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Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613593776685056 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Brown, Molly |
| author_browse | Brown, Molly |
| author_facet | Brown, Molly |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2015 University of Pretoria |
| description | Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2015. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/48955 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:38:36.983Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/48955 Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Brown, Molly Painter, Jeremy Lee Tolkien Studies Fantasy Literature Narratology Medieval Manuscript Studies Embedded Narrative UCTD Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2015. As a scholar, Tolkien spent a great deal of time working from manuscripts. Likewise, as a storyteller, in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien creates a narrative persona who bases his story on his compilation and translation of ancient manuscripts. This persona operates within his story’s narrative frame as an analogue for Tolkien’s own work with manuscripts. Readers have long sought for Tolkien’s sources. The mythologies of medieval Northern Europe have been especially beneficial in helping us understand the influences on Tolkien. No study, however, currently exists that pursues the “manuscript sources” used by Tolkien’s narrative persona. But a reading that attempts to pursue these sources may also prove beneficial. Just as Tolkien inserts himself, in the form of his narrative persona, into the framework of Middle-earth, so also is the reader invited to read The Lord of the Rings from within this same framework. Tolkien wanted to his story to be read from inside Middle-earth as an artifact of history. This study will propose that—by simulating the kinds of phenomena around which a modern compiler of medieval manuscripts and stories has to work: fragmented manuscripts, lacunae, dittography, palimpsests, and variable texts—Tolkien has successfully distressed his story in such a way that it has gained the atmosphere of an ageing legend. The argument of this thesis is that Tolkien’s imitation of classical and medieval manuscript realities is even ambitious enough to suggest that Tolkien’s narrative persona has culled his story from the manuscripts of at least three major literary traditions, each of which is distinct in its interests, concerns, iconographies, historiographies, and themes. In addition to revealing where and how Tolkien has distressed his narrative, this study will also seek to identify what portions of the narrative belong to which of the three major traditions and tease out the implications of the interactions between them. English DLitt Unrestricted 2015-07-16T07:02:40Z 2015-07-16T07:02:40Z 2015-09-01 2015 Thesis Painter, JL 2015, Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, DLitt Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/48955> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/48955 en © 2015 University of Pretoria application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | Tolkien Studies Fantasy Literature Narratology Medieval Manuscript Studies Embedded Narrative UCTD Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title | Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title_full | Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title_fullStr | Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title_short | Inventing history : the rhetoric of history in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings |
| title_sort | inventing history the rhetoric of history in j r r tolkien s the lord of the rings |
| topic | Tolkien Studies Fantasy Literature Narratology Medieval Manuscript Studies Embedded Narrative UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/48955 |