Rachel Fulton
Department of
History
The University of
Chicago
Spring 2008
TOLKIEN: MEDIEVAL
AND MODERN
Nolw ola, ar cuila lohta
[Wisdom grows,
and life put forth flowers and fruits]
Eala Earendel
engla beorhtast
Ofer middengeard
monnum sended
--Christ I (formerly, The Christ of Cynewulf)
Now we must
praise the Guardian of Heaven,
the might of the Lord and His purpose of mind,
the work of the Glorious Father; for He,
God Eternal, established each wonder,
He, Holy Creator, first fashioned
heaven as a roof for the sons of men.
Then the Guardian of Mankind adorned
this middle-earth below, the world for men,
Everlasting Lord, Almighty King.
--Caedmons hymn
(trans. Kevin Crossley-Holland)
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is one of the most
popular works of imaginative literature of the twentieth century. This
course seeks to understand its appeal by situating Tolkien's creation within
the context of Tolkiens own work as both artist and scholar alongside its
medieval sources and modern parallels. Themes to be addressed include the
problem of genre and the uses of tradition, the nature of history and its
relationship to place, the activity of creation and its relationship to
language, beauty, evil and power, the role of monsters in imagination and
criticism, the twinned challenges of death and immortality, fate and free will,
and the interaction between the world of "faerie" and religious
belief.
Course
requirements
Your grade will be based on an in-class
mid-quarter exam worth 30% of your grade and a final project worth 45%. This project will be due on June 5 for
graduating seniors, June 12 for all other students. A description of the final project can be found following
the syllabus. You should begin
work on this project as soon as possible.
You are required to do all the required readings for class and to come
prepared to participate.
Additionally, there is a discussion board for this class on the Chalk
website, and you are strongly encouraged to post questions and comments
there. We hope this will provide a
useful forum for more informal discussion of topics of interest to the
class. The final 25% of your grade
will be based on your attendance in class, participation in class discussion
and participation in the discussion fora on the Chalk website (https://chalk.uchicago.edu). At a minimum (C+ level), you should
post at least three
such comments (about 300 words each) in the discussion fora for the course
readings.
Books Available
for Purchase at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004) [=LotR]
________, The Silmarillion, ed. Christopher
Tolkien (New York: Del Rey, 1985).
________, Letters, ed. Humphrey Carpenter with
Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000; first published 1981) [=Letters].
________, Unfinished Tales, ed. Christopher Tolkien (New York: Del Rey,
1988).
________, The Lost Road, History of Middle Earth
[=HME] 5, ed. Christopher Tolkien (New York: Del Rey, 1996).
________, Sauron Defeated, HME 9, ed. Christopher
Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992).
________, Morgoths Ring, HME 10, ed. Christopher
Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993).
________,
The Tolkien Reader (New York: Del
Rey, 1966).
________,
Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (New York: Del Rey, 1980).
Kevin
Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology including the complete Beowulf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)
[=ASW].
Stuart
D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova, The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the
Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
Verlyn
Flieger, Splintered
Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World, rev. ed. (Kent: Kent State
University Press, 2002).
T.A.
Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth: How
J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology, rev. ed. (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2003).
All other readings are available on
reserve in Regenstein Library and, where possible, on e-reserve. For readings from LotR, references are given by book (not volume!),
chapter and page number. The page numbers are
those from the Houghton Mifflin editions available for purchase and on reserve
in Regenstein. You are free to use
any other edition, but you should make sure that your reading follows the
sections in the syllabus.
Reading and
Discussion Assignments
April 1
Tolkien as Scripture
Tolkien, Mythopoeia (handout)
Map of Middle-earth in the Third Age
(handout)
April 3
Fantasy and Fairy Tale
Tolkien, On Fairy Stories, and Leaf by
Niggle, in The
Tolkien Reader
________, Smith of Wootton Major
________, LotR, bk. I, chap. 7 (pp. 129-32).
________, Letters, nos. 109, 199, 215.
Ursula
LeGuin, Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?, in The Language of the
Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Susan Wood, rev.
ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 1989), pp. 34-40.
Recommended:
Humphrey
Carpenter, Tolkien: A Biography
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977), pp. 89-99 (Lost Tales), 111 (1925-1949
(i)).
Shippey, Road to
Middle-earth, pp. 43-44, 271-80.
________, Author of the
Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 266-77, 296-304.
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 21-31.
________, A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkiens Road to
Farie (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1997), pp. 227-53.
