Half-elf

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A half-elf is a mythological or fictional being, the offspring of an immortal elf and a mortal man. They are often depicted as very beautiful and endowed with magical powers; they may be presented as torn between the two worlds that they inhabit. Half-elves became known in modern times mainly through J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings but have origins in Norse mythology. A half-elf appeared in Lord Dunsany's 1924 book The King of Elfland's Daughter .

Contents

In Middle-earth, half-elves are the children of Elves and Men, and can choose either Elvish immortality or the mortal life of Men. The elf-maidens Lúthien and Arwen in Tolkien's works both chose mortality to be with the Men that they loved. Scholars have noted that this enabled Tolkien to explore several key themes, including love and death, time and immortality. As a Catholic, he believed that Men, freely choosing to let go, gain release from the world's limitations; whereas if they tried to hold on to life and material things, they would end in darkness. His Elves – except for half-elves – were unable to gain this release. In On Fairy-Stories Tolkien wrote that since men write fairy-stories, these concern the escape from death; and conversely that Elves would tell human-stories about the escape from deathlessness. Since their popularisation by Tolkien, half-elves have become widely-known in role-playing games, and in turn in video games and spin-off films. The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons features its own race of half-elves, including the character Tanis Half-Elven .

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, a half-elf is the offspring of an elf and a human. Major examples include Skuld and Högni. [1] [2] Högni was a hero in Thidreks saga , born to a human queen when an elf visited her while the king was away. [2] Skuld was a Danish princess, as told in Hrólf Kraki's saga . King Helgi, sleeping alone as he had not been invited to King Adils's wedding, let in a ragged person on a midwinter night. As she slept, he saw she was a radiantly beautiful woman dressed in a silk gown. She told him he had freed her from a curse and asked to leave. He asked her to stay and marry him, and she agreed. They slept together. She told him they would have a child, and asked him to visit the child the next winter at the harbour. The King forgot to do so, but three years later the woman, an elf, returned and left a daughter at his door. She told him that the child's name was Skuld, which means "what you should do". She said that the King would gain the reward for breaking the curse, but that the King's people would suffer as the King had not done as she had asked. She never came back, but Skuld was always angry. [1]

The scholar Hilda Ellis describes Skuld as evil, recalling that in the saga, Skuld used magic to raise an army against Hrólf, her half-brother. As quickly as Hrólf's warriors kill Skuld's men, they spring up, fighting more strongly than ever. Leading the fight for Hrólf, Bodvar Bjarki calls Skuld's men draugar , 'undead', saying "they are grimmest to deal with after they are dead, and against this we have no power." [3] Ellis comments that Skuld is one of the Norse women involved in "everlasting battle" who share the names of Valkyries, females who guide the souls of the dead. She notes that Skuld is "said to be the child of an elf-woman", but that it is difficult "to decide how accurately the term [elves] is used", as its meaning shifts between the sagas and the Edda poems. [3]

Högni too is "essentially a demonic character", his name connected to the German Hexe, 'witch', and to the English "hag"; the scholar Alexander Krappe sees his being the son of an elf as fitting in to that role, while his daughter Hildegund similarly has "certain magical qualities", such as awakening fallen warriors. [4]

Lord Dunsany

Perhaps the earliest published half-elf in modern literature is the character Orion in Lord Dunsany's 1924 The King of Elfland's Daughter . The lord of Erl sends his son, Alveric, to fetch the King of Elfland's daughter, Lirazel, as his bride; the couple have a son, Orion. Lirazel, pining for Elfland, returns there. Alveric and his father search for her helplessly. Lirazel now longs for her mortal husband and half-elven son. The King of Elfland changes Erl into a part of Elfland, and the family live forever in a timeless realm. [5] [6]

In 1977, two members of the folk rock band Steeleye Span (Bob Johnson and Pete Knight) created a concept album also named The King of Elfland's Daughter , inspired by Lord Dunsany's book. Christopher Lee appears as the narrator and the King of Elfland. [7]

Tolkien's Middle-earth

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Half-elven (Sindarin singular Peredhel, plural Peredhil, Quenya singular Perelda) are the children of the union of Elves and Men. Of these, the most significant were the products of couplings between the Eldar (the Elves who followed the Call to Valinor) and the Edain (the Men of the Three Houses of early Men who allied themselves with the Eldar in their war against Morgoth). Three recorded unions of the Edain and Eldar generated descendants: Idril and Tuor; Lúthien and Beren; and Arwen and Aragorn. The first two couples wed during the final part of the First Age of Middle-earth, while the third married at the end of the Third Age (some 6500 years later). The third couple descended not only from the first two couples, but also from the twins Elros and Elrond, who chose mankind and elvenkind respectively—thereby severing their fates and those of their descendants. In Appendix A of The Return of the King , Tolkien notes that by the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn "the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored". The second union was the only one of the three marriages in which the Elf involved (Idril) did not become mortal; instead Tuor was joined to the Elves. In all these cases, the husband was a mortal Man, while the wife was Elven. [8]

Beren and Lúthien

The first of these was between the mortal Beren, of the House of Bëor, and Lúthien, daughter of the Elf Thingol, king of the Sindar, and Melian, a Maia. Beren died in the quest for the Silmaril, and in despair, Lúthien's spirit departed her body and made its way to the halls of Mandos. Mandos allowed them a unique fate, and they were re-bodied as mortals in Middle-earth, where they dwelt until their second deaths. Their son Dior, heir of the Sindarin kingdom of Doriath and of the Silmaril, was thus one-quarter Elvish by blood and one-quarter Maian, and half-human. He was killed while still young, when the sons of Fëanor sacked Doriath. Dior's wife was Nimloth, a Sindarin Elf, and with her he had three children, Elwing and two sons (thus, half-elven but not between Edain and Eldar, men and Elves of the highest blood). [8]

Tuor and Idril

The second marriage of Men and Elves in the First Age was between Tuor of the House of Hador, another branch of the Edain, and Idril Celebrindal, an Elf, though half Noldorin and half Vanyarin in ancestry. Their son was Eärendil. After the fall of Gondolin, Eärendil also escaped to the Mouths of Sirion, and married Elwing who was also half-elven. They had twin sons, Elrond and Elros. [8]

Aragorn and Arwen

Uniquely, Eärendil and Elwing, together with their sons Elrond and Elros, were granted their choice of fates: to be counted as Elves (free to dwell in the blessed Undying Lands for as long as Arda endures) or to be counted as Human (entitled to the Gift of Men whereby, through death, their spirits are freed to enter the unknown beyond Arda). Should this Choice not have been granted, they, like all other Half-Elves, would have been automatically mortal. [lower-alpha 1] Elros chose to be counted among mortals, and became Tar-Minyatur, the first king of Númenor. He finally took his death (for those kings had the freedom and grace to die at will) at the age of five hundred. The descendants of Elros were not given this choice, but their lifespan was several times that of ordinary Men. In later times the Númenórean kings, descendants of Elros, regretted their forefather's choice, and this helped lead to the Downfall of Númenor. Elrond chose to be counted among the Elves, joining the court of Gil-galad until the end of the Second Age. [T 3] He also founded Rivendell in the Second Age. [T 4] He married the Elf Celebrían, daughter of Celeborn and Galadriel, and sailed into the West at the conclusion of the War of the Ring. [T 5] [T 6] The children of Elrond were also given choice of kindred, [T 7] and therefore Arwen could choose to be counted among the Edain even though her father hoped she would accompany him to Elvenhome in the West. But she chose otherwise, marrying Aragorn II Elessar, king of the Reunited Kingdom, at the start of the Fourth Age, and bringing noble elvish blood into his dynasty. He ruled for 120 years, choosing to die at a great age for a man, but while still in full health. She died alone at the age of 2,901 years, grieving the brevity of her mortal happiness. [T 8]

