J.R.R. Tolkien, Sub-Creation, and Theories of Authorship
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Worldbuilding in Tolkien's Middle-Earth and Beyond
KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-online (ISSN 1868-2855) Issue 61 (May 2020) Worldbuilding in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Beyond Dennis Friedrichsen Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen [email protected] Abstract: The field of worldbuilding in literary studies is experiencing a revitalization and it is therefore unsurprising that interest in Tolkien’s Middle-earth is renewed. Many aspects of Tolkien’s world have been analyzed and discussed, but it remains a relevant topic for both specific questions concerning Tolkien’s world and general questions concerning worldbuilding in literature. Sub-creating Arda , edited by Dimitra Fimi and Thomas Honegger, makes a valuable contribution that expands on both theoretical areas, applies theories of worldbuilding to Middle-earth, and draws interesting parallels to other fictional worlds. Because the field of worldbuilding is incredibly rich, Sub-creating Arda is not exhaustive, but nevertheless makes significant contributions to contemporary academic problematizations of the field and will undoubtedly inspire new arguments and new approaches within the field of worldbuilding. How to cite: Friedrichsen, Dennis: “Worldbuilding in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Beyond [Review of: Fimi, Dimitra and Thomas Honegger (eds.): Sub-creating Arda. World-building in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work, Its Precursors, and Its Legacies. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2019.]“. In: KULT_online 61 (202o). DOI: https://doi.org/10.22029/ko.2020.1034 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture 61 / 2020 journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-online Worldbuilding in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Beyond Dennis Friedrichsen Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen Fimi, Dimitra and Thomas Honegger (eds.). -
Or, There and Back Again
Please do not remove this page The Name of the Ring; or, There and Back Again Croft, Janet Brennan https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643405330004646?l#13643524790004646 Croft, J. B. (2017). The Name of the Ring; or, There and Back Again. Mythlore, 35(2), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3XP77CV This work is protected by copyright. You are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, for research and educational purposes. Other uses, such as reproduction or publication, may require the permission of the copyright holder. Downloaded On 2021/10/01 14:58:43 -0400 HE NAME OF THE RING: OR, THERE AND BACK AGAIN JANET BRENNAN CROFT HE WHOLE OF ‘MIDDLE-EARTH’ WAS MORGOTH’S RING” (Morgoth’s Ring “T [MR] 400). What did Tolkien mean by this somewhat cryptic statement, which appears in an unpublished essay titled “Notes on motives in The Silmarillion” and nowhere else, and from which the tenth volume of The History of Middle-earth takes its title? Tolkien goes on to explain that Morgoth’s power was “disseminated” throughout Middle-earth; that it was “nowhere absent” though “nowhere absolute,” and was a prerequisite for using any sort of matter towards an evil magical end. If Arda is Morgoth’s Ring, with his power infusing the whole world, and Sauron’s “relatively smaller” power is, in comparison, “concentrated” in the Ring of his own making (MR 400), what might this imply if we follow this thread to the tangled knot at its end? In Middle-earth, it seems that evil suffers a steady decline from the cosmic to the petty over the course of “the long defeat” of Arda, in the same way that Verlyn Flieger demonstrates that Light in the legendarium appears in “progressively lessening intensities [, e]ach light […] dimmer than the one before it, splintered by Tolkien’s sub-creators” (Splintered Light, 60). -
Song As Mythic Conduit in <I>The Fellowship of the Ring</I>
Volume 26 Number 3 Article 5 4-15-2008 Song as Mythic Conduit in The Fellowship of the Ring Cami Agan Oklahoma Christian University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Agan, Cami (2008) "Song as Mythic Conduit in The Fellowship of the Ring," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 26 : No. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol26/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Explores the complex layering of history and legend that convey Tolkien’s themes across a wide array of genres within the legendarium, reinforcing the sense of depth of time Tolkien hoped to achieve even within The Hobbit. Additional Keywords Genre and The Lord of the Rings; Music in J.R.R. -
The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium (2013) Ed. by Christopher Vaccaro Helen Young University of Sydney, [email protected]
Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 1 | Issue 1 Article 5 2014 The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium (2013) ed. by Christopher Vaccaro Helen Young University of Sydney, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Young, Helen (2014) "The Body in oT lkien's Legendarium (2013) ed. by Christopher Vaccaro," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol1/iss1/5 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Services at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Young: The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium (2013) ed. by Christopher Vaccaro The Body in Tolkien’s Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality, edited by Christopher Vaccaro. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2013. viii, 190 pp. $40.00 (trade paperback) ISBN 9780786474783. [Also available as a Kindle ebook]. In his introduction to this volume, Christopher Vaccaro rightly observes that many of the preoccupations of Tolkien scholarship to date touch upon the body, although this is the first collection to take it up as a central theme. The chapters in the collection take two broad approaches. One—found in the five chapters which comprise the first two sections—focuses on the body as it functions in Tolkien’s imagined world, while the second—in the five chapters of the second half of the volume—is concerned with the ways that bodies are textually constructed. -
