An article well deserving reading is Bradford Lee Eden's ‘Strains of Elvish Song and Voices: Victorian Medievalism, Music and Tolkien’. It looks at the influence of English Victorian fiction on Tolkien's writing style, particularly in relation to '
musical-literary symbolism'. (p. 149)
Dr. Eden, while admitting '
many tangents and influences to follow' in looking at the musical influences on Tolkien's writing style, and giving examples, believes that '
a careful study' of his writings '
shows an extensive predilection and use of language similar to the Victorian writers'. These '
Victorian writers' are three in number: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and William Morris. The author examines the writings of these '
three major English Victorian fictionists', and draws '
parallels between their use of musical-literary language and Tolkien's'. (p. 150)
The author sets the scene very well, in explaining what 'medievalism' meant in a Victorian context. It comprised:
a wide range of artistic, cultural and political pursuits. In religion, the Oxford Movement sought to bring back the ancient liturgical and musical traditions once practiced in English cathedrals prior to the Dissolution. In painting, the works of Dante Gabriel Rosetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, while short-lived, served to inspire styles of painting well into the twentieth century. In historiography, the writings and constitutional work of scholars such as J. R. Green, William Stubbs, and Edward Freeman looked back into the English past. In social and aesthetic criticism, the essays of Victorians such as John Ruskin, William Morris, Thomas Carlyle, A. W. Pugin, and Benjamin Disraeli were constant and politically motivated. Even in their physical environment, the Victorians sought to emulate the Middle Ages. Neo-Gothic law courts and town halls, cathedrals and churches, railway stations and public buildings, were built to contrast dramatically with factory smokestacks and commercial industry. Finally, in literature, Alfred Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and William Morris sought to emulate ancient and medieval prose and poetry, as well as use Arthurian romances and themes, to transport their readers into a "heroic age" where things such as honor, virtue, and chivalry were the norm rather than the exception. It was this heritage into which Tolkien was born and in which he grew up; even the university environment of Oxford itself was reflective of the medieval culture from which it had first emerged. (pp. 150-151)
Tennyson, Swinburne and Morris were chosen by the author because they were the Victorian writers who '
best illustrate' the blending of medievalism with musico-literary symbolism. The three '
incorporated musical themes and motives throughout their fiction, especially in relation to their Victorian "resetting" of the medieval Arthurian and French epic tales'. (p. 152)
Tennyson is looked at as weaving musical ideas '
such as harmony and discord' into a number of the Arthurian stories, in particular
Balin and Balan in his
Idyls of the King. (pp. 152-154) I leave the reader to find out for himself or herself how this was said to be done.
Swinburne is given his due in this article; because while Tolkien fans may have heard of Morris as an influence on the Professor, and may have heard of Tennyson in a more general context, I don't believe that many have heard of Swinburne as an influence.
The author explains how Swinburne's poems '
are on tragic love and heroism, dominated by strife and frustrated love, by fickle men and women who are victims of a malevolent fate. Furthermore, he was a scholar in the truest sense; he revived medieval forms such as the rondel, the alba, and the ballad'. (p. 155) His version of the tale of Balin and Balan, published in 1896, is looked at in detail, with the point made that the '
use of nature, sea, and musical imagery is very reminiscent of Tolkien's early mythological writings'. (pp. 155-157) Again, I leave the reader to see if he or she agrees with this.
Morris, the '
ideal Victorian medievalist', whose influence on Victorian medievalism was '
profound and unique', also used poetry to depict Arthurian romances, again illustrated by examples. (pp. 157-158)
The author then looks at Tolkien's writings, in particular his earlier mythological and poetic ones, alleging that they are '
strongly influenced' by the musico-literary symbolism of the Victorian writers already mentioned, as well as by the musical predilection of his family, though it had not surfaced in him.
He looks at Tolkien's early published poetry and the musical allusions in them; the character of Tinfang Warble in
The Book of Lost Tales; the early version of the character of Dairon the minstrel, originally intended to be the brother of Lúthien; the verse versions of the story of Beren and Lúthien in
The Lays of Belariand and their '
'powerful language'; the legend of the making of the Sun and Moon; and the character of Tuor, the earlier stories of him showing him to be the greatest musician among Men, due to his stay in Gondolin. (pp. 158-162)
What I particularly like here are Dr. Eden's recommendations that readers look at the early verse versions of Beren and Lúthien's story, and the early stories of Tuor, of which he says that the versions published in
The Silmarillion do not do them justice; because they are something I very much endorse. (They are, sadly, a little spoilt by the mistake in confusing Tuor four times with his cousin Túrin.
)
I agree completely with the conclusion here, that '
the Victorian predilection towards medievalism, and for musical symbolism in particular' had a '
strong influence' on Tolkien's writing style. This heritage '
helped to inspire Tolkien's compositional process, his musical roots helped to nurture his interest in philology and the sound of words, and his own love of both music and linguistics combined to produce one of the greatest mythologies ever written'. (pp. 162-163)
As well as this very readable overview of the influence of Victorian medievalism, the author has to be warmly commended for his championing of Swinburne, and of the earlier versions of Tolkien's stories of the Elder Days, which those who confine themselves to the 1977 version of
The Silmarillion miss out on.
