The Lord of the Rings and its Medieval Origins: The Bones in the Soup
J. R. R. Tolkien was not only a writer of fantasy fiction,
but a great Anglo-Saxonist. Medieval English language and poetry inspired
the world of Middle Earth, its names, languages, characters and stories.
Here, Alaric identifies some of what Tolkien once called ‘the bones in the soup’:
the Medieval English and Scandinavian literature and language which contributed to
The Lord of the Rings; and he talks about how the appreciation
of each adds to the appreciation of the others.
This is a web-version of a public lecture which Alaric gave at the invitation of the Department of English Language, University of Glasgow, on Wednesday 18 December 2002, attended by about 200 people. The lecture was conceived by a member of the department, John Corbett, to harness the excitement generated by the recent film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings to enthuse students about the medieval English and Norse literature which the department teaches.
There's little that's particularly new or unusual in the lecture for those who are familiar with medieval English and Norse literature--observations are merely Alaric's own as a student of this material--but even so, some people have asked Alaric if he would put a version on the web. Having waited nearly eighteen months, they're now probably thinking, 'hmm, it was better live...', but he hopes that someone enjoys it anyway! Alaric doesn't script his lectures, but hopefully these pages are not entirely unrepresentative of what he said at the time.
Since the lecture was shamelessly intended as a film tie-in (astute readers will have noted that it coincided with the UK release-date of The Two Towers), Alaric's natural reserve about drawing on images from the film had to be overcome, and as these pages are based on the lecture, the movie images remain. However, the images may be inconvenient, especially on smaller screens, so versions with minimal images have been provided. Pictures have been taken from various websites. Wherever possible, each picture is hyperlinked to its source, so that readers can trace their origins. If any copyright holder is unhappy with the misappropriation of images, please email Alaric and he will remove them. Alaric was assisted in preparing the original presentation by his beautiful girlfriend, Beth.
Alaric Hall, Glasgow, 29th July 2004
NB: should you cite material on this website for academic purposes, you need to cite the URL www.alarichall.org.uk. This domain name is permanent and will connect to Alaric's academic website for his lifetime if not longer, whereas the host and therefore the other URLs of the site may change over time. 'The Lord of the Rings and its Old English Origins: The Bones in the Soup' will always be accessible from www.alarichall.org.uk.
Versions with pictures:
On looking for bones in the soup
Introduction to Tolkien and his studies
Norses for sources
'Hobbits?' said Théoden. 'Your tongue is strangely changed.'
The Ents: Tolkien and the trees
Gandalf!
The One Ring
Towers, and the sea
Bibliography
Text-only:
On looking for bones in the soup
Introduction to Tolkien and his studies
Norses for sources
'Hobbits?' said Théoden. 'Your tongue is strangely changed.'
The Ents: Tolkien and the trees
Gandalf!
The One Ring
Towers, and the sea
Bibliography