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Tolkien. Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@gmx.de. Digitale Bibliothek: aufgrund technischer Probleme verzögert sich die Einstellung der PP-Präsentationen - wir bitten um Verständnis. J.R.R. Tolkien. Edith Bratt (c. 1916). Tolkien the Soldier (1915-18). War and Middle-earth.
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Tolkien Thomas Honegger t.m.honegger@gmx.de
Digitale Bibliothek: aufgrund technischer Probleme verzögert sich die Einstellung der PP-Präsentationen - wir bitten um Verständnis
War and Middle-earth • June 1916: Tolkien at the Somme; serves as Battalion Signalling Officer • November 1916: Tolkien back in England suffering from ‘trench fever’
War and Middle-earth 2 • January & February 1917: begins to write The Book of Lost Tales while convalescing • Earendil the Mariner <Eala Earendel engla beorhtast ofer middangeard monnum sended (Christ I, l. 104f)
War and Middle-earth 3 • John Garth. 2003. Tolkien and the Great War. The Threshold of Middle-earth. London: HarperCollins. • TCBS: Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey Bache Smith (), Robert Gilson (), J.R.R. Tolkien
The Kalevala • Kalevala: Finnish National Epic • Product of the national Romanticism movement • Compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot (Kalevala 1838, New Kalevala 1849)
Elias Lönnrot • Elias Lönnrot (*1802-1884), Finnish philologist, poet, and folklorist. Practised medicine in country districts, where he transcribed traditional ballads, among them the Kalevala cycle. Became professor of Finnish literature at Helsinki.
Tolkien a new Lönnrot? • “I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story – the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country.” (Letter to Milton Waldman; late 1951)
A Mythology for England? • “It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe; not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), […].”(Letter to Milton Waldman; late 1951)
The Loss of the ‘English’ Mythology 3 • matter of Britain (King Arthur cycle) • matter of Rome (Troy cycle) • matter of France (Charlemagne cycle) • *matter of England
Tolkien and words 1 • 1917 November; birth of eldest son John (who became a Catholic priest and who died only last year) • 1918 November returns to Oxford and joins the staff of the NED/OED. • in charge of the entries warm, water, wasp, wick(lamp), and winter. • 1922 publication of A Middle English Vocabulary
Tolkien and words 2 • warm, adj. [Com. Teut. : OE wearm = OFris. warm (mod. WFris waerm, NFris. wa\rem), Mdu., Du. warm, OS. warm (MLG. war(e)m, LG. warm), OHG. war(a)m (MHG., G. warm), ON. varmur (Norw., Sw., Da. varm) Goth. warm- in warmjan to warm, cherish: –––––– OTeut.*warmo-, also *werm-
Middle English Vocabulary 2 • Wordlist accompanying Kenneth Sisam’s anthology of Middle-English verse and prose Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose (Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1921)
Middle English Vocabulary 3 • Contents (among other items): • The Dancers of Colbek • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (excerpts) • The Pearl (excerpts) • The Blacksmiths • Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo 1 • Written in the first half of the 14th century. • Orfeo was a king, / In Inglond an heighe lording • Orpheo most of ony thing / Louede the gle of harpyng; • This king soiournd in Traciens, / That was a cite of noble defens; / For Winchester was cleped tho / Traciens withouten no.
Sir Orfeo 2 • The king hadde a quen of priis, / That was ycleped Dame Herodis • Vnder a fair ympe-tre, /[…] this fair quene / Fel on slepe opon the grene. • Visited/abducted by the king of Faery, final abduction announced. • Guarded by many knights but abduction cannot be prevented.
Sir Orfeo 3 • Orfeo gives up his kingship and lives in the forest, hoping to find a trace of the King of Faery. • He might se him bisides / Oft in hot vndertides / The king of fairy with his rout / Com to hunt him al about, / With dim cri and bloweing; / And houndes also with him berking; / Ac no best thai no nome, / No neuer he nist whider thai bicome.
Sir Orfeo 4 • And other while he might him se / As a gret ost bi him te / Wele atourned ten hundred knightes, / Ich y-armed to his rightes, / Of cuntenance stout and fers, / With mani desplaid baners, / And ich his swerd ydrawe hold, / Ac neuer he nist whider thai wold.
Sir Orfeo 5 • And other while he seighe other thing: / Knightes and leuedis com daunceing / In queynt atire, gisely, / Queynt pas and softly; / Tabours and trunpes yede hem bi, / And al maner mentraci.