Stories often take inspiration from multiple styles of writings, including classical texts from modern literature. This is especially important when creating a fictional culture or race to create a sense of believability and help the readers visualize how the setting and characters will appear in their minds. Stories may sometimes place an influence on how other character are represented in the author's writing. One excellent example that takes use of ancient stories to create differentiating cultures is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. His novel shows a large number of examples of inspiration taken from mythological tales and legends. He incorporates his interest such Celtic and Nordic mythology through characters who reflect figures such as Odin, the god and ruler of Asgard. The god is known for being associated with war, battle, victory, death, wisdom, magic, poetry, prophecy and the hunt. While Tolkien may have other sources of influence from other writings, his use of Norse and Celtic mythology can be seen in a number of ways; characters that heavily parallel with the god Odin as well as his ravens given a part of influence the story.
During the war of the ring Saruman used crebains, large black birds relatively a counterpart of real life crows and ravens, as spies. A flock of Crebain from Dunland first appeared when the Fellowship were traveling in Hollin and hid from them to avoid detection. Since they are seen working for Saruman, black birds are initially though as a group of creatures associated with evil and have some level of intelligence. Similarly with Odin, the Norse god has two ravens–one named Huginn and the other Muginn to serve as messengers and bring him information. One example of raven...
... middle of paper ...
...radley J. J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth. [Wilmington, Del.]: ISI, 2002. Print.
Hammond, Wayne G., and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings: a Reader's Companion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Print.
The Lord of the Rings the Motion Picture Trilogy. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving. New Line Cinema, 2004. DVD.
Wettstein, Martin. "Norse Elements in the Work of J.R.R. Tolkien (Martin Wettstein) - Academia.edu." University of Zurich, Switzerland - Academia.edu. Web. 20 June 2011. .
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern us.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Boston, MA: Houghton, 1986. Print.
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Alan Lee. The hobbit ; The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, 2010. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996. Print.
The paper will begin with a look at the life of Tolkien. This will serve the purpose of providing some context for the novel. Looking into the life of Tolkien will also serve to give the reader some insight into the mind that gave birth to such a rich land and why the novel may have some importance for sufferers of mental illness. Next will likely be a short summation of the
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” In TheBeowulf Poet, edited byDonald K. fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
Tolkien's love of language persisted throughout his life from his child hood years till adulthood. When he was a boy he would study Welsh names that would rush by on railway coal cars, a...
Byers, Paula K. Ed. “J.R.R. Tolkien”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gake Research, 1998. 259-260
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
· Wood, Ralph C. "Traveling the one road: The Lord of the Rings as a "pre-Christian" classic." The Christian Century Feb. 93: 208(4).
In Tolkien’s lecture, “Beowulf: The monsters and the Critics,” he argues that Beowulf has been over analyzed for its historical content, and it is not being studied as a piece of art as it should be. He discusses what he perceives the poet of Beowulf intended to do, and why he wrote the poem the way he did. Tolkien’s main proposition, “it was plainly only in the consideration of Beowulf as a poem, with an inherent poetic significance, that any view or conviction can be reached or steadily held” (Tolkien). He evaluates why the author centers the monsters throughout the entire poem, why the poem has a non-harmonic structure, why and how the author fusses together Christianity and Paganism, and how the author uses time to make his fictional poem seem real. He also discusses the overall theme of Beowulf and other assumptions of the text. To support his viewpoints, Tolkien uses quotations and examples from the poem, quotations from other critics, and compares Beowulf to other works of art. Tolkien discusses several statements in interpreting Beowulf as a poem.
J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a peerless fantasy of epic proportions. While eschewing allegory in favor of an historical perspective, Tolkien has imprinted the work with many of his own closely held Catholic beliefs. In a lecture concerning Tolkien’s writing given to students at Villanova University, Dr. Tomas W. Smith put it this way
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
...sions of the mythology, it is easy to tell what the cultures held in high regard. The Greeks were a civil people; their chief deity was a god of law, justice, and morals. The Norse, on the other hand, were a people of war. Their chief god was a god of war and death, and the only way to Valhalla was to die honorably in battle. Examining these mythologies is an excellent way to show the similarities and differences of the two cultures.