April 8
Sources I: Fragments and Elf-friends
Tolkien,
The Cottage of Lost Play, in Book of
Lost Tales, HME 1, ed. Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1983-1984), pp. 12-21.
________,
The early history of the legend, and The Lost Road: iii. The unwritten chapters, HME 5
________,
LotR,
Prologue: Note on the Shire Records (pp. 14-16); bk. I, chap. 9 (pp. 157-61);
bk. IV, chap. 8 (pp. 711-14).
________,
Letters,
nos. 131, 203.
Verlyn
Flieger, The Footsteps of Aelfwine, in Tolkiens
Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth, eds.
Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter, (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000),
pp. 183-97.
Recommended:
Charles Noad, On
the Construction of the Silmarillion, in Tolkiens
Legendarium, eds. Flieger and Hostetter, pp. 31-68.
April 10
Sources II: Language and Dreams
Tolkien,
The Lost Road: i. The opening chapters; ii. The Nmenrean chapters,
HME 5
________,
The Notion
Club Papers, part 1, HME 9, pp. 155-211.
________,
LotR, bk.
I, chap. 5 (p. 108), chap. 7 (pp. 125-28), and chap. 8 (pp. 140-44); bk. II,
chap. 7 (pp. 360-66); bk. VI, chap. 7 (p. 997), and chap. 9 (pp. 1029-31).
________,
Letters,
nos. 24, 163, 180, 213, 257.
Voluspa (The Seeresss
Prophecy), in The Poetic Edda,
trans. Carolyne Larrington (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 3-13.
Recommended:
Flieger, A Question of Time, pp. 61-88, 117-41.
April 15
Style: Poetry vs. Prose, High vs. Low, Westron vs. English
Tolkien,
Lay of Leithian, Cantos III and XIII, in Lays of Beleriand, HME 3, ed. Christopher Tolkien (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1985), pp. 171-181, 294-304.
________, LotR, bk. I,
chap. 11 (pp. 191-94); bk. II, chap. 2 (pp. 239-71), chap. 4 (pp. 315-18),
chap. 8 (pp. 377-78); bk. III, chap. 6 (pp. 507-9); bk. V, chap. 3 (pp. 802-5);
bk. VI, chap. 5 (p. 963); Appendix F.II: On Translation (pp. 1133-38).
________, Letters, no. 165, 171, 190, 193.
Ursula
LeGuin, From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, in The
Language of the Night, pp. 78-92.
T.A. Shippey, Tolkien: Author of the Century, pp. 68-77.
Recommended:
Tolkien,
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, in The Tolkien Reader
Brian Rosebury, Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon
(New York: Palgrave, 2003), pp. 89-133.
Eric Auerbach, Mimesis: The
Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. Willard R. Trask
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), pp. 143-173 (Adam and Eve).
April 17
History & Time; Nature & Place
Tolkien,
Farmer Giles of Ham, in The Tolkien
Reader
________,
LotR,
Foreword to the Second Edition; Appendices A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers,
B: The Tale of Years, and D: The Calendars
________,
The Notion
Club Papers, part 2, Nights 62-65, HME 9, pp. 222-33.
________,
Letters,
no. 53, 151, 183.
The Ruin, ASW, pp.
59-60.
T.H.
White, The Once and Future King, bk.
4, chap. 3 (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1958), pp. 521-30.
Recommended:
Tolkien,
The Later Annals of Valinor, and The Later Annals of Beleriand, HME 5
________,
The Line of Elros: Kings of Nmenor, in Unfinished Tales.
Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Atlas of Middle-Earth,
rev. ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991).
Wayne G. Hammond
and Christina Scull, J.R.R. Tolkien,
Artist & Illustrator (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), pp. 35-65.
April 22
Language and Names
Tolkien,
Tale of Erendil and Aelfwine of England, in Book of Lost Tales, HME 2, pp. 252-277, 312-322.
________,
The Notion
Club Papers, part 2, Nights 66-67, HME 9, pp. 233-53.
________, The Lhammas," and
"The Etymologies, HME 5
________,
LotR, bk.
II, chap. 1 (pp. 232-38); Appendix E: Writing and Spelling, and Appendix F.I:
The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age.
________, Letters, nos. 297, 347.
The Wanderer, ASW, pp. 50-53.
The Seafarer, ASW, pp. 53-56.
Recommended:
Tolkien,
English and Welsh, in The Monsters and
the Critics, ed. Christopher Tolkien, pp. 162-97.
