The Mythopoeic Code Of Tolkien

The Mythopoeic Code of Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien is arguably the most influential fantasy writer of all time--his world building and epic mythology have changed Western audiences' imaginations and the entire fantasy genre. This book is the first wide-ranging Christian Platonic reading on Tolkien's fiction. This analysis, written for scholars and general Tolkien enthusiasts alike, discusses how his fiction is constructed on levels of language, myth and textuality that have a background in the Greek philosopher Plato's texts and early Christian philosophy influenced by Plato. It discusses the concepts of ideal and real, creation and existence, and fall and struggle as central elements of Tolkien's fiction, focusing on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth. Reading Tolkien's fiction as a depiction of ideal and real, from the vision of creation to the process of realization, illuminates a part of Tolkien's aesthetics and mythology that previous studies have overlooked.

Mythprint

The Mirror Crack'd

CHAPTERS: 1.- From Beowulf to the Balrogs: The Roots of Fantastic Horror in The Lord of the Rings. 2.- Fear and Horror: Monsters in Tolkien and Beowulf. 3.- Of Spiders and (the Medieval Aesthetics of) Light: Hope and Action in the Horrors of Shelob's Lair. 4.- Shelob's and her Kin: The Evolution of Tolkien's Spiders. 5.- The Shadow beyond the Firelight: Pre-Christian Archetypes and Imagery Meet Christian Theology in Tolkien's Treatment of Evil and Horror . 6.- The Cry in the Wind and the Shadow on the Moon: Liminality and the Construct of Horror in The Lord of the Rings. 7.- Barrows, Wights, and Ordinary People: The Unquiet Dead in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings . 8.- Horror and Anguish: The Slaying of Glaurung and Medieval Dragon Lore. 9.- Shadow and Flame: Myth, Monsters and Mother Nature in Middle-earth. 10.- Evil Reputations: Images of Wolves in Tolkien's Fiction.