1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc).
2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to site from the original texts).
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
5. Discuss how Tolkien's use of "tradition" (e.g. older literary sources) differs from the techniques and agendas of modernism (see Week 7 in your Reader).
6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Beowulf ?
8. Discuss what you think any of these texts desire (in the sense of their intention, how they wish to be received, what pleasures they offer).
Responding question 8, well I think all of the texts above are all letting us know one thing women are trouble but we couldn't resit them lol (don't be serious). It's the first pleasure given by the texts by entertain us.
ReplyDeleteThere perhaps are more than 1 narrative in Voluspa (Terry, 1990). For example, while tells the story of how the nine world is formed by Volva as the version in the critical reader, in another version it is silence from the humans that Volva asking Odin. I won't seek the reason for the difference as we follow the reader but it does sound like the humans (sons of Heimdall)are the one who is being addressed by Volva. What I want to say here is the aim of them are the same. They indicating that, through the born and death of the world, power means war and war is evil.
"Brothers will die, slain by their brothers
kinsmen betray to their close kin"
The same is in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings where the rings are given to the powerful leaders of each race while receiving them means serving Sauron and the One ring.
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to this question is seemingly obvious, many of the characters and races in Middle Earth are taken directly from Old Norse tradition, elves in particular are almost directly taken from the mythical Norse realm of Alfheim, especially the elves from Lothlorien. The dwarves are also a direct reference to Old Norse lore.
Another reference to Old Norse myth is the name of the land in which the stories of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings takes place and that is Middle Earth, translated from the Old Norse 'Midgard' the land of men. The focus of norse mythology was not however on the world of men, so we can see why Tolkien a) chose to expand on this concept and b) gave him almost unlimited creative boundaries for which to include Old English myths like Ent's, reminiscent of the Oak trees with which druids used to commuincate.
I agree with you that Tolkien did an amazing job putting the pieces of the Old Norse and Old English texts fragments into a fantasy story in Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I just add more information that stories in those Old works also appear in Tolkien's works. For example, according to Markus (2010), the One Ring in LotRs is derived from Volsunga Saga where a ring called 'Advarinaut' is cursed that one who desire it will be destroyed by it.
DeleteReference:
Marcus, N., J. (2010). Myth, Religion and Literature in the Works of J R R Tolkien. Retrieved March 16, 2012 from http://nicki-j-markus.suite101.com/myth-religion-and-literature-in-the-works-of-j-r-r-tolkien-a320407
Response to question 7:
ReplyDelete"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949),"
Beowulf and Grendel is problematized by the blurring of the lines between the traditional 'bad-guy' and 'hero'. Traditionally the hero comes along and slays the monster and they all become better for it. But with B and G, Grendel is a victim of the Danes and Beowulf's clan (his father murdered by the former). Furthermore, Beowulf's mother and son also become victims. Due to this we no longer know who to think of as the baddie and goodie, thus breaking away from the traditional hero-myth storyline.
True, even in their name. I haven't watch the movie so in the beginning I thought in the beginning Beowulf is the wolf-man and Grendel is human but it turned out to be the opposite. Also, Grendel did a fabulous job on knowing who to get his revenge on while pissing off unrelated others lol
DeleteResponse to Gabriel on question 4:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you've said. Also, a similarity that I noticed was the dragon attack in The Hobbit, and the dragon attack near the end of Beowulf. In both stories treasure is stolen from a dragon, and the dragon retaliates by attacking a nearby town, then the dragon is slain.
4)
ReplyDeleteTolkien invented many languages in order to carry the different complexities of his characters races and cultures, an example is the language of 'Sindarin' which was a prime language in 'Middle-earth' and was a more complex form of communication used by the elves.
Tolkiens secondary world of 'Middle-earth' is also stolen off the Old English word 'Middangeard'. In Old Norse mythology, the universe was believed to be sectioned into 9 different parts and the world of mortals was to be found in the middle of this universe as in Tolkiens 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The lands of Elves, Gods, Demons and giants often exsisted beyond a narrow sea or set of mountains in Old Norse mythology and was joined to the land of the Dead by the rainbow bridge 'Bi-Frost' where a warrior could be taken to the realm of 'Asgard'-All sounding very familiar to the mythical lands created by Tolkien.
In the Lord of the rings the prime sourse of power is through magic and the characters of 'Gandalf', 'Sauron' and 'Saruman'.
Gandalf the wizard shares many similarities with the Old Norse God 'Odin', as a wanderer among men who is prone to influencing for positive outcome, but also negative.
Tolkiens 'Gandalf' is good and therefore can be seem as embodying the positive side of the 'Odin' where as 'Sauron', the evil wizard can be seen as the dark side of the 'Odin', thus Tolkien has successfully split the Norse legend of Odin into two different opposing characters.
The name 'Saruman' also comes from Old English and based on the character of 'Saruman', means cunning or treachery.
Reference:
Humphrey Carpenter, H (editor) & Tolkien, C. (1981). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Publisher: George Allen & Unwin, Houghton Mifflin. United Kingdom.
In addition, there is a repetition on characters development that appeared in the old texts. Gandalf, despite being a influentful mage, he remained as lower-ranked than Saruman and by going to Saruman to consult. By going through challenges afterward, he is "somehow" reborn into Gandalf the White, moving and deciding on his own. I'm not clear where did I read this piece of information but this u remind me of it.
DeleteMoreover, our main character Bilbo Baggins also experience such development as he, the Hobbit who love peace and songs, bravely create his adventure in the outter world.