Review: Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien

20 Books of Summer 2017: Book 8

First things first: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Roverandom is wholly independent from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. If you’re looking for an expansion on wizarding lore, pick up The Silmarillion. If you’re looking for a story about a dog cursed by a cranky old wizard, then pick up Roverandom.

Overall, it’s very tame and maintains the soothing, bedtime-story tone established at the beginning:

Once upon a time there was a little dog, and his name was Rover. He was very small, and very young, or he would have known better; and he was very happy playing in the garden in the sunshine with a yellow ball, or he would never have done what he did.

Not every old man with ragged trousers is a bad old man: some are bone-and-bottle men, and have little dogs of their own; and some are gardeners; and a few, a very few, are wizards prowling round on a holiday looking for something to do. This one was a wizard, the one that now walked into the story. He came wandering up the garden-path in a ragged old coat, with an old pipe in his mouth, and an old green hat on his head. If Rover had not been so busy barking at the ball, he might have noticed the blue feather stuck in the back of the green hat, and then he would have suspected that the man was a wizard, as any other sensible little dog would; but he never saw the feather at all.

When the old man stooped down and picked up the ball—he was thinking of turning it into an orange, or even a bone or a piece of meat for Rover—Rover growled, and said:

“Put it down!” Without ever a “please”. (3)

As punishment for his rudeness, poor Rover is turned into a toy and sent to a toy shop. Remember your manners, kids! (And dogs!) Because he’s a realistic-looking toy, Rover is quickly bought and given to a child he calls “little boy Two.” Rover can only move when unobserved and he slips from little boy Two’s pocket at the beach. As the tide rises, Rover encounters another wizard, Psamathos, who takes pity on him. He restores Rover’s range of movement, but Rover remains toy-sized. Until full-sized again, Rover can’t go home or he might be eaten by the cat, Tinker.

So what else can little Rover do but go on grand adventures to the moon and under the sea? My edition has a long introduction which explains this story was written for Tolkien’s son, Michael, after his toy dog was lost at the beach. If this is true, then Roverandom‘s original audience was a 5-year-old (ish) boy and it reads as such. This isn’t a bad thing, though, if what you’re looking for is a bedtime story. Roverandom is filled to the brim with small, beautiful details. It has a narrow scope, but it’s as imaginative as anything else Tolkien has written. It has a limited cast of characters, but both wizards and the Man-in-the-Moon are quirky and memorable.

The best way to sum up the free-wheeling nature of Rover’s adventure is to quote the Man-in-the-Moon’s rules:

“Now fly off and amuse yourself. Don’t worry the moonbeams, and don’t kill my white rabbits, and come home when you are hungry! The window on the roof is usually open. Good-bye!” (26)

Rover’s adventures on the moon are a delight, but the conceit wears thin about the time Rover’s swimming through an underwater city. This is a weird thing to say as an adult, but as the third act stretched on, I was a bit sorry my edition didn’t have fewer words and more pictures. My copy has five illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien printed on glossy paper that really perk up the book. Every so often, I consider razoring out a couple and hanging them over my desk.

Overall: 4.0 It’s fun, but it feels unfocussed and meandering towards the end (even if the end is sweet and heartwarming).

Translation: Read it before bed with a hot, decaffeinated drink.