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October
13th, 2003: Myths
& Their Impact on The Lord Of The Rings
a Beyond the Shire report by Michelle
Laundhardt
Tolkien built into Middle-Earth the conceit (for those non-lit types,
conceit in this context means a statement that needs to be treated
as axiomatic in order for the audience to be able to suspend disbelief)
that everything that happened in Middle-Earth was actual history--
long past, and mostly forgotten, but the events did actually happen.
Moreover, the conceit contends, LotR is actually a translation by
Tolkien into English of the Redbook of Westmarch, written by Bilbo,
Frodo, Sam, and Elanor.
As such, events in Middle-Earth have corresponding relations to
events in real history, myth, and legend. If one buys into the conceit,
this is because those events in Middle-Earth did happen, and were
told over the generations. The stories got garbled, the names changed
to reflect cultural powers of the day, and so on, but at the root
of each of these stories, are some hint of the 'factual' account
of events in Middle-Earth in the distant past.
Some examples:
- The Merry
Old Inn song that Frodo sings in Bree is remembered in fragmented
form in our current nursery rhyme 'Hey-Diddle-Diddle'. Luthien's
captivity by and escape from her father is preserved in the fairy-tale
of Rapunzel.
- Beowulf evolved,
in part, from Bard the Bowman. The thief in Beowulf who rouses
the dragon’s ire steals a gold cup, and Beowulf is called
upon to slay the dragon.
- The prophecy
of the Witch-King's death that he shall not be slain by hand of
man, is remembered in prophecy in Macbeth where the witches tell
the villainous king that he will fall to one not of woman born.
- Even Snow
White and the Seven Dwarves could be related to some unremembered
first meeting between the 7 houses of the Dwarves and the Elves
in the Elder Days.
More importantly,
I think, is how this affects the work as a whole. Tolkien borrowed
heavily from the mythic and cultural backgrounds of our past-- items
that are deeply ingrained into our culture and our psyche as humanity.
It helps us relate to Middle-Earth on a deeper level than we would
otherwise. It's one thing that sets Tolkien's work above that of many
other fantasy writers. There is a common misconception that Tolkien
was the first to write fantasy, but he wasn't. He was merely one who
did it much better than most. His work touches us because it is believable,
and it's very easy for us to buy into his conceit. We can believe
that Middle-Earth was real; that it did exist, and evolved into the
Earth we live in today. And, as was propounded often in the '60s,
we can believe that, since he sailed into the Undying Lands, that
'Frodo Lives' even today (although he would have eventually died even
in the Uttermost West, which is a topic for another time).
The
above opinions, essays and articles do not necessarily reflect that
of The New York Tolkien, its staff, members nor its affiliates.
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