DOCSLIB.ORG

Editors' Introduction Douglas A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Editors' Introduction Douglas A Editors' Introduction Douglas A. Anderson Michael D. C. Drout Verlyn Flieger Tolkien Studies, Volume 7, 2010 Published by West Virginia University Press Editors’ Introduction This is the seventh issue of Tolkien Studies, the first refereed journal solely devoted to the scholarly study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. As editors, our goal is to publish excellent scholarship on Tolkien as well as to gather useful research information, reviews, notes, documents, and bibliographical material. In this issue we are especially pleased to publish Tolkien’s early fiction “The Story of Kullervo” and the two existing drafts of his talk on the Kalevala, transcribed and edited with notes and commentary by Verlyn Flieger. With this exception, all articles have been subject to anonymous, ex- ternal review as well as receiving a positive judgment by the Editors. In the cases of articles by individuals associated with the journal in any way, each article had to receive at least two positive evaluations from two different outside reviewers. Reviewer comments were anonymously conveyed to the authors of the articles. The Editors agreed to be bound by the recommendations of the outside referees. The Editors also wish to call attention to the Cumulative Index to vol- umes one through five of Tolkien Studies, compiled by Jason Rea, Michael D.C. Drout, Tara L. McGoldrick, and Lauren Provost, with Maryellen Groot and Julia Rende. The Cumulative Index is currently available only through the online subscription database Project Muse. Douglas A. Anderson Michael D. C. Drout Verlyn Flieger v Abbreviations B&C Beowulf and the Critics. Ed. Michael D. C. Drout. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2002. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 248. Bombadil The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963. CH The Children of Húrin [title as on title page:] Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins, 2007; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. FG Farmer Giles of Ham. Ed. Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. London: HarperCollins, 1999. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. FR The Fellowship of the Ring. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954. Second edition, revised impression, Boston: Houghton Mifflin,1987. H The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1937. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938. The Annotated Hobbit. Ed. Douglas A. Anderson. Second edition, revised. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Jewels The War of the Jewels. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Lays The Lays of Beleriand. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. Letters The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Lost Road The Lost Road and Other Writings. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Lost Tales I The Book of Lost Tales, Part One. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. viii Lost Tales II The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. MC The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Morgoth Morgoth’s Ring. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. OFS Tolkien On Fairy-stories: Extended Edition. Ed. Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson. London: HarperCollins, 2008. Peoples The Peoples of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. RK The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin 1955; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956. Second edition, revised impression, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. S The Silmarillion. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1977. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Second edition. London:HarperCollins, 1999; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Sauron Sauron Defeated. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. SG The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. Ed Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009 Shadow The Return of the Shadow. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Shaping The Shaping of Middle-earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. SWM Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition. Ed. Verlyn Flieger. London: HarperCollins, 2005. ix TL Tree and Leaf. London: Unwin Books, 1964; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. Expanded as Tree and Leaf, including the Poem Mythpoeia [and] The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son. London: HarperCollins, 2001. TT The Two Towers. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955. Second edition, revised impression, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Treason The Treason of Isengard. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. UT Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen & Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. War The War of the Ring. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. x The Books of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist VLADIMIR BRLJAK When new Beowulf was already antiquarian, in a good sense, and it now produces a singular effect. For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote. If the funeral of Beowulf moved once like the echo of an ancient dirge, far-off and hopeless, it is to us as a memory brought over the hills, an echo of an echo. (MC 33) I t has often been noted that J.R.R. Tolkien’s renowned lecture on Be- Iowulf, defending the integrity of the Anglo-Saxon poet’s art against those modern readers for whom this art was an embarrassment redeemed only by the poem’s value as an historical and linguistic document, was on another level also a defense of, and a blueprint for, his own literary work. As T. A. Shippey has remarked, “Tolkien felt more than continuity with the Beowulf-poet, he felt a virtual identity of motive and of technique” (2003, 47; see also Shippey 2007). Various aspects of this special affin- ity have since been looked into, including specific points of motive and technique: for example the “unexplained” and “unattainable vistas” (Let- ters 210, 333), a technique indebted to such “vistas” in Beowulf. Following Tolkien’s cues, the importance of these has long been acknowledged. Like the Beowulf poet, he had at his disposal a large amount of background material which, skillfully inserted at strategic moments, could greatly in- crease the tale’s mimetic potency. The vistas remained in background, unexplained and unattainable, but depicted against such a background, the foreground could jump off the page, immersing its reader in a fantas- tic world realized with an unprecedented “reality” or “depth.” Besides the “vistas,” however—as Christopher Tolkien noted long ago (Lost Tales I 4-5), in connection to the same passage cited at the begin- ning of this paper—Tolkien also set out to reproduce that singular effect of which he speaks, the effect of the work reaching us as an echo of an echo (of an echo . .) from a remote antiquity, expending his art in in- creasing the distance between the (mostly) Modern English text the read- er would be holding in his or her hands and the fictional characters and events of which it told. For this purpose, he integrated his major works of 1 Vladimir Brljak fiction into an intricate metafictional structure, presenting them within their fiction precisely as such echoes of echoes: translations of redactions of ancient works, telling of things even more ancient. This metafictional framework, it will be argued here, is both the cornerstone and crowning achievement of Tolkien’s mature literary work. Indeed, “framework” is a revealing metaphor: the problem is precisely that when they are dis- cussed, these elements in Tolkien’s work often tend to be thought of as merely a frame, extraneous and secondary to that which it frames, which is where the true interest supposedly lies. Tolkien critics have, of course, broached these issues before. Ver- lyn Flieger has addressed them on several occasions, with increasing complexity and sophistication: besides exploring the use of metafiction throughout Tolkien’s opus, Flieger has drawn attention to Tolkien’s mod- els in medieval literature and the modern reception of that literature, to the use of metafictional devices by ninenteenth- and early twentieth- century century novelists, or to the parallels between Tolkien’s work and the work of his “postmodernist” contemporaries.1 Other scholars have been covering some of the same terrain: Mary R. Bowman, for exam- ple, has argued that “The Lord of the Rings goes beyond being an absorb- ing and moving story to constitute a meditation on the nature of story” (273); Gergely Nagy writes that “Tolkien’s focus on the written text as the only appropriate medium in which the creation of a world can be performed leads to important theoretical considerations about the dif- ferent discourses of culture” (642). The present article would like to add to these discussions by further specifying and elaborating a number of points where such specification and elaboration seems necessary. Two interrelated questions may be discerned: what is the form and what is the function of the metafictional elements in Tolkien’s work? The questions, as I say, are interrelated, indeed interdependent, yet it seems best to begin with that of function, for it appears that the misunderstand- ing of the function of Tolkien’s metafiction has been the main factor in the misunderstanding of its form. By and large, those readers of Tolkien who have taken account of the metafiction have seen its function as that of intensifying the mimetic potency of the works.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Nodal Structure in Tolkien's Tales of the First Age?
    Volume 13 Number 4 Article 16 6-15-1987 A Nodal Structure in Tolkien’s Tales of the First Age? Nils Ivar Agøy Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Agøy, Nils Ivar (1987) "A Nodal Structure in Tolkien’s Tales of the First Age?," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 13 : No. 4 , Article 16. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss4/16 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 Identifies nodes”“ or “stable images,” which persist in “staying more or less the same among endlessly changing plotlines” as Tolkien developed his narratives of the First Age. Additional Keywords Tolkien, J.R.R. The Book of Lost Tales—Motifs; Tolkien, J.R.R.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the Story of Kullervo Pdf Ebook by J.R.R. Tolkien
    Download The Story of Kullervo pdf ebook by J.R.R. Tolkien You're readind a review The Story of Kullervo ebook. To get able to download The Story of Kullervo you need to fill in the form and provide your personal information. Book available on iOS, Android, PC & Mac. Gather your favorite ebooks in your digital library. * *Please Note: We cannot guarantee the availability of this book on an database site. Ebook Details: Original title: The Story of Kullervo 192 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (April 5, 2016) Language: English ISBN-10: 9780544706262 ISBN-13: 978-0544706262 ASIN: 0544706269 Product Dimensions:5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches File Format: PDF File Size: 6717 kB Description: The first publication of a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. TolkienKullervo, son of Kalervo, is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. Hapless Kullervo, as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo,... Review: Disclaimer: I love Tolkien, as in: Ive read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion more times than I can remember. I also read The Children of Hurin and enjoyed that story.If youre looking for a book that will shed light on how Tolkien developed his literary world, what his influences were, and if you want to find out more about how... Book Tags: story of kullervo pdf, children of hurin pdf, verlyn flieger pdf, lord of the rings pdf, notes and commentary pdf, actual story pdf, editor verlyn pdf, source material pdf, unfinished work pdf, land of heroes pdf, sold into slavery pdf, later works pdf, dark tale pdf, sister wanona pdf, twin sister pdf, buy this book pdf, epic poem pdf, think it is great pdf, pages long pdf, finnish epic The Story of Kullervo pdf ebook by J.R.R.