________,
Lowdhams Report on the Adunaic Language, HME 9, pp. 413-40.
Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, pp. 131-42
(He had been inside language).
Flieger, A Question of Time, pp. 143-74.
April 24
The Music of Creation
Tolkien,
Ainulindal, in The Silmarillion.
________,
Ainulindal, HME 5
________,
Ainulindal, HME 10, pp. 3-44
________,
Letters, no. 96.
Genesis 1-2 [any translation or edition]
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 49-79,
87-95.
April 29
Creativity & Free Will; Power & Beauty I
Tolkien,
Valaquenta, inThe
Silmarillion.
________,
Quenta Silmarillion, chapters 1-13, in The Silmarillion
________, Letters, nos. 52, 153, 156.
Augustine,
City of God, bk. 12, chaps. 1-3,
trans. Henry Bettenson, with Introduction by John OMeara (New York: Penguin,
1984), pp. 471-474.
Dorothy
Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, chap.
2 (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1941; New York: Harper Collins, 1979), pp. 19-31
(Image of God).
Recommended:
Flieger,
Splintered
Light, pp. 81-86, 97-126.
May 1
MID-TERM EXAM in class
May 6 Creativity & Free Will; Power & Beauty
II
Tolkien, Akallabth, inThe Silmarillion
________,
The Drowning of Anadne, HME 9, pp. 357-75
________,
A Description of the Island of Nmenor, in Unfinished Tales
________,
The Palantri, in Unfinished Tales
Augustine, City of God, bk. 12, chaps. 22-28,
trans. Bettenson, pp. 502-509.
Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, chap. 7, pp.
93-107 (Maker of All Things, Maker of Ill-things).
Recommended:
Tolkien,
The Notion
Club Papers, part 2, Nights 68-70, HME 9, pp. 253-82
________,
The Fall of Numenor, HME 5
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 127-30.
May 8 Creativity & Free Will; Power & Beauty
III
Tolkien,
LotR,
Bk. I, chap. 2, pp. 46-64: "Next
morning after a late breakfast...burst into tears."
Bk. I, chaps. 11-12, pp. 194-99:
"The story ended...took a wide bend northwards."
Bk. I, chap. 12, pp. 212-15: "The
hobbits were still weary...and saw no more."
Bk. II, chap. 1, pp. 221-25 and 230-32:
"You don't know much about even them...With that he fell fast
asleep"; "The dark figure raised its head...Tell me all about the
Shire!"
Bk. II, chap. 2, pp. 242, 251-56, 265-71:
"Then all listened while Elrond....gate of Moria was shut";
"Gandalf fell silent...so far as it has yet gone"; "There was a
silence...shaking his head."
Bk. II, chap. 9, pp. 392-93:
"Nothing happened that night...out into a wide clear light."
Bk. II, chap. 10, pp. 395-407 (entire
chapter)
Bk. III, chap. 1, pp. 413-20 (entire
chapter)
Bk. III, chap. 2, pp.
424-26, 431-39: They went in single filethe time as best we may!; With
astonishing speedFarewell!
Bk. III, chap. 3, pp. 444-47, 454-57:
"Pippin lay in a dark...Then he lay very still"; "The night was
cold...and too afraid to move."
Bk. III., chap. 5, pp. 496-501: "The
companions sat on the ground...We will go where he leads."
Bk. III, chap. 6, pp. 521-22: "Now
my guests, come!...and may they serve you well!"
Bk. III, chap. 9, pp. 563-64: "They
smoked in silence...cleft stick of his own cutting."
Bk. III, chap. 10, pp. 577-84: "They
came now to the foot...Let us go."
Bk. IV, chap. 1, pp. 613-19: "Down
the face of a precipice...a black silence."
Bk. IV, chap. 8, pp. 703-7: "Gollum
was tugging...that Mordor now sent forth."
Bk. IV, chap. 10, pp. 728-42 (entire)
Bk. V, chap. 4, pp. 811-14 and 820-29:
"So at length they came...Tomorrow's need will be sterner"; "Now
the main retreat...Rohan had come at last."
Bk. V, chap. 6, pp. 839-44: But it was no orc-chieftainsinews to
his will.
Bk. V, chap. 7, pp. 850-55: "When
the dark shadow...followed Gandalf."
Bk. V, chap. 9, pp. 878-881: "When
the Prince Imrahil...if men desert it."
Bk. VI, chap. 3, pp. 933-47 (entire)
________,
Letters, nos. 66, 183, 186, 191-192,
246.
