Essays on Tolkien

In “Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: A Review,” C.S. Lewis famously said: “The value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity” (Lewis). The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Fellowship of the Ring, are two examples of fantasy novels that support this statement. The former tells the story of some children who are evacuated to the countryside, only to discover the land of Narnia in a wardrobe. The book evokes themes such as good vs. ...

Elves are mythical creatures that belong to the supernatural world. While they have Germanic origins, having first appeared in the myths of Europe, elves became popular throughout the world in mid-19th century with the introduction of popular culture. While their description is vague in stories, they are often imagined today as tall, beautiful human-like creatures, with pointy ears. Traditionally, “the hidden people” have been performing tasks similar to those of human beings, and have the same basic social structures in the society. Elves’ relationship with humans is ambivalent, which allowed for a variety of representations in popular media. Thus, ...

There are movies that enthral viewers’ hearts from the very first episode and can keep them interested and intrigued right to the end. The Lord of the Rings is surely one of the perfect examples of such films that are really hard to pause watching. If you are looking for three hours of fabulous adventures and the journey full of mysteries, this movie is definitely the best choice ever. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy became a worldwide phenomenon in the beginning of the 21st century and had a deep effect on the universal screen ...

Elves are mythical creatures that belong to the supernatural world. While they have Germanic origins, having first appeared in the myths of Northern Europe, elves became popular throughout the world, particularly after the birth of cinema. While their description is vague in stories, they are often imagined today as tall, beautiful human-like creatures, with pointy ears. Traditionally, “the hidden people” have been performing tasks similar to those of human beings, and also have the same basic social structures in the society. While the traditions of elf stories go back thousands of years, they gained true fame the twentieth century, ...

"Average is over" was a book written by Tyler, an American blogger who explains the post advanced job opportunities in the market that are fading away in the middle range and entails the increasing income inequalities among the American people at work. This has left the people with only high earning jobs that use data analysis and use of machines equipment. It created jobs with little income to those unskilled people who were not able to learn and adopt new technology. The young people were the most affected as they received the low-income jobs due to inflation- adjusted wages. ...

Ghost stories and narratives can take many different forms and change according to history, location and culture. What is considered scary in one culture could be dismissed as a fantastic tale or a comical narrative by another. The cultural values and everyday narratives of the people in a certain location determine what is scary and what is not. The West and the East have different cultural values and beliefs. They differ not only in simple matters such as greeting a stranger but also in the principles that govern their conduct in life and business. These differences are also evident ...

After more than two hundred years of the first publication, the heroic poem about the adventures of Beowulf is still of high interest to the public. Not only do the scholars investigate Beowulf as an example of Old English literature, but a wider audience also finds this epic poem an important representation of Scandinavian culture. What attracts them is the fact that Beowulf is the only complete surviving text dates from the 8th and the early 11th century. The poem is indeed written in Old English language, but the stories take place in Denmark and Sweden. England is not ...

All great stories have to start somewhere. They gain special shape through different layers of author’s experience. However, they could only become exquisite when they continue living outside of author’s mind. There is no need to prove that the stories depicted in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings received their special lives. In fact, they belong to the popular culture phenomenon that is addressed to many (Hall 1). Not only do they continue living after the death of J.R.R. Tolkien, but they also remain an inspiration for the myriads of other minds in various fields. ...

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is itself something of a retcon because all three books were originally conceived and written as one novel, but the author split it into three on the advice of his publisher. It is a story set in one of the latter ages of Tolkien’s sprawling mythological history of Middle-Earth. The villain, Sauron, is a former lieutenant of the world’s devil figure who survived his vastly more powerful master’s failed wars against the divine powers who created the universe. Long ...

Set in the fictional world of Middle Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is a seemingly well-woven tale about the relationships emerging from the race of men and the realm of mythical creatures such as elves, dwarves, wizards and etc. Its ingenuity comes from the striking resemblance of the values and practices of Middle Earth creatures to that of modern day beings, touching on the delicate issues of morality, the ability to distinguish good from bad, and human nature.

In the story, even with divergent traditions and cultures, we see that mythical and ...

Compare The Hobbit to The Natural, in terms of a main character’s journey from the start of the novel to the end. Both Roy Hobbs and Bilbo Baggins have their “heroic” moments, and both experience quite a different end to their respective journeys. Analyse the two characters in a comparison/contrast, argumentative discussion of where their respective paths diverge.

Introduction

The Hobbit and The Natural are both excellent novels in their own right, and that treat broadly similar themes. Both characters are on a life journey of sorts, Bilbo Baggins is in search of a share of the treasure while Roy Hobbs also has his ...

The flow of the story and activities of characters have both similarities and differences from thy way the author presents them in the book, in relation to the screenplay of the story. The aspects of comparison and contrast are well elaborated by the way characters behaved and the language used in the book. Some stories in the book were difficult to portray in the movie leading to distortion of the message to some extent in the movie. The development of characters is also influenced by the presentation of the movie as opposed to the story line in the book. ...

Introduction

The Hobbit is a collection of three movies that has to be watched in a series mode to get a full understanding of the movie. The movies are not stand-alone entities and in fact, their understanding is based on the plot of three series. The movie provides a basis over which a lot of issues a can be painted. There are diverse issues that can be drawn from the movement, and this is very much indicative of what has to be expected as the story goes along. From the plot, to the characters and the general direction of the movies both in the series, there ...

