scholarly journals Classical Epic in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hannah Parry
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
New Age ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Lord Of The Rings ◽  
Folk Tale ◽  
Classical Epic ◽  
New Codes

<p>The Lord of the Rings has often been described as an 'epic', and although Tolkien drew most famously on Northern mythology in his creation of Middle-earth much of his work also bears similarities to classical epic, both with regard to particular characters and archetypes and to more general themes and motifs. This thesis examines the connections between The Lord of the Rings and the epics of Homer and Virgil, investigating the manner in which these allusions function in Tolkien and how they contribute to our understanding of Middleearth as at least partially an epic world with epic ideals of heroism. At the same time, however, it identifies the ways in which Tolkien changes or subverts such classical ideals and archetypes as they combine with other cultural influences. Following the model established in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings begins with the folk-tale heroes and setting of the Shire before gradually moving into an epic world. Not only heroes such as Aragorn, but less obviously epic heroes such as Gandalf, Frodo and Sam, draw frequently on the iconography and motifs associated with specific and general classical figures, while women such as Arwen, Eowyn and Galadriel can similarly be read as part of classical tradition. Moreover, despite the purely fictional nature of Middle-earth in contrast to the historical (if mythologised) cultures of classical epic, The Lord of the Rings contains many examples of epic type-scenes that in classical epic illustrate the correct manner in which a hero should behave both in peace and in battle. The Lord of the Rings' relationship to epic is complex, however, not only employing these heroic and epic conventions but also subverting or superseding them as Tolkien engages with the problems of classical motifs within a very different universe. The heroes and heroines of The Lord of the Rings must navigate codes of behaviour both classical and non-classical, and willingly relinquish those out of place in the new age being born around them. This tension between old and new codes of behaviour is made more explicit during the book's twin 'returns', that of Aragorn to Minas Tirith and the hobbits to the Shire. Although these continue to draw extensively on classical predecessors, most notably Aeneas' prophesised arrival in Latium and Odysseus' famous homecoming, these predecessors are also superseded as Middle-earth moves into the Fourth Age. While The Hobbit moves from folk tale to epic and back again, The Lord of the Rings moves from folk-tale to epic to somewhere “beyond the epic” (Flieger 145), and as the book draws to its elegiac conclusion pure classical values become increasingly supplanted by the book’s own heroic code, influenced by many heroic traditions and overwhelmingly by Tolkien's Catholic beliefs. In the end, The Lord of the Rings can perhaps be read as an epic about the passing of epic, and thus an epic for the modern world.</p>

scholarly journals Classical Epic in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hannah Parry
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
New Age ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Lord Of The Rings ◽  
Folk Tale ◽  
Classical Epic ◽  
New Codes

<p>The Lord of the Rings has often been described as an 'epic', and although Tolkien drew most famously on Northern mythology in his creation of Middle-earth much of his work also bears similarities to classical epic, both with regard to particular characters and archetypes and to more general themes and motifs. This thesis examines the connections between The Lord of the Rings and the epics of Homer and Virgil, investigating the manner in which these allusions function in Tolkien and how they contribute to our understanding of Middleearth as at least partially an epic world with epic ideals of heroism. At the same time, however, it identifies the ways in which Tolkien changes or subverts such classical ideals and archetypes as they combine with other cultural influences. Following the model established in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings begins with the folk-tale heroes and setting of the Shire before gradually moving into an epic world. Not only heroes such as Aragorn, but less obviously epic heroes such as Gandalf, Frodo and Sam, draw frequently on the iconography and motifs associated with specific and general classical figures, while women such as Arwen, Eowyn and Galadriel can similarly be read as part of classical tradition. Moreover, despite the purely fictional nature of Middle-earth in contrast to the historical (if mythologised) cultures of classical epic, The Lord of the Rings contains many examples of epic type-scenes that in classical epic illustrate the correct manner in which a hero should behave both in peace and in battle. The Lord of the Rings' relationship to epic is complex, however, not only employing these heroic and epic conventions but also subverting or superseding them as Tolkien engages with the problems of classical motifs within a very different universe. The heroes and heroines of The Lord of the Rings must navigate codes of behaviour both classical and non-classical, and willingly relinquish those out of place in the new age being born around them. This tension between old and new codes of behaviour is made more explicit during the book's twin 'returns', that of Aragorn to Minas Tirith and the hobbits to the Shire. Although these continue to draw extensively on classical predecessors, most notably Aeneas' prophesised arrival in Latium and Odysseus' famous homecoming, these predecessors are also superseded as Middle-earth moves into the Fourth Age. While The Hobbit moves from folk tale to epic and back again, The Lord of the Rings moves from folk-tale to epic to somewhere “beyond the epic” (Flieger 145), and as the book draws to its elegiac conclusion pure classical values become increasingly supplanted by the book’s own heroic code, influenced by many heroic traditions and overwhelmingly by Tolkien's Catholic beliefs. In the end, The Lord of the Rings can perhaps be read as an epic about the passing of epic, and thus an epic for the modern world.</p>

