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Post by DavidDinsmore on Jan 8, 2004 13:58:27 GMT -5
It could be argued that Middle Earth is really a Norse Mythology with a Christian twist. I was interested in it and found that even a very brief look at old Anglo-Saxon and Norse texts shows many similarities between Tolkien's writings and Medieval writings. Gylfaginning, from Prose Edda written by Snorri Sturlson in the 12 hundreds, has many names which can be found in Tolkien's Silmarillion and also in his popular novel The Lord of the Ring. I particularly noticed that names of Dwarves were taken straight from old texts. Names like Durinn, Fili, Kili, Ori, and Oinn can be found in Gylfaginning. Anglo-Saxon manuscripts like Widsith also contain names of people and places that are in the Silmarillion, The lays of Beleriand, The Book of Lost Tales, etc. Not to mention that many of Tolkien's first manuscripts on Middle Earth were written in Anglo-Saxon. Has anyone else looked at any of the sources of Tolkien's inspiration?
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Post by JohnSchuhriemen on Jan 14, 2004 0:10:51 GMT -5
Just as a note - Tolkien was a professor in anglo-saxon history and literature. One of the reasons he wrote the book was because he and many of his friends (C.S. Lewis among them) were disappointed that there weren't any books about the Anglo-Saxon period except Beowolf so Tolkien decided to write one himself. Also the Language Rohan spoke is actually Old English - the language of the Anglo-Saxons. Elvish was based off many Indo-European languages including Latin, Germanic, Frankish, etc. Tolkien main reason for writing the book was because he needed a story to fit the languages he wrote in his youth. So Anglo-Saxon and Norse had a large influence on his writings. Also, William Duke of Normandy who took over England in 1066 thus adding some Norse to England, since the the people of Normandy were Norse Vikings that had settled down and been granted some land by the French king.
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Post by DavidDinsmore on Jan 14, 2004 17:11:29 GMT -5
Yes, Middle Earth is a wonderful blend of Northern European Mythology. It has been said that Tolkien built his stories around the names of his characters and the names of places. It is interesting to trace various Names and Deities. One thing that stood out to me was the similarity between Tolkien's Morgoth and the Norse God Loki. Loki is the troublesome brother to Odin just as Morgoth (also called Melkor) was the brother of Manwë (the appointed ruler of Middle Earth) and also was the source of calamity in Middle Earth. For any one else who is strangely obsessed with this stuff a neat web site is www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm |
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Post by wowposter on Sept 17, 2008 23:39:58 GMT -5
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Post by wowposter on Oct 30, 2008 5:32:55 GMT -5
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