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jallanite · 08-25-2012, 08:46 PM

Well from the Wikipedia entry for Divine Comedy:

Dante called the poem “Comedy” (the adjective “Divine″ was added later in the 14th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High (“Tragedy”) or Low (“Comedy”). Low poems had happy endings and were written in everyday language, whereas High poems treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of Man, in the low and “vulgar” Italian language and not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic.

I’ve read variants of this explanation in other places. In classical times the terms tragedy and comedy were only applied to drama but in the Middle Ages many classifiers tried to apply the terms to all of literature. Essentially if a work had a happy ending, it was a comedy, though it might not be very humorous.

The “Quenta Silmarillion”seems to be to have by intended to be an interconnected cycle of stories, some of which (for example, that of Beren and Lúthien) had happy endings and some of which (for example, that of Húrin and Túrin) did not. At the time of its supposed telling, perhaps near the beginning of the Second Age, from the viewpoint of those who may be imagined to first have heard it, they would see themselves to be in the middle of a continuing story in which the“Quenta Silmarillion” was the first part. That part had ended somewhat happily, sufficiently so that it might be called a comedy as a whole, at least by those desperate enough to attempt to fit all stories into only two genres.

Similarly The Lord of the Rings might be called a comedy.

So, yes, the same argument works for the “Quenta Silmariilion″ and the Divine Comedy, but the works are still very much not alike. For one thing, the Divine Comedy attempts to portray a universe congruent both with Dante’s religious beliefs and common scientific beliefs about the universe. The “Quenta Silmariilion″ portrays a flat Earth in which the Sun and Moon were created approximately at the same time long after the Earth was created, in contradiction both to taking the Bible literally and to Tolkien’s own personal beliefs.

Both Dante and Tolkien were aware that they were writing fantasy, but Dante was doing so with the net up (while aware that his inventions were only his inventions) while Tolkien was purposely imagining, at that point, a universe which more closely resembled that of classical mythology than what he saw as reality.

Also, Dante in his poem explores the entire cosmos while such exploration of the cosmos as occurs in Tolkien’s “Quenta Silmarillion” takes place almost only at the very beginning and end of the work and is purposely vague on the details.

08-25-2012, 08:46 PM	#25
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	Well from the Wikipedia entry for Divine Comedy: Dante called the poem “Comedy” (the adjective “Divine″ was added later in the 14th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High (“Tragedy”) or Low (“Comedy”). Low poems had happy endings and were written in everyday language, whereas High poems treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of Man, in the low and “vulgar” Italian language and not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic. I’ve read variants of this explanation in other places. In classical times the terms tragedy and comedy were only applied to drama but in the Middle Ages many classifiers tried to apply the terms to all of literature. Essentially if a work had a happy ending, it was a comedy, though it might not be very humorous. The “Quenta Silmarillion”seems to be to have by intended to be an interconnected cycle of stories, some of which (for example, that of Beren and Lúthien) had happy endings and some of which (for example, that of Húrin and Túrin) did not. At the time of its supposed telling, perhaps near the beginning of the Second Age, from the viewpoint of those who may be imagined to first have heard it, they would see themselves to be in the middle of a continuing story in which the“Quenta Silmarillion” was the first part. That part had ended somewhat happily, sufficiently so that it might be called a comedy as a whole, at least by those desperate enough to attempt to fit all stories into only two genres. Similarly The Lord of the Rings might be called a comedy. So, yes, the same argument works for the “Quenta Silmariilion″ and the Divine Comedy, but the works are still very much not alike. For one thing, the Divine Comedy attempts to portray a universe congruent both with Dante’s religious beliefs and common scientific beliefs about the universe. The “Quenta Silmariilion″ portrays a flat Earth in which the Sun and Moon were created approximately at the same time long after the Earth was created, in contradiction both to taking the Bible literally and to Tolkien’s own personal beliefs. Both Dante and Tolkien were aware that they were writing fantasy, but Dante was doing so with the net up (while aware that his inventions were only his inventions) while Tolkien was purposely imagining, at that point, a universe which more closely resembled that of classical mythology than what he saw as reality. Also, Dante in his poem explores the entire cosmos while such exploration of the cosmos as occurs in Tolkien’s “Quenta Silmarillion” takes place almost only at the very beginning and end of the work and is purposely vague on the details.