For anyone interested in the Lord of the Rings trilogy or intrigued by the mythology and strange languages of Tolkien’s elves, it’s worth learning about how Tolkien’s work as a scholar of Early English literature and the Old English language (one that we have to learn as a foreign one!) informed his fiction writing.

The Wikipedia entries on England in Middle Earth and Philology and Middle Earth provide wide-ranging overviews of Tolkien’s interest in and use of linguistics and mythology in the world-building for Middle Earth and its stories. From there, choose your own adventure! The linked sources cover popular texts as well as more scholarly articles on specific aspects of Tolkien’s scholarly and writerly work. He also produced a translation of Beowulf!

Note that with a large fandom come big feels in fans’ opinions: Tolkien himself didn’t say too much about these links others have found between Middle Earth and English literary history and some Reddit users will have Tolkien saying the connections are all a load of bull…but decide for yourself!