Larger Manners and Events: Sallust and Virgil in Absalom and Achitophel

PMLA ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-244
Author(s):  
R. G. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Active Pressure ◽  
The Past

John Dryden's work is part of that great stylistic synthesis called neo-classicism; and in it the classical, particularly the Roman, past finds a new relevance to the modern world. The classical tradition not only remains a constant presence but also (in Reuben A. Brower's metaphor) exerts an “active pressure.” Awareness of this basic element, this Roman posture, in Dryden's art shows signs of disappearing behind the varied ingenuities of our own age of criticism. Since A. W. Verrall's lectures were first published in 1914, Dryden's work has been studied extensively and, we may say, has been looked at with new eyes. His great poem, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), has been recognized as a complex and highly sophisticated work of art. The past five years have brought (not to mention the reprinting of Verrall's lectures and the publication of many articles) three important books on Dryden's poetry. One is about Absalom and Achitophel; two others devote many pages of discussion to this poem. Each of these books reminds us, in a slightly different way, that when we have supplied the English equivalents for Biblical persons, institutions, and events we have scarcely begun to read Absalom and Achitophel.

The Fruitful Error: Reconsidering Millennial Enthusiasm

2001 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-98
Author(s):  
Richard Landes
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
New Age ◽  
European History ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Global Peace

Apocalyptic hopes for an imminent millenial “new age” have taken a wide variety of forms in European history, from the earlier religious manifestations to the more secular and, hence, more activist ones of the modern world. Although none of these apocalyptic expectations has been accurate, and many have had disastrous immediate consequences for those involved, they have set in motion powerful social dynamics. Western science and technology, revolutionary politics, dreams of global peace, and the realities of world wars all derive peculiar inspiration from the terrible hopes of the millennial vision.

The Concepts and Ideas of ‘Spirituality’ Within Worldviews of Alternative Religiosities in the Post-Communist Region: Vissarionites and Anastasians

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 241-264
Author(s):  
Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
New Age ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
New Age Spirituality

Abstract The article presents research on contemporary religiosities related to individuality and subcultural features, influenced by the processes of social change and religious diversification in the post-communist region. Its aim is to discuss individual and communal thinking (orientated to esotericism, magic, and ecology) typical for representatives of two nature-based spirituality movements—Vissarionites and Anastasians, which is expressed through concepts of New Age spirituality of Oriental origin. The concepts of energy, non-violence, vegetarianism, karma, and reincarnation are used in both movements and appear as an example of how such concepts arrived through Western cultural influences, transformed, and took root in the post-communist cultural context of New Age spirituality. The findings are based on data obtained from fieldwork in 2004–2015, including participant observation and interviews with respondents in the Baltic states and Russia.

New Age in the modern world: typology, some forms of manifestation

1998 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Skomorovskiy
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
World Religions ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Main Mass ◽  
The World

New Age in religious literature is regarded as an integral eclectic concept that refers to a person's search for spirituality outside of known world religions in their confessional terms. Conditionally it includes non-religious groups and trends, Gnostic and metaphysical schools, non-confessional spiritual associations, groups and currents of the "alternative" way of life. From the sociological point of view, it can be attributed to the manifestation of deviations in the form of social anomalies. At the same time, for participants in this direction, their own values, knowledge, activities are seen as a gradual approximation to the norm, a model, in assessing the life of the main mass of society as pathological or nearpathological states that also have the chance to change when they realize their true nature. The description of these public phenomena through the concept of "New Age" is seen as an intermediate or transitional nature due to the presence of serious differences in both the vision of the world and their practical activities.

The Secular Beats the Spiritual

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
New Age ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Secular Culture ◽  
Positive Side

If religion is changing rather than declining, the number involved in new expressions of religious and spiritual interest should come close to matching those lost to the churches, but the new religious movements of the late 1960s were numerically trivial and attempts to measure serious interest in spirituality have failed to show it is at all popular. While eastern religious themes have proved somewhat attractive, they have been changed in ways that look like capitulation to the West’s secular culture. The evaluative conclusion is that New Age ‘authenticity’ is socio-psychologically damaging, that New Age relativism threatens the knowledge base of modern societies, and that contemporary spirituality is unusually vulnerable to sexual exploitation. On the positive side, the individualism, toleration, and relativism of contemporary spirituality have helped make the modern world more civil.

Prologue

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Day
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Specific Problem ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Classical World ◽  
Classical Epic ◽  
The One

This prologue to Cowboy Classics overviews the growing interest in classical receptions: the study of how the classical world has been represented since antiquity, guided by the belief that these examinations can enhance the understanding of both the receiving society and the ancient one. After distinguishing classical receptions from the earlier classical tradition movement, which focuses on influence rather than dialogue, this chapter acknowledges objections to receptions studies from scholars both outside and within the field of classics, including the particular problem of comparing classical works with modern film – collaboratively-produced visual works often considered lowbrow compared to the elite literary texts of antiquity. Drawing on the work of filmmakers, teachers, and receptions scholars, this prologue argues for cinematic productions as legitimate visual texts of comparative value not only pedagogically, but also culturally, in that mainstream film, like classical epic, embeds its culture’s most closely held assumptions and worldviews. Finally, this prologue considers the specific problem of receptions studies like the one undertaken in this book – those with no evident direct connection to antiquity – arguing that these allow more focus on meaning rather than influence while bringing past works into present relevance rather than vice versa.

Socrates’/Plato’s Use of Rhetoric: A Bahá’í Perspective

1991 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bret Breneman
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Important Contributor

Rhetoric in the modern world is often associated with disputation and with less than truthful attempts to persuade. Classical rhetoric, however, in its urge to wed eloquence with the noble goals of philosophy, continues as a study to increase our understanding of human utterance and expression. Although Plato has historically been regarded as an enemy of rhetoric, he is seen here as an important contributor to its classical tradition. The figure of Socrates in Plato’s dialogues models a rhetoric of mutuality, a “pedagogical” rhetoric, which—especially when viewed from a Bahá’í perspective—demonstrates the morally nurturing nature of refined speech.

scholarly journals The Mythical Dimension in Saulius Tomas Kondrotas' Novel “The Look of a Grass-Snake”

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Vilius Mingilas
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
New Age ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Rational Thinking ◽  
Modern Idea ◽  
The World ◽  
Grass Snake ◽  
The Look ◽  
The Baltic

The aim of the article is to identify and explain the mythical images used in Saulius Tomas Kondrotas’ novel “The Look of a Grass-Snake”. By transforming pagan and Christian mythical systems, the writer contrasts them with rational thinking. In “New Age“ there is no place for myths and the meanings of figurative language. The mythical dimension in the work is understood as a way of perceiving the world that contradicts the modern idea of ​​progress. S. T. Kondrotas also transforms the meanings of archetypal figures such as fire, sun or grass-snake in his novel. The concepts of life, death, or rebirth gain the different perspectives from archaic and modern world. New mythical dimension allows us to reconsider existential phenomena of human existence in a new light. In this way, the Baltic worldview extends its life in works of art, and the literature, which contains mythical elements, becomes a modern version of the myth.

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