Thesis advisor: Philip O'Leary / This paper takes the opportunity to examine some of the lesser known roots the fictional world, Middle Earth, and its accompanying mythology, both created by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is concerned with tracing the elements of Celtic myth and legend that appear to have influenced Tolkien’s work. While he is ambiguous on the subject – flatly denying Celtic influences in one letter, while stating that his stories of Elves are rather Celtic – consulting the text yields a world rife with Celtic underpinnings. This paper makes no claims that such Celtic elements are the only myths Tolkien borrowed from, but attempts to give a compelling case that they some of the elements Tolkien used when creating Middle Earth and, consequently, are worthy of being introduced into the discussion of Tolkien’s extraordinary mythology. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English Honors Program. / Discipline: English.

My thesis reflects an assessment of The Lord of the Rings centering on the idea of a structure of opposites. For each place, race, character and object in The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien included an element which serves as an antithesis. In addition, the style, pacing, and language of the work also contain antithetical pairs which continually engage and propel the reader to the work's conclusion. I contend that this deliberate pairing of opposing elements adds depth and verisimilitude to the work. Tolkien was an avid student of what his contemporaries would have called "fantasy" or "fairy tales." While dismissed by many scholars as juvenilia, Tolkien and his predecessors the trailblazing folklorists and philologists the Grimm brothers took these works seriously as both serious narratives and fragments of a time for which the historical record is spotty. In examining these Old English, Old Norse, Old Germanic and folkloric works, Tolkien built a professional reputation as a literary critic. He studied the formalist elements of these tales such as plot, diction, characterization and pacing the same way other literary critics studied contemporary or "mainstream" historical works. I contend that Tolkien's work as a critic informed Tolkien as a writer in form and structure. My thesis highlights the deliberately shaped formalist element of antithetical pairs of races, places, objects and characters. In addition, the narrative pacing and style of the works reflect and author concerned with a deliberate paring of polarities. As my thesis examine the text for elements of plot, setting, pacing and characterization I primarily approach Tolkien from a formalist and narratological standpoint. Many of the points I mention are not new; critics have noted in passing some of the elements before essays or books that focus on another method of criticism. However, I believe that in pulling together a final tally of Tolkien's structural polarities I can explain how a work derided at its publication by critic Edmund Wilson as "juvenile trash" has endured to become the best selling work published in England, aside from the Bible.

This thesis proposes that the current popularity of heroic fantasy arises from the genre's capacity to reveal "meaning" to the alienated subject within late modernity. While consumerism potentially undermines the subject's sense of stability both as an individual and as a member of a coherent and unified social group, the hero's journey conveys a compelling model for attaining a purposive subjectivity by acting on behalf of the broader community. However, this "healing" message is in turn appropriated by multinational corporations and nation states for financial advantage. Heroic fantasy can thus be read at various points of its production and consumption as both legitimating and contesting dominant institutions and ideologies.With particular reference to the books and films of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, ontological security is discussed at both individual and collective levels across three horizons: commodification, gender, and nationalism. A combination of close textual analysis and the application of core concepts from cultural studies - particularly ethnographic study, hegemonic power relations and political economy - provides the methodological flexibility necessary to trace consumers' contradictory and ambivalent responses to the three themes: the anti-materialist message incorporated in the genre's moral economy is jeopardised by the rampant commodification of the texts; the normative masculinity and emphasised femininity common to the genre is contested by female readers; and the utopic visions of a secure and homogeneous community are exploited by the New Zealand government rebranding the country as Middle-earth. These arguments are oriented toward a New Zealand perspective; interviews with readers of Harry Potter and a discussion of the World Premiere of Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Return of the King in "Wellywood" contribute to this specific context.This thesis therefore asserts that once heroic fantasy is placed in the contexts of production and reception conflicting trends are revealed, suggesting that the social impacts of heroic fantasy are complex and equivocal. Although the genre is readily commodified by the very system that it retaliates against, analysis suggests that heroic fantasy resists reification into a single dominant discourse as appropriation is never absolute.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s pioneering work of fantasy fiction, The Lord of the Rings, was written in a period of twelve years, starting in 1937 during WWII and ending in 1949 a few years after the war ended. However, Tolkien’s experience with war began in 1915, when he entered combat in WWI as a young second lieutenant. Understandably, Tolkien’s war experiences have led many fans and scholars to question to what extent the World Wars influenced his works. In response to these queries Tolkien adamantly denied any connection, stating in the forward to the second edition of LOTR that “The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion.” Despite Tolkien’s flat denial of any connection between his personal war experiences and his fictional world, many critics have dedicated their studies to identifying concrete similarities that exist between LOTR and WWI. Yet, there exists a substantial and entirely ignored connection between Tolkien’s own wartime experience and his writings. More specifically, no significant study exists examining the connection between Tolkien’s depictions of medical treatments in LOTR and his own experiences with wartime medicine. These connections are particularly noteworthy because after the trauma of the Somme, Tolkien spent almost the entirety of the war as an invalid, in and out of war hospitals. Tolkien’s descriptions of medical remedies, which are richly detailed and significant to the plot, are therefore connected to his own experience. Examining each of these remedies within LOTR and linking them to medical practices used in WWI reveals previously unidentified points of correlation.

