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 site 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).
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ReplyDeleteHow 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.
¨ In Beowulf someone steals a “gem-studded goblet,” from the lair of the dragon which makes the dragon angry making him go and destroys humans homes and villages. In The Hobbit Bilbo steals a jewel from Smaug’s lair. “The great jewel…it took all light that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow. Suddenly Bilbo’s arm went towards it… but he lifted it, shut his eyes and put it in his deepest pocket.” (The Hobbit, pg217) The dragon then wakes and kills their ponies before he goes to Esgaroth and destroys it.
¨ In Volsunga Saga Loki pays Otter Weregild with Andvari’s cursed ring. Then Fafnir slits his father’s throat so that he can have the ring for himself. In The Lord Of The Rings Gollum is obsessed with the ‘ring’ doing anything and everything that he can to keep the ring in his possession.
¨ The way that the dragon is described in Voluspa, and Beowulf is simular to how Tolkien describes the dragon in The Hobbit. For example:
· In Beowulf, “The dragon began to belch out flames and burn bright homesteads; there was a hot glow that scared everyone, for the vile sky-winger would leave nothing alive in his wake… He had swinged the land, swathed it in flame, in fire and burning.” (Beowulf, pg6-7)
· In Voluspa, “Now crept the worm down to his place of watering, and the earth shook all about him, and he snorted forth venom on all the way before him as he went... then he lashed out head and tail, so that all things soever that were before him were broken to pieces” (Voluspa, pg10-11)
· In The Hobbit “Before long, so great was his speed, they could see him as a spark of fire rushing towards them and growing ever huger and more bright… before he could pass through, leaped up and snapped and rattled on his scales and jewels… No one had dared to give battle to him for many an age… Fire leaped from the dragon's jaws. He circled for a while high in the air above them lighting all the lake; the trees by the shores shone like copper and like blood with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down he swooped straight through the arrowstorm, reckless in his rage, taking no heed to turn his scaly sides towards his foes, seeking only to set their town ablaze.” (The Hobbit, pg 26-27)
· Beowulf, Voluspa and The Hobbit all describe the dragon as ‘fierce’ and dangerous, destroying everything that they can when mad. All the dragons also protect a ‘hoard’ of treasure.