|
Sacred-texts home
Sagas and Legends
|
|
Sources
of Lord of the Rings
|
J.R.R.
Tolkiens' Middle Earth did not come out of thin air. Tolkien, an
academic linguist, drew on the following source materials to inspire
his world-building exercise. The texts presented at this site are
complete and in some cases in the original languages.
The Kalevala. [English]
The Kalevala. [Finnish]
This Finnish
saga, replete with battling wizards and heroes, quests and magical
objects has been cited as one of the early inspirations for Tolkien.
The languages of Middle Earth also have more than a passing resemblance
to Finnish.
The Elder (Poetic) Edda.
The Younger (Prose) Edda.
These
Icelandic collections of epic poetry are key sources for the study of
Norse mythology. Our plane of existence is called 'Middle Earth' in
this mythology. Tolkien also took many of the names of key characters
from this text; particularly one sequence early on in the Voluspo, including Gandalf, and all of
the Dwarves from the
Hobbit. Also found in the Eddas is the forest of
Myrkwood; Bilbo's party traversed the vast Mirkwood forest in the
Hobbit.
Wagner's Ring of the Niblung
The Volsung Saga
The Nibelungenlied
The Volsung
saga is the Icelandic version of the story which was later re-told in
the Germanic Nibelungenlied. This was the basis for Wagner's Ring
cycle. The cursed ring of doom is likewise a central theme of Tolkiens'
mythology.
Heimskringla or The Chronicle of the
Kings of Norway
by Snorri
Sturlson. tr. Samuel Laing [1844]
Gandalf is not only mentioned in the
Voluspo, but in the Heimskringla Sagas: Gandalf was the name of the
last king to rule over Alfheim, He was killed by Harald Harfagra in the
year 866. Gandalf gets mentioned in The
Ynglinga Saga, Halfdan, the
Black Saga, and Harald
Harfager's Saga.
Beowulf [Modern English]
Beowulf [Anglo Saxon]
Tolkien was a
distinguished scholar of Middle and Old English. The Beowulf saga is
one of the treasures of this branch of literature, and Grendel, the
monster of this tale, is a prototype for many of the darker creatures
that populate Middle Earth.
The Mabinogion
Lady Guest,
tr. [1877]
Among the sources for Tokien's languages
was Welsh, and the Welsh stories of the 'Red Book of Hergest' appear to
have also had an influence on the narratives of Tolkien's fictional
'Red Book of Westmarch'.
Modern
Fantasy
The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
[1596]
Stories from the Faerie Queene, by Mary Macleod [1916]
The Faerie Queene is one of the
wellsprings of modern Fantasy writing. Spenser, like Tolkien, did not
simply retell classical or medieval stories. He used similar themes and
elements but put the pieces together in an entirely new way,
constructing an invented reality with a consistent internal logic.
The Wood Beyond the World
by William
Morris [1895]
One of the recognized forerunners of
Tolkien was William Morris, skilled artist, pioneering Socialist,
translator of Icelandic sagas, and fantasy writer. The Wood Beyond
the World is one of Morris' masterpieces which he originally
published using hand-set type.
The Worm Ouroboros
by E. R.
Eddison [1922]
"The greatest and most convincing writer
of 'invented worlds'
|