The King Under the Mountain

In Search of J. R. R. Tolkien

D. J. Taylor

A sparkling exploration of the myths that J. R. R. Tolkien created around himself, examining the social and political worlds that surrounded the creator of Middle-Earth, by award-winning biographer D. J. Taylor.

In the past seven decades J.R.R. Tolkien’s major works—The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion—have sold over half a billion copies, been made into prodigiously successful Hollywood movies, and had an incalculable influence on the generations of fantasy writers who followed in their wake.

But Tolkien himself remains a mystery—a deeply conservative Oxford don specializing in an abstruse subject and a diehard Roman Catholic who regarded biography as a waste of time, was suspicious of literary criticism, and jealously guarded his private life from an intrusive media. Of no major twentieth century literary figure is so little known.

The King Under the Mountain is an attempt to decipher this puzzle. Part biography, part critical study, and part fan’s notes offering insight into the deepest recesses of Tolkien’s imaginative world, it explores the myths that Tolkien created around himself, examines the social and political contexts in which he operated and, above all, investigates the kind of person—and the kind of writer—that Tolkien imagined himself to be.

D. J. Taylor is a novelist, critic ,and biographer whose Orwell won the Whitbread Prize for Biography. His most recent books are Kept; Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation; Ask Alice; and Derby Day, which was nominated for the Booker Prize and was selected as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year.

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Endorsements & Reviews

“Mr. Taylor’s search is consistently engaging and a pleasure to read. Many of the short sections of The King Under the Mountain are fed by Mr. Taylor’s previous books. We have “Tolkien and Politics,” “Tolkien and His Publishers,” a chapter on “Fame and Its Discontents,” one on “Tolkien and the Sixties” and the inevitable “Tolkien and Orwell.” All come in a lively style. One of the best is “The Shire: A Sociopolitical Survey,” in which the author examines the civic arrangements of the Hobbits’ homeland and Middle-earth generally.” The Wall Street Journal

“There are those whose imagination is permanently marked by The Lord of the Rings, a cohort with influential advocates such as Stephen Colbert and, as a very likable new book makes clear, the British novelist and critic D.J. Taylor. The King Under the Mountain, Taylor’s study of the English fantasy author and academic J.R.R. Tolkien, isn’t a full-dress biography but a fluent chronological narrative accompanied by critical remarks, with essays on subjects such as Tolkien’s religion and his cultural afterlife.”
Adam Mars-Jones, The New York Times

“Rather than tackle Tolkien head-on, with a straight cradle-to-grave rattle through his life, Taylor instead approaches him from unexpected angles, darting forwards suddenly, as though poking at a slumbering dragon. The result is revelatory: by far the most entertaining study of Tolkien I’ve ever read.” The Telegraph

“Taylor sifts through archival fragments and private correspondence for details that capture Tolkien’s perfectionism, creative anxieties, and fierce intellectual loyalties, all while refusing to indulge in an adulatory tone. With elegant prose, he challenges the public perceptions of Tolkien, presenting a vivid, multidimensional figure wrestling with the encroachment of modernity and industrialization. The result is a masterful, deeply humanizing life that uncovers the mortal heart beating beneath the mountain of legend, revealing the twentieth century's premier mythmaker in all his complexity.” Booklist, starred review

"Taylor’s adept and well-turned prose moves both smoothly and briskly among his varied angles. Extensive research is folded unobtrusively into the text, presenting evidence clearly and adroitly. Short chapters of sparkling reflection illuminate the terrain of the mountainous eminence.” Kirkus Reviews

Praise for D. J. Taylor’s Orwell: The New Life:

“Taylor makes use of Orwell’s own intellectual tools: his exposure of doublethink and of the magic tricks of oppression, his championing of those who suffer, and his commitment to clear thought. Taylor deploys all this to throw light on the people Orwell failed to notice or fully understand — including, perhaps, himself.” Sarah Bakewell, The New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Taylor’s Orwell: The New Life is a new text that completes the picture by fleshing out Orwell’s emotional life with recently discovered letters and interviews with the last living people to have known him. Expertly told and subtle in judgment, The New Life will not be the last word in the ever-growing field of Orwelliana, but it will become its central monument.” Domonic Green, The Wall Street Journal

“This book ranks as the new definitive work on Orwell. A useful introduction for readers new to Orwell and also illuminating for those who thought they knew everything about him.” Library Journal

“Taylor expertly illuminates how early influences provided Orwell with a keen interest in the power of language and the language of power. The subtitle of Taylor’s authoritative account reflects newly available material but could just as accurately reflect the renewed life given to Orwell in our post-fact world.” Booklist (starred review)

“Novelist and book critic Taylor delivers a sterling account of the life and works of George Orwell. Taylor’s meticulous research illuminates how Orwell’s political commitments informed his fiction. This stands out in the crowded field of Orwell biographies.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)