The changes to Tolkien's cosmology introduced in "Myths Transformed" were not well received. Certainly their realism is a 180% turn for the man who declared unequivocally that "Fantasy remains a ...human right" (72). Have Tolkien's revisions, radical as they are, been "a fearful weapon" against his own creation? And if they have, how has the perception of that creation changed since the publication of Morgoth's Ring in 1993? Has Tolkien's weapon destroyed his imaginary world?
The paper predicates the prospects of mythopoeia in the mythical tradition. An authorial construction of mythopoeia, when internalized into the collective consciousness can evolve into mythos. This ...mythopoeia turned mythos in the course of time and space may regress into myth. The fragments of the myth may then result in the making of another mythopoeia. Mythopoeia to mythos to myth is a cyclical process in mythical tradition. The paper establishes this argument with J. R. R. Tolkien's conception of mythopoeia. It explores similarities between mythopoeia and conlang. It contends that just as conlang can evolve as language, mythopoeia can also evolve into mythos. It further corroborates that if every mythos was mythopoeic in its conception, then every mythopoeia can advance into mythos.
This previously‐unpublished essay by the late Charles W. Mills (1951–2021) seeks to demonstrate the racially‐structured character of the universe created by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Hobbit and The ...Lord of the Rings. Written long before the popular film series, the essay critically examines Tolkien's novels and comments on the nature of fictional creation. Mills argues that Tolkien designs a racial hierarchy in the novels that recapitulates the central racist myth of European thought.
Moon Witch, Spider King Jones, Michael
Journal of American Folklore,
03/2023, Letnik:
136, Številka:
540
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
If the story of a state made sick by a series of tyrant-kings influenced by necromancy recalls, for example, the legends that Shakespeare mobilized, such as Holinshed's chronicle of Macbeth, the ...specific detail of a king's sister's son being the best choice for an heir appears inspired by the oral tradition of the Songhay Empire (modern-day Sudan). The oral tradition narrates that Askia Mohammed's mother was Sonni Ali's sister; upon Sonni Ali's death, Askia Mohammed killed the incumbent ruler and took the seat of power for himself as the king's sister's son, going on to become the empire's greatest hero. In Moon Witch, Spider King, James continues his Dark Star trilogy's dynamic reinventions of sub-Saharan folklore and the African epics of the griots’ oral traditions.
This article examines the treatment of the literary pastoral in The Lord of the Rings in order to demonstrate that Tolkien's pastoral, often considered a vestige of authorial nostalgia, is as ...forwardlooking as it is wistful. Through Samwise Gamgee and his connection to the Shire, Tolkien presents a pastoral that, though rooted in memory, is as mutable as nature itself - one that orients the reader forward and conveys that change is not only something to be accepted, but also embraced.
In spite of being written over three decades ago, Mills's posthumously published "Manifesto" not only anticipates but transcends the majority, if not the totality, of the scholarship on Tolkien, ...race, and racisms which has been published since 2003. Scholars in philosophy and related fields familiar with Mills's work will recognize that the essay was a "critical exploration of how a fictional racial hierarchy strikingly illuminates the ongoing influence of certain old racist ideas on our present day sic social realities." Reid has invited a wide-ranging Tolkienists who have read the essay to respond, briefly, on the significance of the essay to their work
Critics, and even the general public, have noted the absence of women in The Lord of the Rings, an absence so glaring that it could hardly be overlooked. Many feminist scholars have, as a result of ...this deficiency, denounced J.R.R. Tolkien, interpreting this lack of female characters as indicative of repressed misogyny. Others, however, have defended the author, pointing out that the female characters that do exist could be considered role models. This essay offers an alternative interpretation and contends that the absence of women in the novel, though potentially reducing its appeal to modern readers, reinforces one of its central motifs: the barrenness and infertility of Middle-earth. Overawed by Tolkien's landscape descriptions and the extent of his worldbuilding, readers have overlooked just how empty this world is, how rarely the Fellowship encounters settled districts or even lonely habitations. Replacing the farms, villages, and markets a reader would expect to encounter are vast stretches of wilderness and the ruins of forgotten nations. The almost total absence of women, of wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers, reinforces this sense of desolation, suggesting to the reader that Middle-earth has no future. The novel's few women actually contribute to this impression, for they are all, for different reasons, childless. Compared to the infertile and declining populations of elves, humans, and dwarves, Tolkien's orcs display a shocking and unnatural fecundity, reproducing-in a manner only hinted at-in enormous numbers. The novel's conclusion, which begins with Aragorn's long-desired wedding and ends with Sam's return to Rosie Cotton, generates a flurry of contented relationships, suggesting not misogyny on the author's part, but a veneration for sex, romance, and family life. That Frodo is unable to partake in any of these makes his sacrifice all the more poignant.