Line of the Half-elven in Middle-earth

Half-elven family tree [T 9] [T 10]
Melian
the Maia 		Thingol
of the  Teleri 		House
of Bëor		House
of Haleth		House
of Hador		 Finwë
of the  Noldor 		Indis
of the  Vanyar 		Olwë
of the  Teleri
BarahirBelegundHarethGaldor Fingolfin FinarfinEärwen
Lúthien Beren RíanHuor Húrin TurgonElenwë
DiorNimloth Tuor Idril
ElurédElurín Elwing Eärendil Celeborn Galadriel
Elros Elrond Celebrían
22 Kings
of Númenor and
Lords of Andúnië
Elendil
Isildur Anárion
22 Kings
of Arnor
and Arthedain		27 Kings
of Gondor
ArveduiFíriel
15 Dúnedain
Chieftains
Aragorn Arwen ElladanElrohir
Eldariondaughters
Colour key:
ColourDescription
  Elves
  Men
  Maiar
  Half-elven
 Half-elven who chose the fate of Elves
 Half-elven who chose the fate of mortal Men

Other lines

According to "the tradition of [the] house" mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, the line of Princes of Dol Amroth originated from the union of Imrazôr the Númenórean, a Prince of Belfalas, [T 11] and Mithrellas, a Silvan Elf and companion of Nimrodel, an Nandorin Elf from Lothlórien. [T 12] They had two children: a boy Galador and a girl Gilmith, though it is said that Mithrellas later vanished in the night. Galador, according to this tradition, became the first Prince of Dol Amroth. [9] Tolkien initially worked on a genealogical table linking Imrazôr's children with Imrahil, but eventually abandoned it. [10] The claim of elvish heritage figures in the perception of Prince Imrahil among the people of Minas Tirith, illustrated by the following line of dialogue: "Belike the old tales speak well; there is Elvish blood in the veins of that folk, for the people of Nimrodel dwelt in that land once long ago". [T 13] Legolas, an Elf of Mirkwood, believed as much about Prince Imrahil's alleged heritage upon meeting him during the events of The Return of the King . [T 14] [8] He remarked that "long since the people of Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all sailed from Amroth's haven west over water", [T 15] though the matter is probed no further.

In The Hobbit reference is made to a rumour among Hobbit folk that a Took ancestor of Bilbo Baggins had long ago taken a "fairy" (i.e. Elf) wife, but the allegation is immediately dismissed as a simplistic explanation for the sometimes atypical behaviour of the Took clan. [T 16] Even if hobbits have some elvish blood, however, they are "endearing rather than frightening", unlike other half-human hybrids such as Dracula. [11]

In The Book of Lost Tales (published in two parts), the young Tolkien originally intended Eärendil, then spelled Earendel, to be the first of the Half-elven. [T 17] Early versions of The Tale of Beren and Lúthien had Beren as an Elf. [T 18] The earliest version of the tale of Túrin Turambar had Tamar, the character Tolkien later renamed Brandir, as a Half-elf; Tolkien mentioned this in a way that implied he did not consider Half-elven descent especially remarkable at the time he wrote that story. [T 19]

Interpretations

The Tolkien scholar Richard C. West notes the resemblance between the half-elves Arwen and Lúthien, and analyses Arwen's understanding of her fateful choice, between love for Aragorn and mortality on the one hand, and her father's wishes and immortality on the other. [12] West analyses the scene at the camp on Weathertop where Aragorn recounts to the hobbits in poetry and prose the tale of Beren and Lúthien, with West highlighting Aragorn's words and "pensive mood" as he tells them that Lúthien "chose mortality, and to die from the world, so that she might follow [Beren]" and that "together they passed, long ago, beyond the confines of this world" and that she "alone of the Elf-kindred has died indeed and left the world, and they have lost her whom they most loved". [12] West speculates that Aragorn may be thinking here of the consequences of what will happen should Arwen marry him, and later states that he finds "the lonely death of Arwen the most moving tragedy within [The Lord of the Rings]". [12] A similar conclusion regarding Aragorn's feelings at Weathertop is drawn by the scholar of medieval English literature John M. Bowers in his work on the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer on Tolkien. Bowers, looking at both the Weathertop scene and 'The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen', states that like certain pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , Aragorn's stories of his ancestors "open a window into his private desires and fears". [13]