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.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 224-226).

Christian providence in the primary (real) world operates as the model for the spiritual movement of Eru/Illuvatar in Tolkien's secondary (imaginative) world. Paralleling the Christian God, Illuvatar maintains a relationship with his creation through a three-fold activity: preservation, concurrence, and government. Preservation affirms Eru's sovereignty as Creator, and concurrence guarantees creaturely freedom, while paradoxically, government controls, guides, and determines those wills in Time. The union of these three activities comprises the providential relationship of Illuvatar in Tolkien's imaginary world. The following thesis endeavors to carry the argument for providence into The Silmarillion with a declarative and analytical detail that distinguishes Illuvatar's providence from other temporal manifestations. Finally, the analysis reveals not only the author's authentic orthodox perspective, but Illuvatar's role in the imaginative world emerges as a reflection of Tolkien's authorial role in the real world. / by David C. Powell. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This essay focuses on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, how the different races in the text are portrayed and how they interact with each other. The essay uses postcolonial theories, mainly “Orientalism” and “Otherness”, to prove traces of racism in the text. It focuses on the text and what can be found in the characters opinions of each other. The aim of this essay is to prove that in The Lord of the Rings there is an underlying story of racial issues between the different races of Middle-Earth and that these issues can be described as racism.  The colonial themes of the text can mostly be found in the geographical descriptions, the colour of skin and the stereotypical descriptions of different races within the text. The stereotypical descriptions are probably sprung from the fact that J.R.R Tolkien grew up towards the end of the big Imperialist era of 19th century Europe and the similarities and descriptions of foreign cultures existing in the real world can be traced throughout the text.  The Lord of the Rings contains themes with racial issues and this can be described as racism, even though it is not possible to say that The Lord of the Rings is a racist text as whole. / Uppsatsen analyserar Sagan om Ringen av J.R.R Tolkien. Den visar på hur olika raser är beskrivna i texten och hur dessa grupper interagerar med varandra. Uppsatsen använder sig av Postcoloniala teorier, i huvudsak Orientalism och de andra för att visa på rasistiska spår i texten. Uppsatsen behandlar texten och undersöker karaktärernas åsikter om varandra. Målet med uppsatsen är att visa att Sagan om ringen har underligande rasistiska strömningar mellan de olika raserna i Midgård. Det koloniala temat i texten ses tydligast i de geografiska beskrivningarna, hudfärg på karaktärer och de steriotypa beskrivnnignarna av olika grupper i verket. De steriotypa beskrivnnigarna kommer troligtvis ifrån Tolkiens egen uppväxt i det imperialistiska Storbritanien under slutet av 1800-talet då tidstypiska beskrivingar från denna era kan skönjas i texten som helhet. Sagan om ringen innehåller flera rasistiska partier men det är inte möjligt att beskriva hela verket som rasistiskt.