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Full Description
J. R. R. Tolkien is arguably the most influential fantasy writer of all time--his world building and epic mythology have changed Western audiences' imaginations and the entire fantasy genre. This book is the first wide-ranging Christian Platonic reading on Tolkien's fiction. This analysis, written for scholars and general Tolkien enthusiasts alike, discusses how his fiction is constructed on levels of language, myth and textuality that have a background in the Greek philosopher Plato's texts and early Christian philosophy influenced by Plato. It discusses the concepts of ideal and real, creation and existence, and fall and struggle as central elements of Tolkien's fiction, focusing on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth. Reading Tolkien's fiction as a depiction of ideal and real, from the vision of creation to the process of realization, illuminates a part of Tolkien's aesthetics and mythology that previous studies have overlooked.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Construction of Mythology
On Constructive Mythopoeics
A Fictional Mythology Dedicated to England
Speculative Historical Epic
Myth and Genre
2. Creation and Existence
The Song of Ainur: Christian Platonic Creation Myth in The Silmarillion
Cosmology and the Chain of Being
Tolkien's Christian Platonic Mythopoeics
Concerning Sidney and Coleridge
The Philosophy of Afterlife
The Inklings and the Power of Words
3. Fall and Struggle
Long Defeat
Mythopoeic Allegories
Mythic and Biblical Heroes
The Fall: Númenor as an Atlantis Myth
The Struggle: The One Ring and the Ring Motif
Conclusion
Notes
Works Consulted
Index
