Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society

Participatory Middle-earth: An Ancient Resonance and the Ruling Ring

Jason Caleb Monroe Monroe — 2024-08-08

Often in Tolkien scholarship, discussions and debates occur regarding the meaning, symbolism, or ‘applicability’ (as Tolkien would say) of certain aspects of his writing, along with attempts to explicate it through different interpretive schema. In issue 63 of Mallorn, Sara Brown views The Lord of the Rings through the lens of alchemy, and concludes that Sauron’s One Ring is not made of gold, which, as an element alchemically considered, cannot represent something evil. Firstly, this article builds on an alchemical interpretation of Tolkien by analyzing a related topic; and secondly, it disputes Brown’s argument. This article adds to the alchemical reading of Tolkien’s work by connecting Owen Barfield’s concept of original participation to it, showing that seeing Tolkien’s Secondary World and the Primary World through a participatory lens can benefit consciousness. Experiencing the specially participatory nature of the characters in The Lord of the Rings can move readers toward a more participatory experience, themselves. Secondly, this article argues that due to Sauron’s collaboration with Morgoth in a participatory mode, it is probable that the One Ring is made of gold. If Sauron crafted the One Ring out of any other substance, his purposes would not have been as realized as they were. Despite challenging Brown’s thesis, this article praises the illuminating contribution of her alchemical reading.

Eruanno in Tolkien’s Aia Maria

Michael Corso — 2024-08-08

J.R.R. Tolkien translated several Catholic prayers into his invented language, Quenya—presumably out of professional interest as a linguist and possibly for personal use as a devout Catholic. This article explores Tolkien's use of borrowed words in this effort and their significance in his invented languages, and their connections to real-world languages and meanings. In particular, the essay offers an interpretation of a change Tolkien made from one version to the next in the Quenyan word for “full of grace” in the Hail Mary translation. The article also highlights the significance of examining Tolkien's translation of Catholic prayers into Quenya, providing insights into the role of his faith in his sub-creation.

Tolkien's Lost Lecture on Hamlet, Reconstructed

Jessica Yates — 2024-08-08

According to Hammond and Scull’s Chronology (2006) for the Hilary Term 1937, “Tolkien is also listed as one of a series of lecturers (with Nevill Coghill, H.V.D. Dyson, C.S. Lewis, and C. L. Wrenn) on Hamlet, at 5.00 p.m. in the Examination Schools, beginning 22^nd January.” At first I thought that there was no hope of finding out about the topic Tolkien had chosen, and Ms C. McIlwaine of the Bodleian Library confirmed that the lecture had not turned up among Tolkien’s papers so far. However, by guesswork on Tolkien's special and personal interests, confirmed by two footnotes in an essay by J. S. Ryan, I set before you not only my theory about Tolkien's chosen topic, but also suggestions about the topics chosen by the other four named lecturers.

Concerning “Concerning Racism and Tolkien”

Clare Moore — 2024-08-08

This note addresses an article published in Amon Hen 299 titled "Concerning Racism and Tolkien." The purpose of this response is to point out several flaws in the arguments made that Tolkien was not, definitively, a racist, and to offer a more productive path forward for addressing issues of race and racism within Tolkien's fiction and the Tolkien community.

The Squint-Eyed Southerner as a Case Study of Orientalism in The Lord of the Rings

Mercury Natis — 2024-08-08

Caricatures of the foreign Other poke their heads through the windows and doors of Middle-earth. The “Squint-Eyed Southerner” can serve as a case study, highlighting Tolkien’s perspective on the “least lovely Mongol-types” as an amalgamation of both contemporary Yellow Peril, and Medieval fears of Far Eastern cultural superiority post-Marco Polo. This note is a brief look into the author's ongoing work, as presented as a round table presentation for The International Medieval Conference at Kalamazoo in 2023 on the issues of race and racisms in Tolkien's Medievalism. It aims to both illuminate a widely overlooked form of racism present in The Lord of the Rings and to encourage compassionate discussion regarding these issues.

