the lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring part 1

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The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Part 1

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The Lord of the Rings

The Fellowship of the Ring

Part 1

3-minute essay

• The lecture focussed on the key terms in the relationship of a fantasy fiction novel to the material reality of a Classic Realist Novel. The lecture also dealt with the quest structure common to medieval romance that is found in the Lord of the Rings, although the story is more an antiquest since it is about relinquishing something rather than attaining it.

• A second world is an alternate world with its own rules that is invented by the author of the fantasy fiction novel. It is incongruous with our own world and is considered radical fabulation. It may be desired, feared, or both, but requires some sort of emotional reaction and contains supernatural powers.

Credits

• Tolkien, J.R.R., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien (Boston, 1981).

• Franz, Marie-Louise Von, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, A C.G. Jung Foundation Book (Boston and London, 1996).

• Frye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957. New York, 1969).

• Rosebury, Brian, Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon (Houndmills, UK, 2003).

• Shippey, T.A., The Road to Middle-Earth (London, 1982).• Shippey, T.A., J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (London,

2000).• Tyler, J.E.A., The Complete Tolkien Companion (New York,

2004).• Zimmer, Mary E., `Creating and Re-Creating Worlds with Words:

The Religion and Magic of Language in The Lord of The Rings', in Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, edited by Jane Chance (Lexington, 2004), pp. 49-60.

Academic Subject Vs Free Association

• The Rorschach Inkblot Test – free association

• Academic Subject– claims verified by measures

valued in research communities

– evidence (textual)– evidence (critical) – evidence (analysis)

Meaningful Narrative Structuresimilar to myth, fairy-tale, medieval romance

• happy ending

• departure/adventure/return

• equilibrium & force that causes disequilibrium – contrary force – reestablishment of equilibrium

• salvation structure – basic pattern of Bible – giant cycle – creation, fall, exile, redemption, restoration (Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism)

LOTR – “heroic legend on the brink of fairy-tale and history”

• devices of fairy-tale, romance, mythology– “the hero in a fairy-tale is an abstract figure and not

at all human. He is either completely black or completely white, with stereotyped reactions…He is completely schematic” (Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales)

• devices of the classic realist novel– narrative perspective (point of view)– settings – in physical detail with social and political

implications– characters – developed, with feelings, experiences,

psychological depth

Meaningful Patterns

• Fictional Mythology and History• creation, fall, exile, redemption, restoration

(Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism)• differences

– no institutional religions or priests, no sacred texts or rituals, no churches in Middle Earth

– does not create female from male– does not cast female as “Eve” figure– removes much of the gender bias of Augustinian

interpretation of the Genesis

Tolkien’s fictional myth

• Ilúvatar is omnipotent• Ilúvatar is omniscient• Ilúvatar is good• Ilúvatar is creative• Ilúvatar is like a composer and conductor whose themes are sung

by the Ainur (instruments, musicians) • Ilúvatar can also be his own musician (Children of Ilúvatar)• creative and subcreative effort• metaphors of harmony, disharmony• Melkor/Morgoth as author of disharmony – distortion through

attempted appropriation of the creative process and product• And Manwë said unto Melkor: ‘This kingdom thou shalt not take

for thing own, wrongfully, for many others have laboured here no less than thou”

• But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void, and a guard is set for ever on those walls (Of the Voyage of Ëarindel)

• Struggle between good and evil cyclical, however – Sauron survives

Language

• names,place names, languages, scripts • Ëa (Éa, Earwa)• Ëa – both verb and noun• “Therefore I say: Ëa! Let these things

be!” (Ainulindalë 9)• “the secret fire was set to burn at the

heart of the World; and it was called Ëa” (Valaquenta 15)

• World, Geography, Villages, Cities, etc.

Literacy and Orality

• LOTR pretends to be derived from mss written by Bilbo and Frodo, corrected by successive scribes, and added to by others who incorporate oral stories

• Like a medieval manuscript tradition

• oral traditions seep into the narrative through songs and poetry

THE SHIRE• isolated from the spaces of fairy-tale• “these charming, absurd, helpless hobbits”• bourgeois world of isolated, conservative farmers• not a heroic world nor a fantasy world• traces of a social hierarchy

– 'Elves and Dragons'_ I says to him. 'Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you,' I says to him.

