Subject:
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Re: LoTR # 1 on IMDB, Beowulf on NYTimes bestseller list
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Mon, 24 Dec 2001 21:11:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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653 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Richard Marchetti writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Erik Olson writes:
> > Your remark 'rehash of Northern European mythology', could you elaborate?
>
> I wrote: "Most of the stuff passing as a plot is little more than rehashed
> Norse mythology." Is it the case that you want me to compare and contrast
> Tolkien's work to Northern European mythology? Seems like a rather
> thankless task. I am also not the most qualified person to perform such a
> task. However, I assume you are well aware of the many myths touched on by
> the subject matter and imagery stressed in the film of LOTR. I guess I am
> not sure what is wanted here...
Well, I did not go to school for that sort of thing. It would be sufficient
to have a few names or titles that come to your mind as primary sources.
The National Geographic Explorer special on Middle-Earth last night visited
with the world's last singer of the Kalevala, which I've never looked at. I
remember reading an essay on borrowings in Wagner's Ring cycle (upon
enduring the entire Met performance in 1990) which would be pertinent if I
could remember any details.
An assessment of Tolkien's academic contributions from 1920 onward could be
had from the biography by Humphrey Carpenter (I didn't understand it when I
read it in grade school) or by obtaining the elusive collection with his
essay on Beowulf (Monsters and the Critics). He worked as a conservator on
several poetic works in various languages written before 1200. However he
was the rare combination of scholar and practitioner, and that viewpoint I
gather made his scholarly arguments unique, as he saw the works as having
once been vital to ordinary people.
For the practitioner, the number of college students reading his works from
the 50s onward is formidable. Ordinary people again.
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