Tolkien and the medieval

Last updated

Tolkien enjoyed medieval works like Fastitocalon, and often imitated them in his poetry, in this case in a poem of the same name. French manuscript, c. 1270 Two Fishermen on an Aspidochelone, c. 1270 (cropped) (cropped).JPG
Tolkien enjoyed medieval works like Fastitocalon , and often imitated them in his poetry, in this case in a poem of the same name. French manuscript, c. 1270

J. R. R. Tolkien was attracted to medieval literature, and made use of it in his writings, both in his poetry, which contained numerous pastiches of medieval verse, and in his Middle-earth novels where he embodied a wide range of medieval concepts.

Contents

Tolkien's prose adopts medieval ideas for much of its structure and content. The Lord of the Rings is interlaced in medieval style. The Silmarillion has a medieval cosmology. The Lord of the Rings makes use of many borrowings from Beowulf, especially in the culture of the Riders of Rohan, as well as medieval weapons and armour, heraldry, languages including Old English and Old Norse, and magic.

Context

Of all medieval cultures, Tolkien was most familiar with that of the Anglo-Saxons. 11th-century illustration of a king and his council. Witan hexateuch.jpg
Of all medieval cultures, Tolkien was most familiar with that of the Anglo-Saxons. 11th-century illustration of a king and his council.

The Middle Ages

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. [2] In the Early Middle Ages, the End of Roman rule in Britain c. 400 was soon followed by the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. By the sixth century, Anglo-Saxon England, "the bit [of Medieval culture] that Tolkien knew best", [1] consisted of many small kingdoms including Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, engaged in ongoing warfare with each other. [3]

Tolkien the medievalist

J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, a philologist and medievalist interested in language and poetry from the Middle Ages, especially that of Anglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe. His professional knowledge of works such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shaped his fictional world of Middle-earth. His intention to create what has been called "a mythology for England" [T 1] led him to construct not only stories but a fully-formed world with its own languages, peoples, cultures, and history, based on medieval languages including Old English, Old Norse, and Old High German, [4] and detailed knowledge of medieval culture and mythology. [5]

Medieval themes in Middle-earth

Poetry

The Riders of Rohan lament for Théoden

We `heard of the `horns     in the `hills `ringing,
the `swords `shining     in the `South-`kingdom.
`Steeds went `striding     to the `Stoning`land
as `wind in the `morning.     `War was `kindled.
There `Théoden `fell,     `Thengling `mighty,
to his `golden `halls     and `green `pastures
in the `Northern `fields     `never `returning,
`high lord of the `host.

— from "The Mounds of Mundburg" [T 2]

Tolkien stated that whenever he read a medieval work, he wanted to write a modern one in the same tradition. He constantly created these, whether pastiches and parodies like "Fastitocalon"; adaptations in medieval metres, like "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" or "asterisk texts" like his "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" (from "Hey Diddle Diddle"); and finally "new wine in old bottles" such as "The Nameless Land" and Aelfwine's Annals. The works are extremely varied, but all are "suffused with medieval borrowings", making them, according to the Tolkien scholar John D. Rateliff, "most readers' portal into medieval literature". Not all found use in Middle-earth, but they all helped Tolkien develop a medieval-style craft that found expression in his legendarium. [6] One of the most distinctively medieval poems in The Lord of the Rings is the Riders of Rohan's Old English-style lament for Théoden, written in what Tolkien called "the strictest form of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse", [7] complete with balanced half-lines separated by a caesura, each half-line with two stresses, and a varying pattern of alliteration and use of multiple names for the same person. [8]

Cosmology

The history of Middle-earth attempted to combine classical, medieval, and modern notions by means of violent transitions from one cosmology to another, such as the Atlantis-like downfall of Numenor that reshaped the flat medieval earth into a modern round world. Downfall of Numenor.svg
The history of Middle-earth attempted to combine classical, medieval, and modern notions by means of violent transitions from one cosmology to another, such as the Atlantis-like downfall of Númenor that reshaped the flat medieval earth into a modern round world.

