The Genesis of J.R.R. Tolkien's Mythology
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THE GENESIS OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S MYTHOLOGY By Andrew S. Higgins Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Education Cardiff Metropolitan University March 2015 1 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and it is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed…… ……… (candidate) Date………18 December 2014…………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged through explicit references. A full list of references is appended. Signed…… ……… (candidate) Date………18 December 2014…………… STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed…… ……… (candidate) Date………18 December 2014…………… 2 Summary This thesis critically examines the earliest creative work of J.R.R. Tolkien, from which the first version of his mythology would emerge, as one coherent whole, rather than a series of individual creative acts. It argues that all aspects of Tolkien's creativity worked in a dialectic way to bring to life an invented secondary world the complexity of which fantasy literature had not seen before. In examining Tolkien's early creative process this study also offers an alternative profile and assessment of J.R.R. Tolkien, in contradistinction to the popular image of him as the elderly Oxford don, by critically reading him as a young man, student, budding philologist, soldier and World War One survivor. The scope of this thesis is a holistic examination of Tolkien's earliest creative output comprising poetry, prose, language invention and visual works and includes analysis of several of Tolkien’s early creative works which remain either unpublished or under-analysed. The study uses several contextual frameworks to offer an in-depth analysis of Tolkien’s early imaginative language invention, a neglected area in Tolkien studies, in spite of being at the core of Tolkien’s creative process. This thesis, therefore, is critically responding to a gap in Tolkien and fantasy literature scholarship, and offers new insights on the earliest writing phases of one of the most influential fantasy authors of the 20th century. The introductory chapter presents an overview of Tolkien criticism and defines the scope and range of the thesis. Chapter two examines how myth-making and language invention came together in Tolkien’s earliest works and argues that these two key elements become inextricably intertwined in the first full expression of Tolkien’s early mythology, The Book of Lost Tales. Chapter three explores the underlying religious underpinnings of Tolkien's mythology and his early attempt to employ overt Roman Catholic words and ideas into his emerging secondary world. This chapter goes on to demonstrate how Tolkien combined Roman Catholic ideas with elements of both pagan mythology and Victorian spiritualism into the fabric of his secondary world. Chapter four focuses on the role of visual expression in Tolkien's early mythology by reading two major groups of documents from this period: published drawings and 3 paintings in which Tolkien expressed his early mythic ideas; and a group of visually oriented ‘para-textual’ elements, such as maps, charts and samples of Tolkien’s invented writing systems. These visual representations are explored as ‘trans-medial’ components which, along with layered narratives and language invention, make up the fabric of Tolkien’s invented secondary world. The last chapter of this thesis explores several ways Tolkien experimented with in order to link his growing body of mythology to the primary world. It examines Tolkien’s first ‘framework’ of transmission which relied on dreams, and dream vision, to attempt this link. The second half of this chapter explores how Tolkien developed a parallel narrative transmission ‘framework’ through the re- imagining and re-purposing of Germanic myth and legend. The thesis also includes a series of appendices: a chronology outlining Tolkien’s creative works from this time; a list of the books he borrowed from the Exeter College Library as an undergraduate; a detailed list of examples of Tolkien's early language invention from the time; and a transcript of a report on the literary talk Tolkien gave at Exeter College on the Anglo-Catholic poet Francis Thompson. 4 Table of Contents Summary 3 Contents 5 Conventions and Abbreviations 8 Acknowledgements 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 12 1. Aim and Scope of Thesis 13 2. Review of Previous Literature 14 3. Constructing a Profile of the Young Tolkien 23 4. Structure of Thesis 34 Chapter 2: Myth and Language 37 1. Introduction 37 2. The Bones in the Soup: Setting Context 38 3. The Legacy of Invented Languages 41 3.1. Before Fiction: Medieval Language Invention 41 3.2. Early Modern Language Invention and the Traveller’s Tale 43 3.3. 