    [Show full text]
  • A Secret Vice: the Desire to Understand J.R.R
    Mythmoot III: Ever On Proceedings of the 3rd Mythgard Institute Mythmoot BWI Marriott, Linthicum, Maryland January 10-11, 2015 A Secret Vice: The Desire to Understand J.R.R. Tolkien’s Quenya Or, Out of the Frying-Pan Into the Fire: Creating a Realistic Language as a Basis for Fiction Cheryl Cardoza In a letter to his son Christopher in February of 1958, Tolkien said “No one believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real” (Letters 264). He added that The Lord of the Rings “was an effort to create a situation in which a common greeting would be elen síla lúmenn’ omentielmo,1 and that the phrase long antedated the book” (Letters 264-5). Tolkien often felt guilty about this, his most secret vice. Even as early as 1916, he confessed as much in a letter to Edith Bratt: “I have done some touches to my nonsense fairy language—to its improvement. I often long to work at it and don’t let myself ‘cause though I love it so, it does seem a mad hobby” (Letters 8). It wasn’t until his fans encouraged him, that Tolkien started to 1 Later, Tolkien decided that Frodo’s utterance of this phrase was in error as he had used the exclusive form of we in the word “omentielmo,” but should have used the inclusive form to include Gildor and his companions, “omentielvo.” The second edition of Fellowship reflected this correction despite some musings on leaving it to signify Frodo being treated kindly after making a grammatical error in Quenya (PE 17: 130-131).
    [Show full text]
  • The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence Upon J. R. R. Tolkien
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2007 The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. Tolkien Kelvin Lee Massey University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Massey, Kelvin Lee, "The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. olkien.T " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2007. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/238 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kelvin Lee Massey entitled "The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. olkien.T " I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. David F. Goslee, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Thomas Heffernan, Michael Lofaro, Robert Bast Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kelvin Lee Massey entitled “The Roots of Middle-earth: William Morris’s Influence upon J.
    [Show full text]
  • On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism
    Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 9 Issue 1 Article 2 2020 On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism Dennis Wilson Wise University of Arizona, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Wise, Dennis Wilson (2020) "On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol9/iss1/2 This Peer-Reviewed 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]. Wise: On Ways of Studying Tolkien INTRODUCTION We are currently living a golden age for Tolkien Studies. The field is booming: two peer-reviewed journals dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien alone, at least four journals dedicated to the Inklings more generally, innumerable society newsletters and bulletins, and new books and edited collections every year. And this only encompasses the Tolkien work in English. In the last two decades, specifically since 2000, the search term “Tolkien” pulls up nearly 1,200 hits on the MLA International Bibliography. For comparison, C. S. Lewis places a distant second at fewer than 900 hits, but even this number outranks the combined hits on Ursula K.
    [Show full text]
  • Small Renaissances Engendered in JRR Tolkien's Legendarium
    Eastern Michigan University DigitalCommons@EMU Senior Honors Theses Honors College 2017 'A Merrier World:' Small Renaissances Engendered in J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium Dominic DiCarlo Meo Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.emich.edu/honors Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Meo, Dominic DiCarlo, "'A Merrier World:' Small Renaissances Engendered in J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium" (2017). Senior Honors Theses. 555. http://commons.emich.edu/honors/555 This Open Access Senior Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@EMU. For more information, please contact lib- [email protected]. 'A Merrier World:' Small Renaissances Engendered in J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium Abstract After surviving the trenches of World War I when many of his friends did not, Tolkien continued as the rest of the world did: moving, growing, and developing, putting the darkness of war behind. He had children, taught at the collegiate level, wrote, researched. Then another Great War knocked on the global door. His sons marched off, and Britain was again consumed. The "War to End All Wars" was repeating itself and nothing was for certain. In such extended dark times, J. R. R. Tolkien drew on what he knew-language, philology, myth, and human rights-peering back in history to the mythologies and legends of old while igniting small movements in modern thought. Arthurian, Beowulfian, African, and Egyptian myths all formed a bedrock for his Legendarium, and fantasy-fiction as we now know it was rejuvenated.Just like the artists, authors, and thinkers from the Late Medieval period, Tolkien summoned old thoughts to craft new creations that would cement themselves in history forever.