The cosmology of Middle-earth contains many medieval elements, but these are interwoven both with classical ideas like Atlantis, and modern cosmology with a round world. Tolkien was trying to reconcile different conceptions of the world, including the medieval Germanic migrations and the culture of Anglo-Saxon England, to create his mythology. [9] The world of Middle-earth is overseen by the godlike Valar, who resemble the medieval Norse Æsir, the gods of Asgard. [10] They function in some ways like angels in Christianity, mediating between the creator, named as Eru Ilúvatar, and the created world. They have free will, so that the Satanic Melkor is able to rebel against the will of Eru. [11]

Beowulf

Beowulfian: Bodvar Bjarki shifts shape to fight in the form of a bear, as Tolkien's Beorn does. Painting by Louis Moe, 1898 Rolfs sidste kamp - Louis Moe (17009) - cropped.png
Beowulfian: Bödvar Bjarki shifts shape to fight in the form of a bear, as Tolkien's Beorn does. Painting by Louis Moe, 1898

J. R. R. Tolkien drew on the medieval Old English poem Beowulf for multiple aspects of Middle-earth: for elements such as names, monsters, the importance of luck and courage, and the structure of society in a heroic and pagan age; [13] for aspects of style, such as creating an impression of depth [14] and adopting an elegiac tone; [15] [16] [17] and for its larger but hidden symbolism. [18]

He derived the names of Middle-earth races including Ents, Orcs, and Elves, [13] and names such as Orthanc and Saruman, [19] rather directly from Beowulf. The were-bear Beorn in The Hobbit has been likened to the hero Beowulf himself; both names mean "bear", and both characters have enormous strength. [12] Scholars have compared some of Tolkien's monsters to those in Beowulf. Both his trolls [20] and Gollum [21] [22] share attributes with Grendel, while Smaug's characteristics closely match those of the Beowulf dragon. [23] Tolkien's Riders of Rohan are distinctively Old English, and he has made use of multiple elements of Beowulf in creating them, including their language, [24] culture, [25] [26] and poetry. [8]

Tolkien admired the way that Beowulf, written by a Christian looking back at a pagan past, as he himself was, embodied a "large symbolism" [18] without ever becoming allegorical. That symbolism, of life's road and individual heroism, and that avoidance of allegory, Tolkien worked to echo in The Lord of the Rings. [18]

Weapons and armour

Tolkien stated that the styles of the Bayeux Tapestry fitted the Rohirrim "well enough". Normans Bayeux.jpg
Tolkien stated that the styles of the Bayeux Tapestry fitted the Rohirrim "well enough".

Tolkien's modelled his fictional warfare on the tactics and equipment of the Ancient and Early Medieval periods. His depictions of weapons and armour are based in particular on the Northern European culture of Beowulf and the Norse sagas. [27] As in his sources, Tolkien's weapons are often named, sometimes with runic inscriptions to show they are magical and have their own history and power. [28] In Tolkien's writings, as in the medieval epics, one weapon, the sword, announces a hero; his fate and the fate of his sword are linked closely together. [29] [30]

Heraldry

Elvish heraldry: the lozenge of Finwe, High King of the Noldor Finwe Lozenge.png
Elvish heraldry: the lozenge of Finwë, High King of the Ñoldor

Heraldry is a medieval system, by origin military, for displaying each knight or lord's identity. Tolkien invented quasi-medieval heraldic devices for many of the characters and nations of Middle-earth. His descriptions were in simple English rather than in specific blazon language. The emblems correspond in nature to their bearers, and their diversity contributes to the richly-detailed realism of his writings. Scholars note that Tolkien went through different phases in his use of heraldry; his early account of the Elvish heraldry of Gondolin in The Book of Lost Tales corresponds broadly to heraldic tradition in the choice of emblems and colours. Later, when he wrote The Lord of the Rings, he was freer in his approach; and in the complex use of symbols for Aragorn's sword and banner, he clearly departs from medieval tradition to suit his storytelling. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Languages

Tolkien likely based his Balrog fire-demons on his professional study of the Old English word Sigelwara. GOTHMOG-1 (detail).jpg
Tolkien likely based his Balrog fire-demons on his professional study of the Old English word Sigelwara .

