Surprising Literary Congruences

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by lmp

Tolkien didn't like anything written after Chaucer, except fantasy and science fiction, as he is known to have enjoyed William Morris and Isaace Asimov. These two genres are strongly idea- and plot- oriented compared to the modern novel. Surely, characters have to be interesting, but seldom will the story be structured around character.

He wasn't 'just' into sci-fi and fantasy. Did you know Tolkien was an avid fan of detective novels? He also liked Iris Murdoch, and her novels are strongly character driven; she based her plots around psychological development of her characters. He had also read James Joyce. And he was a huge fan of She; in this the character of Ayesha has sometimes been said to be a very Freudian depiction and examination of womanhood and men's reactions to femininity. He also liked Auden's work, reciprocating the appreciation he got from him (as happened with Murdoch). Tolkien's tastes were wide ranging (indeed, catholic) and cannot be pinned down to one 'era' or genre. He was very well read and fully aware of contemporary works of all kinds (davem has acquired the very set of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which he bought for his son), as he would have to be heading up the English department of a prestigious university!

The term Dark Ages makes me smile as they were anything but Dark. As the Romans left Britain we had a strong Celtic culture with many rich kingdoms including Elmet and Rheged, traces of which resonate to this day. There were languages, including Cymric, or North Welsh, spoken by the people of Lancashire and Cumbria and which remains in dialect and place names today. There were the Triads, a series of fragments written as prompts to the bards for storytelling, and I'd recommened anyone read these as they are touching and poetic; like the fragments we find in Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's unfinished work they hint at greater legends, longer stories... And of course during the Dark Ages was the flowering of the celtic church with its peculiar mystery, monasteries at Whithorn, Whitby, Jarrow, people like Caedmon, Bede and Hild... I think Tolkien was trying to get back to that rich and yet coldly glacial culture that has been almost buried following 1066.