Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. David Johnson, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 12, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

This master's thesis deals with the influence of The Kalevala and the Finnish language on the English writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his work. The main purpose is to provide a possibly most complex description of The Kalevala's influence on Tolkien. Firstly, the background of The Kalevala, the role of Elias Lönnrot during its birth and its importance, and secondly, Tolkien, his work and his discovery of The Kalevala are introduced. The main part of the thesis focuses on Tolkien's inspiration by The Kalevala out of three different perspectives. The first one is the influence of the Finnish language on Quenya, one of Tolkien's fictional languages. The second one is The Kalevala's importance for Tolkien from a general point of view - especially the influence of Lönnrot's role, The Kalevala's mythology, several abstract aspects of The Kalevala led by the importance of singing and The Kalevala's structure is crucial. The third one is Tolkien's inspiration by The Kalevala from a concrete point of view. Particularly the importance of The Kalevala's character Väinämöinen and the story of the Sampo is significant here.

[pt] A Cartografia propicia, através de seus produtos, o estabelecimento de uma capacidade reflexiva sobre a dimensão espacial de um dado recorte. Corrobora para que diversas análises espaciais sejam elaboradas retratando processos, fenômenos e padrões da superfície terrestre. Apesar desta capacidade, ao longo do tempo, a ciência cartográfica foi submetida à primazia do positivismo lógico, desconsiderando aspectos imateriais e que transcendem aquilo que é observável, desvalorizando a dimensão do imaginário e das realidades passíveis de serem representadas, relegando-as à condição de devaneio e de irrealidade. Contrariamente, esta perspectiva assume centralidade quando dialogada com a arte. Como exemplo cita-se a literatura fantástica, que opera na relação direta entre a ficção e a realidade, fazendo-se utilizar, em muitos casos, de mapas (entre outras representações) visando à espacialização dos universos onde as narrativas se desenrolam. A cartografia subsidia e é subsidiada pelo imaginário, promovendo a representação espacial destes universos imateriais. Assim, buscar-se-á entender como a Cartografia Fantástica representada no universo imaginado de J. R. R. Tolkien contribui para a compreensão das relações geográficas existentes no imaginário do autor. Para tal fim, torna-se necessário que se visitem as fundações criacionais do universo imaginado, percorrendo-se por significados e simbolismos expressos a partir de acontecimentos vivenciados e que perfazem a construção de paisagens fantásticas. Como consequência, tomam-se rebatimentos interpretativos que alçam a realidade dada a múltiplas possibilidades. A cartografação e a construção de uma ardo grafia são fruto deste mesmo processo. Estabelece-se como resultante de interpretações forjadas a partir da recepção, decodificação e transformação das informações transmitidas por Tolkien e que são moldadas a partir de um background histórico, cultural e cognitivo daquele que a concebe. / [en] Cartography provides, through its products, the establishment of a reflective capacity on the spatial dimension of a given area. It corroborates that several spatial analyzes are elaborated portraying processes, phenomena and patterns of the Earth s surface. Despite this ability, over time, cartographic science has been subjected to the primacy of logical positivism, disregarding immaterial aspects and transcending what is observable, devaluing the dimension of the imaginary and the realities that can be represented, relegating them to the condition of reverie and unreality. In contrast, this perspective assumes centrality when dialogued with art. As an example fantastic literature is mentioned, which operates in the direct relationship between fiction and reality, making use, in many cases, of maps (among other representations) aiming at the spatialization of the universes where the narratives unfold. Cartography subsidizes and is subsidized by the imaginary, promoting the spatial representation of these immaterial universes. Thus, we will try to understand how the Fantastic Cartography represented in the imagined universe of J. R. R. Tolkien contributes to the understanding of the geographical relations existing in the author s imagination. For that purpose, it is necessary to visit the creational foundations of the imagined universe, going trough meanings and symbolisms expressed from experienced events that make up the construction of fantastic landscapes. As a consequence, interpretative repercussions that raise a reality given to multiple possibilities. The mapping and construction of an ardo graphy are the result of this same process. It is established as a result of interpretations forged from the reception, decoding and transformation of the information transmitted by Tolkien and which are shaped from a historical, cultural and cognitive background of the person who conceives it.

Tolkien may not have intentionally created his fictive nations to mirror real nations, but his world certainly bears the scars of his experiences of war. The World Wars heightened his fear of losing everything that he loved about his local culture through literal obliteration or assimilation into another culture in the event of England’s losing. Tolkien saw the nation as a social construct that potentially could minimize losses, if not wholly protect local culture from the forces that threatened to destroy it. Yet he also perceived the nation’s limitations in its ability to protect culture. A nation could grow too large for itself, becoming obsessed with consuming other nations. For Tolkien, national property-amassing leads to a loss of the cultural identity that nationhood aims to preserve. When the forces threatening individual nations become overwhelming, those nations often need to join forces to prevent being taken over by other, more powerful countries. An examination of Tolkien’s fiction and numerous other sources, including essays and personal letters, suggests that he felt that separate nations should co-exist without imposing on one another, and that the nation taking over others would lose its own identity, whether gradually or suddenly. Despite Tolkien’s efforts to distance himself from what he felt modernity represented, his fiction (whether consciously or not) grapples with the mid-twentieth century ideological conflicts surrounding the nation. The resulting sense of loss and powerlessness underlies much of Tolkien’s fiction and leads him to a concept of the nation as an imperfect protector of culture, tempered by its need to rely on other nations.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2005. / Title from PDF title page screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 18, 2007). Directed by Hephzibah Roskelly; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).

