Lord of the Rings: Mythology (Original)

[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:00 PM                       
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Hi everyone, hope you've all been well. I thought I would start a thread devoted to the mythology of Lord of the Rings and the ancient sources if borrowed from. The ones off the top of my head would be Beowolf and the Kalevala, but I'm sure there are many more out there.

This is NOT meant to be a discussion about the book or movie (although if you want to do that, no biggie, I suppose). Like I said, this is meant to cover the ancient myths that inspired Tolkien. Incidentally, I've read the book twice, and I see the movie whenever I can, having them all on DVD. They're both my favorite book and movie, and I can't get enough of seeing them. Anyway, here goes...
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:02 PM                       
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INFLUENCES ON THE LORD OF THE RINGS

World War I and World War II
Industrialization and Pollution
Tolkien's Linguistic Training
The Impact of The Lord of the Rings

World War I and World War II

World War I broke out while Tolkien was a student at Oxford University. After finishing his degree, Tolkien joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a second lieutenant.

In 1916 Tolkien was sent to France, where he and his fellow soldiers faced the terrifying new mechanisms of modern warfare—machine guns, tanks, and poison gas—fighting in some of the bloodiest battles known to human history. Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme, a vicious engagement in which over a million people were either killed or wounded.

In the trenches of World War I, Tolkien began recording the horrors of war that would later surface in The Lord of the Rings. Later that year he caught trench fever, an illness carried by lice, and was sent back to England. During his convalescence, he began writing down the stories and mythology of Middle-earth, which would form the basis for The Silmarillion.

"An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience," Tolkien acknowledged, but he strongly denied that his story was an allegory for World War I or II.* Although The Lord of the Rings was written during World War II and follows the rise of a great evil threatening to envelop the world, the ring was not meant to symbolize the atomic bomb. Likewise, the characters Sauron and Saruman, although both tyrants, are imaginary characters and are not meant to represent Hitler or Stalin.

As professor Daniel Timmons notes, the beginnings, the processes, and the ends of The Lord of the Rings and World War II are wholly different.

In the foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote, "By 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead." The reader cannot help but notice that the Dead Marshes of Mordor is eerily reminiscent of World War I's Western Front and its utter devastation of life.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

 
Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:03 PM                       
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Industrialization and Pollution

The industrial revolution, a period of rapid change beginning in Britain around 1750 and lasting well into the 1800s, transformed the cultural and physical landscape of England.

Handmade products crafted in small-town shops gave way to urban factories and mechanized production. Textiles, shipbuilding, iron, and steel emerged as important industries, and the country's population increasingly migrated to urban areas to work in the factories. Coal fueled these industries, polluting the air with black smoke and dotting the countryside with mining spoil.

Although born well after the industrial revolution, Tolkien witnessed the lasting effects of industry on the environment, first as a child in Birmingham and later as an adult in Oxford.

Tolkien's concern for nature echoes throughout The Lord of the Rings. Evil beings of Middle-earth dominate nature and abuse it to bolster their own power. For example, Saruman, the corrupt wizard, devastates an ancient forest as he builds his army.

The Elves, in contrast, live in harmony with nature, appreciating its beauty and power, and reflecting a sense of enchantment and wonder in their artful songs.

Tolkien's Linguistic Training

J.R.R. Tolkien devoted his life to the pursuit of knowledge, especially the study of language. He was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon for much of his professional life.

Tolkien's ability with languages inspired his studies in philology, the branch of linguistics concerned with the relationships and ancestry of languages. Tolkien worked as a philologist throughout his life, publishing articles on Anglo-Saxon texts, such as Beowulf, and co-editing an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:04 PM                       
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The Impact of The Lord of the Rings

While recent opinion polls have ranked The Lord of the Rings as one of the most popular literary works of this century, Tolkien's publisher initially thought this "work of genius" would lose money. And when Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy initially appeared in 1954-55, they received mixed critical response.

Some commentators, such as C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden, declared the trilogy a masterpiece. Others, such as Mark Roberts and Edmund Wilson, thought it was juvenile trash. Auden remarked that people seemed to either love Tolkien's work or hate it. Although there were opposing views, the books sold reasonably well and exceeded the publisher's initial expectations.

In the 1960s the popularity of The Lord of the Rings exploded when a pirated version became available in America and as themes of resisting political corruption and preserving the natural environment resonated with the challenges readers faced in their own lives. Moreover, a sort of cult appeared, with people wearing buttons labeled FRODO LIVES or GANDALF FOR PRESIDENT. Many clubs, specialty journals, and other fantasy books appeared.

The enduring appeal of the books is obvious today. As in the 1960s, people are reading The Lord of the Rings in cafés, in subways, and at bus stops; and millions worldwide continue to be enchanted and inspired by Tolkien's massive work.

Watch J.R.R. Tolkien's publisher, Rayner Unwin, talk about his discovery of The Hobbit and his contribution to The Lord of the Rings.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/influences.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:05 PM                       
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CREATING A MYTHOLOGICAL IDENTITY FOR ENGLAND


Tolkien created the mythology and history of Middle-earth to serve as the poetic legend he felt his homeland, England, lacked.

After the last Roman rulers left present day England in about A.D. 400, a series of migrations and invasions altered England's cultural landscape. First came the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; then the Danish and Norwegian Vikings; and finally the Normans from France in 1066. As a result, many of the oral histories and legends of previous eras were lost.

In part to make up for this loss, Tolkien spent years developing and fine-tuning the history and mythology of Middle-earth. He meticulously detailed the tales of Middle-earth in his book The Silmarillion, which he began writing during World War I.

The Lord of the Rings books, published in the 1950s, draw on the mythology Tolkien detailed in The Silmarillion, though The Silmarillion was not released to the public until 1977.


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/myth.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:06 PM                       
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THE MYTHS THAT INSPIRED THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Beowulf

Tolkien gave one of his most influential lectures on Beowulf, and he incorporated some of the ideological conflicts present in this poem into his mythology.

Beowulf is a blend of historical events and Nordic legend. The poem was probably composed in the seventh or eighth century and spread primarily through song or spoken verse.

A manuscript of the poem, written around A.D. 1000, has preserved the poem, making Beowulf the earliest surviving epic work of northern European literature.

Beowulf tells of the adventures of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel, then from Grendel's mother. Beowulf finally returns to his own country, where he perishes in a vivid fight against a dragon.

Tolkien infused The Lord of the Rings with the physical and spiritual conflict evident in Beowulf, as Jane Chance, a professor of English, writes in Tolkien's Art:

Because the Fellowship is burdened with the responsibility of bearing the Ring and because its presence attracts evil, the greatest threat to the Fellowship and its mission comes not from without but within. The hero must realize that he can become a monster. The two books of the Fellowship trace the process of this realization: the first book centers on the presentation of evil as external and physical, requiring physical heroism to combat it; and the second book centers on the presentation of evil as internal and spiritual, requiring a spiritual heroism to combat it. The hero matures by coming to understand the character of good and evil—specifically, by descending into an underworld and then ascending into an overworld, a natural one in the first book and a supernatural one in the second. These two levels correspond to the two levels—Germanic and Christian—of Beowulf and The Hobbit. For Frodo, as for Beowulf and Bilbo, the ultimate enemy is himself.*

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/myth.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:08 PM                       
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Other Mythological Influences

• Iceland's Poetic Edda contains mythological and heroic poems composed over a long period (A.D. 800-1000). The names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit were derived from the Poetic Edda.

• The Finnish Kalevala, a 19th-century compilation of old Finnish ballads and poems, parallels the real history of the Finns. Tolkien was fascinated by the Kalevala, finding in it timeless themes and archetypal characters. The hero of the Kalevala is a wise old shaman named Vainamoinen, who has a flowing beard and magical powers, reminiscent of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written anonymously in the late 14th-century in England. The tale of Sir Gawain chronicles the Arthurian knight's numerous physical and mental tests. The major theme in Sir Gawain, resisting temptation, is also a major plot device and theme in The Lord of the Rings.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


Books
Chance, Jane. The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power. University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Chance, Jane. Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England. University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Shippey, T.A. The Road to Middle-earth. Harper Collins, 1992.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/myth.html
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:10 PM                       
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Well, that's all for now. Each time I see the movie or read the book, I think of how nice it would be to live in Middle-Earth. Not in Mordor, of course, maybe the Shire or in Lothlorien.

I welcome any opinions or additions, of course!
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Jennifer O'Dell

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:31 PM                       
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Nice topic, Michelle, I don't know anyone who didn't love the movies. I would have liked to have been Eowyn, battling the Ringrwraith at the end...
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[Michelle Sandberg]

 
Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:36 PM                       
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Wasn't that so very cool?
I would have liked to have been one of the beautiful elves, blessed with youth and immortality until they went off to the Gray Havens.
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[Michelle Sandberg]

Michelle Sandberg

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:38 PM                       
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Best hero in the movie would have to be Aragorn! Of course, I think that I liked Frodo better in the books.
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[Michelle Sandberg]

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:43 PM                       
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You in the movie, sweetie?

Twinkie, you wouldn't have even made the movie!
You would have been one of the poor villagers killed by the Orcs, and even then, your scene would have been edited out.

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[Michelle Sandberg]

Jennifer O'Dell

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:49 PM                       
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Let's not rip on Michelle everytime she comes here.

Michelle, you read a lot of books, I see. I tried reading Lord of the Rings a long time ago and couldn't get through it. Maybe I should try again...
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[Michelle Sandberg]

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   posted 07-31-2005 09:54 PM                       
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Damn right, she reads a lot of books...coloring books! Michelle probably won't read anything unless it involves crayolas!
 
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[Michelle Sandberg]

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   posted 07-31-2005 10:36 PM                       
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Michelle Sandberg, I would be happy to discuss Lord of the Rings or anything else with you. I have read your past posts and think you're pretty hot.
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Posts: 110 | From: Mt. Olympus | Registered: Apr 2005