Thomas J. Farrell University of Minnesota Duluth tfarrell@d.umn.edu Abstract: In my wide-ranging, and at times deeply personal, “Probe: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fantasy Novel, The Lord of the Rings, and Walter J. Ong’s Thought,” I succinctly highlight the philologist and literary critic Thomas A. Shippey’s 2000 book J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century.