The Keys of Middle-earth

Discovering Medieval Literature Through the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien

Stuart Lee, Elizabeth Solopova

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781137454690, 9781137454683
• eBook ISBN: 9781137454706
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Literature

A comprehensive introduction to the medieval languages and texts that inspired Tolkien's Middle-earth. Using key episodes in The Silmarillion , The Hobbit , and The Lord of the Rings , medieval texts are presented in their original language with translations. Essential for those who wish to delve deeper into the background to Tolkien's mythology.

1

How to Use This Book

The main part of this book consists of a series of medieval texts presented in both their original forms and in translation, based on episodes highlighted in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Whilst this does not represent the full corpus of Professor Tolkien’s fiction, other works are referenced throughout the book.

The first port of call, however, is a discussion of Tolkien’s career as a medievalist (2.1.3–5). This gives essential background material and should be read before progressing further. Newcomers to the field of medieval studies should then read through the introductory guides to Old English, Old Norse, Middle English, Celtic, Finnish, and medieval languages overall to get a bearing on the historical and linguistic context of the texts presented later (2.2). The essays on the quest, epic literature, runes, names, alliterative verse, and the relationship between Middle-earth and the real Middle Ages are presented as examples of major themes and similarities between Tolkien’s writing and those found in medieval literature. These give an overview of these subjects with reference to general parallels in Tolkien’s work and will be of particular use to those wishing to study medieval language and literature further.

The texts themselves are designed to be read in the order they appear in the book, and, to avoid repetition, some cross-referencing to earlier texts occurs. When reading the texts, those who are new to medieval literature are advised to look at the summary which precedes each entry to understand the link to The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings; to read briefly the information about the text; but mainly to concentrate on the discussion, where parallels with Tolkien’s fiction are explored. Such readers are also advised to work mainly with the translations, whilst looking at the original texts on the facing page to see if any patterns or similarities emerge – for example, recurring words or phrases. Readers more familiar with medieval literature will find that the notes to each text provide more in-depth information about language and manuscripts as well as further discussion of Tolkien’s own views of the text.

2

Introduction

2.1 Background

2.1.1 The aim of The Keys of Middle-earth

It is now almost impossible to find a bookshop without a stand or section dedicated to the life and works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Not only are there his original works of fiction (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and his minor texts), plus his own renditions of medieval texts (for example, The Fall of Arthur, Beowulf, Finn and Hengest, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún), there are also the 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth series edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, a range of biographies, books analysing his fiction, atlases, calendars, and drawings. These in themselves could fill a small library, but they have now been joined by a plethora of publications on nearly every aspect one could imagine concerning Peter Jackson’s filmed adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It is a perfectly justifiable question, then, to ask why do we need another book about Tolkien? What can possibly be written that hasn’t already been covered?

On the face of it very little has been left untouched. The plots, themes, and analogues of Tolkien’s fiction have been discussed at length. In academic circles there has also been a lot of recent interest in his career as a medievalist and what impact this had on his fiction. Yet if we agree with Tom Shippey when he states that ‘Tolkien cannot be properly discussed without some considerable awareness of the ancient works and the ancient world which he tried to revive’ (Shippey, 2000, p. xxvii), then a lot of readers and fans of the Middle-earth books will be left floundering. How can they find out about these ancient works? Where should they start in trying to understand a discipline that Tolkien himself spent over sixty years studying? It is true that there are many public domain translations of medieval texts available on the Internet, for example, but for the most part these are fifty or sixty years old and many of them, without proper guidance, will seem irrelevant and confusing.

This then is the aim of The Keys of Middle-earth – to overcome these barriers. Drawing on a series of episodes from Tolkien’s fiction, key medieval texts, or selections from them, are presented in the context of Middle-earth, drawing out parallels wherever possible. These in turn serve as an introduction to the range of medieval languages and literatures that Tolkien studied and provide the reader with sufficient knowledge to begin to explore more. The translations are presented facing the original medieval texts to ease comparison.

