A Child's List of Prerequisite Reading for Tolkien
So you want to create little hobbits at heart? Start here.
Back when I was a high school English teacher, I won the lottery of curriculums and had the opportunity to teach The Lord of the Rings. You may be wondering if, when that time of the year rolled around, I contemplated throwing on a cloak, blasting some Howard Shore, and inviting my students in elvish to get ready for an adventure of a lifetime. To which I say: are we living in the Seventh Age of the Children of Ilúvatar or what?
Alas, that would have likely had the opposite effect than intended, so taming the inner fire, I scrapped the cloak and music and invited them in English…to get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. I suspect that still put a lot of them off.
That’s the thing about passing on the passion we have for the things we love to the next generation. Our zeal can be overwhelming and off-putting. But when it comes to my own children, I get to play the long game, so I’m taking a different tack.
So much of my own appreciation for particular works of literature is borne of a matrix of connections that arises in my mind while reading. A character or a bit of dialogue or the quality of an author’s prose will remind me of something else I've read. I’ll wonder if perhaps one writer was influenced by the other or if both writers read the same things. The books call back and forth to each other in a conversation that lies dormant on the shelves until it comes alive through reading.
My idea, then, is to build the kind of literary foundation in my children's mind that will hopefully illuminate and enrich their future encounters with Tolkien’s prose, themes, and images. Basically, the plan is to plant a bunch of easter eggs in their noggins.
Here is a syllabus for this pre-Tolkien reading. Some things on the list are direct influences on Tolkien’s imagination. Some are children's books that deal in similar themes or give a taste for high fantasy. All make for a delicious literary feast.
D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths
You don't have to look far to find the influence of Norse mythology on Tolkien’s own Britannic mythology. Midgard, the Old Norse name for the world which inspired the name ‘Middle-Earth’, is populated with dwarves, dragons, magical eagles…the list goes ever on. There are many beautifully illustrated books on Norse myths but you'd be hard pressed to find a child who can resist pouring over the wondrous and bright illustrations by the dream team, Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire.
D’Aulaires’ Book of Trolls
More Norse mythology! More D’Aulaires! This one is indispensable for the scene where a group of trolls are tricked into staying awake long enough for…you guessed it…the sun to turn them to stone.
Beowulf
It's impossible to overstate the influence of Beowulf on Tolkien. People and place names (Orcs! Ents! Orthanc!), a warrior-horse culture, monsters, and the dragon that is Smaug’s literary forbear. Beowulf is the source for so many specific elements that appear in Middle-Earth. Even more significantly, Tolkien saw his purpose in writing as one with the Beowulf poet’s. Scholar George Clark writes that Tolkien saw the Beowulf poet as:
a learned Christian who re-created a heroic world and story in an implicitly Christian universe governed by a God whose existence and nature the poem's wiser characters intuit without the benefit of revelation. Tolkien's Beowulf poet was a version of himself, and his authorial persona in creating [The Lord of the Rings] was a version of that Beowulf poet.1
With my own children, I’ve read Ian Serraillier's retelling because it is written in a style that hearkens back to the alliterative verse that would have been heard by a medieval audience, and it preserves much of the Christian imagery. Plus, I've a soft spot in my heart for woodcut illustrations. However, there are many other highly praised, prose retellings for children including Michael Morpurgo’s and Rosemary Sutcliff’s.
Arthurian legends
You can't pass up some Arthuriana along the way to Middle Earth. We've got a sage, old wizard, a sword of destiny, a magical quest, some undying lands. So many of the roots of high fantasy fiction are found in the Matter of Britain. And if that’s not enough, Tolkien composed his own Arthurian epic poem, so you can be sure it worked itself on his imagination.
Howard Pyle or Roger Lancelyn Green are the classic choices, but I especially love Margaret Hodges’ shorter works: Merlin and the Making of a King (with Trina Schart Hyman’s splendid illustrations) and Of Swords and Sorcerers (those woodcuts get me again). We also recently added Marcia William’s comic strip retelling to our home library. The storytelling is solid and it's full of the kind of highly detailed illustrations that magically absorb kids’ attentions.
The Story of Sigurd
Supposedly “The Story of Sigurd” in Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book is the first dragon tale that Tolkien ever read as a child. Whether that's true or not, the hero of Germanic and Norse legends was certainly a powerful inspiration to Tolkien who composed two epic poems about Sigurd and his wife, Gudrun.