The scholar of English literature Anna Vaninskaya studies how Tolkien uses fantasy to examine the issues of love and death, time and immortality. Given that Tolkien's Elves are immortal, they face the question of death from a unique vantage-point. [14] Sarah Workman writes that in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, Arwen's mourning of Aragorn serves to overcome what Peter Brooks called (she writes) the "meaningless", interminable nature of immortality. Workman quotes Brooks's statement that "all narration is obituary" and states that it is in that conception that Tolkien valued Arwen's fate: it is Arwen's "mourning gaze that allows for the transmission of Aragorn's memory", [15] or in Tolkien's words which she quotes, "And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed". [15]

Critics including the Polish scholar of religion in literature and film, Christopher Garbowski, note that while Tolkien contrasts Elves and Men throughout The Lord of the Rings, he introduces the conceit that an Elf may marry a Man on condition of surrendering her immortality, something that happens exactly twice in Middle-earth: with Lúthien, and then with Arwen. [16] [T 20] [17] [18]

The scholar of English literature Catherine Madsen notes the reflection of mortality in the "fading" of Middle-earth from the enormous powers like Morgoth and Elbereth that battled in the First Age. She writes that "Aragorn is a hero and a descendant of heroes, but he is brought up in hiding and given the name of Hope [Estel]; Arwen possesses the beauty of Lúthien, but she is born in the twilight of her people and her title is Evenstar; these two restore the original glories only for a little while, before the world is altered and 'fades into the light of common day'". [19] [lower-alpha 2] Rateliff, writing on the theme of the evocation of loss in Tolkien's works, describes the 'Gift of Men' as being "to accept loss and decay as essential parts of the world" and draws parallels with other writings by Tolkien: "The Elves cling to the past and so are swept away with it; in a fallen world, acceptance of the inevitability of death is the only way to pass beyond the world's limitations, for Brendan or Niggle or Arwen." [20]

The medievalist Verlyn Flieger wrote that nobody knows where Men go to when they leave Middle-earth, and that the nearest Tolkien came to dealing with the question was in his essay On Fairy-Stories "where, after speculating that since 'fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies', they must deal with what he called the Great Escape, the escape from death. He went on to the singular assertion that 'the Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness'." [21] [T 21] Flieger suggests that two of the "human stories" of Tolkien's Elves really focus on this kind of escape, the Tale of Beren and Lúthien and the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, where in both cases a half-elf makes her escape from deathlessness. [21] Shippey comments that "the themes of the Escape from Death, and the Escape from Deathlessness, are vital parts of Tolkien's entire mythology." [22] In a 1968 broadcast on BBC2, Tolkien quoted French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and described the inevitability of death as the "key-spring of The Lord of the Rings". [23] [lower-alpha 3] In their annotated and expanded edition of Tolkien's essay (Tolkien On Fairy-stories), Flieger and textual scholar Douglas A. Anderson provide commentary on 'the Escape from Deathlessness' passage, referencing Tolkien's views in a 1956 letter, that:

The real theme [of The Lord of the Rings] for me is .. Death and Immortality: the mystery of the love of the world in the hearts of a race [Men] 'doomed' to leave and seemingly lose it; the anguish in the hearts of a race [Elves] 'doomed' not to leave it, until its whole evil-aroused story is complete. But if you have now read Vol. III and the story of Aragorn [and Arwen], you will have perceived that. [T 22] [25]

Flieger remarks further that by attaching herself to men's lives and deaths, Lúthien is running against the current of elven life, but at the same time, by undergoing death and darkness Beren and she manage to come to the light. What is more, she writes, their union creates a new race, half-elvens, who have the privilege of choosing either fate, and "new hope for both races". [26] She notes that Tolkien described the story as "Release from Bondage", meaning death, release from deathlessness, and explains "Through death, men can let go; in their deathlessness, elves cannot. The half-elven can also be released from bondage, freed from the earth, if they wish. Tolkien makes no promises; what's to come is still unsure." [26] In her view, this is the Catholic Tolkien's key point, that being able to let go means trusting in faith. Holding on to life, or to physical treasures like the Silmaril which gets Thingol killed, is "folly". Thingol was in the light of the Two Trees, but by grasping Middle-earth, Lúthien, and finally the Silmaril, he journeys into and ends in darkness. It is the opposite of Lúthien's journey. [26]

