What elements define the works of J.R.R. Tolkien? What is the flavor, the texture, the ethos of his High Fantasy works?
[C.S. Lewis] said to me one day: ‘Tollers, there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves.’
Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 378
What makes Tolkien, Tolkien?
It’s not just the fantastic creatures. Many fantasy stories have elves, dwarves, dragons, etc.
It’s not just the magic, as most fantasy stories contain magic in some way, shape or form.
It’s not that his stories often contain the same elements found in Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey;” as I can give you examples* outside of High Fantasy and ancient myth that also follow this format.
So tell me, what is the ethos of Tolkien’s works?
If Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces” gives us the Hero’s Journey template and shows us the mythic structure or “bones” of great stories, then another book, C.S. Lewis’s “The Discarded Image” (A book about Medieval and Renaissance literature) can help us understand the spirit or ethos of Tolkien’s High Fantasy stories.
In my series of essays Tolkien, Lewis, High Fantasy and the Medieval Model, I use The Discarded Image as a template to understand what makes Tolkien’s works so different from other fantasy stories. Here are samples from each essay.
From the Introduction:
The Modern story takes place in an Urban environment. Its focus is on Man the Smith, the Maker of Things. Its plot revolves around what an Individual Protagonist Wants.
The Classical story take place in a Rural setting. Its focus is on Man the Shepherd, the Protector and Servant. Its plot revolves around what the Hero and his People Need.
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
From Part 1. Golden Past vs Advanced Future: Sehnsucht, a nostalgic longing.
Both Tolkien’s and Lewis’s works have characters looking back, towards times greater and more wondrous than the time of the story. When someone or something both good and powerful enters into the tale, it is often a remnant or representative of this lost golden age that is brought into the time of the story.
There is a Sehnsucht, a nostalgic longing, built into the basic fabric of the best fantasy stories. This is what made The Lord of the Rings feel the most real to me. This feeling, this nostalgic longing, showed itself most strongly in the elves, but it is shown by nearly all the old creatures of Middle Earth. One of the most significant themes in The Lord of the Rings (and something missed by most Tolkien imitators and critics) is that the elves are leaving Middle Earth at the time of the story. We are losing the elves and we mourn at the loss, for the world is changing, diminishing, and the elves are a living reminder of that time when the world was first created.
From Part 2. Rural vs Urban: Rural areas are more virtuous (The Shire) or have more magic (The Old Forrest & Tom Bombadil’s home) than urban areas.
Joseph Campbell, in his “Hero with a Thousand Faces,” described the commonly seen elements in classical mythology. One such element is the “Enchanted Forest,” an important place on the hero’s journey known for healing and gifts, but also for mystery and danger. Its roots begin in the wilds of Eden and in the tended garden which lay to its east; for they are the model of all that followed. Here is the Garden of the Hesperides and the Land of Faire. The Wild Hunt sounds its beckoning call in these woods. We find this theme in medieval and renaissance literature with its castles in deep forests where great treasures are kept and perilous quests are begun. We see this in Tolkien’s Fanghorn, the most ancient of forests and in his Eden-like Lothlórien, in Lewis’s lush Handramit on Mars and the unfallen planet of Perelandra, we find it in the dark Forbidden Forrest next to Rowling’s castle-like Hogwarts school.
From Part 3: Knights and Angels in the age of Chivalry.
When you read the word “knight” what image comes to mind? Is it not a medieval warrior on horseback, often with a large shield and lance?
His armor may be chain mail or it may be full plate, but he is armored in the best that is available in his day. He is a professional warrior, but he is more than that.
From Part 4: Cosmos vs Chaos: The heavens are a sign of an ordered design.
Webster’s dictionary defines Cosmos as: “an orderly harmonious systematic universe.”
Meanwhile Webster defines Chaos as:“a state of things in which chance is supreme especially : the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms.”
“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.”
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
-Job 38:7
In Tolkien’s Silmarillion, the stars, the moon and the sun, are all created by the Valar (a class of angels appointed to watch over the earth), under the direction of God (Eru Ilúvatar or The One).
The newly created elves awake under those stars and celebrate their beauty under a seemingly eternal night sky. Throughout the tale, there is a special relationship between the stars and the elves. The first words the elves spoke were about the stars. When the Valar Oromë is sent to find them after their creation, he calls the elves “The Eldar, the People of the Stars.”
The moon and sun are made later in the Silmarillion and come from two great lamps which light the world, one silver and the other gold. These reside on Valinor, the island of the Valar. After the lamps are destroyed by Melkor (Lucifer), they have their lights retained in the two trees of Valinor and in moon and sun. (When the two trees of Valanor are later destroyed by Melkor and the giant spider Ungoliant, only the gems known as the Silmarils, not the moon or the sun, hold their light in its truest form.)
God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
–Genesis 1:16
Later in the Silmarillion, we find the heavenly bodies shepherded by angels or other beings. For example, at the end of the First Age, Eärendil the Half-elven, wearing the last Silmaril on his brow, is tasked to ride across the sky with the jewel shining forth as a star.
The heavens declare the glory of God
-Psalm 19:2.
From Part 5. Hierarchy vs Equality: Throughout this essay I will use the word Hierarchy in the classical sense, of a structured order based on merit, rank or authority.
“Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Eldar. He knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings.”
Pipin speaking of Faramir
-J.R.R. Tolkien The Return of the King.
From Part 6: Longaevi: The origins of fantasy creatures in Medieval Literature.
“…fairy-stories are not in normal English usage stories about fairies or elves, but stories about Fairy, that is Faërie, the realm or state in which fairies have their being.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
Throughout the High Fantasy stories of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien there are appearances by creatures from myth and fairy tale which fall into a group that were neither immortal, nor as short lived as humans; creatures whose place in Creation lies somewhere between mankind and angels.
“There used to be things on this Earth pursuing their own business, so to speak. They weren’t ministering spirits sent to help fallen humanity; but neither were they enemies preying upon us. Even in St. Paul one gets glimpses of a population that won’t exactly fit into our two columns of angels and devils. And if you go back further . . . all the gods, elves, dwarfs, water-people, fate, longaevi. You and I know too much to think they were just illusions.”
—A discussion of the origins of Merlin’s type of magic in the C. S. Lewis novel That Hideous Strength.
From Part 7: The Good God vs “gods”
All of the best fantasy stories, be they about the ultimate war between good and evil or the doings of the smallest of fantasy creatures, really say the same thing and suggests to the reader (whether consciously or not) the same ultimate conclusion: If the smallest of supernatural things exists, even if it is the smallest of fairies, then perhaps the greatest of supernatural things (God) exists. But High Fantasy is much more than this.
The defining characteristic of God in the works of Tolkien and Lewis is not His power, but His goodness and mercy. The reverse is true of the small “g” gods of many other fantasy genres.
LINKS:
IINTRODUCTION
Part 1: Advanced Future vs. Golden Past
Part 2. Urban vs Rural
Part 3: Knights and Angels in the Age of Chivalry
Part 4: Cosmos vs Chaos
Part 5: Hierarchy vs Equality
Part 6: Longaevi: The origins of fantasy creatures in Medieval Literature
Part 7: The Good God vs. “gods”
* Movies such as Star Wars, Second Hand Lions, The Lion King, 50 First Dates, Love and Monsters. For more on The Hero’s Journey in modern films read Christopher Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey. Mythic Structure for Writers.”
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