In literature, genres are often ambiguous because they are independent in creating their own conventions, as well as dependent on borrowing from others. According to author J.R.R Tolkien, fairy stories act in the same regard, functioning to create conventions like escape and recovery through eucatastrophe, as well as borrowing ideas of sub-creation from other literary styles like mythology (“On Fairy Stories” 8). In his works of fiction, including the Silmarillion and The Lord Of The Rings, the idea of genre ambiguity stays consistent, with Tolkien using conventions of horror in his creation of a second world. Thus, an analysis of the horrific imagery in The Lord Of The Rings will show that horror acts as a device in the creation of his second world, shown through monsters like Shelob and the Uruk-hai, who provide a source of interactive villainy and create a comparison between the fearful and fantastic to enchant the reader. In genres like fairy stories, villainy serves to be important …show more content…
According to author Ronald Allan Lopez Cruz, body horror is a physical horror used in films (however still applicable to literature) that focusses on the disregard for the purity of the human body (161). In particular, Cruz theorizes that mutations are an important form of body horror which focusses on the unnatural and repulsive physical characteristics of the impure body (161). In application to The Lord Of The Rings, the Uruk’hai’s physical characteristics are represented as unnatural in disregard of the pure body. For example, Tolkien describes the Uruk’hai as being “crooked-legged,” and having an “abominable tongue,” and “yellow fangs close to his face,” each of which disgusted Pippen (“The Two Towers” 445-451). The use of body horror through Tolkien’s Uruk’hai monster is significant in creating a monstrous villain that is consistent with the sub-creation of his second
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern us.
In Tolkien’s lecture, “Beowulf: The monsters and the Critics,” he argues that Beowulf has been over analyzed for its historical content, and it is not being studied as a piece of art as it should be. He discusses what he perceives the poet of Beowulf intended to do, and why he wrote the poem the way he did. Tolkien’s main proposition, “it was plainly only in the consideration of Beowulf as a poem, with an inherent poetic significance, that any view or conviction can be reached or steadily held” (Tolkien). He evaluates why the author centers the monsters throughout the entire poem, why the poem has a non-harmonic structure, why and how the author fusses together Christianity and Paganism, and how the author uses time to make his fictional poem seem real. He also discusses the overall theme of Beowulf and other assumptions of the text. To support his viewpoints, Tolkien uses quotations and examples from the poem, quotations from other critics, and compares Beowulf to other works of art. Tolkien discusses several statements in interpreting Beowulf as a poem.
Right from the beginning of “Horror and the Maternal in Beowulf,” Paul Acker’s ambition in writing is clear. In the span of only a few sentences, he boldly refutes J.R.R. Tolkien’s interpretation of the monsters in Beowulf, stating “Tolkien also deflected certain avenues of interpreting the monsters” (702). This immediate claim, straight from the first paragraph of Acker’s essay, sets a tone for the rest of the paper, one that is plagued by unethical rhetorical strategies in order to satisfy its ambitions. Though Acker does present a fair argument in regards to his ideas and thesis, that same validity does not carry over to his rhetoric. I will argue that Acker constructs his essay in an unethical fashion, something which evidences itself
Everyone remembers the nasty villains that terrorize the happy people in fairy tales. Indeed, many of these fairy tales are defined by their clearly defined good and bad archetypes, using clichéd physical stereotypes. What is noteworthy is that these fairy tales are predominately either old themselves or based on stories of antiquity. Modern stories and epics do not offer these clear definitions; they force the reader to continually redefine the definitions of morality to the hero that is not fully good and the villain that is not so despicable. From Dante’s Inferno, through the winding mental visions in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spiraling through the labyrinth in Kafka’s The Trial, and culminating in Joyce’s abstract realization of morality in “The Dead,” authors grapple with this development. In the literary progression to the modern world, the increasing abstraction of evil from its classic archetype to a foreign, supernatural entity without bounds or cure is strongly suggestive of the pugnacious assault on individualism in the face of literature’s dualistic, thematically oligopolistic heritage.
...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”
Miller, David M. “Narrative Pattern in The Fellowship of the Ring.”A Tolkien Compass. Ed. Jared Lobdell. La Salle Il.:The Open Court Publishing Company, 1975.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
While it is certainly an exciting and well written work of fantasy, which cannot help but grip the imagination, all this would be for naught except for the poignancy of the themes which serve as its backbone. Foremost of these is Tolkien’s determination to show the natural world as the measure of all things. His world revolves around nature, and his character’s affinity to it determines their place in Middle-Earth.
The simplicity of fairy tales and non-specific details renders them ideal for manipulation allowing writers to add their own comments often reflecting social convention and ideology. Theref...
Nature plays an important and powerful role in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Often, it is used to Shakespearean effects, in order to foreshadow doom. At other times, descriptions of the “green earth,” in particular, are used to render Middle-Earth into an almost maternal, life-giving persona. One could argue that these descriptions of “green earth” take on a life of their own, treating place as character. After all, places in Lord of the Rings often possess multi-dimensional qualities and are capable of change. In Aragon’s words, the “green earth” is “a mighty matter of legend” (The Two Towers 424). “Mighty” is not always the most appropriate word for places or objects, except when they hold power—perhaps even autonomously so. For example,
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 epic fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson. The film is an adaptation of a volume of the same name by J.R.R. Tolkien published in 1954. This is the first film of Peter Jackson’s trilogy that adapted J.R.R. Tolkien’s entire Lord of the Rings series into screenplay.
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Urang, Gunnar. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Fantasy and the Phenomenology of Hope" Fantasy in the Writing of J. R. R. Tolkien. United Press, 1971