In role-playing games

Both Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954) and Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924) greatly increased popular awareness of half-elves. As a result, half-elves have become common in other fantasy writings and role-playing games, the best-known being the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons . [27] Half-elves are also featured in the role-playing game Pathfinder . [28] [29]

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons has featured its own race of half-elves as a player character option in multiple editions of the game. [30] [31] Josh Williams of Screen Rant stated that "half-elves are popular because they're a great choice for those wanting to play as a fantasy race without stepping too far away from humanity". [32] Williams commented that "half-elves struggle to fit in" when growing up but "thanks to being born of two worlds, half-elves are perfect for players wishing to be the charismatic diplomat of the group". [32] Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th Edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, half-elves were the third most created at 10,454 total, preceded by elves (16,443) and humans (25,248). The three most popular class combinations with the half-elf were bard (1,808), warlock (1,401) and rogue (1,325). Wezerek noted "some of the common character choices can be explained by the game's structure of racial bonuses". [33] Matthew Byrd, for Den of Geek in 2023, also highlighted that half-elves have "stats/attributes" reflective of two races which offer "some unique role-playing options" and that mechanically the race has "benefited from a pretty generous base stat distribution and useful base skills". [31] However, the terminology and the way in which the game structures inherited mechanical traits for characters with mixed ancestry, such as half-elves, has been criticised. [30] [34] [35] As a result, Dungeons & Dragons is moving away from having the half-elf as a distinct race in the game [36] [31] [37] and it is not listed in the Player's Handbook (2024) as a character option. [38]

A well-known character from Dungeons & Dragons fiction is Tanis Half-Elven. [39] Tanis is a player character in the spin-off 1988 video game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance . [40] He is a miniature lead figure in Ral Partha's Dragonlance Heroes boxed figures set, described by a critic as "Tanis is dressed as a typical ranger in leathers and fur-lined shirt and boots. The vest has a design worked into it, as does his dagger scabbard. The belt has a pouch attached. Tanis's face is finely chiseled with a neatly groomed beard, although he appears gaunt. His left hand clutches his bow." [41] Tanis is played by Michael Rosenbaum in the 2008 animated film Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight . [42] Tanis, like all Dragonlance heroes, is a flawed character; Lauren Davis of io9 comments that he is "consumed by his inability to fit completely into either the human or elven worlds". [43] Rob Bricken, also of io9, writes that Tanis is "A bastard (in the technical sense) half-elf who doesn't truly belong in the world of either race; he's a capable leader of the group although he's often plagued by self-doubt. He left Qualinesti, a land of elves, because their leader's daughter Laurana was in love with him and her father was having none of it. He's currently in love with a swordswoman named Kitiara, who's the half-sister of Caramon and Raistlin." [44]

Notes

  1. ↑ The latest version of Tolkien's text was in The Lost Road , which states: "[ Manwë:] Now all those who have the blood of mortal Men, in whatever part, great or small, are mortal, unless other doom be granted to them; but in this matter the power of doom is given to me. This is my decree: to Earendel and to Elwing and to their sons shall be given leave each to choose freely under which kindred they shall be judged." [T 1] Christopher Tolkien further stated "It is to be observed that according to the judgement of Manwe Dior Thingol's Heir, son of Beren, was mortal irrespective of the choice of his mother." [T 2]
  2. ↑ Madsen is here quoting from William Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality , line 76.
  3. ↑ As described by Armstrong (1998) and Lee (2018), Tolkien stated: "human stories [are] always about one thing aren't they? Death: the inevitability of death" and then pulled a newspaper cutting from his pocket and read out the following quote from de Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death (1964): "There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that happens to man is ever natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation." [24] [23]

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In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, the Dúnedain were a race of Men, also known as the Númenóreans or Men of Westernesse. Those who survived the sinking of their island kingdom and came to Middle-earth, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion, settled in Arnor and Gondor.

