The Lord of the Rings and the Western Narrative Tradition

by Martin Simonson

When The Lord of the Rings was published in the 1950's it did not sit comfortably among any preconceived notions of literary genre. The critical responses reflected the confusion: for some, it was an unwelcome reappearance of narrative standards that modernism was supposed to have done away with, or just a bad novel. Others considered it a refreshing work in the epic and romance traditions. Ironically, much of the critical prejudice regarding the question of genre in The Lord of the Rings has been motivated by the same kind of blindness that Tolkien denounced in his famous 1936 lecture Beowulf: the monsters and the critics. Like Beowulf, Tolkien's work has also failed to be properly appreciated and assessed due to a general refusal to accept the centrality of monsters, because despite its 'monstrous' originality and fantastic setting, it is very clearly, and not only chronologically, at the centre of twentieth-century literature. The Lord of the Rings and the Western Narrative Tradition is an attempt to account for the particular genre interaction that governs Tolkien's tale and put it in a meaningful relationship with the contemporary literary context. At the same time, it is a quest to track down one of the most famous and elusive literary monsters of the past century by filling out a long-neglected white space on the map of comparative literature and genre criticism.

Genres: Literary Criticism

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2008

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was unexpectedly good. I usually read such books with an expectation of 3 stars, but this was one of the best written academic works I've come across (and I've read many scholarly articles and books specific to Tolkien, narratology, etc.).

Simonson provides a really good basic background of the different types of narrative structures (myth, epic, romance, novel/contemporary) with some more specific example works of how these narratives evolved over time, but making to show how certain elements of these works were representative of storytelling features that were abandoned or adapted/changed across time.

Simonson doesn't begin discussing Tolkien until roughly 1/3 through the book, but I enjoyed his section on evolving narratives so much that I didn't mind at all. (Though admittedly, I was beginning to wonder when
he would finally start talking about Tolkien)

His section on Tolkien's specific work was really the star of the book. I haven't read The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) (though I am vaguely aware of some of the plot and the characters that appear in it), and so I often get lost when academicians write about it.

But Simonson does a really wonderful job of providing relevant summaries and specific passages from LOTR to illustrate his points. He shows the overall narrative structure taken at different points in LOTR, and how this is reflected in the plot progression and characters' dialogue. It was very clearly written and organized, and his analysis was easy to follow.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of narrative, or on a digestible analysis of Tolkien!

[Ideal_insomnia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The problem that Mr. Simonson has challenged is a serious one. The question of generic nature of The Lord of the Rings has direct reference to the case of this book's uniqueness. LoTR is a very complicated construct and it isn't enough to find out what it consists of. You have to understand HOW different elements coexist in the body of the text. To do so you have to connect different parts of the narrative to the history of the whole Western literature and to discern the way they are combined. Not an easy job to do to say the least. But mr.Simonson was apt enough to handle this almost impossible mission.

What we have as a result is a marvelous research. Using the theories of Northrop Frye and Mikhail Bakhtin as a basis Martin Simonson shows us how Tolkien puts different narrative traditions into the dialogue creating what the researcher calls a "self-referential narrative Universe". What he shows us step by step is the web of interrelated traditions that is hidden beneath the adventure story. Of course there are certain points where you'd probably like to argue (which is normal), but in general - this study is absolutely fascinating. You're gonna love The Lord of the Rings even more after reading this. And this is exactly what literary criticism should be like in my opinion.