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This study investigates in what respects Celtic mythology influenced J. R. R. Tolkien when writing the sagas incorporated in the mythopoeic compilation of The Silmarillion. Through narrative and comparative analysis, stories from the Irish prose collection Lebor Gabála Érenn, as well as the Welsh medieval manuscript Mabinogion, are collated to the tales of The Silmarillion in order to illuminate possible influences. The survey showed that even though Tolkien expressed a certain distaste for everything Celtic, several elements of Irish and Welsh mythology are indeed visible in his works.

Submitted by STÉFANO STAINLE null (stefano@stainle.com.br) on 2016-07-08T22:06:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_-_VERSAO_-_CAPA_-_DURA_-_STEFANO.pdf: 1429025 bytes, checksum: edd0f4b4e3b4ea54c0cd16da71d665d1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-11T19:07:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 stainle_e_me_arafcl.pdf: 1429025 bytes, checksum: edd0f4b4e3b4ea54c0cd16da71d665d1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-11T19:07:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 stainle_e_me_arafcl.pdf: 1429025 bytes, checksum: edd0f4b4e3b4ea54c0cd16da71d665d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Com essa pesquisa pretende-se, a partir de uma abordagem teórico-crítica de O Senhor dos Anéis, obra máxima de J. R. R. Tolkien, analisar o modo de atuação da personagem Gandalf, de forma a esclarecer e melhor compreender como essa personagem atua na narrativa e, com essa atuação, possibilita a existência da narrativa em si mesma, equilibrando ou desequilibrando o compasso do enredo. A forma como ela se movimenta e se manifesta no enredo é que permite concluir que cabe a Gandalf a responsabilidade de ser o urdidor dos elementos narrativos. Ele possilita que os elementos distintos da obra se conectem e dessa forma impulsionem a narrativa. Para tal análise há a mobilização de teorias que se referem à atuação da personagem e ao contexto literário em questão. Tais teorias são relacionadas aos gêneros romance, épica, contos de fadas, novelas de cavalaria e mito, bem como a psicanálise, religião, personagem e herói. Partindo do estudo da referida personagem, intenciona-se contribuir, em última instância, para uma melhor compreensão do universo ficcional criado pelo autor e um melhor entendimento dos recursos utilizados na composição da atuação da referida personagem na narrativa, aspecto que até o momento não foi adequadamente abordado e analisado pela crítica especializada na obra do autor. / With this research it is intended to analyse the way of acting of the character Gandalf departing from a theoretical-critical approach of The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, and by this, searching the enlightment and better understanding of how this character acts on the paths of the narrative and how this acting makes possible the existence of narrative itself, by balancing or even unbalancing the plot’s compass. The way he moves and acts in the plot allows us to conclude that Gandalf is the responsible for manipulating the narrative elements. He makes possible the connection among different elements of the plot, boosting the narrative. There is a mobilization of theories concerning the character's performance and the literary context to do such analysis. The theories are related to the genres novel, epic, fairy tale, romance and myth, as well as to the psychoanalysis, the religion, the character and the hero. Departing from the study of the referred character, it is intended to contribute, in the last resort, to a better understanding of the fictional universe created by the author and a better comprehension of the resources used in the composition of the reported character’s performance in the narrative, an aspect that was not properly approached and analysed by the critics on the work of the author.

The aim with this essay is, through the lens of narratology, to study J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and find as many examples of different narratological aspects as possible. These narratological aspects will then be presented in a thorough analysis. Furthermore, the difference in narratological theory between realistic and unrealistic literature is highlighted. The aim is also to try and find out whether the narrative structure might have influenced the novel’s popularity among its numerous readers. The analysis shows that the primary narrator is omniscient, the novel is well structured with good descriptions of the settings and well depicted portrayals of the characters. The analysis also shows that time and space are equally as important as in a classical work of fiction. Moreover, it is evident that the narrative structure is an essential aspect of the success and longevity of the novel, in which the narration and the characterizations are vital. The analysis also highlights the unrealistic features of the novel.

