J. R. R. Tolkien included many elements in hisMiddle-earth writings, especiallyThe Lord of the Rings, other than narrative text. These includeartwork,calligraphy, chronologies,family trees,heraldry,languages,maps,poetry,proverbs,scripts, glossaries, prologues, and annotations. Much of this material is collected in the many appendices. Scholars have stated that the use of these elementsplaces Tolkien in the tradition of Englishantiquarianism.
Other scholars have discussed why Tolkien spent so much effort on these antiquarian-style elements. Some of the materials suggest that Tolkien was just the editor of real materials that had come into his hands. This applies, for example, to artworks like thefound manuscript Book of Mazarbul, and to annals that seem to have been edited and annotated by different people over many years. It applies, too, toTolkien's frame stories for his writings, including the memoirs ofBilbo andFrodo Baggins in the case ofThe Lord of the Rings, which supposedly survived as theRed Book of Westmarch. All of these elements together forman editorial frame for the book, placing the author in the role offictional translator of the surviving ancient text, and helping to make thesecondary world of Middle-earth seem real and solid.
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an EnglishRoman Catholic writer, poet,philologist, and academic, best known as the author of thehigh fantasy worksThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings. He was professionally interested in the ancientGermanic languages, includingGothic andOld Norse. He specialised inOld English, the language of theAnglo-Saxons. He spent much of his career as a professor of medieval English at theUniversity of Oxford.[2] Tolkien stated that whenever he read a medieval work, he wanted to write a modern one in the same tradition.[3]
The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954–55; it won theInternational Fantasy Award in 1957. The publication of theAce Books andBallantine paperbacks in the United States helped it to become immensely popular with a new generation in the 1960s. The book has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.[4] In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by theBBC in the United Kingdom,The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's best-loved book." In similar 2004 polls both Germany[5] and Australia[6] also foundThe Lord of the Rings to be their favourite book. In a 1999 poll ofAmazon.com customers,The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium."[7] The popularity ofThe Lord of the Rings increased further whenPeter Jackson's film trilogy came out in 2001–2003.[8]
Christina Fawcett writes that by creating his fantasy world ofMiddle-earth in the way that he did, giving it a history as well as a narrative, Tolkien was following in a tradition that interwove history with literature. She notes thatantiquarianism flourished in the 18th century, and that 19th centuryneo-medieval literature grew out of the Gothic.[10]
Jamie Williamson identifies antiquarianism as an ancestor of modern fantasy. Tolkien was in Williamson's view following earlier authors likeWilliam Morris, who in turn was following antiquarians likeJames Macpherson in the use of devices likea prose style incorporating archaisms and elegy and historical appendices to create a feeling of realism.[11] Carl Phelpstead writes that Tolkien's "prolific creation of the languages, peoples, genealogies, and history that give Middle-earth an unprecedented (and unmatched) sense of reality is calculated to prevent ... disbelief by providing the kind of inner consistency which commands Secondary Belief."[12] Phelpstead states that Tolkien argued againstSamuel Taylor Coleridge's description of fiction in his 1817Biographia Literaria as prompting "willing suspension of disbelief", insisting that the suspension of disbelief was "involuntary" in successful fiction, and that it was "difficult and requires much labor"[12] to achieve this in literature. Phelpstead comments that the "non-narrative aspects of world-building" have largely been overlooked by scholars of literature but are being explored in the less narrowly-focused discipline ofmedia studies.[12]
Nick Groom, inA Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, places Tolkien in the tradition of English antiquarianism, where 18th century authors likeThomas Chatterton wrote in medieval style, creating a variety of non-narrative materials much as Tolkien did.[13] Finding a lack of suitable material, he "invented his own archaic language and calligraphy; produced his own complex medieval manuscripts, maps, sketches, and heraldry; [and] loaded his pseudo-antique writings with prefaces, footnotes, appendices, and glossaries".[13] Björn Sundmark notes that Tolkien was following authors likeJonathan Swift in his use of maps in his fiction.[9] Will Sherwood, writing inJournal of Tolkien Research, comments that these non-narrative elements "will all sound familiar as they are the techniques that [Tolkien] used to immerse readers into Arda [the world that includes Middle-earth]."[14] Andrew Higgins, reviewing Groom's article, comments that Tolkien, like the antiquarians, invented legends and myths, but not simply as fantasy; he and they "felt they were recording a past that was already there".[15]
