The literature of war in English claims its origin from the Homeric epics, and the medieval accounts of chivalry and the crusades.
Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance
May 13, 2014 By
Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?
Androgynes, Crossdressers, and Rebel Queens: Modern Representations of Medieval Women Warriors from Tolkien to Martin
May 15, 2013 By
This was another stellar paper given at the Tales after Tolkien session. It was an intriguing look at the women of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and how each author portrays the mother and warrior characters of Galadriel/Cersi/Daenerys and Eowyn/Arya/Brienne. The paper examined the differences and problems posed by the portrayal of women in theses fantasy novels.
Language and Legend in the Fantasy Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
December 12, 2012 By
There was something so real in the languages that he created, and critics wanted to find the inspirations behind Tolkien‘s worlds. Elves, dwarves, men, hobbits, and various other creatures occupied the pages of his books, but the languages he created were complex and had real elements in them. Examples of his invented languages were those spoken by the Elves, Sindarin and Quenya.
Horses of Agency, Element, and Godliness in Tolkien and the Germanic Sagas
December 12, 2012 By
What is the contract between man and equine that allows a beast ten times our size and one hundred times our strength to willingly serve in our ambitions? What magnetism (and who placed it) is it that draws humanity and horses together?
“Far-off gleams of evangelium” : a study of how J. R. R. Tolkien’s The lord of the rings reflects the biblical “Kingdom of Heaven”
December 11, 2012 By
The findings of this thesis confirm that the values of LOTR and the Kingdom are notably similar, and that the reader of LOTR does indeed derive from it an experience of what the Kingdom ideally is. But all this is “under the surface”, and Tolkien did not impose his Christianity.
Talk to the Dragon: Tolkien as Translator
December 11, 2012 By
When Bilbo, and the readers of The Hobbit, are confronted with the dragon, they are in for a surprise, as Smaug’s behaviour is somewhat unusual for a dragon.
”Beowulf” and the Influence of Old English on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
December 11, 2012 By
The Lord of the Rings is set in the fictional but incredibly vast and detailed universe of Middle-Earth. Tolkien has put great effort in developing an impossibly gigantic realm peopled by many diverse races. Of the immeasurable number of characters and locations present in Tolkien’s work, many bear a name deeply rooted in Old English.
A Single Leaf: Tolkien’s Visual Art and Fantasy
December 10, 2012 By
With such a model in mind, then, we have entered into a discussion of art, myth‐making, and the Primary World from a combined academic and artistic perspective.
J.R.R. Tolkien: Did You Know? Windows on the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien
September 21, 2012 By
Tolkien anticipated his books might inspire a film adaption, and he stated his concerns in a letter he wrote in June 1958. “The failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration,” he explained, “and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.” He objected to editors who “cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights,” and said he would resent “perversion of the characters … even more than the spoiling of the plot and scenery.”
Running Widdershins Round Middle Earth: Why Teaching Tolkien Matters
September 21, 2012 By
Returning to Tolkien’s allegory, it is clear that he suggests that his fellow medievalists have taken a work of great imaginative and artistic power, and instead of using it to “see the sea”, they have mined it for words and phrases, and pulled it apart, looking for bits and pieces from other ancient works, and even reworked it after their own notions of how it “ought” to be built.
The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on Popular Culture
September 20, 2012 By
This paper will trace the history of the
Middle Earth mythology and its popularity. By studying the example of The Lord ofthe Rings I hope to demonstrate how art not only gets pulled into the system of popular and mass culture, but also how art has an influence on the system. An interesting question comes up when studying this topic. Why did Tolkien become popular?
Recreating Beowulf’s “Pregnant Moment of Poise”: Pagan Doom and Christian Eucatastrophe Made Incarnate in the Dark Age Setting of The Lord of the Rings
May 4, 2012 By
The following chapters will explore how Tolkien fuses themes and imagery from the pagan Norse apocalyptic myth of Ragnarök with Christian apocalyptic imagery and themes in a recreated Dark Age historical setting to create The Lord of the Rings.
The Familiar and the Fantastic A Study of Contemporary High Fantasy in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen
October 2, 2011 By
The Familiar and the Fantastic A Study of Contemporary High Fantasy in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen Vike, Magnus M.A. Thesis (Foreign Languages) The University of Bergen, May 15 (2009) Abstract This thesis deals with fantasy as a literary genre, as well as its […]
The Middle Ages as Fantasy
September 16, 2008 By
Discusses the famous writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the influence of medievalism on their storytelling.
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