    [Show full text]
  • Herjans Dísir: Valkyrjur, Supernatural Femininities, and Elite Warrior Culture in the Late Pre-Christian Iron Age
    Herjans dísir: Valkyrjur, Supernatural Femininities, and Elite Warrior Culture in the Late Pre-Christian Iron Age Luke John Murphy Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Félagsvísindasvið Herjans dísir: Valkyrjur, Supernatural Femininities, and Elite Warrior Culture in the Late Pre-Christian Iron Age Luke John Murphy Lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni trú Leiðbeinandi: Terry Gunnell Félags- og mannvísindadeild Félagsvísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2013 Ritgerð þessi er lokaverkefni til MA–gráðu í Norrænni Trú og er óheimilt að afrita ritgerðina á nokkurn hátt nema með leyfi rétthafa. © Luke John Murphy, 2013 Reykjavík, Ísland 2013 Luke John Murphy MA in Old Nordic Religions: Thesis Kennitala: 090187-2019 Spring 2013 ABSTRACT Herjans dísir: Valkyrjur, Supernatural Feminities, and Elite Warrior Culture in the Late Pre-Christian Iron Age This thesis is a study of the valkyrjur (‘valkyries’) during the late Iron Age, specifically of the various uses to which the myths of these beings were put by the hall-based warrior elite of the society which created and propagated these religious phenomena. It seeks to establish the relationship of the various valkyrja reflexes of the culture under study with other supernatural females (particularly the dísir) through the close and careful examination of primary source material, thereby proposing a new model of base supernatural femininity for the late Iron Age. The study then goes on to examine how the valkyrjur themselves deviate from this ground state, interrogating various aspects and features associated with them in skaldic, Eddic, prose and iconographic source material as seen through the lens of the hall-based warrior elite, before presenting a new understanding of valkyrja phenomena in this social context: that valkyrjur were used as instruments to propagate the pre-existing social structures of the culture that created and maintained them throughout the late Iron Age.
    [Show full text]
  • Tolkien, the Author and the Critic Vincent Ferré
    Tolkien, the Author and the Critic Vincent Ferré To cite this version: Vincent Ferré. Tolkien, the Author and the Critic: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, the Ring goes ever On, Aug 2005, Birmingham, United Kingdom. p. 162-168. halshs-00772173 HAL Id: halshs-00772173 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00772173 Submitted on 10 Jan 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Cet article a paru dans les actes du colloque de Birmingham : Sarah Wells (ed.), The Ring Goes Ever On, Tolkien 2005. Proceedings, Londres, The Tolkien Society, 2008, vol. 1, p. 162-168. Tolkien, the author and the critic: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and The Lord of the Rings It is a well know fact that Tolkien is the author of fictional and non-fictional texts, among which the most famous are The Lord of the Rings and On Fairy-Stories or “Beowulf: the monsters and the critics”. The latters are frequently referred to by critics, to explain or comment the former.
    [Show full text]
  • WAGNER and the VOLSUNGS None of Wagner’S Works Is More Closely Linked with Old Norse, and More Especially Old Icelandic, Culture
    WAGNER AND THE VOLSUNGS None of Wagner’s works is more closely linked with Old Norse, and more especially Old Icelandic, culture. It would be carrying coals to Newcastle if I tried to go further into the significance of the incom- parable eddic poems. I will just mention that on my first visit to Iceland I was allowed to gaze on the actual manuscript, even to leaf through it . It is worth noting that Richard Wagner possessed in his library the same Icelandic–German dictionary that is still used today. His copy bears clear signs of use. This also bears witness to his search for the meaning and essence of the genuinely mythical, its very foundation. Wolfgang Wagner Introduction to the program of the production of the Ring in Reykjavik, 1994 Selma Gu›mundsdóttir, president of Richard-Wagner-Félagi› á Íslandi, pre- senting Wolfgang Wagner with a facsimile edition of the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda on his eightieth birthday in Bayreuth, August 1999. Árni Björnsson Wagner and the Volsungs Icelandic Sources of Der Ring des Nibelungen Viking Society for Northern Research University College London 2003 © Árni Björnsson ISBN 978 0 903521 55 0 The cover illustration is of the eruption of Krafla, January 1981 (Photograph: Ómar Ragnarsson), and Wagner in 1871 (after an oil painting by Franz von Lenbach; cf. p. 51). Cover design by Augl‡singastofa Skaparans, Reykjavík. Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 7 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD WAGNER ............................ 17 CHRONOLOGY ............................................................................... 64 DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS ..68 ICELANDIC STUDIES IN GERMANY .........................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Growth of Grammar in the Elven Tongues
    Volume 21 Number 2 Article 28 Winter 10-15-1996 The Growth of Grammar in the Elven Tongues Christopher Gilson Patrick Wynne Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Gilson, Christopher and Wynne, Patrick (1996) "The Growth of Grammar in the Elven Tongues," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 21 : No. 2 , Article 28. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss2/28 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 While some features of Elven grammar go back to the earliest records, such as the “Qenya Lexicon”, others are unique to later works such as the “Secret Vice” poems and the Etymologies, and some do not emerge until after The Lord of the Rings.
    [Show full text]
  • Clashing Perspectives of World Order in JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth
    ABSTRACT Fate, Providence, and Free Will: Clashing Perspectives of World Order in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth Helen Theresa Lasseter Mentor: Ralph C. Wood, Ph.D. Through the medium of a fictional world, Tolkien returns his modern audience to the ancient yet extremely relevant conflict between fate, providence, and the person’s freedom before them. Tolkien’s expression of a providential world order to Middle-earth incorporates the Northern Germanic cultures’ literary depiction of a fated world, while also reflecting the Anglo-Saxon poets’ insight that a single concept, wyrd, could signify both fate and providence. This dissertation asserts that Tolkien, while acknowledging as correct the Northern Germanic conception of humanity’s final powerlessness before the greater strength of wyrd as fate, uses the person’s ultimate weakness before wyrd as the means for the vindication of providence. Tolkien’s unique presentation of world order pays tribute to the pagan view of fate while transforming it into a Catholic understanding of providence. The first section of the dissertation shows how the conflict between fate and providence in The Silmarillion results from the elvish narrator’s perspective on temporal events. Chapter One examines the friction between fate and free will within The Silmarillion and within Tolkien’s Northern sources, specifically the Norse Eddas, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, and the Finnish The Kalevala. Chapter Two shows that Tolkien, following Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, presents Middle-earth’s providential order as including fated elements but still allowing for human freedom. The second section shows how The Lord of the Rings reflects but resolves the conflict in The Silmarillion between fate, providence, and free will.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia Religions : Ancient and Modern
    RELIGION OF ANCIENT SCANDINAVIA LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT SCANDINAVIA RELIGIONS : ANCIENT AND MODERN. ANIMISM. By EDWARD CLODD, Author of The Story of Creation. PANTHEISM. By JAMES ALLAN SON PICTON, Author of The Religion of the universe. THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA. By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge. THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE. By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author of Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion. ISLAM. By AMEER An SYED, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of Judicature in Bengal, Author of The Spirit of Iflam and The Ethics of Islam. MAGIC AND FETISHISM. By Dr. A. C. H ADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cam- bridge University. THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, F.R.S. THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, late of the British Museum. EARLY BUDDHISM. By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal Asiatic Society. HINDUISM. By Dr. L. D. BAR NEXT, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books and MSS. , British Museum. SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. CELTIC RELIGION. By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at University College, Aberystwyth. THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By CHARLES SQUIRE, Author of The Mythology of the British Islands. JUDAISM By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge University, Author of Jewish Life in the Middle Ages.
    [Show full text]