| Author | Dates | Artwork | Calligraphy | Heraldry | Maps | Manuscripts | Genealogies | Languages | Paratexts | Songs/poems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Swift | 1667–1745 | yes | yes | |||||||
| William Stukeley | 1687–1765 | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||
| Thomas Percy | 1729–1811 | yes | yes | |||||||
| Thomas Chatterton | 1752–1770 | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||
| William Blake | 1757–1827 | yes | ||||||||
| J. R. R. Tolkien | 1892–1973 | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Catherine McIlwaine writes that Tolkien used his pipe to burn the edges of theBook of Mazarbul's pages, "pierced holes along one side to resemble the holes where the parchment would have been stitched to the binding and washed them with red paint to resemble bloodstains".[16] Groom notes that Tolkien was not a "literary forger" like Chatterton, but that his facsimile pages of theBook of Mazarbul "enlist[ed] the aesthetics of antiquarianism" and that he "adopts the techniques of literary forgery".[13] Sherwood adds that these forgery methods were much like Chatterton's ways of making his documents look realistic.[14] The set of forged and invented non-narrative elements took their place alongsidethe frame story that Bilbo and later Hobbits had edited, transcribed and annotated the text of the ancientRed Book of Westmarch which Tolkiensupposedly found and edited asThe Lord of the Rings.[13][14]
Among the English antiquarian authors, writes Groom, were the bishopThomas Percy, whose 1765Reliques of Ancient English Poetry contained songs,paratextual devices such as "prefaces, notes, appendices, [and] glossaries",[13] andWilliam Stukeley, who added genealogies and maps to Percy's range of techniques. The satiristJonathan Swift enjoyed "invented languages, linguistic systems, and spelling reform", and populatedGulliver's Travels with "false maps and pseudonymous authorship",[13] while the poet and artistWilliam Blake filled his written works with "illuminated pages" containing his own artwork.[13] Sherwood argues that Tolkien intentionally set about improving on antiquarian forgery, eventually creating "the codes and conventions of modern fantasy literature".[14]
In antiquarian style, Tolkien created many non-narrative materials. These are both graphic, such as artwork, heraldry, and maps; and textual, such as appendices, footnotes, glossaries, and prefaces.[13]
Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. He prepared illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books,facsimile artefacts such as theBook of Mazarbul, more or less "picturesque" maps, andcalligraphy including the iconicBlack Speech inscription on theOne Ring.[1] Some of his artworks combined several of these elements to support his fiction.[17]
Tolkien inventedseveral writing systems to accompany his languages, includingCirth,Sarati, andTengwar.[18][19] Whenhis publisher invited him to suggest ideas for the dust jackets of the three volumes, he supplied a design using the Ring inscription in Tengwar for the first book. Although this proved too expensive, a simplified version using the inscription was used for all three volumes.[20] For the title page, he drew a top margin incorporating a Cirth script that reads 'THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRANSLATED FROM THE RED BOOK', and a bottom margin in Tengwar, which continues the sentence 'of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien herein is set forth the history of the War of the Ring and the return of the King as seen by the Hobbits'.[21]
Tolkien describedheraldic devices for many of the characters and nations ofMiddle-earth. His descriptions were in simple English rather than in specificblazon.[22][23] The emblems correspond in nature to their bearers, and their diversity contributes to the richly-detailed realism of his writings, lending colour to the characters' backgrounds and personalities.[24] Scholars note that Tolkien went through different phases in his use of heraldry; his early account of the Elvish heraldry ofGondolin inThe Book of Lost Tales corresponds broadly to heraldic tradition in the choice of emblems and colours, but that later when he wroteThe Lord of the Rings he was freer in his approach, and in the complex use of symbols forAragorn's sword and banner, he clearly departs from tradition to suit his storytelling.[23]
Tolkien made maps depicting Middle-earth to help him with plot development, to guide the reader through his often complex stories, and to contribute to theimpression of depth and realisticworldbuilding in his writings.[1][25] Shippey comments that the maps contribute an "air of solidity and extent both in space and time which its successors [in 20th century fantasy] so conspicuously lack".[26] He suggests that readers take maps and the names on them as labels with "a very close one-to-one relationship with whatever they label".[27] That in turn makes maps "extraordinarily useful to fantasy", as they constantly assure the reader that the places depicted exist and have history and cultures behind them.[27]
Tolkien stated that he began with maps and developed his plots from them, but that he also wanted his maps to be picturesque.[28] He painstakingly constructed his characters' intersecting movements to get each of them to the right places at the right times. He drew his maps, such as the one of Gondor and Mordor, to scale ongraph paper and plotted the protagonists' tracks, annotating these with dates to ensure that the chronology fitted exactly.[29][30]
The appendices toThe Lord of the Rings contain precisely worked-out chronologies of Middle-earth, supporting the narrative with background detail of many aspects of the nations and characters. Appendix A: "Annals of the Kings and Rulers" gives background to the larger world of Middle-earth, with brief overviews of the events of the first twoAges of the world, and then more detailed histories of the nations of Men in Gondor and Rohan, as well as a history of the royal Dwarvish line of Durin during the Third Age.[31] Appendix B: "The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands)" is a timeline of events throughoutThe Lord of the Rings, and ancient events affecting the narrative; in lesser detail, it gives the stories' context in the fictional chronology of the larger mythology. Tolkien used the timeline, in conjunction with his maps of Middle-earth, to align theinterlaced threads of the narrative as the different characters progress in different directions through the landscape.[32]
| Year | TheSecond Age |
|---|---|
| 1 | Foundation of theGrey Havens, and ofLindon. |
| 32 | TheEdain reachNúmenor. |
| c. 40 | ManyDwarves leaving their old cities inEred Luin go toMoria and swell its numbers. |
| 442 | Death of Elros Tar-Minyatur. |
| c. 500 | Sauron begins to stir again in Middle-earth. |
| 548 | ... |
Family trees contribute to theimpression of depth and realism in the stories set in his fantasy world by showing that each character is rooted in history with a rich network of relationships.[33] Tolkien included multiplefamily trees in the appendices toThe Lord of the Rings; they are variously forElves,Dwarves,Hobbits, andMen. The family trees gave Tolkien a way of exploring and developing the etymologies of characters' names, and their genealogical relationships.[34][33] They imply, too, the fascination of his Hobbit characters with their family history. A further function was to show howaspects of character derive from ancestry.[33]
Tolkien was fascinated by language in his childhood, and professionally interested in it as a philologist.Philology strongly influenced his Middle-earth fantasy world. Heconstructed languages throughout his life, starting in his teens, describing this as "A Secret Vice".[35] The most developed of his glossopoeic projects was his family ofElvish languages includingQuenya andSindarin.[36][37] He stated that "I am a philologist and all my work is philological"; he explained to his American publisherHoughton Mifflin that this was meant to imply that his work was "all of a piece, andfundamentally linguistic [sic] in inspiration. ... Theinvention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows."[38]
| The Hobbits invokeElbereth[39] |
|---|
Sam drew out theelven-glass of Galadriel again.As if to do honour to his hardihood, and to grace with splendour his faithful brown hobbit-hand that had done such deeds, the phial blazed forth suddenly, so that all the shadowy court was lit with a dazzling radiance like lightning; but it remained steady and did not pass. |
Tolkien made "daring"[40] use of untranslated Elvish, as when the Hobbits reachElrond's house atRivendell and hear the poemA Elbereth Gilthoniel sung in full:A Elbereth Gilthoniel / silivren penna míriel / o menel aglar elenath! ...[40][41] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey comments that readers were not expected to know the song's literal meaning, but were meant to make something of it: it was clearly something from an unfamiliar language, and it announced that "there is more to Middle-earth than can immediately be communicated".[40]
As well as invented languages, there are untranslated greetings inOld English, such as "'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer". This is a scholarly joke: adialectal form ofBeowulf'sWæs þú, Hróðgár, hál ("Be thou well,Hrothgar!") i.e.Éomer shouts "Long Live KingTheoden!" in the accent of ancientMercia, the part of England where Tolkien grew up.[42]
The poetry inThe Lord of the Rings consists of poems and songs interspersed with the novel's prose. The book contains over 60 pieces of verse of many kinds, including forwandering,marching to war,drinking, and having a bath; narrating ancient myths,riddles,prophecies, and magical incantations; of praise and lament (elegy).[43] Some of these forms were found inOld English poetry. Tolkien stated that all his poems and songs were dramatic in function, not seeking to express the poet's emotions, but throwing light on the characters, such asBilbo Baggins,Sam Gamgee, andAragorn, who sing or recite them.[44][45]
Commentators have noted that Tolkien's verse has long been overlooked, and almost never emulated by other fantasy writers;[a] but that since the 1990s it has received scholarly attention. The verse includes light-hearted songs and apparent nonsense, as with those ofTom Bombadil; the poetry ofthe Shire, which has been said to convey a sense of "mythic timelessness";[47] and the laments of theRiders of Rohan, which echo the oral tradition of Old English poetry.[48] Scholarly analysis of Tolkien's verse shows that it is both varied and of high technical skill, making use of differentmetres and rarely-used poetic devices to achieve its effects.[49]
| Lament of the Rohirrim[51] |
|---|
| Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is thehelm and thehauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the hand on the harp-string, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tallcorn growing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; ... |
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Tolkien uses many proverbs inThe Lord of the Rings to create a feeling that the world ofMiddle-earth is both familiar and solid, and to give a sense of the different cultures of theHobbits,Men,Elves, andDwarves who populate it.[52][53] Scholars have commented that the proverbs are sometimes used directly to portray characters such asBarliman Butterbur, who never has time to collect his thoughts.[54] Further, the proverbs help to convey Tolkien's underlying message aboutprovidence; while he keepshis Christianity hidden, readers can see that what appears as luck to the protagonists reflects a higher purpose throughout Tolkien's narrative.[55]
Tolkien framed his narratives with a mass ofparatexts, elements which stand beside the main text, inThe Lord of the Rings and some inThe Hobbit. The Tolkien scholarJanet Brennan Croft comments that these "resonat[e]" or "collaborat[e]" with the main text to amplify its effect, making it more believable.[56] Tolkien's paratexts include prefaces, notes, and appendices of all kinds; scholars including Croft have stated that his maps, too, serve as paratextual amplifiers of his narratives.[56] The paratexts contribute to constructingan editorial frame for the work.[57][58][59] This places him not as author but as the last of a line ofphilological editors ofa surviving ancient manuscript originally written by the hobbitsBilbo andFrodo Baggins, whose memoirs, inthe book's frame story, supposedly survived as theRed Book of Westmarch.[56] This in turn placed Tolkien in the role of fictional translator of the surviving ancient text, helping to make thesecondary world of Middle-earth seem real and solid.[57]
![The editorial frame of The Lord of the Rings, consisting of multiple elements, both in the main text and around it in the prologue and appendices[60][57][58][59]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aThe_Lord_of_the_Rings_as_a_Framed_Text.svg)
Allan Turner writes that Tolkien presentsThe Lord of the Rings as a pseudotranslation, with a found manuscript conceit in the tradition ofMiguel de Cervantes's 1605 epic novelDon Quixote (which was claimed to be a translation from an imagined Arabic author, El Cid Benegali). Tolkien thus placed himself as having come across an ancient document, edited and annotated by many hands. Again, Turner notes, Tolkien had not invented this idea, asWalter Scott had done the same in the introduction to his 1820 novelIvanhoe.[61]
The literary criticChristine Brooke-Rose describes what Turner calls "the huge metatext" of the Appendices as "[not] in the least necessary to the narrative", granting only that "they have given much infantile happiness to the Tolkien clubs and societies". Turner notes that Shippey directly refutes Brooke-Rose, showing that the mass of detail makes Middle-earth real and solid as each added fact squares with the text and lends it depth. Turner gives two reasons for the importance of the metatext. Firstly, the metatext entirely supports the world of the text, seen from inside the frame where the author is imagined as a translator. Secondly, the Appendices are clearly narrated by an editor, a literary figure who is compiling the whole book from ancient documents. Turner comments that the editor treats the metatext material as real, creating a "wider text-world" than the text itself does.[62][63] Turner notes that Tolkien stated that this was absolutely necessary: the secondary world has to be presented asvera historia ("true history"), so as not "to defeat the 'magic'".[62][64]
Hark! We have heard // of Oric the hunter,
Guthlach the great-thewed, // and other goodmen
Following far, // fellowship vengeful,
Tolkien is not the first writer to create works that stand at the nexus of history and literature, as I will address the many texts Tolkien drew from which also demonstrate these traits.