Using his knowledge of medieval languages including Old English and Old Norse, Tolkien created his own languages for Middle-earth. [T 4] An item that the philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey suggests may have been crucial in his creation is the Old English word Sigelwara , found in the Codex Junius to mean "Aethiopian". Tolkien wondered why there should have been a word with this meaning, and after some years of research suggested it could be derived from Sigel, meaning both sun and jewel, and *hearwa, perhaps meaning soot, giving a conjectural original meaning for Sigelwara as "soot-black fire-demon". The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey links this to the Balrog fire-demon and the Silmaril sun-jewels. [35]

Magic

Merry's magic horn brought joy and cleansing to the Shire. Hunting Horn MET sf17-190-379s1.jpg
Merry's magic horn brought joy and cleansing to the Shire.

Middle-earth is pervaded with medieval-style magic, its races such as Wizards, Elves, and Dwarves each possessing their own inherent powers, which they could embody in magical artefacts such as a wizard's staff, Elvish waybread, and rings of power. Magical beasts derived directly from medieval concepts include dragons with their hoards of gold, birds such as crows and ravens carrying omens, and the ability to shapeshift into the form of an animal, like Beorn and the great fighting bear of The Hobbit. Norse mythology is rich in seeresses, dwarves, giants, and other monsters. The medieval world held that plants and other objects had magical powers. Tolkien absorbed all of these ideas and reworked them for his version of Middle-earth. [37] [38] [39] Thus for example the Hobbit Merry returns from Rohan with a magic horn, brought from the North by Eorl the Young, from the dragon-hoard of Scatha the Worm. Blowing it brings joy to his friends in arms, fear to his enemies, and it awakens the Hobbits to purify the Shire of Saruman's ruffians. [36] The Two Trees of Valinor derive from the magical medieval Trees of the Sun and the Moon. The two magical trees drip a wonderful balsam, and have the power of speech. They tell Alexander the Great that he will die in Babylon. Tolkien has adapted the story; his trees emit light, not balsam; and instead of prophesying death, their own deaths bring the era of immortality to an end. [40]

Interlacing

The Lord of the Rings has an unusual and complex medieval narrative structure, interlacing or entrelacement, in which multiple threads of story are maintained side by side. It was used especially in French medieval literature such as the 13th century Queste del Saint Graal , [41] [42] and in English literature such as Beowulf [T 5] and The Faerie Queene . [42] Tolkien uses this medieval-style framework to achieve a variety of literary effects, including maintaining suspense, keeping the reader uncertain of what will happen and even of what is happening to other characters at the same time in the story; creating surprise and an ongoing feeling of bewilderment and disorientation. More subtly, the leapfrogging of the timeline by the different story threads allows Tolkien to make hidden connections that can only be grasped retrospectively, as the reader realises on reflection that certain events happened at the same time, and that these connections imply a contest of good and evil powers. [43]

Heroic romance

The Lord of the Rings uses many themes of medieval romance (Yvain, le Chevalier au Lion illustrated), such as heroism and interlacing. Ywain-Gawain.JPG
The Lord of the Rings uses many themes of medieval romance ( Yvain, le Chevalier au Lion illustrated), such as heroism and interlacing.

Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings not as a novel but as a heroic romance, meaning that it embodied medieval concepts unfamiliar or unfashionable in the 20th century, such as the hero, the quest, and interlacing. A traditional romance, according to the critic Northrop Frye, has six phases: the hero's strange birth – Frodo's parents both drown; his innocent youth – in the countryside of the Shire for Frodo, in Rivendell for Aragorn; the quest – for Frodo to destroy the Ring, for Aragorn to regain his Kingdom; confrontation with evil, as in Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields; in the re-establishment of happiness, marriage, and fertility – Aragorn marries Arwen, Faramir marries Éowyn, Sam marries Rosie; and finally, the contemplative or penseroso phase, as characters depart or settle down – Frodo takes ship into the West, Sam becomes Mayor and has many children, Aragorn governs Gondor and Arnor as King. [44]

Elena Capra writes that Tolkien made use of the medieval poem Sir Orfeo , both for The Hobbit 's Elvish kingdom, and for his story in The Silmarillion of Beren and Lúthien. That in turn influenced his "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". In Capra's view, Sir Orfeo's key ingredient was the political connection "between the recovery of the main character's beloved and the return to royal responsibility." [45] Sir Orfeo is in its turn a reworking of the classical legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. [45]

