![]() |
![]() |
Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
|
![]() |
#1 |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,039
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Though there may be parallels, with the lack (as far as I Know) of any evidence of conscious drawing on the "Jack" tale, I'm calling it coincidence.
__________________
Music alone proves the existence of God. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 87
![]() |
Inziladun
Yes it could be coincidence. Or it could be a layering of deeper mythology. As promised. Ms. Seth's latest essay offers more 'coincidental links': https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...lorful-pair-4/ (viii) The miller and the farmer from Sarehole – being named as Ogres by the Tolkien boys – and the miller being covered in bone-dust. (ix) Farmer Magott having etymological links to 'Goemagot' – a British Giant – pointed out by M. Hooker (x) Farmer Maggot being cast with an ogre-like personality in an early draft per M. Hooker. (xi) The name Bamfurlong – having etymological linkage to a long field of beanstalks – perhaps with the intention of representing one tangled-up giant one. Eleven is kind of getting up there for the whole affair being pure coincidence. Still – as in all these matters – when it's not clearly spelled out by Tolkien – it's always conjectural. In this case though, I hark back to one of Tolkien's comments per Letter #180: "Having set myself a task, ... being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own ...”. I have to wonder which “epic tradition” and what exactly did he want to “restore”? Did he mean Arthurian myth – which are not entirely native English stories? I'm not so sure why the tale of the Beanstalk and 'Jack' – as Ms. Seth states being “a quintessential part of traditional English folklore” - would have been excluded from LotR, especially as so much other myth/folklore from our world wasn't! |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |