Assignment on Tolkien

[Radagast]

Hey!

I am writing a year asignment (about 10 pages) I was wondering if anyone else has done something simular?.. Someone who could give me a hand or something?

thanks, in advance.

(Great forum by the way... very comfy' :) )

[Lady Luthien]

heheh

well...I'm sure you already know this, but incase you don't, a lot and most of the information about Tolkien can be found right in the prologues and afterwards of his books(including the Sil, the Hobbit, and the LoTR trilogy). It tells a lot about his motivations for writing the book, his background, when he wrote the book, how he designed middle earth, and so on. You could probably write quite a lengthy paper just from the information about him in the books...lol but mb not a ten page one...online is also a great source, just make sure your sources are "scholarly"...lol That prolly didn't help at all, but hey I had to give it a shot...lol Btw...what class are you writing this for?

[Frodo's Love]

Good luck on your assignment, Radagast! :) If you should need material on the influences on Tolkien and a short introduction to the Professor and his work, I can highly recommend this book:

"Tolkien: A Look behind the 'Lord of the Rings'", by Lin Carter (Ballantine Books, NY 1969)

Have fun! :grin:

(And of course I hope you'll let us read your finished assignment in here! *nudge*) :p

[Periantari Andruil]

I"m currently writing a paper for my Folktale class! (yeah.. that's why i have a whole bunch of Tolkien books on my desk.. hehe )
I'm writing about Beowulf's Influences on Lord of the Rings (and already have 9 pages and going strong) ;P
... and I have indeed found out much information in:
-- Humphrey Carpenter's authorized biography,
--Jane Chance's Tolkien's Art: A Mythology for England,
JRR Tolkien and his Literary Resonances- Views of Middle-Earth
and Tom Shippey's books Road to Middle-Earth and JRR Tolkien: Author of the Century are some that I'm using and are finding helpful.... btw, what is your topic, Radagast? (and thanks for thinking this is a comfy forum ;) ...we try =) :thumbs:

[Radagast]

That is so cool Periantari!!

Well.. My topic is J.R.R Tolkien... :p .. About how he has influenced so many people.. Why he and his books became so popular? His childhood.. The Movie trilogy... John Tolkien as a person..

I will check it out Frodo's Love!

I am sort of at the bottom at the moment.. working my way up, so I could really use some info or help...

(I would post it.. but it has to be in danish..)

[Evenstar]

I think you should read some of the biographies. That's all I can think of sorry :( There was a good one I read but I can't remember what its called.

[Periantari Andruil]

Thanks Radagast!! =)
That's a broad topic that can go off in many areas I think... Perhaps you can concentrate on what makes his books so popular? and perhaps his influences for it from his real life? Of course, there must be an intro on who he is and what he went through in life, but maybe you can solely focus on his personal influences on how he came to write such great books... I think it'll be easy to just write EVERYTHING you know about Tolkien (which is my problem here in my paper :p hehe) so i think it would be best to find a tight thesis which says specifically what he was influenced by and work around that... (which is easier said than done) hehe
But of cousre you can go the other way.. in saying who HE influenced... and then that is a good paper also... Obviously fantasy would not be how it is now had it not been for Tolkien's masterpieces to set the standard..... and in that case... TorN has some good essays pertaining to that i think... The Greenbooks are a good source to look at online as well too...
but good luck =) :thumbs:

[Radagast]

Okay!!! thanks!!!!

I just got the impression that Tolkien hated all theese allegories and stuff.. because he felt that the readers would think that he had just stolen the story.. But I dont know..

I completetly see your point.. it would be so great to focus only on a few things but being really intense about those few things...

[Periantari Andruil]

yeah.. or i think you'll have MORE than 10 pages and ... lol the Professor will be afraid to read it... i'm still going with mine because i need to flesh out some of the points i have made about the similarities but when I'm done i think my paper will be 15 pages :rolleyes: i don't think i have a page limit for mine hehe... or i'll be in trouble :rolleyes:
Be sure to share they "why" of why Tolkien did what he did... if you're going to focus on how Tolkien influenced people, i think Jack Zipes article on him is a good one to look at.... his article is in a book called "Breaking the Magic Spell" and the article is The Utopian Function of Fairy Tales ... I think i'll be posting more about it in the future in the other thread "Tolkien... and Radicalism"?
yeah... so lots to think about :p hehe... (excited to see what your topic will ultimately be!) =) :thumbs:

[Radagast]

Thanks Peri! I will check it out!!! I will let you know how things are going..

Good luck on your own assignment!

[Lady Luthien]

Here are a few good websites(if youre allowed to site web sources):
www.tolkien.co.uk
http://gollum.usask.ca/tolkien/
http://www.nytimes.com/specials/advertising/movies/tolkien/
(of course, they're all in English...)
Also...a good thing to include may be how LoTR came to be...Tolkien originally wrote The Hobbit as a childrens book for his son, and it was so widely acclaimed that he was urged to continue it, and that is what prompted him to write LoTR, aside from the fact that he wanted to write it as an ancient Legend to be attributed to the English people. He started his designs for middle earth during WWII, in the 1940's, and all of his life, even in his childhood he had created several languages and had always been fascinated by them. Just a few things that may be good to include. Even though it's not directly related to HOW he influenced people, I think its still something important about Tolkien that you can fit in there somewhere in those 10 pages lol. And another thing, one reason that Tolkien's works are still popular today is bc they stood the test of time. The themes and values incorporated into his fiction can relate to anyone at any time period, and are pretty much universal. That and his amount of background information attributed to his characters and stories make it appealing and almost extremely realistic for a fantasy story.

No, I've never written a report on Tolkien...but I DO know a lot about the man lol

[Radagast]

Okay Coolness!! Tak (thanks) LL!

What about C.S Lewis... I know they were great friends.. personally I find it interesting that they both have written some of the most read'ed books in the world..

[Radagast]

Okay.. I am almost finished with the assignment.. the one thing I am missing is the front page... I was thinking about this as one..

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~adw5p/img/tolkien-logo.jpg

Just that.. plain and simple?.. is that to simple or...?

Any suggestions? Please link some pictures...

(by the way... I got a mail interview with ROyd Tolkien... yaaay!"

[Periantari Andruil]

Hey Rad, the link didn't work... perhaps send another?
(sorry for the delayed response) :blush:

[Radagast]

Its okay, PA.. I got what I wanted and my assignment turned out great.. I got an A+!

[Periantari Andruil]

ooo niiice!!! :hooray: congrats! :thumbs:
please share your paper with us =) ;)

[Mithrandir]

What's up man
Im writting a research paper n the existence of Middle Earth so..