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Painting With Shades of Grey The Hero and the Anti-Hero in Medievalist Fantasy Fiction By Hannah Nicole Graham A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies, and European Languages The Faculty of Humanities University of Oslo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the MA Degree in English Literature Spring Term 2020 1 Painting With Shades of Grey The Hero and the Anti-Hero in Medievalist Fantasy Fiction By Hannah Nicole Graham © 2020 Hannah Nicole Graham ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2 Abstract J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire are two landmark works in the genre of medievalist fantasy literature. The main argument of this thesis is that, despite the apparent similarities between the works, they portray and utilize the tradition of the heroic in contrasting ways. This thesis explores the opposing uses of medievalism in each series, and examines the use of ensembles of characters as opposed to a singular protagonist. The thesis draws a direct comparison between the heroic and the anti-heroic by character analyses of one character from each work, Jaime Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire and Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings. Finally, this thesis offers an analysis of each author’s writing of war, and uses biographical and epistolary sources to examine the cultural context of the novels and each author’s aims in writing them. Through these approaches, this thesis will show the contrast between Tolkien’s use of the heroic and Martin’s anti-heroic, as well as providing analysis of how they are portrayed and why they are important elements in each of the works. 3 Acknowledgments Writing this thesis over the course of the last year or so has been both rewarding and, at times, overwhelming. Choosing to analyze two works that I enjoy in a genre that I believe to be an important aspect of contemporary literature has kept the work interesting, but there have been moments of wondering if I could really do this, if it will all come together. I’m so grateful to have had so many people on my team to help me refocus when I needed it. First, special thanks to my advisor, Stuart McWilliams. At times of doubt for me, you continued to support and believe in my concept. From recommending sources of use to providing invaluable feedback on even the roughest drafts, your help has been greatly appreciated! Thanks to my friends and fellow students in the English Master’s Society. The sense of community have been greatly appreciated, and being able to discuss ideas and worries with others in the same boat has helped me feel less alone in this process. I also have to offer heartfelt gratitude to my friends and family who have listened to me talk endlessly about this project and offered suggestions, even if they had not much idea what I was talking about. To my parents, siblings, and friends, thank you for sticking by my side through this journey. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................4 Table of Contents .....................................................................................................5 Introduction .............................................................................................................6 Primary Texts .......................................................................................................................................9 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................................12 Chapter 1: Medievalism and the Heroic Ensemble ............................................16 Medievalism and Chivalry ....................................................................................................................16 Heroic Ensembles ................................................................................................................................27 Chapter Two ...........................................................................................................40 The Hero and the Anti-Hero ................................................................................................................40 The Rightful King ...............................................................................................................................51 Courtly Love .......................................................................................................................................56 Chapter Three ........................................................................................................70 Tolkien, War, and Escapism .................................................................................................................71 Martin, War, and Reflecting Reality ......................................................................................................78 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................84 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................88 5 Introduction But it remains an unfailing delight to me to find my own belief justified: that the ‘fairy-story’ is really an adult genre, and one for which a starving audience exists. J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955 In the fall of 1996, with little fanfare from those outside of the world of fantasy fandom, George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones was published. Martin had previously found relative success as an author of sci-fi and horror, but A Game of Thrones marked a more definite shift into epic fantasy and was the first of a proposed trilogy (which later expanded to a series) called A Song of Ice and Fire. While publishers were very excited to get their hands on this new work of Martin’s, its commercial success had a relatively slow start. Jane Johnson of Voyager, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of HarperCollins, says, “You have to remember that before the Lord of the Rings movies and the HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones came along, fantasy was widely regarded as geeky and uncool” (Barnett). However, with a change of cover art, and the series’ growing popularity by word-of-mouth, each book saw better opening sales figures than the last. By the publication of the fourth installment A Feast for Crows in 2005, Martin was a number one bestselling author (Barnett). In 2009, a deal was struck with HBO to adapt the novels into a television series which became wildly popular, after which “book sales went through the roof” (Barnett). As of April 2019, the book series has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide (Barnett), and Martin has colloquially come to be known as the American Tolkien, a phrase which originated with Time’s Lev Grossman. In a review for the most recent book of the series, A Dance with Dragons, Grossman says “I believed Martin was our age’s and our country’s answer to the master of epic fantasy” (Grossman). Tolkien himself, however, did not immediately experience the success that his works would have either. When the first installment of The Lord of the Rings was published in July, 1954, it was released to mixed reviews, both in its critical and social reception. Tolkien was 6 already a well-known author, having previously published The Hobbit as well as many short stories, which were mainly geared toward children. The Lord of the Rings was a long awaited continuation of the world he had created for The Hobbit; however, it was not the children’s story that many readers were expecting. The fairy tale tropes and fantastic elements, in this case, fit into a tale that was much longer and darker, clearly intended for adults. Many contemporary critics could not see the use for this kind of story, such as American critic Edmund Wilson, who called it “juvenile trash” (Lindrea). There were others, however, who praised Tolkien’s work and believed it would be read for many years to come. In 1954, Guardian critic Herbert Dingle gave a more positive review: “To have created so enthralling an epic-romance, with its own mythology, with such diversity of scene and character, such imaginative largess in invention and description, and such supernatural meaning underlying the wealth of incident is a most remarkable feat” (Lindrea). Despite such a mixed critical reception, Tolkien’s work saw an increase in sales with the publication of each new installment. The series experienced a fresh wave of popularity in the 1960’s, when it was published in paperback and found readership among the hippy countercultures of American campuses, for whom “visions of Middle-earth became part of a greater whole that involved communes and flower power” (Bishop 19). Across the decades, The Lord of the Rings has remained on best-seller lists and experienced another wave of popularity following Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations in the early 2000’s. As of 2017, over 150 million copies of the novels have been sold world-wide (O’Hehir). In 1999, an Amazon poll judged The Lord of the Rings the “Book of the Millenium,” and the 2003 “Big Read” survey conducted by the BBC found it to be the “Nation’s best-loved book” (O’Hehir; “The Big Read). The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire both stand out as key works in an already popular genre; Tolkien’s saga as a well-established work that helped found the