Dirk Vander Ploeg's
"Quest for Middle Earth"

This applies as much to the Incas in eradicating evidence of the existence of the Mochica- Chimu as to Lyndon Johnson and the Warren Commission eradicating evidence of a conspiracy to kill JFK. Each was an "official history", each was a myth with a lie at the core. Such myths must die but often it is a slow and agonizing process.

For anyone who has read world histories in several languages, great questions still remain unanswered:

Which version history is true?"
"Is our history at all 'true'?"

The answer really depends on whose history you read, "ours" or "theirs," American, Northern vs. Southern, or English, French, German, Italian, Chinese accounts or if you study history so widely and deeply from the ancient to the modern that you can actually compose your own account of history from a purely personal point of view. H.G. Wells did this in his time.

Immanuel Velikovsky June 10, 1895 - November 17, 1979

Immanuel Velikovsky bore "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" to rewrite the accepted astronomical history of our Solar System, an account that is becoming more accepted as proofs of his theories are discovered in space exploration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky

http://www.apollonius.net/velikovsky.html

If the first axiom, "History is written by the winners..." is correct, it is logical to infer or assume that "the winners" write (and rewrite) their histories to justify, legitimize and perpetuate their conquests.

But whose history is "the true one"?
Was it really "The Civil War"
or "The War of the Northern Aggression"?
It was both.

Who is to say which history is "TRUE"?
Ultimately, it is you, the reader who must decide.

Another problem in history is "accuracy." This is because the "truth" of an event occurring and accuracy in retelling it are not the same.

While something may have been an actual event in history, the recording and recounting of the event, culturally, ethnically or racially filtered in accounts of it may be inaccurate. The Holocaust is a good example of this. The Holocaust happened but many of the current descriptions of how it came about and what really transpired remain open to debate, including the actual number of victims.

It takes great fortitude to contest the "facts" enshrined by historic dogmatists or to challenge the conclusions of "historical authorities." Both Velikovsky and Charles Darwin were such men. Each in his own time became what historical experts and authorities would disparagingly call today, "Revisionists," i.e. people who rewrite history. Dirk Vander Ploeg, author of "Quest for Middle Earth," may well be such a writer, a "Revisionist" with a broader vision of history and insight than most people possess.

Vander Ploeg's "Quest for Middle Earth" is an entertaining venture into world history following the author's personal quest to explore the actual facts underlying the history and cosmogony of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."

The Tetra-Pylons in Syria

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.