Michael D. C. Drout, “Why I Keep Returning to Middle-earth,” The New York Times Opinion, January 4, 2026
As a lover of thos things with history, I was attracted to Drout’s account of Tolkien’s “impression of depth.”
“But in all his extensive revisions Tolkien never edited out the many allusions to a legendarium that was not published until after his death, as ‘The Silmarillion.’ These broken links and oblique hints help produce the impression of depth that appeals to so many readers because they are not just tossed-off fakes. They are references to a fully realized imaginary world with its own cosmology, history and languages.”
The broken links, oblique hints, and unexplained names point toward a world that extends beyond the immediate story. They are no mere decoration.
The visible world feels historical because the invisible world has depth, even if we cannot understand that depth.
Drout also writes:
“But along with the heartbreaking sorrow, there is a grandeur to this view of human life, to the ruin persisting long after the tower has fallen.”
Even when a castle succumbs to siege, or simply to the torments of time, it leaves a ruin that persists.
Sometimes it is not even a ruin. It may be a bend in the road, a place name, or a blank space where something seems as though it ought to be.
So too with the passions of our lives. Sometimes we must give them up. Sometimes they simply run their course. Sometimes death takes them. However, they leave a trace in the landscape of our lives.
Further Reading
- Michael D. C. Drout, The Tower and the Ruin: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Creation — on my reading list.