to understand tolkiens world

[helga litla]

if you want to really understand Tolkiens world,then read the book he based his books on...read Snorra-Edda it´s a very old and famous Icelandic book, that Tolkien knew by heart, about the nordic belief....Gandalf was a dwarf. Also the Elvish writings, you can see a very similar writing in Snorra-Edda.

[Elven-Maiden]

Gandalf's a dwarf? smilies/eek.gif is that just in the Icelandic book?

[Carannillion]

Yes, I also noticed Tolkien's style resembling the Norse sagas - not just Snorre-Edda, but the heroic poems and king's sagas and all.

I don't know 'Edda' that extensively, though. Where is the part about the Gandalf-type being a dwarf?

[littlemanpoet]

Check out the Heimskringla sagas, too. They're out of the Swedish legends. It starts with a human/god Odin and his people, the Aesir, and their neighbors the Vanyar, and how they come from the Russian steppes and take over Denmark and the Scandinavian regions, and the lines of kings descended therefrom.

[helga litla]

Snorra is about the nordic myths so I do apologise for saying "a Icelandic book" it´s about our old myths.
It´s written by Snorri Sturluson, he´s Icelandic (he´s also behind Heimskringla)

[helga litla]

Snorra is about the nordic myths so I do apologise for saying "a Icelandic book" it´s about our old myths.
It´s written by Snorri Sturluson, he´s Icelandic (he´s also behind Heimskringla)

[solikat]

Has anyone here read "The Tolkien Reader?"

It includes a sort of mini-play called "The Homecoming of Beortnoth Beorhthelm's Son."

Distinctly Scandinavian. I think Tolkien really had a thing for those Northern peoples.

(BTW, the "Reader" has a lot of other little goodies, check it out, if you haven't already.)

[Gayahithwen]

Of course he was influenced by the Edda!!! ^_^ trust me.. I mean, if finnish was the model language for his quenya, then the scandinavian myths should be the model for his own legends, right?!? Or maybe I'm just tired..