Vander Ploeg cites Biblical accounts, Sumerian and Egyptian histories with European legends to explain how Tolkien's worldview could have been based on actual event. The author succeeds in integrating Mesopotamian Anunnaki history, creation myths with European legends & literary history.

Vander Ploeg is especially insightful in his section regarding Tolkien's Finnish sources, The Kalevala and Volsunga myths, and their evolutions and transmogrifications into Rhineland's "Legends of the Niebelungen" and the Burgundian's "Saga of Siegfried."

Krimhilde mourns over Siegfried, assassinated by Hagen and King Gunther

The Grail Lore and decoding of the real meaning of "The Holy Grail," "Sang Graal" or Sang Real" and "Kingship" from the time of the Nephilim, Adam and Lilith to those of Mary, Rennes-le-Chateau and the Priory of Sion, are the connecting links (or Rings) in "Quest for Middle Earth," which is short, to the point and very educational.. Dirk Vander Ploeg's exploration of Merlin's Cave, under Tintagel Castle is fascinating to read, especially, the role of the sea at high tide in keeping its entrances secret.

Like Immanuel Velikovsky did in the 1950s, Vander Ploeg revisits the ancient past and rewrites the history of western civilization to peer a little farther back in time into mankind's prehistoric origins.

From the Biblical Nephilim of Genesis and the "Book of Enoch" to Glastonbury Tor, the Anunnaki and Akkadians of Sumeria to Odin and the Norse Gods of Valhalla, Vander Ploeg gives a panoramic view of western history, very often interpreted in the ways Jungian psychology. One may well describe "Quest for Middle Earth" as "A Concise Jungian History of Western Man."

Dirk Vander Ploeg shows the reader how diverse myths and legends from Mesopotamia to Iceland all converge in Tolkien's symbols in "Lord of the Rings."

I would recommend this book to parents who want to educate and entertain their children. It is perfect for the "Harry Potter crowd," young and adult alike. This book is an ideal book for students of religion, myth, history or anthropology in the middle school to college level.

It would also be worthwhile for those new to hobbits, elves, giants, dragons, unicorns, "The Fellowship of the Ring" and to those who are interested in the character relationships and Tolkien's symbolism in the "Lord of the Rings."

Dirk Vander Ploeg clearly demonstrates that the mythos, core myths/legends and historical foundations of Western European culture and our civilization have their literary roots in Teutonic, Norse and Finnish sagas, which are based on yet older traditions that lead the reader to Sumer and the Anunnaki.

To order Quest for Middle-earth click here.