Tolkien's Influence Galactic?

[davem]

Hmm.

Originally Posted by Bb

That is, this footnote clearly suggests that we are to view the story world as our world, and be prepared to see similarities between the two. It would, then, put a nail (just one nail, mind you) in the coffin of davem's insistence that the text must exist independently as a text, without any external references to our world or to our own literatures, that is must best be enjoyed as internally coherent story without any references to things outside it. Yet here is Tolkien directly linking Middle-earth to our own cultural practices of naming the heavens.

I don't see that this necessarily follows. Clearly the intention is that M-e is our world in the ancient past. Tolkien never changed that intention, & in the earliest writings (pre-BoLT - see Garth Tolkien & the Great War) the link is made between the world of the mythology & our world. It is, in short a mythology of our world. The 'spark' was Cynewulf's Crist (Eala Earendel engla beorhtast, Ofer Middengeard monum sended )

However, the world created is self contained, & the story stops at a certain point in our own history (7-8,000 years ago possibly), therefore, it must be taken on its own terms. To bring in a mention of a particular constellation is not in any way the same thing as bringing in references to cultural artefacts/concepts which did not exist during the mythico-historical period of the story.

Now, of course, it is entirely possible to read the story as 'autobiography' & seek influences in Tolkien's life that may have inspired incidents in the work. Or to read it as an academic excercise in the creation of an 'ur' mythology - or even as (which Tolkien stated) an excercise in linguistic aesthetic. In support of the former I suppose one could propose the Nazgul on their Fell Beasts = german pilots strafing the trenches (though we must remember that Tolkien would have seen aircraft flying over his beloved Oxford even before he left for France - the Air Force took over a meadow on the edge of Oxford for training, & army cadets were billeted in the Universities throughout the early years of WWI.) Beren & Luthien tells a good deal about his feelings for Edith (& possibly even something about her fellings for him) - but we all know that stuff.

However, the Legendarium is more than autobiography or linguistic aesthetic. A central desire on Tolkien's part was to 'enchant' the reader & he does this by enchanting the world - specifically by enchanting the reader's vision of the world he/she inhabits. Once we have passed through Lorien we will (if we still retain an 'undarkened heart') never look on a wood or stand of trees in the same way again, once we have stood at the Gray Havens the sea will forever be the Sea to us (cf 'Recovery' in OFS)

One cannot read LotR & leave our own world out of our thoughts. We can, & I think should, leave aside our culture & its artifacts (of course they are there to some extent in that Tolkien did not exist outside the 20th century world, but we should focus on the world itself, not on what went into its building). Our world is not, in truth, 'outside' the Legendarium - in fact, the Legendarium 'contains' our world (in the sense of the living earth & the stars).