Introduction

Love is an intangible feeling that makes us vulnerable to danger, pain and suffering. However, love is the foundation of friendship; it brings us together and promotes cooperation. Friendship and cooperation is usually contaminated by betrayal and lies. The people we love can easily manipulate our trust. We have all experienced different kinds of love in our lives. As we grow up, our parents teach us how to love through words, actions and feelings. It is true when people say love is life, because life without love would be meaningless. Love is seen in various aspects of our ...

Introduction

The advantage that movies have over books is that everything in the movie can tell the story: the background music, the movements or he gestures of the actors, specific unanimated scenes, dialogue, monologue and so on. On the other hands, books have only the words they are made of to tell the story and sometimes graphical indications or drawings that explain the scenes which compose the narrative. The current essay analyzes four combinations of book-film storytelling narratives (“The Natural”, “World War Z”, “Christine” and “The Hobbit”), focusing on a particular book-film combination, chosen as the worst such combination for a college-student ...

The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of The Rings is an epic novel authored by J. R. R. Tolkien, and was initially published in 1954. The success of the novel has resulted to its adaption in form of a film. Among the characters in the film include, Boromir, Sam, Pippin, Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, and Gimli. This essay focuses on the character analysis of the members of the fellowship, and evaluates the most suitable member to bear the ring to Mount Doom, and justification for that through the traits. Frodo is the main character in the novel. This ...

The Pulitzer and Nation Book Critics Circle Award winning book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not an easy read. Although a fictional novel, it is based upon history and set in New Jersey where the author, Junot Diaz grew up. It is not just the story of Oscar de Leon, referred to as Oscan Wao, a “Getto Nerd” in search of his personal Grail for a “pure and unadulterated love;” it spans three generations and two cultures. It calls up Dominican-American history in a way that can be stark, brutal, lush, tragic and comedic. It refers back to the “fuku ...

“There and Back Again” or “The Hobbit” is actually a fantasy novel by J.R.R Tolkien who is an English Author. It is also a children’s book that can be described as a classic hero pursuit story. This novel is an adventure, which is filled with action, wonder, vividly memorable characters, and magic. These are remarkable accomplishments for any piece of writing. Originally, “There and Back Again” was anticipated to be a children’s tale. The novel was initially published in 1937 in Great Britain by Unwin and George Allen. Therefore, it was published prior to WWII outbreak. In addition, it acts as ...

The Age of Modernism

Modernism, in the history of literature is a movement which can be defined as modern thought or thinking. This is where all ideas of the past are rejected. Realism as well as Enlightenment are not accepted and the idea of a one true God is thought as a thing of the past. All works from the past are taken into account but rewritten, revised or redone in a way that most suited the period and the practices of artists during the time. Modernism was not only a movement within the arts, it was also a social and political kind of movement (Curry, 2004). Since this ...

In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul stands up during a meeting at the Areopagus, in Athens, and begins to speak to them about a statue he had seen while he was walking around the city. While many of the objects of worship had the name of their god or goddess on them, one was labeled “to an unknown god” (Acts 17:23). He uses this object to open the discussion of the God of the Hebrew and Christian faiths with the Athenians – people who worshipped a whole spectrum of deities, many of whom behaved like adolescents given too much power in ...

Eragon is a remarkable work of fantasy in that it was written by a 15-year-old boy, Christopher Paolini. The scope of the action, inventive language and overall idea make the first offering in the Inheritance Cycle an enjoyable read and all the more amazing for having been conceived of by a teenager. On the other hand, it is difficult to think of Eragon as a truly original work because of its many similarities to other works of literary fantasy, with influences ranging from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter and the Star Wars saga. A story featuring a dragon, ...

Influence on Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R Tolkien’s fascination with old tales and sagas began at an early age. At sixteen, he was already able to read Middle English and Old Norse, and read the story of Sigurd in its original language (St. Clair 3; ch. 1). Tolkien even translated the saga of Sigurd the Volsung from the original Icelandic language into English verse, which he titled The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (Burns n.p.). His most famous works, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, owe a great deal to his passion for and extensive knowledge about sagas like Sigurd ...

For centuries, the fairy tale has been the cornerstone of imaginative children's fiction - the genre provides a canvas by which amazing tales can be told. The fantastic becomes possible in fairy tales, and for many, childlike wonder can be recaptured by the simple act of reading one. However, in many children's books, there is a pervading theme of maturation, and "growing up"; in these stories, the fairy tale land the characters inhabit is shown to be fleeting and transient. Two such fairy tales - Ursula Dubosarsky's The Red Shoe and Neil Gaiman's Stardust - frame the fantastic story they tell ...

Your

The works of JRR Tolkien have found a loyal following among people from all walks of life, across continents and from a diverse age group. Yet, the author has been panned by literary critics as being unworthy of being included in the Modern Literary Canon. This paper will argue why the works of the author should in fact find a place in the canon and should be part of recommended readings at an academic level. The paper will evaluate the arguments of various critics and provide a debate in response. It will also take a brief look at the life of JRR Tolkien and ...