter] is that miracles do not happen, the laws of nature are in full and undisputed force, [and] the actors in the drama are all human [mortals, whether men or Hobbits]."

Plank is surprised that Tolkien thinks of the "overthrow of a tyrannical government as a quick and easy job."

Huttar considers, too, the various cities with their towers: Minas Tirith of Gondor; Barad-Dûr, the Dark Lord Sauron's fortress; Orthanc, the fallen wizard Saruman's fastness within the industrial Isengard; and either Minas Morgul, home to the nine Nazgûl, or the nearby Cirith Ungol, the watchtower that becomes Frodo's prison.

All have become hellish, except for Minas Tirith, the Tower of Guard, which stands against them: "a great city" with its seven walls and seven levels, "but it is dying."

Shippey described the essays as written in the "Age of Innocence" before Tolkien studies became professionalised, and as such offer "freshness, candor, and a sense of historical depth" that cannot be repeated.

[1] He noted that some of the early predictions, made before The Silmarillion appeared in 1977 or The History of The Lord of the Rings in 1988–1992, were wrong.

[1] The Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft has written that West's essay "has proven to have particularly long-lasting impact",[10] while the medievalist Gergely Nagy called the book "a significant early collection".

"[12] He commented that the essays were originally papers for conferences organised by fans, but were for the most part written by scholars, and that two of the chapters were seen by scholars as "classics in the field": Richard C. West's essay on "The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings, and Bonniejean Christensen's on "Gollum's Character Transformations in The Hobbit".