Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tolkien Definitely Read This
In the fourth part of the book we learn of the dragon gaurding the gold. a thief steals some of it, the dragon gets pissed and starts burning up the nearby town. In Tolkien's The Hobbit (a prequel to The Lord of The Rings), Bilbo and the 13 dwarfs set out to steal back the dragon's gold. When Bilbo finally swipes one piece of treasure the dragon wakes up and starts reaking havok on the nearby towns people. This is another similarity between Tolkien and Beowulf. Connor pointed out the similar style of writing and i found a similarity in plot. Has anyone else found any connections between the two?
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4 comments:
Wasn't it commonplace for stories in this time period to have a dragon guarding gold? Take the Volsung Saga, and the dragon Fafnir guarding the gold. The Volsung saga is an Icelandic myth including a ring and dwarves and a dragon. Much like the hobbit was. I doubt anyone in our class has heard of it ha! Anyway, a German by the name of Richard Wagner turned it into a stageplay/opera which I bet everyone has heard one of the songs in it, Ride Of The Valkyries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSKL5E3zSjs
Anyway, my main point is that Tolkien didn't just copy Beowulf, if anything he copied the Volsungs. I'm not saying he didn't read it. And that dragons were commonplace at the time.
Hope you guys can understand that it's a bit wordy
You are both right on this occasion. Tolkien had more than one influence in writing The Hobbit and LOTR. He spent his entire life reading and teaching the languages and literature of the Middle Ages, the period we are studying right now. He wrote many scholarly articles about these works, including Beowulf. I'll show you an abstract of one in class later this week.
So good connections guys. Keep it up!
I recall the discussing the importants of influences within literature the other day in class.
One thing to keep in mind is, whether we are reading the lord of the rings, or shakespear, or Animal Farm, or anything, all great works, and works not so great draw their influences from works of the past.
So it's not "copying" as much as it is "inspiring".
My bottom line is this: Even if tolkein had taken most of his idea's from Beawolf, would it have been a crime? In thie opinion of myself, no.
Just as a connection, this is kind of like the music of today. A lot of today's songs are remakes or copies of other songs that came out 20-30 years earlier. Meanwhile, some songs or genres take some aspects of older songs and include them in a new song. I.E., Kanye West came out with a new song that uses the beat and background chorus of Daft Punk's Hard Better Faster Stronger.
This is why we don't see any (or many) new genres of music, or literature. It seems to be more commonplace to take key parts or general themes/plots of literature from the past and include it in a new work.
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