Literary devices in The Lord of the Rings
The philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien made use of multiple literary devices in The Lord of the Rings, from its narrative structure, to character pairing and the deliberate cultivation of an impression of depth. The narrative structure in particular has been seen as a pair of quests, a sequence of tableaux (static scenes), a complex edifice, multiple spirals, and a medieval-style interlacing. The first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, on the other hand, has a single narrative thread, and repeated episodes of danger and recuperation in five "Homely Houses". His prose style, too, has been both criticised and defended.
Context
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[2]
The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954–55; it was awarded the
Narrative structure
The Fellowship of the Ring
The first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, has a different structure from the rest of the novel. It has attracted attention both for its sequence of five "Homely Houses", safe places where the Hobbit protagonists may recuperate after a dangerous episode,[8][9] and for its arrangement as a single narrative thread focused on its protagonist, Frodo, interrupted by two long but critically important flashback narrative chapters, "The Shadow of the Past" and "The Council of Elrond".[10][11]
The work as a whole
Scholars have described the narrative structure of The Lord of the Rings in a variety of ways, including as a balanced pair of outer and inner
Interlacing
The narrative interlacing in The Lord of the Rings, also called by the French term entrelacement, is an unusual and complex narrative structure, known from medieval literature, that enabled Tolkien to achieve a variety of literary effects. These include maintaining suspense, keeping the reader uncertain of what will happen and even of what is happening to other characters at the same time in the story; creating surprise and an ongoing feeling of bewilderment and disorientation. More subtly, the leapfrogging of the timeline in The Lord of the Rings by the different story threads allows Tolkien to make hidden connections that can only be grasped retrospectively, as the reader realises on reflection that certain events happened at the same time, and that these connections imply a contest of good and evil powers.[16][18]
The Tolkien scholar
Character pairing
Tolkien used
Impression of depth
Tolkien deliberately sought to create the aesthetic effect of impression of depth in The Lord of the Rings. It was intended to give the reader the feeling that the work had "deep roots in the past",[29] and hence that it was attractively authentic.[30] The effect was constructed on at least four factors, namely the enormous scale of The Lord of the Rings and the amount of background detail, including maps and genealogies; the apparently casual and incomplete mentions of this background; multiple inconsistent accounts, as in real history; and writing different texts in varying styles.[31] Scholars have noted some of Tolkien's medieval antecedents in the effect, such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, books which he had studied and translated.[32] Fantasy authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and J. K. Rowling have to an extent followed Tolkien in using the technique.[31][33]
Prose style
Tolkien's prose style in The Lord of the Rings is remarkably varied. Commentators have noted that Tolkien selected
Tolkien's prose style was attacked by scholars of literature such as
See also
- Non-narrative elements in The Lord of the Rings
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Rosebury 2003, pp. 81–83.
- ISBN 978-0-04928-039-7.
- ^ Seiler, Andy (16 December 2003). "'Rings' comes full circle". USA Today. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Diver, Krysia (5 October 2004). "A lord for Germany". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ Cooper, Callista (5 December 2005). "Epic trilogy tops favourite film poll". ABC News Online. Archived from the original on 21 December 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (4 June 2001). "The book of the century". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2001. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ Curry 2020, pp. 369–388
- ^ a b Shippey 2001, p. 65.
- ^ Turner, Jenny (15 November 2001). "Reasons for Liking Tolkien". London Review of Books. 23 (22).
- ^ Flieger 2001, p. 21.
- Tor.com. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ Birns 2012.
- ^ a b Rosebury 2003, pp. 1–3, 12–13, 25–34, 41, 57.
- ^ a b Risden 2011, pp. 70–83.
- ^ Miller 1975, pp. 95–106.
- ^ a b West 1975, pp. 77–94.
- ^ Shippey 2001, pp. 50–52, 96.
- JSTOR 1207129.
- ^ a b Shippey 2005, pp. 181–183.
- ^ Attebery 2012, p. 87.
- ^ a b c Burns 2005, pp. 91–127.
- ^ Caughey 2020, pp. 404–417.
- ^ Bettridge 1990, Article 5.
- ^ Hall, Alaric. "The One Ring". Alaric Hall. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Chance 1980, pp. 119–122.
- ^ Solopova 2009, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 136–137, 175–181, 187.
- ^ a b Grant 1973, pp. 365–380.
- ^ a b Tolkien 1983, p. 72, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 259–261.
- ^ a b Drout, Hitotsubashi & Scavera 2014, pp. 167–211.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 181–183, 259–261, 351–352.
- ^ Sas 2019, Article 9.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 134–138.
- ^ Shippey 2005, p. 259.
- ^ Stimpson 1969, p. 29.
- ^ a b Raffel 1968, pp. 218–246.
- ^ Le Guin 2001.
- ^ a b c Rosebury 2003, pp. 71–88.
Sources
- Attebery, Brian (2012). James, Edward; Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. ISBN 978-1-107-49373-5.
- Bettridge, William Edwin (1990). "Tolkien's "New" Mythology". Mythlore. 16 (4). Article 5.
- JSTOR 24353144.
- ISBN 978-0-8020-3806-7.
- ISBN 978-0-333-29034-7.
- Caughey, Anna (2020) [2014]. "The Hero's Journey". In OCLC 1183854105.
- ISBN 978-1-11965-602-9.
- S2CID 170851865.
- ISBN 978-0-87338-699-9.
- Grant, Patrick (1973). "Tolkien: Archetype and Word". Cross Currents (Winter 1973): 365–380.
- ISBN 978-0743468749.
- Miller, David M. (1975). "Narrative Pattern in The Fellowship of the Ring". In ISBN 0-87548-303-8.
- Tolkien and the Critics. University of Notre Dame Press. pp. 218–246.
- Risden, E. L. (2011). "Tolkien's Resistance to Linearity: Narrating The Lord of the Rings in Fiction and Film". In Bogstad, Janice M.; Kaveny, Philip E. (eds.). Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' Film Trilogy. ISBN 978-0-7864-8473-7.
- ISBN 978-1403-91263-3.
- Sas, Katherine (2019). "A Sense of Darker Perspective: How the Marauders Convey Tolkien's 'Impression of Depth' in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Mythlore. 38 (1). Article 9.
- ISBN 978-0261-10401-3.
- ISBN 978-0261102750.
- ISBN 978-0-9816607-1-4.
- OCLC 24122.
- OCLC 417591085.
- ISBN 0-87548-303-8.