Exile

Yvette Kisor writes that Tolkien made repeated use of the Old English theme of exile, seen in poems such as The Wanderer , Genesis , and Beowulf. She gives as examples Aragorn, rightful King of Gondor and Arnor, living in the wild; Frodo, who exclaims "But this would mean exile, a flight from danger into danger, drawing it after me"; the Númenóreans, the survivors of the destruction of their Atlantis-like land, living in Middle-earth; and the Noldor Elves, living across the sea from Valinor. She notes that Tolkien never describes the monster Gollum as an exile, commenting however that he meets Stanley Greenfield's four characteristics of an Old English exile. Among the numerous parallels, Kisor notes that "wretch", used repeatedly by Gandalf, Frodo, and Sam to describe Gollum, comes directly from Old English wreċċa , meaning "exile"; Old English poetry frequently, she states, uses wineléas wreċċa, "friendless exile". [46]

Yvette Kisor's analysis of Gollum as an Old English-style exile [46]
The exile's statusGandalf says "He is very old and very wretched."
The exile's state of mindGollum says "Poor hungry Sméagol."
The exile's journeyGandalf says "He wandered in loneliness, weeping a little for the hardness of the world."
The exile's expression of deprivationGollum says "Poor, poor Sméagol, he went away long ago. They took his Precious, and he's lost now."

Related Research Articles

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, Man and Men denote humans, whether male or female, in contrast to Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other humanoid races. Men are described as the second or younger people, created after the Elves, and differing from them in being mortal. Along with Ents and Dwarves, these are the "free peoples" of Middle-earth, differing from the enslaved peoples such as Orcs.

<i>The Two Towers</i> 1954 part of novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King. The volume's title is ambiguous, as five towers are named in the narrative, and Tolkien himself gave conflicting identifications of the two towers. The narrative is interlaced, allowing Tolkien to build in suspense and surprise. The volume was largely welcomed by critics, who found it exciting and compelling, combining epic narrative with heroic romance.

<i>The Return of the King</i> 1955 part of novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. It was published in 1955. The story begins in the kingdom of Gondor, which is soon to be attacked by the Dark Lord Sauron.

Scholars and critics have identified many themes of The Lord of the Rings, a major fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, including a reversed quest, the struggle of good and evil, death and immortality, fate and free will, the danger of power, and various aspects of Christianity such as the presence of three Christ figures, for prophet, priest, and king, as well as elements like hope and redemptive suffering. There is also a strong thread throughout the work of language, its sound, and its relationship to peoples and places, along with moralisation from descriptions of landscape. Out of these, Tolkien stated that the central theme is death and immortality.

J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on a wide array of influences including language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. He was inspired primarily by his profession, philology; his work centred on the study of Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings.

"The Council of Elrond" is the second chapter of Book 2 of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. It is the longest chapter in that book at some 15,000 words, and critical for explaining the power and threat of the One Ring, for introducing the final members of the Fellowship of the Ring, and for defining the planned quest to destroy it. Contrary to the maxim "Show, don't tell", the chapter consists mainly of people talking; the action is, as in an earlier chapter "The Shadow of the Past", narrated, largely by the Wizard Gandalf, in flashback. The chapter parallels the far simpler Beorn chapter in The Hobbit, which similarly presents a culture-clash of modern with ancient. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey calls the chapter "a largely unappreciated tour de force". The Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge writes that the chapter brings the hidden narrative of Christianity in The Lord of the Rings close to the surface.

Aragorn is a fictional character and a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn was 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 was a confidant of the wizard Gandalf, and played a part in the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. As a young man, Aragorn fell in love with the immortal elf Arwen, as told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Arwen's father, Elrond Half-elven, forbade them to marry unless Aragorn became King of both Arnor and Gondor.

Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plants in Middle-earth</span> Mentions of plants in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien

The plants in Middle-earth, the fictional world devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, are a mixture of real plant species with fictional ones. Middle-earth was intended to represent the real world in an imagined past, and in many respects its natural history is realistic.

Christianity is a central theme in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional works about Middle-earth, but the specifics are always kept hidden. This allows for the books' meaning to be personally interpreted by the reader, instead of the author detailing a strict, set meaning.

Women in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> Role of women in Tolkiens fantasy

The roles of women in The Lord of the Rings have often been assessed as insignificant, or important only in relation to male characters in a story about men for boys. Meanwhile, other commentators have noted the empowerment of the three major women characters, Galadriel, Éowyn, and Arwen, and provided in-depth analysis of their roles within the narrative of The Lord of the Rings.

Character pairing in The Lord of the Rings is a literary device used by J. R. R. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, to express some of the moral complexity of his major characters in his heroic romance, The Lord of the Rings. Commentators have noted that the format of a fantasy does not lend itself to subtlety of characterisation, but that pairing allows inner tensions to be expressed as linked opposites, including, in a psychoanalytic interpretation, those of Jungian archetypes.

Tolkien's monsters are the evil beings, such as Orcs, Trolls, and giant spiders, who oppose and sometimes fight the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Tolkien was an expert on Old English, especially Beowulf, and several of his monsters share aspects of the Beowulf monsters; his Trolls have been likened to Grendel, the Orcs' name harks back to the poem's orcneas, and the dragon Smaug has multiple attributes of the Beowulf dragon. The European medieval tradition of monsters makes them either humanoid but distorted, or like wild beasts, but very large and malevolent; Tolkien follows both traditions, with monsters like Orcs of the first kind and Wargs of the second. Some scholars add Tolkien's immensely powerful Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron to the list, as monstrous enemies in spirit as well as in body. Scholars have noted that the monsters' evil nature reflects Tolkien's Roman Catholicism, a religion which has a clear conception of good and evil.

Interlacing in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> Literary device of interlacing in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien's narrative interlacing in The Lord of the Rings, also called by the French term entrelacement, is an unusual and complex narrative structure, known from medieval literature, that enables him to achieve a variety of literary effects. These include maintaining suspense, keeping the reader uncertain of what will happen and even of what is happening to other characters at the same time in the story; creating surprise and an ongoing feeling of bewilderment and disorientation. More subtly, the leapfrogging of the timeline in The Lord of the Rings by the different story threads allows Tolkien to make hidden connections that can only be grasped retrospectively, as the reader realises on reflection that certain events happened at the same time, and that these connections imply a contest of good and evil powers.

J. R. R. Tolkien, a fantasy author and professional philologist, drew on the Old English poem Beowulf for multiple aspects of his Middle-earth legendarium, alongside other influences. He used elements such as names, monsters, and the structure of society in a heroic age. He emulated its style, creating an impression of depth and adopting an elegiac tone. Tolkien admired the way that Beowulf, written by a Christian looking back at a pagan past, just as he was, embodied a "large symbolism" without ever becoming allegorical. He worked to echo the symbolism of life's road and individual heroism in The Lord of the Rings.

The presence of sexuality in The Lord of the Rings, a bestselling fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, has been debated, as it is somewhat unobtrusive. However, love and marriage appear in the form of the warm relationship between the hobbits Sam Gamgee and Rosie Cotton; the unreturned feelings of Éowyn for Aragorn, followed by her falling in love with Faramir, and marrying him; and Aragorn's love for Arwen, described in an appendix rather than in the main text, as "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Multiple scholars have noted the symbolism of the monstrous female spider Shelob. Interest has been concentrated, too, on the officer-batman-inspired same-sex relationship of Frodo and his gardener Sam as they travel together on the dangerous quest to destroy the Ring. Scholars and commentators have interpreted the relationship in different ways, from close but not necessarily homosexual to plainly homoerotic, or as an idealised heroic friendship.

J. R. R. Tolkien's presentation of heroism in The Lord of the Rings is based on medieval tradition, but modifies it, as there is no single hero but a combination of heroes with contrasting attributes. Aragorn is the man born to be a hero, of a line of kings; he emerges from the wilds and is uniformly bold and restrained. Frodo is an unheroic, home-loving Hobbit who has heroism thrust upon him when he learns that the ring he has inherited from his cousin Bilbo is the One Ring that would enable the Dark Lord Sauron to dominate the whole of Middle-earth. His servant Sam sets out to take care of his beloved master, and rises through the privations of the quest to destroy the Ring to become heroic.

J. R. R. Tolkien used frame stories throughout his Middle-earth writings, especially his legendarium, to make the works resemble a genuine mythology written and edited by many hands over a long period of time. He described in detail how his fictional characters wrote their books and transmitted them to others, and showed how later in-universe editors annotated the material.