The Problem of White Academia

Robin Reid — 2024-08-08

In 2000, Drout and Wynne identified one gap in Tolkien studies as lacking work using theories on race, class and gender and one weakness as "defending Tolkien against his detractors" (113). Feminist, gender, and historicist scholars began publishing in the 1970s (Reid, 2015) but engaging with race in Tolkien's work did not appear until 2003 when Jackson's films sparked online debates. Some critics argue Tolkien or his work are racist while others argue he/the work celebrates diversity and multi-culturalism (Reid 2017). In 2022, the growing threat of alt-right appropriation of medieval imagery for political purposes is being challenged by medievalists (Eliot, Gabriele, Heng, "Medievalists of Color," Ramey). What will Tolkien studies do, given Tolkien's strong association with medieval and medievalist texts? I argue that Tolkien scholars need to stop defending Tolkien by relying on authorial intentionality and begin confronting systemic racism in the field which includes the tendency to ignore the racialized category of Whiteness.

Tolkien and the Fallowhides

Luke Shelton — 2024-08-08

This piece looks at how Tolkien scholarship continues to reuse harmful stereotypes and potential ways that we can do better in the future.

Notes on a Roundtable

Mariana Rios Maldonado — 2024-08-08

By the Waters of Anduin We Lay Down and Wept

Tom Emanuel — 2024-08-08

A once-glorious civilization is laid low in a world-altering cataclysm; a mere handful of survivors escape from the wrack. Looking back from a distant land, the faithful remnant attempts to come to terms with the enormity of the catastrophe and answer the looming question: “How could God allow this to happen?” This synopsis could just as easily describe the Hebrew prophetic writings composed after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, or J.R.R. Tolkien’s account of the Downfall of Númenor. This article teases out the parallels between these two myths of fidelity, apostasy, and catastrophe from a progressive Christian perspective, reading the exilic prophet Jeremiah in conversation with Tolkien’s Akallabêth and the figure to whom its authorship is attributed within Tolkien’s secondary world: Elendil the Faithful, leader of the Númenóreans in exile. Jeremiah and the Akallabêth both address the problem of theodicy, the question of how an all-powerful, all-loving God can permit suffering and evil. The author challenges the theodicy of blessings and curses which emerges from both texts, arguing that their twinned approaches to the "problem of pain" shed light on the religious and ideological dynamics at work in Tolkien's secondary as well as primary worlds. The article concludes by suggesting that the legendarium writ large can be read as a work of prophetic imagination, a mythopoetic reckoning with the irrevocable loss of a communal past and the challenge of living into a hopeful future in a broken world.

Back To The Past?

Maria Zielenbach — 2024-08-08

J.R.R. Tolkien used his created languages (conlangs) to experiment with alternative linguistic structures. On example is the time reference system of the Elvish languages. This paper explores Elvish time reference based on three texts published in the chapter “Notes on Elvish Time-Reference” in The Nature of Middle-earth (2021) and data from Tolkien's conlangs, namely Quenya and Common Eldarin. Tolkien experimented with the Elvish worldview on time and space in general. According to two of the discussed texts from The Nature of Middle-earth, the Elves visualize the past in front of them and the future behind them. I will argue that this worldview is found in The Lord of the Rings but that Tolkien rejected it later and replaced it was an opposing worldview that visualizes the future as in front and the past as behind. From the latter worldview, Tolkien derived a time reference system which uses the same expressions for ‘behind, at the back’ and ‘before’, and ‘in front, ahead’ and ‘after’. This contrasts with English, where we can use before with both a spatial and temporal meaning. I will argue that this colexification is not the logical outcome of the Elvish worldview and explore why this system is rare in the languages of the World while the English system is frequently found. I will explain how the English time reference system developed according to contemporary linguistic theory and propose an explanation for the development of the Elvish system. In this way, I will show that the English system is not confused, as Tolkien thought, but based on a coherent space-time metaphor.

In linguistic terms, the paper deals with adverbials in the form of noun phrases with temporal/spatial expressions serving as prepositions and markers of sequential location.

Review of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Utopianism And The Classics,

Nicholas Birns — 2024-08-08

This is a review of Hamish Williams

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Utopianism And The Classics

A Sense of Tales Unexplored

Rebecca Davis — 2024-08-08

A review of Peter Grybaukas's A Sense of Tales Untold

Tweaking Things a Little: Essays on the Epic Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, by Thomas Honegger

Kristine Larsen — 2024-08-08

Review: Tolkien Dogmatics (2022) by Austin M. Freeman

Nick Polk — 2024-08-08

In with the New, Preserving the Old

Luke Shelton — 2024-08-08