Aragorn is a fictional character and a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is a Ranger of the North, first introduced with the name Strider and later revealed to be the heir of Isildur, an ancient King of Arnor and Gondor. Aragorn is a confidant of the wizard Gandalf and plays a part in the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. As a young man, Aragorn falls in love with the immortal elf Arwen, as told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Arwen's father, Elrond Half-elven, forbids them to marry unless Aragorn becomes King of both Arnor and Gondor.

Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.

Isildur is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the elder son of Elendil, descended from Elros, the founder of the island Kingdom of Númenor. He fled with his father when the island was drowned, becoming in his turn King of Arnor and Gondor. He cut the Ring from Sauron's hand, but instead of destroying it, was corrupted by its power and claimed it for his own. He was killed by orcs, and the Ring was lost in the River Anduin. This set the stage for the Ring to pass to Gollum and then to Bilbo, as told in The Hobbit; that in turn provided the central theme, the quest to destroy the Ring, for The Lord of the Rings.

<i>The Silmarillion</i> Collection of J. R. R. Tolkiens mythopoeic works

The Silmarillion is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by Guy Gavriel Kay, who became a fantasy author. It tells of Eä, a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor, the ill-fated region of Beleriand, the island of Númenor, and the continent of Middle-earth, where Tolkien's most popular works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—are set. After the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, requested a sequel, and Tolkien offered a draft of the writings that would later become The Silmarillion. Unwin rejected this proposal, calling the draft obscure and "too Celtic", so Tolkien began working on a new story that eventually became The Lord of the Rings.

"The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" is a story within the Appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It narrates the love of the mortal Man Aragorn and the immortal Elf-maiden Arwen, telling the story of their first meeting, their eventual betrothal and marriage, and the circumstances of their deaths. Tolkien called the tale "really essential to the story". In contrast to the non-narrative appendices it extends the main story of the book to cover events both before and after it, one reason it would not fit in the main text. Tolkien gave another reason for its exclusion, namely that the main text is told from the hobbits' point of view.

Melian is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She appears in The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and in several stories within The History of Middle-earth series. An early version of Melian is found in The Book of Lost Tales II, part of The History of Middle-earth, where her characterization differs significantly. The final version of the character is presented as a Maia, a lesser class of powerful divine beings in Tolkien's legendarium known as the Ainur, who takes the form of an Elf and becomes the loyal queen consort of Elu Thingol.

J. R. R. Tolkien repeatedly dealt with the theme of death and immortality in Middle-earth. He stated directly that the "real theme" of The Lord of the Rings was "Death and Immortality." In Middle-earth, Men are mortal, while Elves are immortal. One of his stories, The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, explores the willing choice of death through the love of an immortal Elf for a mortal Man. He several times revisited the Old Norse theme of the mountain tomb, containing treasure along with the dead and visited by fighting. He brought multiple leading evil characters in The Lord of the Rings to a fiery end, including Gollum, the Nazgûl, the Dark Lord Sauron, and the evil Wizard Saruman, while in The Hobbit, the dragon Smaug is killed. Their destruction contrasts with the heroic deaths of two leaders of the free peoples, Théoden of Rohan and Boromir of Gondor, reflecting the early medieval ideal of Northern courage. Despite these pagan themes, the work contains hints of Christianity, such as of the resurrection of Christ, as when the Lord of the Nazgûl, thinking himself victorious, calls himself Death, only to be answered by the crowing of a cockerel. There are, too, hints that the Elvish land of Lothlórien represents an Earthly Paradise. Scholars have commented that Tolkien clearly moved during his career from being oriented towards pagan themes to a more Christian theology.

