Roverandom was a book written and illustrated by
J. R. R. Tolkien. It's a largely-comedic children's story about a young dog named Rover who makes the mistake of picking a fight with an ill-tempered wizard and ends up being turned into a toy. The rest of the book focuses on Rover's attempts to find the wizard so that things can be set right. Unfortunately for him, this means a massive journey into space and into the ocean depths.
Despite it being penned early in Tolkien's career, it was never actually published until 1998.This may have been because Tolkien intended this story just for his 3 sons. Confused? Well, young Michael Tolkien had recently lost his beloved toy dog. Wanting to comfort the boy, his father improvised a story about the toy's origins as a real dog and it's further adventures once it got lost. His boys got a kick out of the yarn. The book, having accomplished its purpose was then shelved for over 60 years.
This Book Contains Examples Of:
- All Myths Are True
- Atlantis Is Boring: When compared with the ridiculously imaginative world on the moon, the Sea Kingdom seems a little dull and forgettable.
- Author Appeal: Throws in an extended narration about Arthurian times for no reason other than - well - Tolkien was into that kind of stuff.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space
- Big Damn Heroes: The Man In The Moon
- Boring Return Journey
- A Boy and His Dog
- Butt Monkey: Artaxerxes, in the second half of the book.
- Cats are Mean: Tinker, at least if the narrator is to be believed.
- Character Title
- Chase Scene
- Chekhov's Gun: The sheep's bells.
- Continuity Nod: Uin, a character from early drafts of Tolkien's legendarium, makes an appearance. This was retroactively subverted when Uin was written out of the legendarium's later drafts.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Artaxerxes turning Rover into a toy over a pair of torn trousers
- The Great White Dragon wanting to kill Rover and the Moon Rover for the sole reason that they trespassed in his cave.
- Dream Land: That, oddly-enough, exists in the physical world
- Eccentric Mentor: The Man In The Moon
- Green Aesop: Not the main point (or even a major point) of the story, but still there regardless.
- Grumpy Old Man: Artaxerxes
- Happy Ending
- Incredibly Lame Pun: The lobsters' claim of being "red with rage".
- Interplanetary Voyage
- Interspecies Romance: Artaxerxes and his Mermaid wife.
- Jerkass: Artexerxes
- Lemony Narrator
- Living Toys
- My Name Is Not Durwood: Arterxaxes, I mean Ertaxarxes, I mean Artaxerxes.
- No Sympathy: Life pretty much sucks when you're the PAM
- One Steve Limit: Averted, but later enforced in-universe. There are three different Rovers in the story. Each of the other Rovers makes the main Rover go by the name "Roverandom" in an attempt to make things less confusing.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The only reason this story even exists.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Great White Dragon and the Sea Serpent.
- Scenery Porn: Keep in mind, this is Tolkien.
- Talking Animal
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife
- Unreliable Narrator: Tinker believes the narrator to be this.
- Urban Fantasy
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