ENGL 2810Y Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: J. R. R. Tolkien, Old Norse Poetry, Gollum
23 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Largely responsible for creating contemporary, closed-world fantasy. Scholar of old english and old norse. Longtime professor at oxford (retired 1959) and friends with c. s. Borrowed the names for his dwarves and gandalf from early medieval. Influence of beowulf literature, esp. from the old norse poem voluspa. Before publishing the hobbit in 1937, invented languages for fun. Began as a long jotted down on a black page while marking a stack of term papers: in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit: Tolkien: names always generate a story in my mind. Eventually i thought i"d better find out what hobbits were like (tolkien, letters, 215) Unusual protagonist for kids" literature; 50 years old. But, like a child: inexperienced, young at heart, small and weak, smart, always hungry, imaginative, love his home. Needs to face world and grow up (shire = childhood; world = adulthood) Small size and human-like features make him easily relatable to child audience.
