— Ch. 1 · Antiquarian Tradition Roots —
Tolkien and antiquarianism.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892, 1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic who spent much of his career as a professor of medieval English at the University of Oxford. He stated that whenever he read a medieval work, he wanted to write a modern one in the same tradition. Christina Fawcett writes that by creating his fantasy world of Middle-earth in the way that he did, giving it a history as well as a narrative, Tolkien was following in a tradition that interwove history with literature. She notes that antiquarianism flourished in the 18th century, and that 19th century neo-medieval literature grew out of the Gothic. Jamie Williamson identifies antiquarianism as an ancestor of modern fantasy. Tolkien was in Williamson's view following earlier authors like William Morris, who in turn was following antiquarians like James Macpherson in the use of devices like a prose style incorporating archaisms and elegy and historical appendices to create a feeling of realism. Carl Phelpstead writes that Tolkien's prolific creation of the languages, peoples, genealogies, and history that give Middle-earth an unprecedented sense of reality is calculated to prevent disbelief by providing the kind of inner consistency which commands Secondary Belief. Nick Groom places Tolkien in the tradition of English antiquarianism where 18th century authors like Thomas Chatterton wrote in medieval style, creating a variety of non-narrative materials much as Tolkien did. Finding a lack of suitable material, Chatterton invented his own archaic language and calligraphy and produced his own complex medieval manuscripts, maps, sketches, and heraldry. Andrew Higgins comments that Tolkien, like the antiquarians, invented legends and myths but not simply as fantasy; he and they felt they were recording a past that was already there.
Forged Manuscripts Aesthetics
Catherine McIlwaine writes that Tolkien used his pipe to burn the edges of the Book of Mazarbul pages, pierced holes along one side to resemble the holes where the parchment would have been stitched to the binding, and washed them with red paint to resemble bloodstains. The set of forged and invented non-narrative elements took their place alongside the frame story that Bilbo and later Hobbits had edited, transcribed and annotated the text of the ancient Red Book of Westmarch which Tolkien supposedly found and edited as The Lord of the Rings. Groom notes that Tolkien was not a literary forger like Chatterton, but that his facsimile pages of the Book of Mazarbul enlisted the aesthetics of antiquarianism and adopted the techniques of literary forgery. Sherwood adds that these forgery methods were much like Chatterton's ways of making his documents look realistic. The first page from The Book of Mazarbul is a facsimile artefact that Tolkien carefully created in the style of a forgery to support the story and bring readers into his fantasy. He had hoped to include it in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings despite his best efforts failing to get publishers to accept it. The book contains over 60 pieces of verse of many kinds including for wandering, marching to war, drinking, and having a bath; narrating ancient myths, riddles, prophecies, and magical incantations; of praise and lament.