Impression of depth in The Lord of the Rings

• 1. Tolkien's Aesthetic Intent

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  J. R. R. Tolkien set out to create a specific feeling in his readers. He wanted them to sense that the story had deep roots in the past. This goal was not accidental but a deliberate aesthetic choice. In an essay, he praised the 14th-century English chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for its deep roots in the past. He believed this quality allowed such works to survive as set texts for students. The author felt these stories deserved close and detailed attention followed by careful consideration. He noted that achieving this effect would be difficult unless new unattainable vistas were revealed again. Many older legends are purely mythological and nearly all are grim and tragic according to his view.

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• 2. Medieval Literary Antecedents

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  Scholars have identified several medieval texts that influenced Tolkien's narrative techniques. He found this quality of depth especially in Beowulf. Other admired works included Virgil's Aeneid and Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sir Orfeo and Grimms' Fairy Tales also provided strong impressions of depth. Scholars like Gergely Nagy identified Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde as well-known sources. Beowulf contains numerous digressions into other stories which function differently than advancing the main plot. Adrien Bonjour described how these elements render the background of the poem extraordinarily alive. They provide contrasts and examples that repeatedly illuminate key points of the story. Tolkien stated in The Monsters and the Critics that these features were essential to the work's power.

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• 3. Four Factors Of Depth

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  Tolkien alluded to the first factor with the phrase vast backclochs. The backdrop to The Lord of the Rings encompassed cosmological myths on a grand scale. His maps provided repeated implicit assurances of the existence of things they labeled. They also assured readers of their nature and history too. The mention of objects like the prized Silmarils appeared through characters such as Sam Gamgee. People from past ages like the Elven-smith Celebrimbor were described by the Elf-lord Elrond. All these mentions made use of existing but at the time unpublished texts. The lady of Rohan, Éowyn, gave Merry Brandybuck an ancient silver horn from the Hoard of Scatha the Worm. These references made the reader feel Middle-earth was far larger than parts described in the story. It had a deep history much older than the War of

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• 4. Vast Backcloths And Maps

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  the Ring.

  Mentions of background stories and events take many forms within the text. Songs and poems interspersed in the narrative include those sung by Aragorn about Beren and Lúthien. Gergely Nagy analyzed the effect of such mentions during Sam's fight with Shelob. Sam desperately slashes at Shelob's underside after she has stung Frodo. The invocation of the First Age hero Túrin Turambar becomes a reflection of Túrin slaying Glaurung the dragon. Glaurung's allegiance to the original Dark Lord Morgoth reinforces the link with evil already suggested by Shelob's descent. Ungoliant destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor in The Silmarillion. Túrin's feud with the dragon is mirrored by Sam's feud with the spider begun by its attack on his master. Nagy comments that the dimension of the scene is thus greatly increased through these layered connections.

  Scholars like Peri

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• 5. Casual Mentions And Echoes

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  Sipahi note that multiple accounts are introduced in the Prologue to The Lord of the Rings. The narrator explains that many traditions up to that time were still mainly oral before being collected and written down. Beowulf is similarly written as if its audience knew of the historic characters already. The Poetic Edda is a compilation of numerous older sources. Apparent contradictions tend to give readers the impression of real and complex history since they may assume an omniscient author can make a fictional story wholly consistent. Tolkien stated that Elves rode without either a saddle or harness but described Glorfindel's horse as having both bit and bridle. Glorfindel says he will shorten his horse's stirrups for the Hobbit Frodo. In another case, Tolkien intentionally did not edit away the contradiction between Tom Bombadil's

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• 6. Apparent Contradictions As History

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  claim and Gandalf's description of Treebeard. Bombadil claimed he was Eldest here before the river and trees while Treebeard was the oldest living thing walking beneath the Sun upon Middle-earth.

  Characters from each part of Middle-earth speak and act in ways characteristic of their place. The Rohirrim serve as a prime example of this stylistic variation. Sipahi notes that all four factors tend to occur together again seen in the account of the Rohirrim. Their language and names are all taken from Old English. This choice lends further depth by linking back to the medieval period in the real primary world. Christine Brooke-Rose attacked the histories and genealogies as not in the least necessary to the narrative. Shippey noted her ignorance of Tolkien's creation of depth through these methods. He suggested she guessed wrongly that Tolkien would have translated all runic and other messages inside the narrative. Almost all other authors would have done so but Tolkien saw value in the sound of untranslated language.

  Later fantasy

• 7. Stylistic Variation And Language

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  authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin made use of the device of giving pseudo-references to create depth. In the Earthsea novels, she alluded to tales of Elfarran, Morred, and the Firelord which she wrote many years later. Katherine Sas writes that J. K. Rowling scaled down Tolkien's impression of depth but applied all four factors involved to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Fantasy authors like Le Guin and Rowling followed Tolkien in using the technique to an extent. The scholar Tom Shippey wrote that depth is the one literary quality distinguishing Tolkien from his many imitators. Behind the visible text lay a coherent consistent deeply fascinating world about which he had no time then to speak. This approach has influenced generations of writers seeking to build authentic fictional worlds with deep historical

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• 8. Critical Reception And Legacy

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  roots.