Here are the questions for weeks 1 - 3. Please use the comments section to post your answers. Do not make a new blog:
1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc).
2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to cite from the original texts).
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
5. Discuss how Tolkien's use of "tradition" (e.g. older literary sources) differs from the techniques and agendas of modernism (see Week 7 in your Reader).
6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Beowulf ?
8. Discuss what you think any of these texts desire (in the sense of their intention, how they wish to be received, what pleasures they offer).
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc).
2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to cite from the original texts).
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
5. Discuss how Tolkien's use of "tradition" (e.g. older literary sources) differs from the techniques and agendas of modernism (see Week 7 in your Reader).
6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Beowulf ?
8. Discuss what you think any of these texts desire (in the sense of their intention, how they wish to be received, what pleasures they offer).
Hi team,
ReplyDeleteI've looked at Question 2, "What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?"
Let me know if you have any thoughts to add on this one!
Voluspa, being an early piece of physical writing, contains many residual features of orality preserved in its text, as while writing was available, culture was still very oral based. I’d like to touch on several features of orality explored in Ong (1982) which are recognisable in Voluspa.
The most recognisable aspect I found was the rhythmic structure of the piece. Voluspa is made up of stanzas, mostly four to five lines each, which have a physical space – depending on which version - is illustrated with several hits of the spacebar, or a hyphen. Ong (1982) suggests that rhythm and structure featured heavily in oral cultures, as if one was to create memorable thoughts, you have to add rhythm and balanced pattern so your creation was not forgotten. The structure of Voluspa is poetic, which suggests that it may have even been performance based – and to be remembered and performed one must be able to recall it easily.
Another aspect of orality, according to Ong (1982), is the idea that oral cultures suggest that giving something a name creates power over it. It acts as a label fixed to the object, again making it memorable – important if an object or person is critical to the piece of text. Voluspa again shows aspects of orality in its composure through naming objects. A prominent example of this is the line “There is an ash tree – it’s name is Yggdrasil”, mentioned first in Extact 1b and then by name in Extract 2 of the Critical Reader. In Extract 1a we can also see the culture of giving names to objects actually at play in the text “They named night and night’s children, / gave names to morning and night/ afternoon and evening”.
The third aspect I want to investigate is the use of adverbs and adjectives which Ong (1982) describes as “aggregative rather than analytic” (Ong 1982, p. 38). Again, this could be a technique to make a text memorable and easy to recall if perhaps at one stage it couldn’t be written down. Examples of this in Voluspa can clearly be seen in all extracts in the critical reader, however most aggregative of these being in extract 1a “cooling waves”, “high heavens” and “bright grass”, and extract 2 “baneful valley” and “storm-cleft age of wolves”.
This would have made Voluspa easy to recall if performed or recounted orally, as written English was a relatively new phenomenon.
A well focused answer, Annabelle. There are other oral features here, let's see if the group can identify them!
ReplyDelete3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to cite from the original texts).
ReplyDeleteIn all of the four texts I looked at : Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf and The Hobbit , a common central incident occurs.
Every story features an epic battle fought between the Hero and a Beast.
In Voluspa Thor fights a serpent, He defeats it but is wounded during battle “Thor, wounded walks in pride”. Because Voluspa is quite short and poetic this battle only lasts one stanza meaning there is little depth to the fight and it is over very quickly.
Volsunga Saga Features a battle between Sigurd and Fafnir the worm. This battle is similar in length to Voluspa because it is also written poetically. The main difference is that Sigurd and Fafnir exchange dialogue after Sigurd delivers the “death-wound.”
Beowulf is similar in the fact that it has a battle between the Hero and a beast(s), but is also different because each battle has a bit of backstory. First of all Beowulf kills Grendel because the troll-like monster killed many of Hrothgar’s warriors. The night after Beowulf Defeats Grendel , Grendel’s mother sets out to avenge her son’s death. Beowulf and his men track down where she lives and ultimately kill her. 50 years on Beowulf fights a mighty dragon which he defeats but is badly wounded in the process.
So yes there is the same central incident of our hero fighting a beast but in the story of Beowulf there are three battles and we are provided a bit more depth with each battle therefore we get a longer more elaborate story.
The last story is J.R Tolkien’s The hobbit. Being a full length novel the actual slaying of the dragon spans 9 pages. Apart from the huge depth and rich descriptive language used , another main difference is that the lead character Bilbo does not actually kill the dragon instead it is side character Bard.
