Green Suns and Faerie: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien

by Verlyn Flieger

Overview

A major contribution to the growing body of Tolkien scholarship

With the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and forthcoming film version of The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien’s popularity has never been higher. In Green Suns and Faërie, author Verlyn Flieger, one of world’s foremost Tolkien scholars, presents a selection of her best articles—some never before published—on a range of Tolkien topics.

The essays are divided into three distinct sections. The first explores Tolkien’s ideas of sub-creation–the making of a Secondary World and its relation to the real world, the second looks at Tolkien’s reconfiguration of the medieval story tradition, and the third places his work firmly within the context of the twentieth century and “modernist” literature. With discussions ranging from Tolkien’s concepts of the hero to the much-misunderstood nature of Bilbo’s last riddle in The Hobbit, Flieger reveals Tolkien as a man of both medieval learning and modern sensibility—one who is deeply engaged with the past and future, the regrets and hopes, the triumphs and tragedies, and above all the profound difficulties and dilemmas of his troubled century.

Taken in their entirety, these essays track a major scholar’s deepening understanding of the work of the master of fantasy. Green Suns and Faërie is sure to become a cornerstone of Tolkien scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606350942
Publisher:	Kent State University Press
Publication date:	02/10/2012
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Verlyn Flieger is professor emerita of English at the University of Maryland where she teaches courses on Tolkien, medieval and modern literature, and comparative mythology. She has written three books on Tolkien: Splintered Light, A Question of Time, and Interrupted Music (all published by The Kent State University Press). She has also edited a critical edition of Tolkien’s novella Smith of Wootton Major, and an expanded edition with notes and commentary of Tolkien’s most influential theoretical essay, “On Fairy-Stories.”

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments vii

Abbreviations and Conventions xi

Part 1 Tolkien Sub-Creator 1

Fantasy and Reality: J.R.R. Tolkien's World and the Fairy-story Essay 5

The Music and the Task: Fate and Free will in Middle-earth 14

Tolkien and the Idea of the Book 41

Tolkien on Tolkien: "On Fairy-stories," The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings 54

When is a Fairy Story a Faërie Story? Smith of Wootton Major 65

The Footsteps of Ælfwine 74

The Curious Incident of the Dream at the Barrow: Memory and Reincarnation in Middle-earth 89

Whose Myth is it? 102

Part 2 Tolkien in Tradition 111

Tolkien's Wild Men from Medieval to Modern 115

Tolkien and the Matter of Britain 127

Frodo and Aragorn: The Concept of the Hero 141

Bilbo's Neck Riddle 159

Allegory Versus Bounce: Tolkien's Smith of Wootton Major 165

Flieger 165

Shippey 170

A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers 179

Tolkien, Kalevala, and "The Story of Kullervo" 185

Brittany and Wales in Middle-earth 202

The Green Knight, the Green Man, and Treebeard: Scholarship and Invention in Tolkien's Fiction 211

Missing Person 223

Part 3 Tolkien and his Century 233

A Cautionary Tale: Tolkien's Mythology for England 237

The Mind, the Tongue, and the Tale 242

A Post-modern Medievalist 251

Taking the Part of Trees: Eco-conflict in Middle-earth 262

Gilson, Smith, and Baggins 275

The Body in Question: The Unhealed Wounds of Frodo Baggins 283

A Distant Mirror: Tolkien and Jackson in the Looking-glass 292

Permissions and Acknowledgments 304

Notes 306

Works Cited 317

Index 324