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J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive body of work represents decades of effort from a man who, burdened by the suffering and grief of a world he considered to be fallen, wished to combine his love of fairy-stories and mythology with the otherworldly hope of eucatastrophe, Tolkien’s word for unexpected divine joy amid suffering, present at the heart of his strong Catholic beliefs. Tolkien’s world of Arda is consequently full of suffering; it is written as a dark and dangerous place, where dyscatastrophe, the prerequisite suffering before eucatastrophe, exists within the world from its conception and Eden has never been obtainable for Men. By chronologically tracing the existence of suffering in Tolkien’s world, from its origin through the fall of Melkor, to the grievous immortality of the Elves and their possessive love of the world, and finally to the fear of death present in Men, this paper aims to combine these moments of suffering and the underlying hope within them in order to show the necessity of eucatastrophe to Tolkien’s world through several of his major works. By focusing primarily on The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion while showing his use of amdir and estel, the different hopes of Men and Elves, as tools in service of eucatastrophe to highlight the hope present within our own world, this paper argues for eucatastrophe, dyscatastrophe, amdir, and estel as primary components to the major theme of death and immortality within Tolkien’s works, purposeful inclusions designed to give readers a glimpse of joy beyond their own world, which Tolkien held to be the most important function of the fairy-stories he loved.

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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.

In the postmodern, contemporary Western world of late capitalism, we dream of the Middle Ages. Medieval Fantasy, as an entertainment genre, supplements historical images of the Middle Ages with elements of myth in adventure stories featuring magicians, knights and ladies, castles, dragons, swords, and sorcery that are routinely consumed and absorbed. In some activities they are also played out physically. People dress up, utilise props, and affect their speech and mannerisms like actors in a theatre, conducting pseudo-ritualistic games of mimicry to make these images speak and move in the real world: live role-play. This thesis examines several organised examples of live role-play: Southron Gaard, a branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism based in Christchurch, New Zealand; larping, as represented by two documentary films, Darkon and Monster Camp, that document the activities of larping organisations in the USA; and 'Lord of the Rings Tour', a tourism trip from Christchurch to 'Edoras', a fictional location from Middle-earth, the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Novels and Peter Jackson's filmic adaptations thereof. These organised leisure activities provide platforms for the pursuit of active, physical involvement with the images and ideas of medieval fantasy. In them, participants find ways to bring these fantastic images and ideas onto their bodies in reality and, perhaps as a result, closer to their everyday lives in ways that have more significant social implications than may at first be apparent.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att fokusera de queera ögonblicken i J.R.R. Tolkiens trilogi The Lord of the Rings för att visa att det queera finns i kulturen på samma sätt som det icke-queera. När är de två hobbitarna Frodos och Sams relation queer? Vad gör den queer? Hur kan vi förstå denna queerhet i termer av homosocialitet och homoerotik? Uppsatsen är inspirerad av Tiina Rosenbergs queera läsningar, jag använder mig dessutom av Adrienne Richs teori om "lesbisk kontinuitet" och Sedgwicks resonemang om manligt homosocialt begär. Jag har kommit fram till att Frodos och Sams relation rör sig mellan mer och mindre queerhet. Då den inte är statisk kan den inte förstås som renodlat homosocial eller homoerotisk. Däremot kan den ses som en del av en manlig samkönad kontinuitet, vilken inkluderar allt ifrån homosocialitet till homoerotik.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is greatly diverse in species, races, and ethnicities which is a fact that over the decades has engendered great scholarly discussions about hidden racism in the literary work. Therefore, an analysis of intercultural matters and encounters realized throughout the story is relevant for detecting a possible racist ideology. By applying the postcolonial concept “Othering,” which is an act of differentiation, this essay analyzes racist instances in the story, and the result of or opposition to those, in order to indicate the presence of an anti-Othering ideology in the trilogy. The analysis is conducted through discussion of Othering of other species/races/ethnicities caused by blind trust in one’s own group, Othering inside one’s own group, Othering of other species/races/ethnicities, and discussion about instances of multicultural acceptance. Considering Tolkien’s relationship to nature, this discussion also extends to Othering of nature. Consequently, this essay concludes how The Lord of the Rings trilogy arguably is against Othering since the story generally presents the act as negative to others, oneself, and/or one’s beloved as well as contains instances which simply convey a positive view of multiculturalism. / Sagan om ringen trilogin är väldigt mångfaldig i arter, raser och etniciteter vilket genom årtionden har genererat storskaliga akademiska diskussioner om förekomsten av en dold rasism i det litterära verket. Därmed är en analys av de interkulturella angelägenheter och möten som tar plats under berättelsens gång relevant för att upptäcka en möjlig rasistisk ideologi. Genom att applicera det postkoloniala konceptet ”Othering”, vilket är en differentieringsakt, analyserar denna uppsats rasistiska instanser i berättelsen och resultatet av eller oppositionen till dessa för att indikera förekomsten av en motståndsideologi till ”Othering” i trilogin. Analysen genomförs genom diskussioner om ”Othering” av andra arter/raser/etniciteter orsakade av blind tilltro till ens egen grupp, ”Othering” inom ens egen grupp, ”Othering” av andra arter/raser/etniciteter och diskussion om instanser av multikulturell acceptans. Med tanke på Tolkiens relation till naturen sträcker sig även denna diskussion till ”Othering” av naturen. Denna uppsats drar följaktligen slutsatsen att Sagan om ringen trilogin är emot ”Othering” eftersom berättelsen generellt sett presenterar aktionen som negativ för andra, en själv och ens älskade, såväl som innehåller instanser som helt enkelt förmedlar en positiv syn på multikulturalism.

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When J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings was published in Swedish 1959-1961, the translation by Åke Ohlmarks was considered by most critics to be excellent. According to Ohlmarks, even J. R. R. Tolkien himself and his son Christopher were very pleased with it, which Ohlmarks was told by Christopher when he met him in 1975. This is, however, contradicted in the authorised biography of Tolkien by Carpenter (1978), in which Tolkien is said to have been most negative towards the way Ohlmarks handled the text. Before the biography was published, Christopher Tolkien and Ohlmarks had become bitter enemies, which might explain the re-evaluation. The schism has been described by Ohlmarks in his book Tolkiens arv (1978). But ever since The Lord of the Rings came out in paperback in 1971 there has been a discussion about the translation quality also in Sweden. When I first read the books in English I had the Swedish translation beside me. I soon discovered that Ohlmarks had taken great liberties with the text. I noticed that the descriptions were often more detailed in the Swedish translation than in the original and it was this fact that first roused my interest. Therefore, I decided to try to make a translation quality assessment of a part of the text, using a model by Juliane House.