Medievalism and the Shocks of Modernity: Rewriting Northern Legend from Darwin to World War II
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Medievalism and the Shocks of Modernity: Rewriting Northern Legend from Darwin to World War II by Dustin Geeraert A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English, Film, and Theatre University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2016 by Dustin Geeraert 1 Abstract Literary medievalism has always been critically controversial; at various times it has been dismissed as reactionary or escapist. This survey of major medievalist writers from America, England, Ireland and Iceland aims to demonstrate instead that medievalism is one of the characteristic literatures of modernity. Whereas realist fiction focuses on typical, plausible or common experiences of modernity, medievalist literature is anything but reactionary, for it focuses on the intellectual circumstances of modernity. Events such as the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, many political revolutions, the world wars, and the scientific discoveries of Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and above all those of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), each sent out cultural shockwaves that changed western beliefs about the nature of humanity and the world. Although evolutionary ideas remain controversial in the humanities, their importance has not been lost on medievalist writers. Thus, intellectual anachronisms pervade medievalist literature, from its Romantic roots to its postwar explosion in popularity, as some of the greatest writers of modern times offer new perspectives on old legends. The first chapter of this study focuses on the impact of Darwin’s ideas on Victorian epic poems, particularly accounts of natural evolution and supernatural creation. The second chapter describes how late Victorian medievalists, abandoning primitivism and claims to historicity, pushed beyond the form of the retelling by simulating medieval literary genres. Experiments in narrative framing and time travel plot devices eventually led to the divorce of medievalism from historicity altogether. The third chapter crosses into the twentieth century and examines the relationship between the skepticism of a new generation of medievalist writers and their exploration of radical new possibilities in artificial mythology. Yet as the literature’s purported connection to reality loosened, the use of appendices, genealogies, maps and other scholarly apparatus only increased. 2 The fourth chapter examines the gender dynamics of medievalist works, discussing how medievalist writers reinterpreted stock character types, for example by writing from the perspective of a previously maligned character as in William Morris’s “The Defence of Guenevere” (1858). Through metafiction, female characters satirized conventions that “ought” to apply to them while the male characters often had their flaws made increasingly obvious. This corresponded to changing views on heroism, from the Victorian vision of “chivalrous empire- builders,” as John Morris put it in The Age of Arthur (2001), to the significantly more skeptical views of wartime and postwar writers increasingly suspicious of ideology, empire, and the use of force. The final chapter’s focus is on war, propaganda, and human nature. Postwar medievalist writers launched a satirical armada which took a new approach to the themes of evolution, mythology, and metafiction. In England, Iceland, and America, iconoclastic novels appeared. All three were radical rewritings of major medieval legends, provoked by the cataclysmic experience of the Second World War. These works question notions of civilization and progress, and condemn those who compose and tell heroic stories for encouraging organized violence. Tying together the major threads of medievalism from the previous chapters, this final chapter chases the greatest shockwave of the twentieth century through inverted medieval landscapes where the author may be the greatest villain of all. Rejecting the critical Balkanization of medievalism, this study instead offers a unified view of nineteenth- and twentieth-century responses to northern legend, one which shows medievalism closely tracking the shocks of modernity. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank: Dr. Arlene Young, Dr. Vanessa Warne, Dr. Andrew McGillivray, and Dr. M. J. Toswell, the members of my Examining Committee, for all their trust, patience, guidance, and hard work. Dr. Birna Bjarnadóttir and Dr. Adam Muller, for their guidance as well. My colleagues in the English and Icelandic departments, whose feedback, criticism, and encouragement have shaped me as a scholar. The administrative staff in the English department, particularly Marianne Harnish, Darlene McWhirter, Anita King, and Mabelle Magsino, without whom I could never have gotten through graduate school. The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, for supporting academic events in which portions of this dissertation were presented. The librarians at Elizabeth Dafoe Library, especially Lyle Ford for medievalist books purchased through The Margaret and William Stobie Book Purchase Fund, and Sigrid Johnson for the amazing Icelandic Collection. The Faculty of Arts Professional Development Fund and the University of Manitoba Bookstore staff for further medievalist books. Online literature resources such as The Camelot Project and The William Morris Archive, which have been indispensable to this project. The Duff Roblin Graduate Fellowship and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for funding to support research. My family and friends for all their understanding and support. 4 Dedication Dedicated to the Memory of Eric and Elsie Etchen, of The William Morris Society. 5 Contents A Note on Sources………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Introduction i. “How Bloody Romantic!” Medievalism and its Discontents………………………...…... 9 ii. Borders and Boundaries: The Scope of This Study……………………………………... 23 iii. “The Modern Problem”: Modernity and Other Controversial Concepts.……………..… 26 iv. “Faery Lands Forlorn”: Medievalism’s Romantic Roots ………………………………. 30 v. “The Embroidered Robes of Myth”: An Interpretive Framework……………………….. 39 Chapter 1 i. “Dragons of the Prime”: Darwin, Doubt and Degeneration in Victorian Retellings….… 51 ii. “Back into the Beast”: Tennyson and the Two Cultures…………………………..…….. 57 iii. “The Blood of the Worm was Mine”: Ruskinian Transformation in Morris’s Retellings 72 iv. “An Accursed Inheritance”: How Evolution Haunts Medievalism……………………... 85 Chapter 2 i. Noble Savages or Savage Nobles? Late Victorian Experiments in Historicity and Genre 96 ii. William Morris: Tradition, Translation and Teutonic Democracy………………………. 100 iii. “A strange thing that a severed head should speak”: Magic in the Germanic Romances. 106 iv. “Do you belong to the asylum?” Heritage, Progress, and Time Travel…………………. 119 v. To the World’s End and Beyond: Mapping Morris’s Receding Utopia…………..……... 134 Chapter 3 i. “The Fires of Belief Burn Low”: Mythopoeia from the Ashes of Mythography.……........ 137 ii. “Cities Resting Upon Nothing, Having No Place in Time”: Dunsany’s Radical Whimsy 145 iii. “That Defaced, Gelded, Exiled Creation”: Eddison’s Invented Metaphysics……….….. 159 iv. “The Daimonic Force that the Great Myths Have”: Tolkien’s Faith in Heritage….......... 176 v. “The Metaphysicians of Tlön”: Mythopoeia as Meta-Mythology...................................... 187 6 Chapter 4 i. “Thy Precious Flattering Jargon”: Medievalist Gender Dynamics………..……………. 192 ii. Arthuriana: Souls and Seductions………….…………………………………………….. 200 iii. The Northern Tradition: Charms and Curses……………………………………………. 213 iv. Mythopoeia: Sexuality and the Supernatural……………………………………………. 222 v. Literary Convention and Character Agency……………………………………………... 238 Chapter 5 i. “Long-Winded, Tediously Poetic, All Lies”: Iconoclasm in Postwar Medievalism……… 244 ii. “He began with an atrocity”: War and Human Nature in White’s Arthuriana…………... 247 iii. “When Killers and Skalds Get Together”: Satirizing Saga Violence…………………… 254 iv. “Jargon From Another Dark Age”: The Futility of Ideology in Gardner’s Grendel……. 262 v. Whacking and Whonking, Satire and Schism……………………………………………. 283 Conclusion i. “Wrecked Among Heathen Dreams”: The Failure of the Vision?...................................... 286 ii. The Vision From the Tower: Inspiration and Legacy…………………………………... 297 Appendix i. Context on Major Authors………………………………………………………………... 305 ii. Other Resources………………………………………………………………………….. 309 Bibliography i. Literature…………………………………………………………………………………. 310 ii. Scholarship……………………………………………………………………………… 318 7 A Note on Sources Because the cultural status of the literary works discussed in this dissertation varies, the sources for the works vary as well. Tolkien’s works have never been difficult to obtain in authorized HarperCollins versions and indeed more works such as The Fall of Arthur (2013) are still forthcoming under the guidance of Christopher Tolkien. However, the situation is certainly not the same for all medievalist authors. In some cases I have been able to obtain copies of works which have spent some time out of print, such as a 1967-1969 Ballantine Books printing of E. R. Eddison’s Zimiamvia Trilogy, but in other cases print-on-demand copies (Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros) or online versions have been necessary. For a long time, to even remain in print medievalist works relied on non-academic scholars like the late Lin Carter, who kept works by Morris, Haggard, Dunsany and others in print with the Ballantine Adult Fantasy