#tolkien academia

[monsieurenjlolras]

I've gotten a new laptop since then but I gotta see if I still have the paper I wrote on deviance from gender norms in Faramir and Eowyn's characterization and relationship from my brief tenure as a Tolkien scholar (oficially. On a hobbyist level I am always a Tolkien scholar). I feel like you guys would appreciate it

[lesbiansforboromir]

Have you read "perilous and fair"? It's a collection of essays about Tolkien women and feminism

I have in the sense that I have read the articles that make it up seperately, THAT is where my absolutely beloathed Melissa A. Smith's “At Home and Abroad: Éowyn’s Two-fold Figuring as War Bride in The Lord of the Rings” comes from (throws curses at her throws curses at her throws c- literally how is this article in a so called 'feminist' compliation).

To be honest I wasnt a fan of all of them, the articles often vere a lot into making out like 'Tolkien was feminist actually you're all just reading him wrong' and straw-manning this figure of the 'feminist critic' who hates Tolkien because women don't fight or something (a critic I have never actually found in terms of real women critics who said such things, truly the definition of a strawman argument) And I feel like I recall one article being like look! Tolkien loved women! (Lists everytime obscure pieces of his letters or the recollections of others mention him meeting a woman). Like some of them get a bit maddening.

BUT It does have Robin Anne Reid's pretty comprehensive bibliography of all the scholarship done with a female focus (very useful for academic purposes and an interesting if rather depressing read) and @unamccormack's discussion surrounding women fanfic authors who made efforts to write themselves back into the story which is a great article about a continuously necessary topic (and one that does seem to make all the other 'tolkien was a feminist actually!' arguments fall rather flat if you have to become an author yourself in order to feel like women are even mildly important in middle earth).

I'm sure some of the other articles are good but admittedly I read them all at different points for different reasons so they don't stick in my memory very well and to my shame I do tend to remember the ones that annoyed me the best so 😅

[shakespearesdaughters]

JRR Tolkien

[septemberkisses]

September - a soft goodbye to summer, whispered gently by the rustling leaves of autumn.

Excerpts from:

The Letters of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath • The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien • Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos • Peggy Toney Horton • The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith • Albert Campus • To The Tune 'Soaring Clouds by Huang O. (tr. by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung) • September by Earth, Wind and Fire

[elodieunderglass]

I'm not as familiar with LOTR as you are, so I wondered if you could tell me if my wild theory is completely off-base.

No one knows where the Hobbits came from, except that at some point they diverged from the line of men. No one knows much about the Entwives' appearance, but we do know that they fucked off a long time ago.

Could the Entwives have been dryad-ish and hooked up with the hobbits' ancestors and so be the foremothers of the hobbits?

Ah I think I saw that post! The concept has a lot of charm, and when the Tolkien estate loses its corpse-grip on the property in 2050 or so, I think you should write it and sell it 😤 I’ve definitely read some good takes on entwives in fanfiction that both leaned into canon and moved away, and I think that sounds like good fun to explore. A common theme in the fandom is playing with Yavanna, the Green Lady, being the mother or patron of hobbits. This isn’t canonical, but she’s a “green goddess” archetype and is married to Mahal/Aulë, the father of dwarves, which shippers often leverage to their advantage. You could do something quite charming there with Yavanna if you wanted to. We also know that Entwives loved gardens and orchards rather than forests.

Some things I would explore with this include:

what is going on with all these consistent ideas of people, races, women disappearing. We know that a lot of it is how Tolkien processed an almost OCD-like Catholic framing of “the fallen world is getting worse and can never be repaired”, war experiences, romanticism and other stuff stewing in his old man head. What are some ways you could show what’s stewing in your head? What does “people disappearing” mean to you? and why is it especially healing that they disappeared in order to make new families?

I think “they disappeared from their old kin and made new kin” is an interesting and weird thing worth wondering about!

- this would possibly make hobbits a more recent race than is implied. What does that mean to you?

- why are hobbits teeny tiny?

A very good starting point, that Terry Pratchett used a lot, is taking some grand statement in fantasy fiction, and making it reflect a different political reality. “Most dwarves are girls actually.” “Wizards parody academia, but, like, FOR REAL.”

I personally have a different take because of my own political feelings and framings! I have a lot of complex feelings about Tolkien chickening out of hobbits. For various political reasons I personally have to take the stance that they are fully human, fully indigenous, and have their own native language. and that their disappearance is less “teehee we lost them” or “O, the Catholic guilt of the Fallen World, how far we have fallen from the light of the two trees God’s sinless light” and a lot more “oh yeah I’ve seen THAT pattern before.”