Tolkien and Alterity (2017) Ed. by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor Gergely Nagy Independent Scholar, [email protected]
Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 6 | Issue 1 Article 7 2018 Tolkien and Alterity (2017) ed. by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor Gergely Nagy Independent Scholar, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Nagy, Gergely (2018) "Tolkien and Alterity (2017) ed. by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss1/7 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Services at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Nagy: Tolkien and Alterity (2017) Tolkien and Alterity, ed. by Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. xii, 270 pp. $99.99 (hardcover) ISBN 9783319610177. [Also available in ebook format.] When I was reading out The Lord of the Rings to my daughter, one of the things she always commented on with great amusement was how everyone in Middle-earth seemed to regard everyone else as “queer folk.” Shire hobbits consider Breefolk, but also Bucklanders, queer, while in Bree, everyone to the west (and east) of them are queer. One of the most important things Frodo and the hobbits (and with them, my daughter) learned during the quest is how there is more to it than this, and that “queerness” has a lot of different meanings and shades. -
The Germanic Narrative of the Eldar in J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"#$%#&'()*+$,(&&(-*.#$/0$-"#$123(&$*)$45$65$65$!/27*#)89$ :#;#)3(&*<'=$,/&-"#&)$>/<&(;#?$@A&3$()3$6#3#'B-*/)$ ! ! ! "#$$%&'('#)*!+,&!-&.(*/,*/!0%$!(1(0%2#$34%*!5&(0%$! %#*%$!")3')&!64#.)$)64#(%!7"&8!64#.89!! ! :)&/%.%/'!0%2!;('!0%&!<4#.)$)64#$34%*!=(1,.'>'! 0%&!=&#%0"?@34#..%&?A*#:%&$#'>'!B%*(! ! :)*! ! ;#34(&0!C#/2,*0!5(..(*'D!E8F8D!G8F8! /%H)&%*!(2!IJ!G(#D!KLMM!#*!<%*$(3).(D!=.)�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`NN%*'.#34'%*!)0%&!#*!_X&+%!%&$34%#*%*0%*!F,N$>'+%*! H%$'%4'D!,*'%&$,34'!0($!!"#"$%&'()*!:)*!B8!;8!;8!P).1#%*!(*4(*0!0%&!P4%2%*!ab)&0#$34%&! -
Book of the Lost Narrator: Rereading the 1977 Silmarillion As a Unified Text
101 Book of the Lost Narrator: Re-reading the 1977 Silmarillion as a Unified Text1 Dennis Wilson Wise 1. Introduction In Tolkien’s famous essay about Beowulf and the critics, he chides his colleagues for failing to treat the poem as a literary object; they neglect its aesthetic beauty while snuffling around for philological or genealogical data. In a way, I apply much the same point to readers of Tolkien’s own 1977 Silmarillion. Christopher Tolkien had once written that he treated the 1977 text “of the same order as the writings published by my father himself” (UT 3), a “completed and cohesive entity” rather than “a complex of divergent texts interlinked by commentary” (1). Christopher Tolkien later distanced himself from this position, deeply regretting that he “attached no importance” to his father’s concerns about presentation (LT I xi) and thereby left for The Silmarillion “no suggestion of what it is and how (within the imagined world) it came to be” (xii). Understandably, Tolkien scholars followed this path, discounting The Silmarillion for the much more authentic-seeming History of Middle-earth. Additionally, they see the 1977 text, though powerful in places, as a product rife with flaws, uneven in structure and detail, sadly heterogeneous in style, and furthermore marred by the editor’s unavoidable hand. I wish to present an alternative reading of the 1977 text. Like Gergely Nagy, but for profoundly different reasons, I believe that The Silmarillion, “exactly as it stands in the 1977 text, is a profound work” (“Adapted” 35), a narrative and rhetorical masterpiece. I do not value The Silmarillion for its hint of avant-texts or textual prehistory, its echoes of oral folklore transformed into written forms. -
The Adapted Text: the Lost Poetry of Beleriand Gergely Nagy
The Adapted Text: The Lost Poetry of Beleriand Gergely Nagy Tolkien Studies, Volume 1, 2004, pp. 21-41 (Article) Published by West Virginia University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tks.2004.0012 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/176071 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] The Adapted Text: The Lost Poetry of Beleriand GERGELY NAGY he Silmarillion is perhaps the linguistically most refined work of J.R.R. TTolkien. Polished for a lifetime, it is not surprising that it is written in a most remarkable and memorable of styles. In fact it has more than one style (as it is more than one text). Several distinct styles can be found in the variants of the Silmarillion tradition (now available in the volumes of The History of Middle-earth), which David Bratman distinguishes as the Annalistic, Antique, and the Appendical (71-75). But in the published Silmarillion, one has the feeling the categorization which Bratman suggests for the contents of the History volumes does not fit perfectly: styles change within units of the text, and the three categories seem somewhat loose and vague anyway. The movements of style and the resulting disunity in the 1977 text produce a fitting effect: Tolkien succeeds in implying, merely by the stylistic differences, that the Silmarillion is indeed a compendious volume, “made long afterwards from sources of great diversity” (S 8). Taking into account that it is in fact an editorial text, selected and made consistent from the numerous versions, according to (with some remarkable exceptions, I believe to its advantage)1 the latest intentions, by Christopher Tolkien, its style definitely signals how truly compendious it is—it suggests a history for the text, an evolution, in which the cryptic and compressed narrative of the 1926 “Sketch of the Mythology” or the Quenta Noldorinwa (written in the 1930s) became expanded to the majestic story (and language) in the Silmarillion. -
