Adrian Louis Chandler gained from his studies of Northern European myths and is a beacon to their validity. These earlier myths should not be discounted from his works, as Tolkien explains in his November 25th, 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” because they hold enormous value that can assist the present day people with their own questions about how to inhabit the world. In fact he wished to bring this form of myth to his generation and “own beloved country”7 so as to present its current usefulness. Myth translates through time, holding an essential part of human nature and it contains many aspects of which we still enjoy and need to be re-taught on occasion. Tolkien uses his Middle-earth chronicles to renew the myths and make them current and applicable to his time. Another aspect of Tolkien renewing these myths is the ripple effect it has through the ages. Tolkien’s renewal set the tone for other authors to then emulate his discussion by creating still new myths. So by the creation of his work, new stories come to renew his stories and the myth continues through time, which is an aspect that is completely lost on those critics who are content to focus on the shortsighted view of finding allegory. To dispel any misguided thoughts of Hobbits and allegory that one might have, we must first address the allegories that are crudely placed onto these novels and even before that we must discuss Tolkien’s unfortunate experiences of the Great Wars. It is this author’s intent to present Tolkien as a highly informed messenger who has overcome a turbulent personal beginning and helped to further the relationship between past and present man through the resurrection of Classic Western Mythology, not as a novice-World-War-allegorical-obsessedscribbler.8 On Tolkien Himself:9 Pre-Wordsmith Tolkien dealt with many dark quests from the offshoot of his birth, which makes it understandable how the written work is hard to dissect from the author’s personal experience with the horrible nature of the world. The infamous J.R.R. Tolkien was born relatively unmagnificently to the world in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on January 3rd, 1892, as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. But, the tranquility did not last long. Mabel, his mother, disliked South Africa so much that she gathered her two sons and left her husband and father of Tolkien, Arthur, behind and sailed for England in April 1895. Three weeks later she arrived at her sought destination and was taken to the family home in Birmingham. Unfortunately, Arthur was delayed in reuniting with his family. In November he contracted Rheumatic fever10 and remained in poor health until his death 7
As he states in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter (Houghton Mifflin: New York, 1981) 144. Tolkien discusses the “Poverty” of his beloved England, the poverty of missing out on its own myth type stories of which to enchant the people. 8 Yes, this is in fact my “Intention.” Please do not write a critical analysis on this essay explaining how it is actually allegorically explaining the “Great Recession’s” impact on agriculture of the Southwestern United States of America. You would be wrong and considered a fool by all who have half a brain. 9 Again, Yes, I AM going to discuss the author, as I see it is pertinent to the discussion of his works. Your idea of “Intentional Fallacy” is bullsh*t in my eyes. 10 The Merk Manual, Thirteenth Edition defines Rheumatic fever as, “a nonsuppurative acute inflammatory complication of Group A streptococcal infections, characterized mainly by arthritis, chorea, or carditis appearing alone or in combination, with residual heart disease as a possible sequel of the carditis.” And if that isn’t specific enough of a description then the Classic Descriptions of Disease by Ralph H. Major, M.D. describes the symptoms: “The whole body becomes painful, the face in some becomes red, the pain rages especially about the joint, so that indeed neither the foot nor the hand, nor the finger can be moved in
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