References

Primary

  1. ↑ Tolkien 1987, pp. 326–327
  2. ↑ Tolkien 1987, pp. 334–335
  3. ↑ Tolkien 1977 ch. 24 "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath"
  4. ↑ Tolkien 1977 "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  5. ↑ Tolkien 1955 Appendix B "The Tale of Years", "The Third Age"
  6. ↑ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"
  7. ↑ Tolkien 1955 Appendix A, (i) Númenor.
  8. ↑ Tolkien 1955 Appendix A (v) The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
  9. ↑ Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age": Family Trees I and II: "The house of Finwë and the Noldorin descent of Elrond and Elros", and "The descendants of Olwë and Elwë"
  10. ↑ Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, I The Númenórean Kings
  11. ↑ Tolkien 1980, Introduction, Part Three, II: "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", note 39, p. 316.
  12. ↑ Tolkien 1980, "History of Galadriel and Celeborn", p. 248.
  13. ↑ Tolkien 1955 "The Siege of Gondor", p. 98.
  14. ↑ Tolkien 1955 book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor"
  15. ↑ Tolkien 1955 "The Last Debate", p. 148.
  16. ↑ Tolkien 1937, ch. 1 ""An Unexpected Party"
  17. ↑ Tolkien 1984b book 2, ch. 5 "The Tale of Eärendel"
  18. ↑ Tolkien 1984b book 2, ch. 1 "The Tale of Tinúviel"
  19. ↑ Tolkien 1984b book 2, ch. 2 "Turambar and the Foalókë"
  20. ↑ Tolkien 1993, Part Four. Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, pp. 303–366
  21. ↑ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1964). "On Fairy-Stories". Tree and Leaf . George Allen & Unwin. p. 59.
  22. ↑ Carpenter 2023, #186 to Joanna de Bortadano (drafts), April 1956