In conclusion all of these tales include rising tension, a great battle and the slaying of the beast but because of different language features, plot lines and writing styles the small differences become apparent.
sorry for the late blog guys but I'm still getting used to using blogger! I’m planning on developing this further, this is just a draft so an ideas would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI've decided to do question 4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples as well as question 6. What place do old myths have in the modern world?
For this question I would like to draw on two significant features that helped Tolkien develop his works from the ancient mythologies of Old Norse and Old English. The first (and perhaps the most obvious) is the dragon being a centralized supernatural character which challenges mortal men in both the fantasy novel The Hobbit and in the epic poem of Beowulf. A key example from Beowulf describing the dragon “from the steep vaults of a stone-roofed barrow where he guarded a hoard” and in The Hobbit “marauding fire of the Dragon, the only King under the mountain… the river is running gold from the mountain”. This is a near parallel description, which scopes not only the fury and scale of both of the dragons but the imagery of the surroundings itself which suggests something both familiar (i.e the mountains) yet unreal (the dragon) to the reader which makes the story exciting and dangerous to read or hear, in both Old Norse and modern texts. Tolkien’s ability to transcend an ancient, epic poem into a “modern” genre of fantasy only proves that these themes of “supernatural forces vs hero” are inspiring throughout the ages.
One other key theme that is consistent in Tolkien’s writings that they are also directly linked to Old Norse mythology and woven from epic poems. Tolkien developed several languages and the culture of “middle-earth”, however there were many referrals of Old Norse mythology, in particular with the Voluspa and the characters or place names of Tolkien’s works. In the Voluspa the poem is describing the beginning of the world – one which is very familiar with Tolkien’s creations. For example, in the Voluspa Odin brought the world out of chaos (Gandolf is a very similar figure who is an all-powerful wizard who is a traveler with a long staff). The world is then set into different realms of humans who live in Midgard (just like middle-earth) and the dwarves and elves live in their respective realms. This may seem like it has little importance to today’s modern world but a key importance of what Tolkien has created is bringing the Norse mythology back into light in a modern text, for better or for worse, which has allowed a new exposure to these epic stories and poems which were at risk of being lost.
Excellent well thought out comment. It's good the way you focus on two elements only and explore those. Another is the languages he invented for his elves and Orcs - all derived from Old Norse and Old High German. Tolkien was a linguist.
DeleteGood post!
How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples
ReplyDeleteThere are many aspects to both The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, where Old Norse and Old English influences are clearly visible. Tolkien drew on these influences throughout his tales of Middle Earth, which allowed him to create a universe rich in lore. For the sake of this question, I have decided to focus more on the Norse influences, as they are, in my opinion, more prominent in the texts.
In the poem Voluspa, it is obvious to see where the Tolkien universe has been influenced by Old Norse legends. The names dwarves mentioned in the 8th stanza onwards, starting with Durin, are found within Tolkien’s texts. Gandalf, Thrain, Thorin, among others, are taken directly from the poem.
Through reading the Volsunga Saga, the serpent Fafnir shows similarities with the dragon Smaug in the Hobbit. The obvious comparison is that they are both, at a basic level, dragons, but by looking deeper, the two shared more in common than that. One such comparison is the fact that both Fafnir’s and Smaug’s weak spot was the underside of their body, which is used by Sigurd and Bard the Bowman respectively, to slay the beasts. Another comparison is the fact that they both have an obsession with gold, Fafnir had Andvaranaut, a magical ring that makes gold, and Smaug had taken over the Dwarven city of Erebor, which was known for the mountains of gold it held. These examples show, at a basic level, one example of Norse influence in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
By reading the poem Hávamál, found in the Poetic Edda, a comparison between Odin and Gandalf can be clearly seen. In the 138th stanza of Hávamál, Odin is seen to sacrifice himself, only to return more wise and powerful than before. This can be directly compared to Gandalf the Grey’s actions in the Battle of the Peak. While crossing the bridge of Khazad-dûm, to escape Moria, Gandalf stopped to face the Balrog, and allowed the rest of the fellowship to escape. He fought the Balrog, but the battle ultimately resulted in his death. After being dead for 19 days, he is reborn as Gandalf the White, a more wise and powerful version of his previous self. Through this, it is clear that Tolkien took Odin’s sacrifice and return as a clear example for Gandalf to follow.
As a Lord of the Ring’s fan, it is interesting to see where Tolkien has taken influence from, and I am looking forward to see what else I learn in this paper.