Thread: Fantasy
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Old 12-03-2008, 10:58 AM   #47
Morthoron
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Originally Posted by davem View Post
Its not, I think, that Tolkien glorifies war so much as 'sanitises' the rough end of it. One example that springs instantly to mind is the death of Boromir. The fact that he dies pierced by arrows means that when Faramir sees the Elven boat bearing him pass by he looks as if he is sleeping peacefully & thus even in death he retains dignity. He does not die on the recieving end of an Orc poleaxe which takes off half his face so that Faramir sees him looking like he died an agonising death, choking on his own blood & broken teeth . We don't encounter any of our heroes with ugly, badly healed facial wounds.
I would agree that Tolkien offers a sanitization of war, but as I mentioned previously, I think that has a lot to do with 1) the heavier censorship and higher moral codes of the time, and 2) the 'dignified' presentation of a a fierce faery epic in the medieval mold (like TH White's Once and Future King, or its precursor Le Mort D'Arthur), which purges the utterly gross from its heroes, and does not dwell on the true mayhem and obscene violence that was medieval war. Another instance from an earlier period, Shakespeare's Henry V, presents a glorified version of Agincourt as well, considering a great number of France's preux chevaliers died not of battle wounds inflicted by Henry's noble few, but rather horribly drowning face down in mud, unable to rise from the muck due to their armor, or by stealthy kerns jabbing their daggers through the visors of the fallen.

I suppose in regards to a medieval faery tale, many readers of the time (and presently for that matter) do not necessarily want to dwell on arrows ripping through testicles, gorgets knit to necks by axes, and brave knights walking about dazedy with their disemboweled entrails dripping in their bloody hands. We really don't see such presentations of graphic violence in fantasy literature until the 1970's (like Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), or in films of a medieval nature even later on, like Braveheart (if you remember Excalibur from the 70's, it rarely even displays any blood on those ultra-shiny metal coifs).
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Last edited by Morthoron; 12-03-2008 at 04:01 PM.
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