Suite101 article: Have you been to Valinor lately?

[Michael Martinez]

An examination of the deeper Valinorean mythology which pervaded Tolkien's works. Why do so many critics miss the connections? What was Tolkien really trying to do, if not to convey some deeper meaning or to preserve some ancient storyline?


www.suite101.com/article....kien/49231 (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/tolkien/49231)


www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/tolkien (http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/tolkien)

Sorry for not being around lately. We've been having problems with our forums at Xenite.Org and that, among other projects, has kept me very, very busy.

[Hobbit Hood]

Alias: Gilthalion (it's a long story...)


A fine essay! It's a little difficult to evaluate your critique of the critic, but it sounds like the usual sort of thing. Critic studies work, fails to see forest for trees.

Thinking of Valinor puts me in mind of something I ran across in a newspaper article once.

I've heard of some sort of Tolkien Bible Study, but have never found out more. I imagine that one could write a pretty decent book based on the obvious Scriptural influences on his work. Break it up like Sunday School lessons... Someone has done that with Andy Griffith's Mayberry.

(Of course, there were many other influences as well as his own creations!)

[Michael Martinez]

Don't know anything about a Tolkien Bible Study. I'm not sure of what the purpose would be, unless it were done just for the fun of it.

Criticizing someone like Tom Shippey is a bit dangerous, however. He has ardent admirers, and I only hope they look beyond the criticism to see what I was trying to say. Shippey does a great (if incomplete) job of dissecting Middle-earth, but he leaves me wondering if he understands what it's all about.

Tolkien really just wanted to tell a roaring good story. That he drew upon ancient and medieval literary ideas to build up a unique (for the 20th century) presentation doesn't change the fact that he wanted to tell the story.

Chipping away at the gloss to look for the foundation ruins the beauty of the art. I'm pretty sure that is at least part of what Tolkien was thinking of when he commented on the desire to look for sources: "To my mind it is the particular use in a particular situation of any motive, whether invented, deliberately borrowed, or unconsciously remembered that is the most interesting thing to consider." (Letter 337)

If you look for Valinor in past literature, you're not going to find it. It was there, but not in the form one is seeking.

[Finduilas]

That was a beautiful article. Made me think a bit (especially about doing a re-read of his books soon)

[Shanamir Duntak]

There is a type of person I hate: the destroyer. One that can't create but only can destroy and devote time and efforts to destroy the work of others. Can movie critics film a movie by their own? No they can't! I don't know what Tom Shippey did, but could he write a book that is the best selling book after the Bible??? I believe not.

Beware when you want to criticize other's work. Just try to do it to see if you manage to it any better before you even say a word.

[Michael Martinez]

I have some differences with Tom Shippey (don't know him personally) but I don't want to engage in a poison pen campaign against him.

He has truly identified some strong influences on Tolkien's style of writing. But where I disagree with Shippey is his exclusion of non-Anglo-Saxon sources. His scholarship is, except for this fatal flaw, first rate.

That sounds like a back-handed compliment, I know, but all literary critics have an agenda. Shippey's appears to be to focus the reader's attention on Tolkien's love of Anglo-Saxon. Unfortunately, he has the effect of giving the reader the impression that is all Tolkien loved.

Tolkien himself admitted to other influences, and not everything in Tolkien's fiction is derived from or influenced by medieval writings. He went back much further than that.

Of course, the purpose of the article is not to criticize Shippey for being exclusionist. It's to remind the reader that the story is still there.