In this second edition of the book we have also included extra texts and discussions. Notably The Silmarillion is now included to engage readers with a further Old English text (Christ I), but, most importantly, the Finnish epic the Kalevala which exerted a great influence on Tolkien. Existing sections based around The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have also been expanded to introduce readers to the Old English Riddles, and the subject of the Goths and Gothic (via Jordanes’s History – see 2.2.4 and 4.13). In addition, explanatory essays on Finnish, Gothic, and the demanding area of Celtic literature have been included to add further information to the introductory material, plus an attempt to place Middle-earth alongside the real Middle Ages.

This book will be of interest to teachers and students of medieval literature too who are looking for a ‘themed’ reader. The theme here being one of the most popular sets of books of the past one hundred years, a popularity that shows only signs of increasing. Students are not only provided with introductions to the languages, texts, and manuscripts, there are also guides to further readings and more in-depth scholarly notes.

So whether you are a fan of the Middle-earth books, a teacher or student of medieval literature, or just interested in what led Tolkien to write his epic stories, The Keys of Middle-earth will appeal to you.

2.1.2 This is not a source book

To attempt to understand a book it is often useful to start with its title. This addition to the already extensive canon surrounding the life and works of Professor Tolkien is called The Keys of Middle-earth. It presents to the reader a collection of medieval texts in both their original form and in translation. Readers might naturally assume, therefore, that the texts in some way should be looked on as sources for the episodes set in Middle-earth, and that Tolkien used material from them in his own fiction. Yet if this were the case, then this book would have been entitled The Keys ‘to’ Middle-earth not ‘of’, and, as noted above, the title of a book is very significant.

So why the distinction? Well, in part we can turn to Tolkien’s own views on such matters. As Shippey (2005a, p. 388) notes, Tolkien did not like source studies, that is books that attempt to identify where passage x and passage y are taken from or based on. He felt they ‘tended to distract attention from the work of art itself, and to undervalue the artist by the suggestion that he had “got it all” from somewhere else’. Yet he was aware of the attraction of source studies. In a letter written in 1972, towards the end of his life, Tolkien complained that ‘the search for the sources of The Lord of the Rings is going to occupy academics for a generation or two’, but he wished it wasn’t so (Letters, 337, p. 418). This has certainly not stopped such endeavours, however, as can be confirmed by a glance at the annual ‘Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies: Sources and Comparative Studies’ in the journal Tolkien Studies. Furthermore, as Shippey (2011) suggests, we have to always bear in mind that Tolkien, when attempting to reinforce a point, was prone occasionally to exaggeration so his dislike of source studies may not be as entrenched as first appears.

It could be argued that it would also be impossible to write a source book for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or The Silmarillion as it implies that there is always a direct relationship between source material and the finished story. Although some of the entries presented in this book are very similar to the episodes in Tolkien’s fiction (see the link to Beowulf in 4.12 by way of example) most of them are not, and this is the norm.

So if this is not a source book, what is it? Once again we should turn to the title for an explanation. The purpose of a key is to lock, or in this case, unlock. We can imagine the book as a door, beyond which lies the world of medieval literature. To many, this world remains forever hidden, held secret within academic research libraries and universities. To some, who have been exposed to this world full of strange stories of men and women living long ago, told in even stranger languages, this world is both bewildering and daunting. Furthermore, for most, the only exposure to this whole area has been through the pseudo-medieval world of Hollywood where everything can, and does, go. Yet this is the arena in which Tolkien’s imagination roamed, a world to which he devoted most of his life. The Keys of Middle-earth, therefore, is aimed at unlocking that world so that the readers of Tolkien’s fiction can be exposed to the literature he studied, taught, translated, wrote about, and greatly admired. Then, when they return to his fiction, readers will have new insights into his work and begin to see patterns and similarities.

