Hello there once again! In today’s blog post we shall be doing an intertextual study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) and Edmund Spencer(1552-1599), two high profile names within the world of academia. Recently, my studies and interests have directed me towards the works of these salient authors, both of whom for which I have great respect. Their works are among my favourites to read and to study, and I feel that this blog shall be a good medium through which I can produce this comparative study of their works in which I will discuss the use of language in their imaginative writings.
We will begin, with a word about the men themselves, for the sake of context. Spencer was an early modern poet from the 16th century, most famous for producing the epic poem The Faerie Queen (1596). Spencer wrote at the height of the Elizabethan era, Elizabeth, as queen employed the use of the “chivalry code” as a means to assert authority and dominance throughout her reign. Chivalry was a convention of medieval invention, which required knights of the medieval era to adhere to moral principles. Moral principles that involved protection of the innocent, and dedication to religion. This, theoretically, would keep knights from acting out of line, though this, of course was not always the case. The idea of chivalry, however, was powerful, and Queen Elizabeth recognised this. She therefore structured her court to reflect the chivalric code. To gain favour with the Queen, one would have to play her chivalric game, and to act out of line would ostracise one’s self from the Elizabethan court, eliminating the possibility of a successful, political career. This was the context in which Spencer would write The Faerie Queen.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a 20th century author and academic. By profession, he was a philologist, a master of the language of old texts. His academic work involved producing critical editions of older works. This was rigorous and detailed work which included writing introductions, annotations and appendix’s in order to aid the study and teaching of these historic texts. But as well as this, he produced a number of translations of these older texts, making them accessible to the wider population. He is popularly known, however, for his fictional literature, which explored the world of his own imagination: Middle Earth. These works included The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (published over 1954 and 1955). These works would go on to be widely influential, becoming the major reference points within the fantasy literature genre.
In today’s blog post, I wish to discuss the respective author’s unique use of language and style. The texts in question that I shall discuss will be Spencer’s The Faerie Queen and Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.
The Faerie Queen was Spencer’s masterpiece. It was presented as a gift and read aloud by Spencer himself to Queen Elizabeth. For his work, she gifted him a a pension of £50 yearly and gave permission for the text to be published. Her admiration for the poem was perhaps due to its allegorical meaning, as a profession of the virtues and importance of chivalry. The text serves as a philosophical and definitive portrayal of the Elizabethan ideal of chivalry. It is, however, Spencer’s use of language that is of great interest to me, for although he is a 16th century writer, the language of the Faerie Queen has been noted by scholars as archaic. And this observation is not simply made because it may comes across this way to modern readers due to it being several centauries old, the way a Shakespeare play is to a young student. It is in fact an observation on Spencer’s choice to write in an archaic style. Spencer is, of course, attempting to mimic medieval language, specifically the middle English language of Chaucer. This is an attempt to create a sense of nostalgia for the medieval world, its culture, and most importantly, its chivalry.
A GENTLE Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many’a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.
This is the opening stanza of Canto 1 of The Faerie Queen and if you are familiar with medieval texts you may be able to observe Spencer’s mimicking of the medieval style. It is written in alliterative verse, which was the form of choice for many medieval writers consider Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the alliterative Death of King Arthur. Here we also see Spencer’s creative and at times playful use of the English language, purposefully misspelling, or perhaps better described as alternatively spelling words, to give them an archaic sound, and thus creating a medieval tone and setting to his text. This is achieved in this passage by his use of the letter e, which is sprinkled throughout words such as “deepe” and “armes.” When spoken aloud, it the reader is prompted to speak these words phonetically, creating a distinct medieval texture about this text. If you wish to listen to this yourself, a helpful reading of this passage can be found on YouTube here. Listen out for the words I have highlighted!
Now this post shall consider the writings of Tolkien, and I have decided to focus on The Silmarillion as I have found it to be similar to be worth bringing into dialogue with The Faerie Queen as a work which utilizes archaic language. The Silmarillion was a posthumous publication of 1977, edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher. The Silmarillion serves as a mythological background to Tolkien’s imaginative world. This work is quite unlike his other imaginative writings. It lacks any sustained use of descriptive writing or dialogue, focusing instead on compressed narration and documentation of the events. It reads, essentially, like history. Tolkien had already displayed his ability to write in an engaging and sometimes even humorous style through The Lord of the Rings and certainly The Hobbit. Therefore, his decision to write in a condensed, impersonal style for this text was completely intentional. His decision to make little use of his authorial authority reflects a key aspect of this text – that it is not “his” work. It is in fact, the work of the fictional characters of his world, the elves, who have collected the tales of the history and mythology of their world and produced The Silmarillion.
It is told among the wise that the First War began before Arda was full-shaped,
and ere yet there was anything that grew or walked upon earth; and for long
Melkor had the upper hand. But in the midst of the war a spirit of great strength
and hardihood came to the aid of the Valar, hearing in the far heaven that there
was battle in the Little Kingdom; and Arda was filled with the sound of his
laughter. So came Tulkas the Strong, whose anger passes like a mighty wind,
scattering cloud and darkness before it; and Melkor fled before his wrath and his
laughter, and forsook Arda, and there was peace for a long age. And Tulkas
remained and became one of the Valar of the Kingdom of Arda; but Melkor
brooded in the outer darkness, and his hate was given to Tulkas for ever after.
Considering we looked at the opening stanza of The Faerie Queen, it is only fair that we now examine the opening paragraph of .The Silmarillion. This passage utilises the techniques of older literature. Tolkien opens the text in Media Res: in the middle of things. The events discussed in this passage are spoken about in past tense, the reader is simply being filled in. This is also true of the opening of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which discusses in past tense, the Trojan war as a means to open the Arthurian poem:
SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondeȝ and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe:
Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,
Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome
Welneȝe of al þe wele in þe west iles
Interestingly, the idea of opening a text discussing a great historic war is another trope of epic poetry which links the Gawain text to Tolkien’s. This could even be said of Spencer’s opening stanza of The Faerie Queen which references the battles that the Redcross Knight has taken part in:
old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many’a bloudy fielde
Indeed, we can start to see the traces of epic poetry in Tolkien’s Silmarillion.
Although I would love to continue this discussion, this post has become quite lengthy and perhaps ought be drawn to a close. I have thoroughly enjoyed this discussion on the ways in which both Spencer and Tolkien utilise archaic language and style in their works to suit their creative purposes. In Spencer’s case, to create a sense of nostalgia for the medieval world, whilst in Tolkien’s to construct the allusion that one is reading the historical records of Middle Earth as written by the Elves.