Just a superficial reading of the story puts you in the way of elements that reappear in Tolkien’s fiction such an ancestral sword broken in pieces and then reforged and a dragon that jealously guards a cursed horde (that happens to include a magic ring). There are pronounced parallels as well between Sigurd and Aragorn, each a hero who eschews his birthright as king for a time, and also between the fey warrior-maidens, Brynhild and Éowyn. It's beautiful, dark, and tragic, so perhaps exercise some caution with the highly sensitive child.
The Red Fairy Book is still in print and a longer version of the tale can also be found in Padraic Colum’s The Children of Odin.
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
This may be a no-brainer as George MacDonald is essentially the spiritual grandfather of the inklings. But I've always thought there's something quite orc-like about MacDonald’s goblins who can't abide the beauty of poetry and who were once human but gradually became more bestial through their wickedness. Come to find out, Tolkien specifically cited MacDonald's goblins as an inspiration for the orcs. The Princess and the Goblin is also bubbling with potent symbols and images that I like to think acclimate a young mind to the polysemous fabric of Middle Earth’s universe.
Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren
Two small friends travel together into a desolate wasteland to defeat a dark lord who resides at the top of a tower. They eat a bread that satisfies hunger and dodge the villain’s spies along the way. Sound familiar? That's right! I am referring to Mio, My Son, Astrid Lindgren’s unfortunately lesser known but arguably best novel. Published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, it's an exquisite fairy tale that introduces children to many of the same themes and a similar atmosphere as Lord of the Rings but in a more accessible way. To make things even more strangely fitting, Saruman, I mean, Christopher Lee plays the number one baddie in the 80s film version.
Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien
When his son lost his toy dog, Tolkien wrote him a story of a dog who has a series of adventures among which he travels to the moon and meets wizards, dragons, and mermaids. Roverandom is a prerequisite in the sense that your children get to hear Tolkien’s voice before they ever get to his more mature works and because of its brief link to Middle-Earth when the pup, Roverandom, glimpses “far off in the last West the Mountains of Elvenhome and the light of Faery”.2 True to his style, Tolkien strew allusions to myths and legends all over this charming tale.
It hopefully goes without saying that none of these ‘prerequisites’ are actually requisite. I fell in love with The Lord of the Rings without having read any of these or even the books themselves. Instead my love for Middle-Earth began when I caught sight of Liv Tyler in full elven regalia on the tv and knew whatever she was, it was exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up.
And of course, you may end up with a child who rejects dragons and sword-fights in favor of pokémon and robots. These things are a mystery. But I hope this is a help to any other parents hoping to turn more over-zealous over-achieving readers loose in the world.
Bonus books!
The Terrible Troll-Bird
The Terrible Troll-Bird is a shorter d’Aulaire work that also has a sun-turning-trolls-to-stone scene.
The Little Grey Men by BB
The last gnomes in Britain set out from their home to find their lost brother. The Little Grey Men is reminiscent of The Hobbit and has lots of sublime nature writing. However, the reading level is about the same as The Hobbit so it's not necessary to read it first. However, it is very lovely and worth seeking out.
“Gawain and the Green Knight”
There's no overt influence on Middle-Earth that I see here (very willing to hear contradictory arguments though), but it's worth a mention as Tolkien himself translated the original poem. Selina Hastings’ retelling is excellent with beautiful illustrations by Juan Wijngaard, and Michael Morpurgo and Gerald Morris have also both adapted it for younger readers.
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Clark, George (2000). "Tolkien and the True Hero".
Roverandom 74
My goodness I loved this idea! D’Auleries Greek Myths was one of my most beloved children’s books, and I was so excited as an adult to discover his Norse Myths. Another series that formed me to love Tolkien I think was the Redwall Series-big meaty books for a kid, medieval aesthetic, clear lines of good vs evil
I love this!!! Have you read Holly Ordway's book, Tolkien's Modern Reading? I loved learning about Tolkien's influences (William Morris! H. Rider Haggard! Beatrix Potter!). I grew up on the d'Aulaires. Their work is incredible. I would also humbly submit the work of Ruth Sanderson, who really should publish a book of her LOTR illustrations.