Tolkien Library

How do two minds from opposite sides of belief — one a devout Catholic mythmaker, the other a Norwegian pessimist — arrive at the same understanding of consciousness as a wound?

In this long-form reflection, written from the northern coast of Norway, Pieter Collier explores the unexpected dialogue between J. R. R. Tolkien and Peter Wessel Zapffe.

Through the fading light of The Silmarillion, he traces how Tolkien’s Elves, Fëanor’s fire, and the “long defeat” echo Zapffe’s philosophy of tragic awareness — and how both writers, in their own ways, transform despair into endurance, and endurance into art.

After years of quiet work behind the scenes, Tolkien collector Pieter Collier shares the story behind his move to Norway — a journey of illness, silence, and renewal. From his new home in Trollbergvika overlooking the Skagerrak, he reflects on why he withdrew, why he returns, and what lies ahead for the Tolkien Library and the lifelong work that began more than three decades ago.

Over more than three decades, Tolkien collector and scholar Pieter Collier has traced the story of one author through thousands of books, letters, and works of art. In this reflection, he looks back on the path from his first Dutch hardback edition of In de Ban van de Ring to a lifetime devoted to preserving Tolkien’s world — from curating lost art and advising collectors to uncovering the human stories behind signatures and proofs.

For Pieter Collier, collecting has become a form of sub-creation itself: an act of care, continuity, and quiet creation.