//Once again, I apologize for the format– When Will Tumblr’s Reply System Come Back From The War? T__T
The prose itself actually doesn’t bother me! I do love the archaisms and the larger-than-life characters (as evidenced by my… frankly embarrassing obsession with the Silmarillion and love of epic sagas). The lack of Hobbits in the Silmarillion is definitely a downer, even if I like to read more humanity into the legends than they appear on the page. I think Tolkien’s heart really shines through in the Hobbits. Every single time I’m frustrated with, as you put it, the lack of modernity in the more Epic Heroes, a Hobbit shows up and says something just… utterly pure and heartwarming and full of recognizable doubt and human sympathy. And I do treasure the moments when Aragorn bends down and flawlessly trolls the hell out of Merry in his sickbed, or Galadriel smiles and talks to Gimli in his own language, or Gandalf goes from being The Prophet Of Doom to an exasperated schoolmaster in the same page. The contrast between the Epic and the earthy is, as you say, truly one of the most charming and engaging points of the story.
In so many ways, it’s not the style or the characters that bother me, it’s the lurking Edwardianisms and Catholic underpinnings that I find difficult to reconcile with my personal taste and code of ethics (I hasten to add, I don’t begrudge Tolkien or anyone else their Catholicism; it just comes with a recognizable bias that clashes with my own). Ironically, the Silmarillion manages to (mostly) bypass my distaste alarms by going Full Epic– there are NO farmers or barkeeps or talking trees to give us the view at ground level, and so all there is to do really is follow the striving of the mighty against the forces of the gods, with a bucket of popcorn and not much concern for the collateral damage. (It’s also got far more recognizable pagan myth origins in it, which assuages my prickly feelings about the religious sentiment).
Maybe it’s that same contrast, seeing the recognizable modernity of hobbits and Strider along side the One True Kingliness of Aragorn Elessar that draws my attention to the elements of One True Kingliness itself that I find questionable. Having the legendary bits coexisting along with the earthy bits just makes me think that, if I were a working Hobbit, I’d want to know why indeed a shiny piece of elfglass gave a fellow the right to represent me and the interests of my vegetables.
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 