Tolkien's Funny Bone

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

One thing lately I've been pondering is how Dante's Divine Comedy can be called a comedy, in that it leads to a positive affirmation (heaven) rather than hell, even though it isn't "funny'". (This is a very brief generalisation!)

The 14th century Italian word Dante used was "commedia", which does not necessarily translate to the modern word "comedy". Like many words the term comedy has changed over time (the word awful comes to mind, originally signifying "full of awe", or the Latin defæcatus, which meant to "purify" or "cleanse from the dirt/dregs", and now is used in an altered sense as defecate). Commedia (or the Old French "comedie") related to poems specifically (and later stories) with a lighter tone than tragedies. In this sense, Dante considered his Commedia to be a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (not necessarily happy).

Dante may have found humor in the Divina Commedia (Giovanni Boccaccio added the "Divine" tag, by the way), but even the word "humor" would have meant something completely different to Dante. "Humor" as "funny" or "witty" did not exist until the 17th century. Previous to that the humors described the four types of bodily fluids (sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic) whose varying proportions were to said to rule a person's temperment.

But there are elements of satire and dark humor throughout the Divine Comedy, particularly in Hell (Inferno), where Dante has relegated many of his political enemies (like Filippo Argenti, who is torn to pieces along the River Styx), and a pope or two (Boniface VIII and Celestine V). And considering that many virtuous "pagans" are better off in Hell than many Christians, there is a sardonic sense of humor in Dante's jibes at the established order, higher clergy and aristocrats in early Renaissance Italy.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Could the same traditional argument be made for the Silm, that it leads to the sailing West of most of the Eldar and the imprisonment of Melkor? There is grief and loss, and the fear of further dark seed of the fruit of Melkor in the future, but Elves are restored to the love of Manwe and the pardon of the Valor.

Anyone know Dante well enough to take this query on?

I would not consider The Silmarillion a "comedy" in the sense of Dante's Divine Comedy. It is not light or satiric (and if we are going by language, it is heightened and formal, as in tragedies, whereas LotR is more lowbrow, particularly amongst the Hobbits), and there are elements of tragedy throughout the Silmarillion, particularly in the tale of Turin Turambar and Eol and Aredhel. There really is no happy ending as even the final defeat of Morgoth is tempered by the murders committed by Maglor and Maedhros, the loss of the Simlarils and the escape of Sauron. The Long Defeat of the Elves continues, Sauron creates the One Ring, Numenor waxes and wanes and then is destroyed. No, comedy there, not even by Dante's definition. There is no culminating eucatastrophe event that leads to an "agreeable ending" like in LotR.