Ancestry As Guide To Character In Tolkien's Legendarium
In Tolkien's legendarium, ancestry provides a guide to character. The apparently genteel Hobbits of the Baggins family turn out to be worthy protagonists of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Bilbo Baggins is seen from his family tree to be both a Baggins and an adventurous Took. Similarly, Frodo Baggins has relatively outlandish Brandybuck blood. Among the Elves of Middle-earth, the highest are those whose ancestors conformed most closely to the divine will, migrating to Aman and seeing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. Among Men, the heroic Aragorn is shown by his descent from Kings, Elves, and an immortal Maia to be of royal blood, destined to be the true King who will restore his people. Scholars have commented that in this way, Tolkien was presenting Anglo-Saxon views of kingship, though others have called his implied views racist. Context J. R. R. Tolkien was an English author and philologist of ancient Germanic languages, specialising in Old E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tolkien's Legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his ''The Lord of the Rings'', and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of '' The Silmarillion'' and documented in his 12-volume series '' The History of Middle-earth''. The legendarium's origins reach back to 1914, when Tolkien began writing poems and story sketches, drawing maps, and inventing languages and names as a private project to create a unique English mythology. The earliest story drafts (of '' The Book of Lost Tales'') are from 1916; he revised and rewrote these for most of his adult life. ''The Hobbit'' (1937), Tolkien's first published novel, was not originally part of the larger mythology but became linked to it. Both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954 and 1955) took place in the Third Age of Middle-earth, while virtually all of his earlier writing had been set in the first two ages of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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University Of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as ''Oxbridge''. Both are ranked among the most prestigious universities in the world. The university is made up of thirty-nine semi-autonomous constituent colleges, five permanent private halls, and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vala (Middle-earth)
The Valar (; singular Vala) are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods", #154 to Naomi Mitchison, September 1954 subordinate to the one God ( Eru Ilúvatar). The Ainulindalë describes how those of the Ainur who chose to enter the World ( Arda) to complete its material development after its form was determined by the Music of the Ainur are called the Valar, or "the Powers of the World". The Valaquenta indicates that the Elves generally reserved the term "Valar" for the mightiest of these, calling the others the Maiar. The Valar are mentioned briefly in ''The Lord of the Rings'' but were developed earlier in material published posthumously in '' The Silmarillion'', '' The History of Middle-earth'', and '' Unfinished Tales''. Scholars have noted that the Valar resemble angels in Christianity but that Tolkien presented them rather more like pagan gods. Their role in providing what the characters on Middle-earth experience as luck or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sundering Of The Elves
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Elves or Quendi are a sundered (divided) people. They awoke at Cuiviénen on the continent of Middle-earth, where they were divided into three tribes: Minyar (the Firsts), Tatyar (the Seconds) and Nelyar (the Thirds). After some time, they were summoned by Oromë to live with the Valar in Valinor, on Aman. That summoning and the Great Journey that followed split the Elves into two main groups (and many minor ones), which were never fully reunited. Tolkien stated that the stories were made to create a world for his elvish languages, not the reverse. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that '' The Silmarillion'' derived from the linguistic relationship between the two languages, Quenya and Sindarin, of the divided Elves. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger states that Tolkien used the Indo-European type of proto-language as his model. In her view, the sundering of the Elves reflects the progressive decline and fall in Middle-earth ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jason Fisher
Jason Fisher is a Tolkien scholar and winner of a Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in 2014 for his book ''Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays''. He served as the editor of the Mythopoeic Society's monthly ''Mythprint'' from 2010 to 2013. He is the author of many book chapters, academic articles, and encyclopedia entries on J. R. R. Tolkien. Biography Jason Aldrich Fisher was born in 1970. He lives in Dallas, Texas. He is a software developer. He has worked since 2002 as an independent scholar specialising in the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, his literary circle the Inklings, and fantasy more widely. Fisher has contributed to the ''J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia'', to the ''Tolkien Studies'' journal, to the ''Literary Encyclopedia'', and to the Inklings journal ''Mythlore'', among other journals and websites, as well as chapters of Tolkien criticism. He has been interviewed on PBS about Tolkien's 1937 book ''The Hobbit''. Reception Reviewing ''Tolkien and the Study o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Merry Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually called Merry, is a Hobbit, a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, ''The Lord of the Rings''. Merry is described as one of the closest friends of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist. Merry and his friend and cousin, Peregrin Took, Pippin, are members of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of the Ring. They Interlacing in The Lord of the Rings, become separated from the rest of the group and spend much of ''The Two Towers'' making their own decisions. By the time of ''The Return of the King'', Merry has enlisted in the army of Rohan (Middle-earth), Rohan as an esquire to King Théoden, in whose service he fights during the War of the Ring. After the war, he returns home, where he and Pippin lead the Scouring of the Shire, ridding it of Saruman's influence. Commentators have noted that his and Pippin's actions serve to throw light on the characters of the good and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pippin Took
Peregrin Took, commonly known simply as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is closely tied with his friend and cousin, Merry Brandybuck, and the two are together during most of the story. Pippin and Merry are introduced as a pair of young hobbits of the Shire who become ensnared in their friend Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the One Ring. Pippin joins the Fellowship of the Ring. He and Merry become separated from the rest of the group at the breaking of the Fellowship and spend much of ''The Two Towers'' with their own story line. Impetuous and curious, Pippin enlists as a soldier in the army of Gondor and fights in the Battle of the Morannon. With the other hobbits, he returns home, helps to lead the Scouring of the Shire, and becomes ''Thain'' or hereditary leader of the land. Commentators have noted that the actions of Merry and Pippin serve to throw light on the characters of the good and bad Germanic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eagles In Middle-earth
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, "The Council of Elrond", "Of the Ruin of Doriath" were immense birds that were sapient and could speak. The Great Eagles resembled actual eagles, but were much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of ., "Of the Return of the Noldor" Elsewhere, the eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations. Scholars have noticed that the Eagles appear as agents of ''eucatastrophe'' or ''deus ex machina'' throughout Tolkien's writings, from ''The Silmarillion'' and the accounts of Númenor to ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Where Elves are good, and fully sentient, and Orcs bad, Eagles and other races are in between; the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins fears he will become their supper, torn up like a rabbit, and is indeed served rabbit for supper. The scholar Marjorie Burns notes, too, that Gandalf's association with Eagles is reminisce ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trolls In Middle-earth
Trolls are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and feature in films and games adapted from his novels. They are portrayed as Tolkien's monsters, monstrously large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect. In ''The Hobbit'', like the dwarf Alviss of Norse mythology, they must be below ground before dawn or turn to stone, whereas in ''The Lord of the Rings'' they are able to face daylight. Commentators have noted the different uses Tolkien made of trolls, from comedy in Sam Gamgee's poem and the Cockney accents and table manners of the working-class trolls in ''The Hobbit'', to the hellish atmosphere in Moria (Middle-earth), Moria as the protagonists are confronted by darkness and monsters. Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, drew back from giving trolls the power of speech, as he had done in ''The Hobbit'', as it implied to him that they had souls, so he made the trolls in ''The Silmarillion'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' darker and more bestial. They were suppos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dwarves In Middle-earth
In the fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting Middle-earth, the central continent of Arda in an imagined mythological past. They are based on the dwarfs of Germanic myths who were small humanoids that lived in mountains, practising mining, metallurgy, blacksmithing and jewellery. Tolkien described them as tough, warlike, and lovers of stone and craftsmanship. Dwarves appear in his books '' The Hobbit'' (1937), ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–55), and the posthumously published ''The Silmarillion'' (1977), ''Unfinished Tales'' (1980), and ''The History of Middle-earth'' series (1983–96), the last three edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. Characteristics The medievalist Charles Moseley described the dwarves of Tolkien's legendarium as "Old Norse" in their names, their feuds, and their revenges. In the appendix on "Durin's Folk" in ''The Lord of the Rings'', Tolkien describes dwarves as: ''The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia'' considers Tolki ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |