Any Anglo-Saxon influences in Lord of the Rings?

November 16, 2006 11:20 AM

Help me find a well-written article explaining the Anglo-Saxon roots/influences found in The Lord of the Rings.

I figured there would be some article in a smart source/magazine published around the time the first movie came out (something linking it to Beowulf or Tolkien's study of the Middle Ages), but I'm coming up with nothing. Can any LOTR-hardcores point me in the right direction?

posted by mattbucher to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

While I've not yet pinned down an article for you (this is a subject of some interest to me, as well) I would heartily recommend reading just about anything by the mighty Joseph Campbell - most of his work concerns our curious habit of retelling the same myths and legends over and over again.
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:38 AM on November 16, 2006

okay, here's somewhere to start.
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:47 AM on November 16, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks. That link is a little dense, though. I'm still looking to find something a little more narrative and "general interest" like the New Yorker or Harpers or something.
posted by mattbucher at 12:21 PM on November 16, 2006

Borrow the first book from the library and read the rather lengthy introduction. You'll find what you are looking for there.
posted by kc0dxh at 1:16 PM on November 16, 2006

There's also the Kentuckian influence to consider. From a short tribute to Tolkien by Guy Davenport published in the September 2001 Harper's:

When, fifty years ago, I attended Tolkien’s lectures, I realized that I was absolutely ignorant of the Far North, its Wagnerian gods and heroes. Professor Tolkien lectured to the floor, had a speech impediment, and was all too often given to wandering off into Welsh cognates. The Lord of the Rings was, for me, a redeeming gift for having learned the principal parts of Anglo-Saxon verbs, fifty every Friday. Further redemption came when I met, here in Kentucky, a classmate of Tolkien’s who told me that good old Ronald ("whatever became of him?") was deeply inquisitive about backwoods Kentuckians, who grew pipeweed and had names like Baggins and Barefoot.

Davenport also discusses his "hobbits are from Kentucky" claim in a brief essay in his wonderful book The Geography of the Imagination.
posted by cobra libre at 2:09 PM on November 16, 2006

J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey is an excellent book that covers this ground without being too dense.
posted by InfidelZombie at 3:56 PM on November 16, 2006

J.R.R. Tolkien and his literary resonances : views of Middle-earth, ed. George Clark and Daniel Timmons is probably too pricey to buy, but if you've got access to an academic library you can probably find it. Fourteen articles by academics in literature and linguistics. Don't know how dense it is, but I imagine parts of it are fascinating.

Here's a chapter list:

1 Tolkien the Bard: His Tale Grew in the Telling / C. W. Sullivan III

2 The Dragon-Lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Traditon / Jonathan Evans

3 J. R. R. Tolkien and the True Hero / George Clark

4 Tolkien's Versecraft in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings / Geoffrey Russom

5 The Monsters Are Talismans and Transgressions: Tolkien and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Roger C. Schlobin

6 The Sins of Middle-earth: Tolkien's Use of Medieval Allegory / Charles W. Nelson

7 Is Tolkien a Renaissance Man? Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy and J. R. R. Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" / Tanya Caroline Wood

8 Weaving Nets of Gloom: "Darkness Profound" in Talkien and Milton / Debbie Sly

9 Gagool and Gollum: Exemplars of Degeneration in King Solomon's Mines and The Hobbit / William N. Rogers II, Michael R. Underwood

10 "Joy Beyond the Walls of the World": The Secondary World-Making of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis / David Sandner

11 Taking the Part of Trees: Eco-Conflict in Middle-earth / Verlyn Flieger

12 Women Fantasists: In the Shadow of the Ring / Faye Ringel

13 Loss Eternal in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth / W. A. Senior

14 Orcs, Wraiths, Wights: Tolkien's Images of Evil / Tom Shippey
posted by scarylarry at 7:23 PM on November 16, 2006