Song as Mythic Conduit in the Fellowship of the Ring
2008; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoElrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at swords they had brought from trolls' lair, and he said: These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of High Elves of West, my kin. They were made for Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon's hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin, runes name Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver in ancient tongue of Gondolin; was a famous blade. This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-Hammer that king of once wore. Keep them well! (Tolkien, The Hobbit 3:62) ********** WHAT REMAINS FASCINATING about above passage is not that Tolkien's initial readers--and majority of his readers today--could have no idea what Gondolin was, but that within narrative of The Hobbit itself, none of Company asks Elrond, What is Gondolin? Rather, Company--including sheltered hobbit Bilbo Baggins--appears to be familiar at least in some way with and its history. Indeed, Bilbo later takes courage in connection of that fabled city to his own situation, when he informs Gollum that he holds A sword, a blade which came out of Gondolin! (5:83). Subsequent publication of Tolkien's The Silmarillion (1) has revealed that tale of was one of earliest stories crafted concerning his sub-created of Middle-Earth, and his reference to in this later narrative about hobbits in Third Age provides an example of Tolkien's concern with layering stories of ancient mythology within his later narratives. (2) While such references as these clearly provide a sense of or layers of reality, to his created or Secondary world, some references appear to go beyond such a purpose to suggest a deeper connection between stories of an ancient past and now of The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings [LotR]. Even in this reference from The Hobbit, characters learn that Turgon High King of Noldor's sword has passed from First Age to Gandalf, a central figure in narrative of Third Age. Tolkien's text makes clear that Company and Elrond realize importance of this inheritance even if most readers could or do not. On whole, relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien's two major narrative strands--the Third Age account of The Hobbit and LotR and First Age accounts of The Silmarillion--has led to explorations of effects of allusions and references to First Age on readers or on structure of text. Tolkien himself notes, in his letter to publisher Milton Waldman, that I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from large and cosmogonic, to level of romantic fairy-story, and although he initially independently conceived of The Hobbit, it proved to be discovery of completion of whole (The Silmarillion xii-xiii). Notably, critics such as T.A. Shippey, Verlyn Flieger, and Gergely Nagy have explored Tolkien's general use of source material for clues to his secondary and mythology, and have explored sources particularly for examples of sense of layering or depth that Tolkien saw as so vital. (3) Even if readers never read entire symphony of mythology behind LotR, references themselves provide depth and layering to world making that Tolkien undertakes. As with above reference to Gondolin, as Paul Bibire explains, [such an allusion] implies a wider world, unbounded horizon of space and legend beyond Bilbo's journey There and Back Again (215). Through Tolkien's complex process of developing a legendarium with many of central stories, Flieger concludes that the entire structure came to resemble real-world mythologies in cumulative process and span of its composition, as well as in scope of its subject matter (Interrupted Music xiv). In what Flieger refers to as temporal layering, Tolkien's mythos, like Arthur's, has its own extended history, which she parallels to French and Welsh versions and recastings of Arthurian legends (40). …
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