This study considers Härskarringen (1959–61), a Swedish translation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), within the framework of translation studies and the description of norms within different fields of translation. As the work’s position as a translation has been questioned by a number of critics, the aim of the study is to identify features of the text which can be associated with this critique. The methodology employed by the study aims to separate departures in the target text from the source text within fields such as semantics and style. The departures are then ordered on the basis of linguistic form. The study suggests that the translation contains a number of features, and proposes possible explanations for these, based on the result of the study in relation to these points of departure as well as the circumstances in the context of the creation of the translation. The method used is partly based on a model developed by Rune Ingo (1991), and the results are analyzed by means of key concepts from Yvonne Lindqvist (2002). The study concludes that Härskarringen should be considered a work done mainly in accordance with an acceptable translation strategy, and thereby has characteristics of a low prestige translation. The study further considers that the critics of the translation hold, seemingly, that The Lord of the Rings should be translated as high prestige literature, and that they have reacted against the translation consequently. The study suggests that the reason for the questioning of Härskarringen’s position as a translation seems to be that the work has not been translated in accordance with the norms of the literary field to where it is today attributed. The critique can partly be viewed as a result of a raised status of The Lord of the Rings and J. R. R. Tolkien, and thus of the mobility of a work within the literary system. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker Härskarringen (1959–61), en översättning av J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), med en översättningsvetenskaplig deskriptiv metodik. Uppsatsen försöker utröna vilka egenskaper hos den svenska tolkningen som gjort att dess ställning som översättning, till helheten eller enskilda delar, har ifrågasatts av en rad kritiker. Undersökningen utförs genom att tillämpa en metod för utverkande av avvikelser mellan översättningen och originaltexten inom för uppsatsen ändamålsenliga kategorier, såsom betydelsemässiga avvikelser mellan översättning och original. De framkomna avvikande textställena sorteras sedan efter deras språkform, och utifrån resultatet samt förhållanden i översättningens tillblivelse karakteriseras sedan den undersökta aspekten av översättningen genom ett antal egenskapsdrag samt möjliga anledningar till dessa. Slutsatsen efter genomförd undersökning är att Härskarringen, huvudsakligen genom att på olika sätt förhålla sig fritt till originalet, bär många gemensamma drag med översättningar inom lågprestigelitteraturen, och att kritikerna – då dessa förefaller anse att Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings tillhör högprestigelitteraturfältet och bör översättas enligt dess normer – därför har reagerat mot översättningens utformning. Härskarringens ställning som översättning har ifrågasatts på grund av att verket inte har översatts i enlighet med normerna på det litterära fält där det i dag anses befinna sig. Företeelsen får delvis ses som en följd av The Lord of the Rings och J. R. R. Tolkiens ökade anseende, och är därmed ett exempel på återverkningar av ett verks rörlighet inom det litterära systemet.

This thesis focuses on the formal and stylistic analysis and comparison of two works written by English authors, namely William Morris' poem The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (1876) and J. R. R. Tolkien's poetic work The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (published posthumously in 2009) with respect to how each of these works deals with the original Old Norse motives which they are based on. Both Sigurd the Volsung and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún can be described as poetic adaptations of the Old Norse tale of Sigurd Fafnisbani, which is recounted in the Saga of the Volsungs and in a cycle of poems found in the Poetic Edda. Both Morris and Tolkien borrowed this story to use it in their own works, yet each of them treats it in a different manner. Therefore, not only do both of the works differ from the original Old Norse texts on multiple levels, but they also differ one from another. The differences between them can be traced in the metrical properties of the individual poems, for instance, or in the use of specific stylistic elements. From this, it can be inferred that although it was the goal of both authors to evoke the atmosphere of the legendary heroic past where Sigurd's story takes place, each of them attempts to do so in a different way. This is probably caused by...

This study views J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy against its Anglo-Saxon background, specifically in light of Tolkien's 1936 Beowulf essay, and contends that the author consciously attempted to recreate the mood of the heroic poem. Chapter I compares Tolkien's use of historical perspective in Lord of the Rings with that of the Beowulf poet. His recognition of the poet's artistic use of history is stated in the "Beowulf" essay. Chapter II makes comparisons between Good and Evil as they are revealed in Beowulf and in the trilogy. Once again, much of the evidence for this comparison is found in Tolkien's Beowulf criticism. Chapter III examines the comitatus relationship fundamental to the heroic poem and to Lord of the Rings. It is the major element in Tolkien's portrayal of Good. Chapter IV concludes the study by asserting that the trilogy must be viewed as an heroic elegy, in exactly the same way that Tolkien viewed Beowulf. Thus, the theme of the trilogy, like Beowulf, is the mutability of man.