Eowyn and Faramir

[Bêthberry]

A fuller explication of Tolkien's view on "the romantic chivalric tradition" can be found in Letter 43, written to his son Michael 6-8 March, 1941.

Tolkien's criticism has to do with the falsification of the game, making Love and the Lady the central aspect of the relationship rather than God and tending towards also a failure to recognise women "as they are, as companions in shipwreck not guiding stars... To forget their desires, needs and temptations"(p. 49, Letters ed. Carpenter, 1995).

It might also be interesting to remember that the literary traditions which inspired Tolkien the most (although not exclusively of course)--the warrior epics of Beowulf and Maldon, the Scandinavian mythologies, the earlier mythological narratives--predated the medieval tradition of courtly love.

[ September 12, 2003: Message edited by: Bêthberry ]