ML200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Exeter Book, Middle English, The Malloreon
ML200
Neomedieval Worlds – Heroic Fantasy and the Persistence of Medievalism
• Medievalism in heroic/epic/high fantasy
• Step away from heroic fiction
• Heavy (& often simultaneous) influence of medieval romance/other medieval literature and
medieval history
• Switched over to medieval history – GoT
Moving Away from History: evoking the Middle Ages
• Secondary worlds based on primary world historical settings
• Historical fantasy
o A gee hih athe tha ostutig a past that ight hae eisted, ostuts a
past, siila i soe espets to a atual past, that ould ot hae eisted. Co
o Gives them more leeway – not bound to exactly what happened (narrative uncertainty)
o Work within a setting that people are going to recognize and have an expected response
to
• Gu Gaiel Ka: ea-histo/ the uate-tu toads the fatasti
o Grounding in the Tolkienesque setting
o Woked ith a ea histo – historical characters and setting taken slightly out of
histo ith a uate tu toads the fatasti
o An interaction with real history, preserving it respectfully without a sense of entitlement
▪ Do’t ap soeoe’s life to fit ou ais
o Writing about history without making claims to truth
o Citis of fatas sa it’s ot fatastial eough ad histoial itis sa it’s laz
Activity
Brightweavings historically-themed books – try to identify themes & ideas
• Many different areas of Europe and Asia through different periods
• Looking for societies in conflict
• Not looking at mainstream areas
• All of these people and places are his versions of them – taken them just out of history such that
they can interact in a way they may not have in medieval history
Lord of the Rings: accept no imitators?
• Tolkie’s akgoud as a ediealist Old & Middle English language and literature)
• LOTR influences by his broader in N European mythology and literature (Norse, Finnish, Celtic, as
well as Anglo-Saxon)
• Directly reflected in the literature and language of Middle Earth
• Same influences visible in the Peter Jackson films (if somewhat transformed)
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