In an interview with Hy Bender, Neil Gaiman states, "We have the right, and the obligation, to tell old stories in our own ways, because they are our stories." While fantasy stands apart from other types of fiction, it still provides a particular kind of commentary on the culture/time it is being created in, often by toying with older themes and conventions. Stories of the quest for kingship tend to fall by the wayside in favor of the "unlikely hero" tale. While the king's story is not always vastly different from that of the hero, there are some key points that need to be taken into consideration. Unlike many heroes, especially in the modern sense, kings (whether recognized at first or not) are born for the duty they must eventually fulfill. A hero may be unaware of the problem at first or later reluctant to engage it; more often than not in tales of kingship there is a deep awareness of the problem and the knowledge of their potential in solving it. There is always a sense of inherent purpose and destiny: they must undertake quests in order to legitimize themselves and their power — their right to rule. These stories bear a similar structure and shared themes that can be found in medieval sources as well as earlier myths. Tales of kingship in modern fiction, specifically in the work of Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) and George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), are similar to the medieval models, as kingship and the requirements of kingship were popular themes in medieval texts, including Beowulf and King Horn. The role of the king in epic tales varies from hero to villain, at times even occupying both roles depending on the story. In the tales explored herein and in much of the medieval source material that inspired the fantasy tradition, the king also takes on the role of healer. The interwoven plots of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series revolve around the struggle for the rightful rule over seven kingdoms, and while the protagonist in The Sandman is in many ways vastly different from Tolkien's Aragorn, the character still exists with a sense of purpose, responsibility, and duty; a regal bearing that does not necessarily occur in the majority of typical heroes. The influence of Tolkien's work both as a scholar and an author is apparent in Gaiman's use of mythology and Martin's style of world creation; both authors have admitted their creative debt to and continuing admiration of Tolkien's style of fantasy. It is impossible to discuss modern fantasy without acknowledging Tolkien as an influence to these two more recent authors. This paper will discuss The Lord of the Rings as a bridge between modern fantasy and medieval/mythological sources. In each of these modern fantasy tales of kingship, healing and reunion become major themes, tied into the right/duty of a ruler. The patterns established by medieval tales are used by modern authors to create fantasy kings, giving their narratives legitimacy that may have been difficult to establish without these patterns and links back to the medieval tradition. / Master of Arts

This book is about the participatory aesthetics of the fantastic. In it, the author argues that the definition of the fantastic presented by Tzvetan Todorov in 1970 can be used, provided it is first adapted to a media-ecological framework, to theorize the role of aesthetic participation in the creation of secondary worlds. Working within a hermeneutical tradition, Todorov understands reader participation as interpretation, in which the creative ambiguities of the literary object are primarily epistemological. However, it is here argued that the aesthetic object of the fantastic is also characterized by material ambiguity. The purpose of this dissertation is then to present a conceptual framework with which to theorize the relation between the material and the epistemological ambiguity of the fantastic. It is argued that such a framework can be found in an ecological understanding of aesthetic participation. This, in turn, entails understanding human subjectivity as a process always already embodied in a material environment. To this extent, the proposed theoretical framework questions the clear and oppositional distinction between form and matter, as well as that between mind and body, nature and culture, and human and non-human, on which a modern and humanist notion of subjectivity is based. And in this sense, the basic ecological assumptions of this dissertation are posthumanist, or non-humanist. From this position, it is argued that an ecological understanding of participation offers a means to reformulate the function of a number of concepts central to studying the aesthetics of the fantastic, most notably the concepts of media, genre and text. As the fantastic focuses on the creation of other worlds, it is an aesthetics of coming into being, of ontogenesis. Accordingly, it will be argued that the participatory aesthetics of the fantastic operationalizes the ontogenesis of media, genres and texts. By mapping the ontogenesis of three distinct media ecologies – the media ecology of fantasy and J. R. R. Tolkien’s secondary world Middle-earth; the media ecology of the American comic book superhero Miracleman; and the media ecology of William Blake – this book argues that the ecological imagination generates world. Per Israelson has been a doctoral candidate in the Research School of Studies in Cultural History at the department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University. Ecologies of the Imagination is his dissertation.

<p>Syftet med föreliggande uppsats var att, genom litteraturstudier av C. S. Lewis Narnia-serie samt J. R. R. Tolkiens <em>Härskarringen, </em>undersöka förekomsten av kristusgestaltning i nämnda litteratur. Genom att studera nämnda verk var avsikten även att undersöka de eventuella kristna influenser som återspeglar författarnas egen tro och närmare studera de tänkbara paralleller med Bibelns Kristus som förekommer. Utifrån de analyser som görs av texterna i arbetet blir slutsatsen att även om det finns klara influenser från Bibelns Kristusgestalt kan man inte i båda böckerna se en klar kristusgestalt. När det gäller <em>Härskarringen </em>finns där inte en klart framträdande Kristus även om de kristna influenserna är många. När det gäller Narnia är de kristna influenserna tydligare och parallellerna med Kristus framträder klarare.</p>

Syftet med föreliggande uppsats var att, genom litteraturstudier av C. S. Lewis Narnia-serie samt J. R. R. Tolkiens Härskarringen, undersöka förekomsten av kristusgestaltning i nämnda litteratur. Genom att studera nämnda verk var avsikten även att undersöka de eventuella kristna influenser som återspeglar författarnas egen tro och närmare studera de tänkbara paralleller med Bibelns Kristus som förekommer. Utifrån de analyser som görs av texterna i arbetet blir slutsatsen att även om det finns klara influenser från Bibelns Kristusgestalt kan man inte i båda böckerna se en klar kristusgestalt. När det gäller Härskarringen finns där inte en klart framträdande Kristus även om de kristna influenserna är många. När det gäller Narnia är de kristna influenserna tydligare och parallellerna med Kristus framträder klarare.

Uppsatsen jämför de båda svenska översättningarna av JRR Tolkiens Lord of the Rings: Åke Ohlmarks Sagan om ringen från 1959 och Erik Anderssons Ringens brödraskap från 2004.Syftet är att se vilken översättning som är närmast originalet och författarens intentioner. Genom att jämföra olika uttryck ges en konkret bild av vilken översättning som mest överensstämmer med Tolkiens originaltext.Dessutom tas olika aspekter på översättande i allmänhet upp, likväl som vilka specifika svårigheter som finns i översättandet av bokens olika konstruerade språk.Min slutsats är att Ringens brödraskap är mest trogen originalet och att läsaren i den får mer eget tolkningsuttrymme.

The thesis is organized as two sections of two chapters each: the first section establishes a theoretical framework of a broad and reinvigorated Christian sacramentality within which to situate the second—an investigation of the theories and practice of the mythopoeic art of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in this sacramental light. The first chapter acknowledges the thoroughgoing disenchantment of modernity, an effect traced to the vanishing of a sacramental understanding of the world, and then explores the history of the sacramental concept that would seek to be reclaimed and reconceived as a possible means of the re-enchantment of Western culture such as in the recent work of David Brown. An appreciative critique of Brown's work is offered in chapter two before proposing an alternative understanding of a distinctly Christian and reinvigorated sacramentality anchored in the Incarnation and operating by Transposition. A notion of sacramental vision is developed from the perceptual basis in its classic definitions, and a sacramental understanding of story is considered from a theological perspective on the infinite generativity of meaning in texts, along with recent theories of affect and affordance. The second half of the thesis expounds the views of mythopoeia held by Lewis and Tolkien in order to show how they are not only compatible with but lead to a sacramental understanding of story as developed in part one, with mythopoeia affording the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of reality, awakening it into focus in distinctly Christian ways (chapter three). The final chapter demonstrates how their mythopoeic theories are exemplified in their art, examining specific ways Till We Have Faces and The Lord of the Rings afford the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of various themes central to them. In closing it is suggested that such a sacramental understanding of story may contribute to the re-enchantment of Western culture, not to mention the re-mythologization and re-envisaging of Christianity, whose significance in these regards has been hitherto mostly unrecognized.