• disbelief of fairy-story elements– except for Sam and Frodo

• world of Faërie invades the Shire – Black Riders, Elves, dwarves (and Gandalf)

• LOTR is also a story about the impact of the world of Faërie upon hobbits/humanity

Stories

• But my lad Sam will know more about that. He's in and out of Bag End. Crazy about stories of the old days he is, and he listens to all Mr. Bilbo's tales. Mr. Bilbo has learned him his letters.

Tolkien on fairy-stories/fantasy

• Fairy-stories were plainly not primarily concerned with possibility, but with desirability. If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded.

• Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a 'consolation" for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction

• Desertion and Freedom– …on to real Escape, and what are often its

companions, Disgust, Anger, Condemnation, and Revolt.

Shire Culture• they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-

ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools (Prologue 1)

• medieval agricultural society which has evolved into an isolated rural democracy of a nonpolitical kind

• memory of a king and thain – but now only a mayor and shirriffs - not warlike, but hierarchical (master/servant)

• shire – OE word scir, Anglo-Saxon political and military organization – county organization of GB: i.e. Yorkshire

• England / not England – fictional ‘real’ world

Garden of Eden

• nostalgic image of an irrecoverable world • historical (mythic history) and psychological (of

childhood) • the Golden Age• Garden of Eden as archetype• intended environment for human society

– uncomplicated happiness– uncompromised response to nature, people, animals– uncompromised ‘marriage’– all needs taken care of– absence of hardship, struggle, pain – harsh realities

The Ring - symbol• magic ring of fairy stories – The Hobbit• Bilbo uses it to disappear – initiates his departure – not

the true hero• Ring not just a ‘magic’ ring• Gandalf brings History to history – “The Shadow of the

Past” • the Ring – its nature

– the dark power and Sauron– the rings of power– the One Ring– Bilbo as victim– Gollum and his role

• struggle of good and evil, world domination and power

Thoughts• A Ring of Power looks after itself• Many that live deserve death. And some that die

deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill (79).

• With that power I should have power too great and terrible (81)

• But this would mean exile, a flight from danger into danger, drawing it after me. And I suppose I must go alone, if I am to do that and save the Shire. But I feel very small, and very uprooted, and well– desperate. The Enemy is so strong and terrible(82).

Comparing Good and Evil• Frodo decides to leave for Rivendell - company of

hobbits• Black Riders – glimpses of something “not right”

– strange and unpleasant voice – “spoke funny” “hissed”– black cloak, black horse; face shadowed, invisible– sniffing for hobbits - hunting

• Elves– Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!– “star kindler” – epithet of Varda “star-queen”– song and laughter– the sound blending with the melody seemed to shape itself in

their thought into words (105)– They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight

glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet (106)

Elves• 'I am Gildor,' answered their leader, the Elf who had first

hailed him. 'Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are Exiles, and most of our kindred have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over the Great Sea.

• Hail, Elf-friend!' he said, bowing to Frodo. 'Come now with your friends and join our company!

• It is going to be very dangerous, Sam. 'It is already dangerous. Most likely neither of us will come back.' 'If you don't come back, sir, then I shan't, that's certain,' said Sam. _'Don't you leave him!_ they said to me. _Leave him!_ I said. _I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon, and if any of those Black Rulers try to stop him, they'll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with,_ I said. They laughed.' 'Who are _they,_ and what are you talking about?' 'The Elves, sir. We had some talk last night; and they seemed to know you were going away, so I didn't see the use of denying it. Wonderful folk, Elves, sir!

Analysis and Myth• 'Come! Now is the time for speech and merriment!' Pippin sat up

and rubbed his eyes. He shivered. 'There is a fire in the hall, and food for hungry guests,' said an Elf standing before him. At the south end of the greensward there was an opening. There the green floor ran on into the wood, and formed a wide space like a hall, roofed by the boughs of trees. Their great trunks ran like pillars down each side. In the middle there was a wood-fire blazing, and upon the tree-pillars torches with lights of gold and silver were burning steadily. The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn rings of old trunks. Some went to and fro bearing cups and pouring drink; others brought food on heaped plates and dishes. 'This is poor fare,' they said to the hobbits; 'for we are lodging in the greenwood far from our halls. If ever you are our guests at home, we will treat you better.' 'It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party,' said Frodo.

Invasions of fantasy• the Ring• Gandalf the wizard• Giants and other portents on the border of the

Shire• the Black Riders• rumours of strange things happening in the

world outside• Elves and dwarves on the road in unusual

numbers• legends

– Dark Tower, Mordor, Orcs, Trolls– tree-men

• Elves and Gildor Inglorien

THE END