ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin

brunians at brunians.org · 17 Apr 2007, 01:07 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:07:22 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin
In-Reply-To: <800006.18810.qm at web32407.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <800006.18810.qm at web32407.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <7589.67.142.130.11.1176772042.squirrel at brunians.org>

There's something else.

Tolkien had a profound knowledge of deep history. Instead of arguing it in
a serious academic forum (which, in the mid-20th, would have merely gotten
him classified as 'an Atlantis nut') he chose to fictionalize it, and
present it in ways which most suited his agenda.




.

>
> This little argument is great and everything, but It wasn't my intention
> to denigrate the fantasy genre, only to say that Tolkien is apart from it;
> but it wasn't even my intention to start a discussion on that. I merely
> intended to express how much I enjoyed the new book and point out to those
> who were thinking of getting it that it is much closer in tone to Beowulf
> and the Iliad than to any fantasy novel that I can think of.
>
> However....
>
> I have read in Tolkien's own words (somewhere in his letters which I will
> search for when I can) that his purpose in writing the Silmarillion and
> its attendant tales was to produce an alternate mythological history of
> England. To give the isles their own Iliad, so to speak. This puts him
> squarely in the tradition I have previously stated and outside of the
> modern fantasy genre imo. In this ambition I think he was successful with
> both the Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. It is not snobbery to
> state what the author's clear intent was, and that he was successful at
> it.
>
> Don
>
>
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