In Tolkien's legendarium, ancestry provides a guide to character. The apparently genteel Hobbits of the Baggins family turn out to be worthy protagonists of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is seen from his family tree to be both a Baggins and an adventurous Took. Similarly, Frodo Baggins has some relatively outlandish Brandybuck blood. Among the Elves of Middle-earth, as described in The Silmarillion, the highest are the peaceful Vanyar, whose ancestors conformed most closely to the divine will, migrating to Aman and seeing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor; the lowest are the mutable Teleri; and in between are the conflicted Noldor. Scholars have analysed the impact of ancestry on Elves such as the creative but headstrong Fëanor, who makes the Silmarils. Among Men, Aragorn, hero of The Lord of the Rings, is shown by his descent from Kings, Elves, and an immortal Maia to be of royal blood, destined to be the true King who will restore his people. Scholars have commented that in this way, Tolkien was presenting a view of character from Norse mythology, and an Anglo-Saxon view of kingship, though others have called his implied views racist.

J. R. R. Tolkien repeatedly dealt with the theme of death and immortality in Middle-earth. He stated 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. ↑ Carpenter 1981 , #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951.
  2. ↑ Tolkien 1955, book 5, chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields".
  3. ↑ Carpenter 1981 , #211.
  4. ↑ Carpenter 1981 , #163 to W. H. Auden , 7 June 1955
  5. ↑ Tolkien 1997 , pp. 5–48.

Secondary

  1. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 146–149.
  2. ↑ Power 2006, p. 3.
  3. ↑ "Anglo-Saxons: a brief history". Historical Association. 13 January 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  4. ↑ Chance 2003, Introduction.
  5. ↑ Bates 2003, ch. 1 "The Real Middle-earth".
  6. ↑ Rateliff 2014, pp. 133–152.
  7. ↑ Carpenter 1981, #187 to H. Cotton Minchin, April 1956.
  8. 1 2 Lee & Solopova 2005, pp. 46–53.
  9. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 324–328.
  10. ↑ Garth 2003, p. 86.
  11. ↑ Wood 2003, p. 13.
  12. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 91–92.
  13. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 66, 74, 149.
  14. ↑ Shippey 2005, pp. 259–261.
  15. ↑ Shippey 2005, p. 239.
  16. ↑ Burns 1989, pp. 5–9.
  17. ↑ Hannon 2004, pp. 36–42.
  18. 1 2 3 Shippey 2005, pp. 104, 190–197, 217.
  19. ↑ Shippey 2001, pp. 88, 169–170.
  20. ↑ Fawcett 2014, pp. 29, 97, 125–131.
  21. ↑ Nelson 2008, p. 466.
  22. ↑ Flieger 2004, pp. 141–144.
  23. ↑ Lee & Solopova 2005, pp. 109–111.
  24. ↑ Shippey 2001, pp. 90–97, 111–119.
  25. ↑ Shippey 2005, pp. 139–143.
  26. ↑ Kennedy 2001, pp. 15–16.
  27. ↑ Piela 2013, pp. 26–27.
  28. ↑ Burdge & Burke 2013, pp. 703–705.
  29. ↑ Whetter & McDonald 2006, article 2.
  30. ↑ Flieger 1981, pp. 40–62.
  31. ↑ McGregor 2013, pp. 95–112.
  32. ↑ Purdy 1982, pp. 19–22, 36.
  33. ↑ Hriban 2011, pp. 198–211.
  34. ↑ Hammond & Scull 1998, pp. 187–198.
  35. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 48–49, 54, 63.
  36. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 198–199.
  37. ↑ Eden 2005, pp. 256–257.
  38. ↑ Bates 2003, ch. 9 "Magical Beasts", ch. 10 "Wizards of Wyrd", ch. 13 "Shapeshifters".
  39. ↑ Perry 2013, pp. 400–401.
  40. ↑ Garth 2020, pp. 40–41.
  41. ↑ Seaman 2013, p. 468.
  42. 1 2 West 1975, pp. 78–81.
  43. ↑ Shippey 2005, pp. 181–183.
  44. 1 2 Thomson 1967, pp. 43–59.
  45. 1 2 Capra 2022.
  46. 1 2 Kisor 2014, pp. 153–168.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.