Tolkien never claimed he invented a mythology, he said he inherited one.
What I love about this piece is how clearly it traces the thread, from Beowulf's doomed courage through the Norse twilight, to Gawain's quiet shame, and shows that Middle-earth was not built from nothing. It was built from everything that came before it, the way a cathedral is built from the quarry beneath it.
And the Dunsany section is particularly worth sitting with. That shift from whimsical fairy tale to something ancient and strange. Tolkien saw it, recognised it, and took it further than anyone thought possible.
Thanks to the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, Ballantine books hired Lin Carter to edit a series of adult fantasy books, sometimes publishing books that had been long out of print and introducing new readers to authors such as Dunsany, Morris, MacDonald, Mervyn Peake, and so many others.
I'm glad to see that the Bible makes the list. People forget that Tolkien and Huge Dyson were largely responsible for the conversion of C.S. Lewis from atheist/agnostic to Christian. One of the ways in which Tolkien incorporated Christian themes was with Aragorn's elevation of the hobbits at the end of The Return of the King. It's also one of the areas where the book and movie differ. If anything Jackson transferred the imagery directly into dialogue. The pagan world was far more hierarchal than the Christian world which displaced it, although often the power structures and close to caste-like class division which were inherited persisted for centuries. Sadly the marriage of Church to State under Constantine and Theodosius largely supressed Christianity's early natural radical egalitarianism for close to 1,000 years.
It's interesting that Tolkien rarely seemed to reference Tyndale. One of the few idioms he did use was “Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire”. It's first recorded use was by Thomas More in 1532 during a debate with Tyndale. Overall, Tolkien aimed to create his own idioms rather than use Tyndale's.
As an interesting piece of trivia, apparently Tolkien didn't like Frank Herbert's Dune. A friend sent him a copy. I imagine he didn't like it because the book treated religion cynically. Like LOTR it's a recurrent favourite of mine. Ironically, Dune holds the key to God's dilemma and the answer to both suffering and evil.
Here's the quote in question: “It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find it so. In fact I dislike Dune with some intensity, and in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment.”
Tolkien never claimed he invented a mythology, he said he inherited one.
What I love about this piece is how clearly it traces the thread, from Beowulf's doomed courage through the Norse twilight, to Gawain's quiet shame, and shows that Middle-earth was not built from nothing. It was built from everything that came before it, the way a cathedral is built from the quarry beneath it.
And the Dunsany section is particularly worth sitting with. That shift from whimsical fairy tale to something ancient and strange. Tolkien saw it, recognised it, and took it further than anyone thought possible.
I believe George MacDonald deserves a shout out! And Lewis of course…
As well as William Morris.
Thanks to the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, Ballantine books hired Lin Carter to edit a series of adult fantasy books, sometimes publishing books that had been long out of print and introducing new readers to authors such as Dunsany, Morris, MacDonald, Mervyn Peake, and so many others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series
Thanks. This is extremely helpful.
Shocked that the Mabinogion wasn’t mentioned!
The Marvellous Land of Snergs is a more contemporary and lesser known influence. Fun book too
I'm glad to see that the Bible makes the list. People forget that Tolkien and Huge Dyson were largely responsible for the conversion of C.S. Lewis from atheist/agnostic to Christian. One of the ways in which Tolkien incorporated Christian themes was with Aragorn's elevation of the hobbits at the end of The Return of the King. It's also one of the areas where the book and movie differ. If anything Jackson transferred the imagery directly into dialogue. The pagan world was far more hierarchal than the Christian world which displaced it, although often the power structures and close to caste-like class division which were inherited persisted for centuries. Sadly the marriage of Church to State under Constantine and Theodosius largely supressed Christianity's early natural radical egalitarianism for close to 1,000 years.
It's interesting that Tolkien rarely seemed to reference Tyndale. One of the few idioms he did use was “Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire”. It's first recorded use was by Thomas More in 1532 during a debate with Tyndale. Overall, Tolkien aimed to create his own idioms rather than use Tyndale's.
As an interesting piece of trivia, apparently Tolkien didn't like Frank Herbert's Dune. A friend sent him a copy. I imagine he didn't like it because the book treated religion cynically. Like LOTR it's a recurrent favourite of mine. Ironically, Dune holds the key to God's dilemma and the answer to both suffering and evil.
Here's the quote in question: “It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find it so. In fact I dislike Dune with some intensity, and in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment.”