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.
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?
This previously‐unpublished essay by the late Charles W. Mills (1951–2021) seeks to demonstrate the racially‐structured character of the universe created by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Hobbit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.
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.
J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings accurately portrayed the signs and symptoms of what is currently labeled Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Frodo's condition logically follows his experiences of ...less than a year in the War of the Ring. Tolkien did not have access to a diagnostic manual but apparently used his keen observations from both World Wars to inform his narrative. No fantasy is employed to describe Frodo condition after the Ring is destroyed. His condition is that of a vet with PTSD. Evidence from the History of Middle-earth demonstrates the deliberate steps taken to show Frodo as broken by his sacrifice.
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