19th Century Language Invention 47 3.4. Conclusions 49 4. The Early Tolkien as Imitator/Adaptor 50 4.1. Tolkien's Earliest Language Invention 51 4.2. Tolkien's Love of the Northern and Early Language Invention 65 4.3. The Kalevala, Finnish and Tolkien's Language Invention 69 5. Tolkien as Myth Creator 84 5.1. The Shores of Faery (July 1915) – Mythic Narrative and Language Meet 84 5.2. The Shadow People and Lost Languages 93 5.3. Myth and Language Invention Intertwined: The Book of Lost Tales 96 6. Tolkien's Creative Uses of His Language Invention 104 6.1. Poetic Uses 104 6.2. Ludic and Humorous Uses 112 5 7. Conclusions 121 Chapter 3: The Religious Foundations of Tolkien's Early Mythology 122 1. Introduction 122 2. Background and Context 125 3. Roman Catholic Roots 127 3.1. John Henry Newman 127 3.2. Francis Thompson 131 4. The Blending of the Christian and the Pagan 144 4.1. Two Early Models for Tolkien: Beowulf and Snorra-Edda 144 4.2 Habbanan: Tolkien's Mythologizing of a Catholic Purgatory 149 4.3. Linguistic Syncretism: Catholic Words in The Qenya Lexicon 154 4.4. The Holy Trinity and Tolkien's Secret Fire 158 4.5. The Syncretic Nature of Tolkien's Cosmogony and Pantheon in The Book of Lost Tales 161 5. Conclusions 171 Chapter 4: The Role of the Visual in Tolkien's Early Mythology 177 1. Introduction 177 2. Tolkien's Early Paintings and Drawings and the Secret Vice of 'Ishness' 180 2.1. Earliest Ishness – Nascent Visual Expressions 183 2.2. The Book of Ishness – Myth Becomes Visible 188 2.3. Conclusion: How Tolkien Made Myth Visible 194 3. Visual Para-texts as Key Components of Tolkien's Early World-Building 197 3.1. Maps: Visualizing the Geography of Secondary Worlds 198 3.2. Writing Systems: Visualizing Invented Languages 206 3.3. The Heraldic Devices of Tol-Erethrin 213 4. Conclusions 215 Chapter 5: Inventing Frameworks 219 1. Introduction 219 6 2. Dreams and Dream Vision as Early Transmission Frameworks 221 2.1. Dreams in Myth, Medieval Poetry and Romanticism 222 2.2. You & Me and The Cottage of Lost Play 227 2.3. The Town of Dreams and The City of Present Sorrow 228 2.4. Signifying Dreams in The Qenya Lexicon 229 3. The 'Mythology for England' Frameworks 233 3.1. Creating Links through Language Invention 233 3.2. Olorë Mallë – The Path of Dreams 235 3.3. Ottor Wǽfre/Eriol 'He Who Dreams Alone' 239 3.4. Ælfwine – Myth becomes Legend verging on History 246 3.5. Faërian Drama as a new type of Dream Vision Framework 249 4. Conclusions 252 Chapter 6: Conclusions: Tolkien at the Genesis of His Mythology 255 1. The Early Tolkien: Private Invention and Public Reception 255 2. Tolkien and the Genesis of his Mythology 258 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Chronological List of Tolkien's work to early 1920s 264 Appendix 2: List of the Academic Books Tolkien Borrowed from the Fellow’s Library of Exeter College (1911-1915) 270 Appendix 3: Detailed List of Tolkien's Language Invention and Writing Systems 272 Appendix 4: Tolkien’s Paintings and Drawings 275 Appendix 5: Transcript of the Report of Tolkien's Talk on Francis Thompson at Exeter College 288 Bibliography 1. Works by J.R.R. Tolkien, cited in chronological order 291 2. J.R.R. Tolkien's Unpublished Manuscripts 2.1. Bodleian Library 293 2.2. Other Archival Material 294 3. Other Works Cited 294 7 Conventions and Abbreviations In this thesis, The Book of Lost Tales refers to that body of material Tolkien composed between late 1916 and 1920, which consisted of the prose stories of Tolkien's early Lost Tales and linking material. The Book of Lost Tales (in italics) – refers to first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth series as published in 1983 and 1984 in which Christopher Tolkien published an edited version of this early material by his father supplemented by earlier poems his father had composed, notes from the notebooks Tolkien kept at the time, and editorial commentary by Christopher Tolkien. When referencing from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Selection (1981) I give the date when each letter was written following the relevant abbreviation (see list below) and before referencing the page number in the published volume. All discrete works of Tolkien (including individual poems, paintings, etc.) will be printed in italics. Tolkien’s invented base roots from The Qenya Lexicon are expressed in all caps (e.g. – ALA). Lists of Abbreviations Tolkien’s works Beowulf Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary (2014) FOA The Fall of Arthur (2013) FR The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) GF ‘Goblin Feet’, in Oxford Poetry, 1915 (1915) Kalevala Essay ‘The Story of Kullervo and Essays on “The Kalevala”‘, in Tolkien Studies (2010) Letters The Letters of J.R.R.