Ursula
LeGuin, The Child and the Shadow, in The
Language of the Night, pp. 54-67.
Recommended:
Tolkien,
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, in The Silmarillion
________,
Mount Doom, HME 9, pp. 37-43.
Jane
Chance, Tolkiens Art: A Mythology for
England, 2nd ed. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001), pp.
141-183, 217-225.
May 13 Monsters and Critics
Tolkien,
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, in The
Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, ed. Christopher Tolkien
(London; Boston: George Allen & Unwin, 1983), pp. 5-48.
________,
Quenta Silmarillion, chap. 21: Of Trin Turambar, inThe Silmarillion
________, LotR, bk. IV, chaps.9-10 (pp. 723-30) (Shelob)
________, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again,
chaps. 2 (trolls), 5 (Gollum), 8 (spiders), 12 (Smaug)
________, Letters, no. 183.
Beowulf,
ASW, pp.
76-78, 86-89, 91-94, 105-6, 109-116, 126-27, 129-54 [selections on monsters and
the dragon]
Andrew
Lang, The Story of Sigurd, The Red Fairy Book (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967;
originally published London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1890), pp.
357-67.
Recommended:
Tolkien,
Narn I Hn Hrin: The Tale of the Children of Hrin, in Unfinished Tales
Kalevala, poems 34-36 (Kullervo), ed. Elias Lnnrot, trans. Keith Bosley
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 468-96.
Chance,
Tolkiens Art,
pp. 12-47, 202-7.
May 15 Jewels and Trees I
Tolkien,
Quenta Silmarillion, chaps. 1, 7-8, 11, 24, in The Silmarillion
________,
The Tale of the Sun and the Moon, in Book
of Lost Tales, HME 1, pp. 174-197.
________,
LotR, bk.
II, chaps. 6-8 (pp. 333-55, 372-78).
Exodus
28 [any translation or edition]
Revelation
21-22
Pearl,
in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl
and Sir Orfeo, trans. Tolkien
Marbode
of Rennes, Lapidary of 12 Stones in Verse, Medical Prose Lapidary, and
Christian Symbolic Lapidary in Prose, in Marbode of Rennes (1035-1123) De lapidus considered as a
medical treatise, with text, commentary and C.W. Kings Translation, together
with text and translation of Marbodes minor works on stones, ed. John M.
Riddle, Sudhoffs
Archiv Zeitschrift fr Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Heft 20 (Wiesbaden: Franz
Steiner Verlag, 1977), pp. 119-129.
May 20 Jewels and Trees II
Tolkien,
LotR, bk.
I, chap. 2 (pp. 44-45), chap. 6 (entire); bk. III, chap. 2 (pp. 441-43), chap.
4 (entire), chap. 7 (p. 541-42), chap. 8 (pp. 543-53), chap. 9 (pp. 563-72).
________,
Letters,
no. 241, 339.
The Dream of the Rood, ASW, pp. 200-4.
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, stanzas 1-21, 43-45, 71-74, 77, 80-101, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and
Sir Orfeo, trans. Tolkien
Verlyn
Flieger, The Green Man, The Green Knight, and Treebeard: Scholarship and
Invention in Tolkiens Fiction, in Scholarship and Fantasy: Proceedings of The
Tolkien Phenomenon, May 1992, Turku, Finland, ed. K.J. Battarbee, Anglicana
Turkuensia 12 (Turku, Finland: University of Turku, 1993), pp. 85-98.
May 22 Immortality and Death I: Elves and Men
Tolkien,
LotR, bk.
I, chap. 3 (pp. 78-85), chap. 11 (pp. 190-94), chap. 12 (p. 214-15); bk. II,
chap. 7 (entire), chap. 8 (entire); bk. IV, chap. 5 (pp. 676-81); Appendix A.v:
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen (pp. 1057-63).
________,
Quenta Silmarillion, chaps. 17, 19, and 24, in The Silmarillion
________,
Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, HME 10, pp. 303-66.
________,
Letters,
nos. 43, 181, 200, 340
C.S.
Lewis, The
Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), pp. 122-138 (The Longaevi).
Recommended:
Tolkien,
Laws and Customs among the Eldar, HME 10, pp. 207-53.
________,
Aman, HME 10, pp. 424-31.
________,
The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, in Unfinished Tales
Sir
Orfeo, in Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, trans. Tolkien
Flieger, Splintered Light, pp. 131-46.
