The Structure of The Lord of the Rings - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 12-19-2004, 02:42 PM

Mr. Underhill, I await your erudition in regard to Milieu or not.

Mithalwen, I found it interesting that you pointed to the similarities between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Your similarities seem to consist mainly in plot-string, which seem to me to be more on the face of things. Your comment that LotR is a "grown-up" version of TH may have something to do with a rather fundamental difference between TH and LotR: whereas TH is an adventure story, a "there-and-back-again" tale, to use Tolkien's words (as spoken through Bilbo), Tolkien has made quite a point that LotR is a quest story, and not merely an adventure story. To overstate the case, the adventure story is a lark: the hero leaves home, has his adventure, and goes back home again. By contrast, in the quest story, the huge events spread wider until they overtake the humble home of the hero, who is taken up into the quest, against his own will, and only accepts the arduous task appointed to him because he must remain true to himself, knowing full well that he will probalby fail. So the quest nature of LotR raises the story to a more serious level, more mature, more thematically deep and rich, than TH.

12-19-2004, 02:42 PM	#27
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	another structure aspect.... Mr. Underhill, I await your erudition in regard to Milieu or not. Mithalwen, I found it interesting that you pointed to the similarities between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Your similarities seem to consist mainly in plot-string, which seem to me to be more on the face of things. Your comment that LotR is a "grown-up" version of TH may have something to do with a rather fundamental difference between TH and LotR: whereas TH is an adventure story, a "there-and-back-again" tale, to use Tolkien's words (as spoken through Bilbo), Tolkien has made quite a point that LotR is a quest story, and not merely an adventure story. To overstate the case, the adventure story is a lark: the hero leaves home, has his adventure, and goes back home again. By contrast, in the quest story, the huge events spread wider until they overtake the humble home of the hero, who is taken up into the quest, against his own will, and only accepts the arduous task appointed to him because he must remain true to himself, knowing full well that he will probalby fail. So the quest nature of LotR raises the story to a more serious level, more mature, more thematically deep and rich, than TH.