Welcome To Mordor

When J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring reached British bookshops on 29th July 1954, there was little sign it would become one of the most influential novels of the century.  Britain was only just emerging from post-war austerity, food rationing had ended only weeks before, and Tolkien's hefty, 21-shilling fantasy - complete with a fold-out map of Middle-earth - looked unlike anything else on the shelves. Much of what made the novel distinctive came from Tolkien's day job. As an Oxford professor of Old and Middle English, he drew on medieval literature, mythology and philology to create not just a story, but entire languages, histories and cultures.  The book might never have appeared at all without the enthusiasm of Rayner Unwin, who had championed The Hobbit as a ten-year-old reader and, nearly two decades later, persuaded his father's publishing house to back its far more ambitious successor. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the manuscript lingers as much over songs, meals and conversation as much as it does battles and quests; uncover the contemporary critical reaction to the Lord of the Rings trilogy; and reveal just how much an early edition of the masterpiece is now worth… Further Reading: • ‘Behind the Best Sellers: J. R. R. Tolkien’ (The New York Times, 1977): https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/02/archives/behind-the-best-sellers-jrr-tolkien.html • ‘The Fellowship of the Ring reviewed: ‘epic romance’’ (The Guardian, 1954): https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/20/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-review-tolkien-1954 • ‘J. R. R. Tolkien. The Complete Lord Of The Rings, First Editions’ (Peter Harrington Books, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Z3og0AefY #Books #1950s #Publishing #UK Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 200 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices