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Tolkien's Philological Philosophy in His Fiction

2015; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0146-9339

Sherrylyn Branchaw,

Themes in Literature Analysis

That Tolkien's scholarly passions, both literary and linguistic, informed the construction of his mythology is well-known. It is not surprising to find reflexes of Kullervo in the story of Turin's life, or phonological changes familiar from European languages in his invented Elvish tongues. Since the beginning of Tolkien studies, much work has been devoted to Tolkien's use of his academic background in his fiction. Less frequent, but just as interesting, are instances in which he incorporated not merely his factual knowledge, but his professional opinions. Tolkien indicated that some of his opinions were reflected in The Lord of the Rings when in two of his letters, he expressly quoted Gandalf on the proper way to conduct literary criticism in the real world. Other instances of characters reflecting Tolkien's opinions have been adduced in the scholarly literature. Shippey (History in Words: Tolkien's Ruling Passion) argues that one of Gandalf's speeches can be interpreted as an expression of Tolkien's opinions on etymological reconstruction. Bruce and Bowman both argue that Gandalf's stand against the Balrog and Frodo's flight from the Nazgul on Asfaloth reflect Tolkien's opinions about the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon. To this list of identifications, several more can be added. In this paper, I argue that a particular speech by Gimli adheres as closely to Tolkien's opinions on literary criticism as does the speech by Gandalf that Tolkien twice quoted. I then argue that the Moria episodes, particularly the deciphering of the password at the door and the pause to read the book of Mazarbul, grew out of Tolkien's desire to make a world in which philology is of immediate importance. Finally, I link Faramir's failure to interpret Cirith Ungol as Pass of the Spider for Frodo and Sam with Gandalf's difficulties in an earlier episode with the password to Moria and also with Tolkien's work on onomastics. In addition to identifying further instances in which Tolkien's scholarly opinions made their way into his fiction, the present paper argues that he included them not haphazardly, but because they were of great importance to him. Just as his Christian worldview emerged in his fiction, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision (Letters 172), so too were his academic values ever present in his mind when he wrote The Lord of the Rings. As a scholar, he believed that there was a proper way to conduct philology, that philology was of greater importance than many academics and non-academics gave it credit for, and that it was important to value a work of art as a whole and as an end unto itself. Within his essays, letters, and speeches he expanded upon these opinions at great length. Within his fiction, he constructed a story in which the things that mattered to him could incontrovertibly matter to the world. LITERARY CRITICISM Literary criticism was a topic on which Tolkien had strong opinions. He wrote two significant essays on the topic: Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics (henceforth BMC) and On Fairy-stories (henceforth OFS). In both essays, he was responding to a trend in scholarship that he felt focused on the least important parts of these bodies of work. The scholars to whom Tolkien was responding were more interested in what Beowulf could tell them about the historical events of the time than in reading it as a poem. In fact, as a poem, it was often judged to be of poor literary quality. The scholars were also interested in breaking Beowulf down into its component parts to discover what elements and perhaps earlier lays had gone into its making. Similarly, the approach to folklore was primarily comparative in nature, comparing stories from different traditions with similar motifs, and reading such stories for personal satisfaction was deemed suitable only for children and perhaps old women. Tolkien argued for the intrinsic literary worth of both Beowulf and fairy stories. …