The most famous work in the epic fantasy genre is The Lord of the Rings, written by J. R. R. Tolkien over the course of ten years and published in 1954. Over the last few decades, there has been a lot of controversy over whether or not a story in this genre could be considered a valuable literary work. It was suggested that fantasy was clichéd and too unrealistic to be in touch with the daily life. However, when one reads between the lines, one can find a different interpretation within the same story; an interpretation that might not be as clichéd and farfetched as one might think. While it is often claimed that literary works in the genre fantasy cannot have any literary value, the The Lord of the Rings-trilogy contains the beautiful, the true and the good (Flood) and therefore is original, is historical or ethical relevant and has human truth value, which are necessary qualities for a literary work to be valuable.
First of all, the The Lord of the Rings-trilogy contains the beautiful and is original, not for the present day, but for its literary standards of its time, when epic fantasy was not nearly as frequently written as in this day. Avid readers of fantasy claim the book to be unoriginal, since it follows the structure of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth or the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is a predetermined structure, based on the typical epic fantasy adventure. It typically consists of a cycle of twelve stages, depending on which variant is used, (Campbell 391) and each story contains at least some the same standard archetypical characters. Examples of these are the hero, like Frodo, the magician, like Gandalf, and the trickster, a humorous sidekick like Sam. This trilogy concerns the journey of these heroes, as they se...
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...th value. The books contain more than just an epic tale: they are about what really matters, like good and evil, and on top of that, they are original in the sense of a modern-day myth.
Works Cited
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 1949. Novato: New World Library, 2008. Print.
Flood, John. "Judging Literature." Introduction to Literature. Academy Building, Groningen. 14 October 2013. Lecture.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. "Letter 131." The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humprey Carpenter &
Christopher Tolkien. Expanded ed. Hammersmith: HarperCollins, late 1951. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. "Letter 156." The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humprey Carpenter & Christopher Tolkien. Expanded ed. Hammersmith: HarperCollins, 04 Nov 1954. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Now Read On…” Interview by Dennis Gerrolt. BBC Radio 4. BBC, 1971. Web. 11 Jan. 2014.
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.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
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
Mary McDonagh Murphy. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. 110-18. Print. The. Lee, Harper.
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
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. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. New York: Ballantine, 1982. Print
Thompson, Kristin. The Frodo franchise: The Lord of the rings and modern Hollywood. Berkeley: University of California P, 2007.
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954. Print.
Very few books can challenge the Bible in terms of sales. “The Hobbit”, and its successors, is one of them. Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the book has sold about 100 million copies till date. It features the story of a hobbit and his adventures. The book is very well written, and contains many different characteristics that appeal to the reader. One of these is the plot, which can be easily fit in a Hero's Journey chart. A Hero's Journey chart is divided into 3 ‘acts’, which are further divided into a total of 23 archetypal steps. J.R.R. Tolkien exceptionally develops three archetypal steps, namely ‘ Refusal of the Call’,' The Approach’, and ‘The Road Back’ in “The Hobbit.”
In the world of Robert Jordan’s bestselling fantasy series, "The Wheel of Time", the life of the ordinary people has been undergoing some extraordinary changes. The legendary Dragon has been Reborn, and the Last Battle to decide the fate of humanity draws nigh. Meanwhile, outside of this world sit millions of readers, from all reaches of life, waiting anxiously for the next chapter in the story to be told. They debate what has happened, what it means in the context of the story, what it means for the future of the Wheel, as well as how it impacts their lives’. The Wheel of Time is a world where absolute good battles absolute evil, and yet shades of grey cloud the landscape. A world of hope and despair, a world of peace and war. From this world a following has grown. People from different cultures, different languages, and different political ideologies gravitate together forming a cohesive group that helps to spread the word about the work of Robert Jordan. In much the same manner that J.R.R. Tolkien created a myth for the modern ages with his saga "The Lord of the Rings" and George Lucas has done with his "Star Wars" series of movies, so has Robert Jordan entered into the realm of mythology with his work "The Wheel of Time". And this myth, like those which have come recently, and those from antiquity, has created a community of followers around it. They are drawn together initially because of a personal interest, and they stay not only for that interest, but because of the community that grows as a result of engaging themselves with this story.
Works Cited Campbell, Joesph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2nd Ed. Bollingen Series XVII.
Throughout his works, Tolkien includes, in varying degrees, every major component of our Primary World: landforms, minerals, weather and climate, natural vegetation, agriculture, political units, population distribution, races, languages, transportation routes, and even house types. “He did more than merely describe these individual comp...
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most successful books of all time (selling over 100 million copies [Shippey]). It is also an excellent example of a fantasy novel due to the presence of magic, supernatural creatures, and adventure (through elements of quest within the novel). Magic is a key element to any fantasy novel, especially prevalent in The Hobbit. Fantasy novels can have a certain majestic feel or characters that use their magical powers in peculiar ways, that are (usually) obviously fake (Saricks 36-39). An example of this in The Hobbit would be Gandalf on page 21.
The Fellowship of the Ring is a modern day epic. When use in English classes, the term epic is a story “told on a grand scale, with armies, heroes, gods, and the brutal forces of nature depicted over long character arcs and sweeping landscapes” (Ray). While many of the elements of an epic are present in this work of literature, there are some elements of an epic that do not fit. In many ways, The Fellowship of the Ring does not fit the elements of an epic. The different ways the term epic fits and does not fit will be discussed in the next three paragraphs.