The Name of the Ring; Or, There and Back Again
Volume 35 Number 2 Article 6 4-15-2017 The Name of the Ring; Or, There and Back Again Janet Brennan Croft Rutgers University, NJ Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Croft, Janet Brennan (2017) "The Name of the Ring; Or, There and Back Again," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 35 : No. 2 , Article 6. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol35/iss2/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Deals with the decline in power of evil through the ages of Arda, and how this is connected with phases of the development of language (metaphoric, metonymic, and demotic) as described by Northrop Frye and Owen Barfield. Additional Keywords Evil, nature of, in J.R.R. -
To the Journal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-5
Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 6 | Issue 1 Article 9 2018 Index to The ourJ nal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-5 Douglas A. Anderson Independent Scholar, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Douglas A. (2018) "Index to The ourJ nal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-5," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 9. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Services at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Anderson: Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-5 An Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-5 The Journal of Tolkien Research, founded in 2014, has so far published five complete volumes comprising eight issues. This index is divided into four parts, 1) an index by author of the peer-reviewed articles; 2) an index by author of articles and conference papers not peer-reviewed; 3) and index by reviewer of book reviews; and 4) an index of books reviewed, by the book’s author(s) or editor(s). In each issue every contribution is paginated individually. The eight issues of The Journal of Tolkien Research are as follows: Volume 1, Issue 1 (2014-15) Volume 2, Issue 1 (2015) Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016) Volume 3, Issue 2 (2016) Volume 3, Issue 3 (2016-17) [Special Issue “Authorizing Tolkien: Control, Adaptation, and Dissemination of J.R.R. -
To the Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 1 Through Volume 9 Issue 1
Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 9 Issue 2 Article 4 2020 Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 1 through Volume 9 issue 1 Douglas A. Anderson Independent Scholar, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Douglas A. (2020) "Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 1 through Volume 9 issue 1," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 9 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol9/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Christopher Center Library at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Anderson: Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volumes 1-9.1 An Index to The Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 1 though Volume 9 issue 1 The Journal of Tolkien Research, founded in 2014, has so far published thirteen issues in nine volumes. This index is divided into four parts, 1) an index by author of the peer-reviewed articles; 2) an index by author of articles and conference papers not peer-reviewed; 3) and index by reviewer of book reviews; and 4) an index of books reviewed, by the book’s author(s) or editor(s). In each issue every contribution is paginated individually. The thirteen issues of The Journal of Tolkien Research are as follows: Volume 1, Issue 1 (2014-15) Volume 2, Issue 1 (2015) Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016) Volume 3, Issue 2 (2016) Volume 3, Issue 3 (2016-17) [Special Issue “Authorizing Tolkien: Control, Adaptation, and Dissemination of J.R.R. -
Play and Performance As Open-Database Storytelling in Pre- and Postliterate Media Jillian Scharr
Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar Senior Capstone Projects 2012 From ‘Epic’ to ‘Epic Win’: Play and performance as open-database storytelling in pre- and postliterate media Jillian Scharr Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone Recommended Citation Scharr, Jillian, "From ‘Epic’ to ‘Epic Win’: Play and performance as open-database storytelling in pre- and postliterate media" (2012). Senior Capstone Projects. 156. http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone/156 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Window @ Vassar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Window @ Vassar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Scharr 1 From ‘Epic’ to ‘Epic Win’: Play and performance as open-database storytelling in pre- and postliterate media by Jillian Scharr Vassar College 2012 Advised by: Thomas Ellman, Media Studies Dorothy Kim, Medieval/Renaissance Studies Second Readers: Stephanie Boluk, Media Studies Christine Reno, Medieval/Renaissance Studies Abstract: Attempts to reframe critical study of early medieval storytelling by applying media theory and specifically videogame studies; as well as reframe videogame studies by grounding it in the deep and old tradition of oral storytelling. By suggesting a new conception for our understanding of ‘play’ as an embodied, rule-bound and amusing activity that takes place both within linear time and yet outside the bounds of ‘reality,’ we can consider folktales and videogames to be strikingly similar media in their formal composition. Both folktales and videogames operate with the logic of ‘database,’ occupied with elements, possibilities, building blocks, and world-building.