Biography, Bibliography, and Legacy Who Tolkien Is, What He Has Done, and Why We Should Care

New Historicism Try to recall why we should care to learn about the author and his life before we read his work Particularly, love, death, war, and suffering are hugely influential

For your consideration Why are love, death, war, and suffering particularly important influences in terms of what authors write? How might these kinds of experiences show up in authors’ fictional writing?

Biography Documentary This is a good but rather long documentary containing some of the information that we will be covering together in class Watch on your own time for review before we close up our unit

Themes Messages implied by authors’ writing Readers infer these through understanding of authors’ circumstances and close reading strategies Theme = Message about idea, not just idea For example, the idea might be love The theme might be, “Successful people love all others, even their enemies,” or “Love of enemies leads to betrayal and failure.”

For your consideration Has anything ever happened in your life that you can’t get out of your head? How might that impact you if you became a professional writer?

Escapism Many authors write fiction to deal with intense issues in the real world Similarly, many readers read fiction in order to escape from the troubles of the world around them.

Childhood Thematic Impacts Spiders → Fear Nature vs. Technology Philology Catholicism Materialism/Wealth → Evil Natural Imagery Born in 1892 in South Africa to British parents

Natural Imagery Imagery: visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work. Natural: existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind. Natural Imagery: visually descriptive or figurative language about nature

Trauma and Relocation Father died in 1896, mother converts to Catholicism. Family returns to West Midlands in England Possible root of idea of Middle Earth, the setting for all of his later stories. Middle Earth is ancient religious term depicting world between Heaven above and Hell below. Mother dies in 1904, Tolkien remains devout Catholic.

Writing and Journeying As teenager, he and some friends begin writing poetry Poetic language and songs in writing Eventually become created languages At 19, takes rough journey through mountainous and treacherous terrain Influences imagery of Misty Mountains

Vision of Love Tolkien met, fell in love with, and married Edith Mary Bratt very quickly. She gave up her faith to marry Tolkien. This inspired the stories of Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen.

World War I Tolkien enlisted for Britain in 1914 Almost whole battalion and many friends die War and violence bad in writing Theme of power being corrupting influence from here Thematic preoccupation with grief and loss

World War I (continued) England, France, USA, Russia, Italy, etc. vs. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria In writing, Shire associated with good Allied Powers Usually, West is good and South and East are bad Shire, Valinor vs. Dol Goldur, Mordor

World War I (continued) Mechanistic and chemical warfare introduced in World War I destroy much of countryside and ruin people’s lives Theme of nature (good) vs. technology (bad) Begins writing fiction in earnest during war The Book of Lost Tales: “The Fall of Gondolin”

More Philology Tolkien worked for OED and at some universities, reinforcing his philological interests

Kids and the Inklings His children inspired him to write fiction Also inspired by membership in literary club that called themselves the Inklings

In Defense of Nonsense “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” was a lecture he delivered basically claiming that myth and fiction should be studied as places where culture can speak to us Led him to incorporate much Norse and Germanic mythology into his writing

For your consideration If you want to make a difference or draw attention to an issue, should you write in fiction or nonfiction?

Production in Lifetime 1937- The Hobbit Commercially successful; mixed critical reviews The Silmarillion rejected as not commercially publishable 1948- Lord of the Rings Trilogy completed as sequel to The Hobbit More mixed reviews and commercial success

Fame, Fortune, and Retreat Hippy and alternative movements in 1960’s loved his work as escapist literature He became rich and famous He and his wife live out rest of lives in English countryside to maintain some privacy Produced some scholarly writing, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and some other Middle Earth work Intense dislike for technology and industry heightened toward end of life (1973)

Posthumous Publications and Influence Helped create and revitalize fantasy genre Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, etc. Christopher Tolkien published The Silmarillion and twelve-volume History of Middle Earth Peter Jackson’s movies were huge successes