This is not without precedent, of course. Many people who now work or are interested in the field of medieval studies gained their first glimpse of this world through the fiction of Professor Tolkien (see Evans, 2000, p. 21; Lee, 2014a, p. 1). Caught up in the cultures of Rohan and Gondor, the history of the Elves and the Dwarves, they wanted more and found that their curiosity could be satisfied with the original material from which Tolkien drew his inspiration.

One can only guess, of course, what Tolkien’s reaction to such a venture would have been. One could assume that it would have been favourable. Any attempt to expose more people to the texts of Old English, Old Norse, Finnish, and Middle English would have been welcomed, especially one that presents the reader not only with the text in translation, but with the original for them to study and enjoy. Indeed Tolkien’s love of language, and his willingness to convey this to his students, is much attested to (see Solopova, 2009; Smith, 2014, pp. 202–14), extending to inventing his own languages. It was, as he termed it, ‘A Secret Vice’ (Essays, pp. 198–223).

In some ways, what attracted Tolkien to the study of medieval languages also explains his motivation behind the Middle-earth tales. Leaving the often over-emphasized attempt to devise a ‘mythology for England’, which he later rejected with some embarrassment, we can certainly agree with Shippey when he states that:

… he [Tolkien] wished… to give some hint of the charm and the fascination of the poems and stories to which he dedicated his professional life; and that he wanted finally to bridge the gap between the ancient world and the modern one.

(Shippey, 2000, p. 48)

The Keys of Middle-earth provides a further bridge. By selecting episodes from The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and the six books of The Lord of the Rings and directly linking them to a range of medieval texts, the reader is brought to a new world of discovery and at the same time exposed to the delights of our early literature.

2.1.3 Tolkien’s career

J. R. R. Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and died on 2 October 1973. In the course of his life he was a soldier, lexicographer, and academic (see Carpenter 1987; Garth, 2003 and 2014; Honegger, 2014a; and Shippey, 2014). In terms of his writing he produced academic articles, a few scholarly books, poetry, some drama, and the fantasy works for which he is known throughout the world. Yet if one were to single out the career that dominated his life, what should one select? For the majority of his fans the answer would be simple: Tolkien was a novelist. Yet Tolkien himself would more likely have classed himself as a university lecturer who specialized in the field of medieval literature and language. His writing, though it clearly occupied much of his life and imagination, was perhaps secondary – certainly in what he deemed important.

Tolkien began his academic career at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and subsequently went to Exeter College, Oxford, initially to read Classics but then switching to English Language and Literature. He specialized in medieval literature and linguistics, building on the fascination with ancient languages and tales he had developed as a child. He was awarded a First Class degree in 1915, by which time the First World War was a year old and Tolkien, like many young men of his generation, enlisted (see Garth, 2003). He was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers and saw action on the Somme in 1916, before being invalided home. After the war he took up a job in Oxford working on the New Oxford English Dictionary (concentrating on the letter ‘W’), and in 1920 he was appointed Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds (he became a professor in 1924). Tolkien was joined there in 1922 by the scholar E. V. Gordon and the pair began an ambitious plan (albeit ultimately unfulfilled) to produce a series of editions of medieval texts. Indeed, in terms of joint editions, the only real fruit of these labours was their Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, produced in 1925, but they continued to support each other throughout their lives (see Anderson, 2003b). This was the same year that Tolkien returned to Oxford, becoming Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College (not without some controversy it has to be said, a fact which he recognized at the end of his career; Essays, p. 238).

At Oxford, Tolkien found an even more encouraging environment for his medieval interests. He surrounded himself with friends and colleagues in the field, forming the ‘Coalbiters’ club to discuss works of Old Norse, and eventually became part of the famous ‘Inklings’ (see Bratman, 2014). His most important compatriot in those early years was C. S. Lewis – a kindred spirit not only academically and religiously (though not at first), but also in the writing of fiction, which they read to each other and the rest of the Inklings. This was a relationship t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1. How to Use This Book
• 2. Introduction
• 3. The Editions
• 4. The Texts
• Bibliography
• Index