If you have a political sort of lens on, someone telling you “yeah… hobbits came from nowhere 🤭 and then disappeared 🤷‍♀️ sad!” is a story that can also invite the response of “OHhhhh you wanted their LAND real bad, huh.” Like, we know what that means, right.

It’s a political stance for me. Hobbits have to be close enough to us to touch, and we have to be able to face that, and the fact that 5,000 media properties will chew on tolkienelves and sell them to you before even admitting to the 🤭 just makes it even more of a 🤨. To me.

…But I have literally just been elbow deep in my own demented fanfic thing that involves inventing a language just to swear in, to enable my standing on a box shouting HOBBITS OUGHT TO RESIST GOING EXTINCT ACTUALLY, based entirely on, I think, spite. Why do multiple authors publish orc football games (Terry Pratchett) and orc coffeeshops (Legends and Lattes guy) and do every damned thing with every bit of Tolkien’s corpse but refuse to look directly at hobbits. I am feral over this and wrote 59k words so far to damage and harm my friends

In conclusion I see a great story shape there about kindred and I think you should explore it and it should be about evolutionary biology and women and divorce and nobody being wrong.

And if anyone argues you with some podcast boy “well actually”, just bite them and do more character work and sit on their heads

[shisasan]

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

[magicaloxford]

I enjoyed a hot chocolate and croissant at Blackwell’s bookshop, where you can find plenty of books by Oxford’s J.R.R. Tolkien ☕!

Tolkien had a strong connection with Blackwell’s. Not only did he often shop there, but his first published poem, 'Goblin Feet', was printed by the bookshop’s owner, Sir Basil Blackwell, and he wrote The Lord of the Rings while living in a house built by Sir Basil 📚.

my latest spooky blog post･ﾟ✧

[moonkissedgirl]

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

[peacefulandcozy]

Instagram credit: acornerturned

[strokeofserenity]

J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Return of the King."

[old-school-maidden]

SCREW BEING A BEAUTIFUL ELF OR A BRAVE DWARF OR A SMART HUMAN ALL I WANT TO BE IS A HOBBIT LIVING MY BEST LIFE BY EATING CHEESE AND CRACKERS!!!!

[autumnallunaphotos]

Happy Hobbit Day! 🤎🍃

[spyboy2000]

𝐉.𝐑.𝐑. 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐧 Me and My House. 1920. Watercolor.

[literary-landscapes]

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings

[nicoletteconejo]

Mr Toad

[literaryvein-reblogs]

homesick

adjective /ˈhōmˌsik/ /ˈhəʊm.sɪk/

experiencing a longing for one's home during a period of absence from it

unhappy because of being away from home for a long period

related words & phrases: abject, be in bits, be out of sorts, bereft, bittersweet, blues, broken, brooding, bruised, careworn, chagrined, cheerlessly, choked up, crestfallen, deflated, dejected, demoralized, depressed, desolate, despondent, disaffected, disappointed, disconsolate, disenchanted, disgruntled, disheartened, disillusioned, dismal, dismayed, displeased, dissatisfied, distraught, distressed, doleful, dour, down, downcast, downhearted, dystopia, forlorn, frustrated, fussy, glum, grieving, grim, gutted, hapless, harrowed, heartbroken, heartsick, heavy-hearted, homesick, hurt, in distress, in pieces, inconsolable, injured, isolated, joyless, lacerated, lachrymose, lonely, lonesome, longing, lovelorn, lovesick, low-spirited, lugubrious, martyred, maudlin, melancholic, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, nostalgic, pained, pity party, regretful, repine, screwed up, self-pitying, sentimental, shaky, shattered, sick, sick at heart, someone's heart sinks to/into their boots, sorrowful, the doldrums, this vale of tears, traumatized, triggered, unfulfilled, unhappy, unmerry, unpleased, unslakable, unsmiling, upset, vale, wish you had never been born, wistful, woe, wounded, wretched

etymology: Earliest known use is from 1748, in Coll. Hymns from Hymn-book Moravian Brethren: Part III. Homesick is formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: home (noun), sick (adj)

“When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go.” ― Donna Tartt

“All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday.” — Zora Neale Hurston

“It's a kindness that the mind can go where it wishes.” ― Publius Ovidius Naso

“It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields…and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

Sources: 1 2 3