October 12, 2002

Reply to Quirk of Oct. 8
Peter D.

Thank you Quirk for the (in my opinion) clearing up of a couple of issues regarding the whole Tolkien/religion debate. If you have read some of my earlier postings you will know where I stand on this topic (if you havent, I cant blame you! - and besides some of them lie some way back in time). Suffice it to say that I am not really on the good Christian Hobbits "team" (if he or she has one).
But as a longtime student of the prehistoric, and the activities of early humans, I have some knowledge of the origins of religion and religious thought, although it is of course a difficult subject, primarily because of the distance in time and context. Dont worry, I am not going to bore you with anything that has been dead and gone for thousands of years, but you mentioned other and earlier "inspirations" for Tolkien.
Forgive me if some this have already been pointed out before, but what you may want to check out is the Icelandic saga´s in general. Another golden oldie is the Anglo-saxon poem/myth of Beowulf, but the one that struck me the most was the finnish (ie from Finland) mythological work of the Kalevala, a collection of myths and tales concerning the seer Väinämöinen and above all the hero Kullervo. Try comparing the exploits of Kullervo with Tolkien´s Thurin Turambar from The Silmarillion (and Unfinshed Tales etc.).
But it is not just events, characters and monsters, but even more so in the nature of the tale and the languages behind them, that Tolkiens litterary inspiration can be seen to derive from both earlier sagas and legends, as well as his own personal religious beliefs. And although many myths and tales, as well as religions, havent really been compiled or written down until (at least as far as Europe is concerned) the Iron ages and middle ages, they in turn have their background in far earlier myths and beliefs.
It has been a while since I read many of the great mythologies (I have moved on to archaeology) so I havent really got it in fresh rememberance, but the examples above is as good a place as any to start examining the many works that may or may not have inspired the late Professor.
This could have been longer, but its early in the morning here (at the time of writing) and I am running late, so I´ll end for now.
(Shit I´m late!)