May 27 Immortality and Death II: Men and
Hobbits
Tolkien,
LotR,
Prologue 1-3 (pp. 1-10); bk. I, chap 1 (entire), chap. 2 (pp. 44-45, 61-64),
chap. 4 (pp. 86-88), chap 9. (pp. 149-50); bk. II, chap. 1 (pp. 226-27), chap.
10 (pp. 405-7); bk. III, chap. 8 (pp. 556-59); bk. IV, chap. 3 (p. 638), chap.
4 (pp. 652-55), chap. 6 (pp. 685-90), chap. 8 (pp. 711-16), chap. 10 (pp.
730-35, 740-42); bk. V, chap. 1 (pp. 754-57), chap. 2 (pp. 776-77, 782-85),
chap. 3 (pp. 801-4), chap. 6 (pp. 840-44), chap. 8 (entire); bk. VI, chap. 1
(pp. 910-14), chap. 3 (entire); bk. VI, chap. 4 (pp. 950-54), chap. 5 (entire),
chap. 8-9 (entire); Appendix C: Family Trees.
Tolkien,
Letters,
no. 5, 208, 214, 316.
Verlyn
Flieger, Frodo and Aragorn: The Concept of the Hero, in Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism,
eds. Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), pp. 122-145.
________, Splintered Light, pp. 147-65.
Marion Zimmer
Bradley, Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship, in Understanding The Lord of the Rings,
eds. Zimbardo and Isaacs, pp. 76-92.
May 29 The Meaning of Life I: Worship
Tolkien,
LotR, bk. 1, chap. 3 (p. 79, 84),
chap. 11 (p. 195), chap. 12 (p. 198, 214); bk. II, chap. 1 (p. 238), chap. 8
(pp. 377-78), chap. 9 (p. 387); bk. IV, chap. 5 (pp. 674, 676), chap. 10 (p.
729); bk. VI, chap. 1 (pp. 912, 913, 915), chap. 2 (p. 922), chap. 3 (entire),
chap. 4 (p. 952), chap. 5 (p. 963), chap. 9 (p. 1028)
________,
Letters, nos. 54, 89, 142, 183,
211-212, 250, 306, 310, 328.
Ancrene Wisse, Authors
Introduction and pt. 1 (Devotions), trans. as The Ancrene riwle by M. B. Salu, with an
Introduction by Gerard Sitwell and a preface by J.R.R. Tolkien (London: Burns
and Oates, 1955), pp. 1-20.
Flieger,
Splintered Light, pp. 167-74.
Recommended:
Bradley J.
Birzer, J.R.R.
Tolkiens Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle Earth (Wilmington, Del.:
ISI Books, 2003), pp. xix-xxvi, 126-38.
June 3
The Meaning of Life II: Cult
Tolkien, LotR, bk. II,
chap. 3 (pp. 273-74), chap. 7 (pp. 359-60); bk. III, chap. 1 (pp. 417-18); bk.
IV, chap. 8 (pp. 711-14); bk. V, chap. 6 (p. 849); bk. VI, chap. 4 (pp.
950-54).
________, Letters, no. 206.
A.S.
Byatt, Babel Tower (New York:
Random House, 1996), pp. 34-37, 315-19, 327-28, 370-71, 398-401, 450, and
611-17.
________,
A Whistling Woman (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 2002), pp. 1-18.
C.S.
Lewis, Meditation in a Toolshed, in God
in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 212-15.
Recommended:
Carpenter,
J.R.R.
Tolkien: A Biography, pp. 213-18 ( A big risk), 259-60 (The tree).
A.S.
Byatt, Old Tales, New Forms, in On
Histories and Stories: Selected Essays (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2001), pp. 123-50, 182-83.
June 5
The Spring 2008 University of Chicago Tolkien Happening
Swift Common
Room, The Divinity School, 4:00-8:00pm
June 12 Final Projects Due by 12noon in HM-E 686
Additional
Resources (on Reserve)
Jane Chance, ed., Tolkien the Medievalist (New York:
Routledge, 2003).
________, Tolkien and the
Invention of Myth: A Reader (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
2004).
Wayne G. Hammond,
with Douglas A. Anderson, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography (Winchester, Eng.: St.
Pauls Bibliographies; New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Books, 1993).
Richard C. West, Tolkien Criticism:
An Annotated Checklist, rev. ed. (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1981).
Weblinks to
various Tolkienian sites on the Chalk website under External Links.