Secondary

  1. 1 2 Byock, Jesse L. (trans.) (1998). "The Elfin Woman and the Birth of Skuld". The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. London: Penguin Books. Chapter 11. ISBN   0-14-043593-X.
  2. 1 2 Cumpstey, Ian (trans.) (2017). The Saga of Didrik of Bern. Skadi Press. ISBN   978-0-9576-1203-7.
  3. 1 2 Ellis, Hilda Roderick (1968) [1943]. The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature. New York: Greenwood Press. pp. 78–80, 112. OCLC   1313536388.
  4. ↑ Krappe, Alexander Haggerty (January 1923). "The Legend of Walther and Hildegund". Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 22 (1): 75–88. JSTOR   27702692.
  5. ↑ Langford, David (2002). Complete Critical Assembly: The Collected White Dwarf (And Gm, and Gmi) Sf Review Columns. Wildside Press. p. 154. ISBN   978-1-58715-330-3.
  6. ↑ Plunkett, Edward (Lord Dunsany) (1924). The King of Elfland's Daughter. London and New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC   8664446.
  7. ↑ "Bob Johnson & Peter Knight: The King of Elfland's Daughter". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. HarperCollins. pp. 683–684. ISBN   978-0-00-720907-1.
  9. ↑ Armstrong, Helen (2013) [2006]. "Arwen". In Michael D.C. Drout (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia . Routledge. pp. 38–39. ISBN   978-0-415-86511-1.
  10. ↑ The table is reproduced in The History of Middle-earth, Vol XII, "The Heirs of Elendil", pp. 222-23.
  11. ↑ Bridgstock, Martin (1989). "The Twilit Fringe-Anthropology and Modern Horror Fiction". The Journal of Popular Culture . 23 (3): 115–123. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1989.00115.x. ISSN   0022-3840.
  12. 1 2 3 West, Richard C. (2006). "'Her Choice Was Made and Her Doom Appointed': Tragedy and Divine Comedy in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". In Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (eds.). The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004 : Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder. Marquette University Press. pp. 317–329. ISBN   0-87462-018-X. OCLC   298788493.
  13. ↑ Bowers, John M. (2019). Tolkien's Lost Chaucer. Oxford University Press. pp. 244–245. ISBN   978-0198842675.
  14. ↑ Vaninskaya, Anna (2020). "J. R. R. Tolkien: More Than Memory". Fantasies of time and death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 153–228. ISBN   978-1-137-51837-8. OCLC   1134852757.
  15. 1 2 Workman, Sarah (2014). "Female Valour Without Renown: Memory, Mourning and Loss at the Center of Middle-earth". A Quest of Her Own: Essays on the Female Hero in Modern Fantasy. McFarland & Company. pp. 87–88. ISBN   978-1-4766-1763-3.
  16. ↑ Garbowski, Christopher (2006). "Death". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment . Routledge. pp. 119–120. ISBN   978-1-135-88034-7.
  17. ↑ Davis, Bill (2013). "Choosing to Die: The Gift of Mortality in Middle-earth". In Bassham, Gregory; Bronson, Eric (eds.). The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All. Open Court Publishing Company. pp. 123–136. ISBN   978-0-8126-9806-0.
  18. ↑ Gray, William (2009). "J. R. R. Tolkien and the Love of Faery". Fantasy, Myth and the Measure of Truth: Tales of Pullman, Lewis, Tolkien, MacDonald and Hoffmann. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 102. ISBN   978-0-230-00505-1. OCLC   228503211.
  19. ↑ Madsen, Catherine (2004). "'Light from an Invisible Lamp': Natural Religion in The Lord of the Rings". In Chance, Jane (ed.). Tolkien and the invention of myth: a reader. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 42. ISBN   0-8131-2301-1. OCLC   54938267.
  20. ↑ Rateliff, John D. (2006). "'And All the Days of Her Life Are Forgotten' | 'The Lord of the Rings' as Mythic Prehistory". In Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (eds.). The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder. Marquette University Press. pp. 67–100. ISBN   978-0-87462-018-4. OCLC   298788493.
  21. 1 2 Flieger, Verlyn (2005). Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology. Kent State University Press. p. 46. ISBN   978-0-87338-824-5.
  22. ↑ Shippey, Tom (2005). "Another road to Middle-earth: Jackson's movie trilogy". In Isaacs, Neil D.; Zimbardo, Rose A. (eds.). Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 242. ISBN   0-618-42253-6.
  23. 1 2 Lee, Stuart D. (2018). ""Tolkien in Oxford" (BBC, 1968): A Reconstruction". Tolkien Studies . 15: 115–176. doi:10.1353/tks.2018.0008. ISSN   1547-3155. S2CID   171785254.
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  25. ↑ Tolkien, J. R. R. (2008). Flieger, Verlyn; Anderson, Douglas A. (eds.). Tolkien On Fairy-stories. HarperCollins. p. 119. ISBN   978-0-00-724466-9.
  26. 1 2 3 Flieger, Verlyn (1983). Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 129–130. ISBN   978-0-8028-1955-0.
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  30. 1 2 Premont, Antoine; Heine, Samuel (3 August 2021). "The Human Fantasy: Exploring race and ethnicity through Dungeons & Dragons". The 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 2021. ACM. pp. 1–11. doi:10.1145/3472538.3472560. ISBN   978-1-4503-8422-3.
  31. 1 2 3 Byrd, Matthew (6 April 2023). "Why Dungeons and Dragons Is Getting Rid of Controversial Half-Races". Den of Geek. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  32. 1 2 Williams, Josh (2 August 2022). "Dungeons And Dragons: 10 Most Popular Races To Play As". Screen Rant . Retrieved 20 September 2024.
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  37. ↑ Melzer, Jenny (13 April 2023). "D&D Removing Half Races Is Less Dramatic Than You Think (& the Right Choice)". CBR. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  38. ↑ Nelson, Samantha (18 September 2024). "Race becomes species in D&D, but that's not the only change in the new Player's Handbook". Polygon. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  39. ↑ Rae, Kevin Victor (12 November 2019). "A Guide to Roleplaying Half-Elves". Tribality. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  40. ↑ "Fantasy Roleplaying: Heroes of the Lance" (review). Crash . No. 62. March 1989. p. 71. ISSN   0954-8661 . Retrieved 12 April 2022.
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