Abby Epplett, Historian

My discussion of each chapter will begin with a summary essay highlighting three to five key features presented in the text, while subsequent essays will dive deeper into additional topics. In contrast to the authoritative and comprehensive work, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull , which lends insight to the “literary and historical influences” on the text with special focus on European history, linguistics, and events in Tolkien’s own life, I will compare the cultures of Middle-earth to those in the Real World as I have done throughout this series. Of course, that impressive textbook and other Tolkien-focused works will be excellent resources in understanding Tolkien’s worldview and how it affected his “translation” of the text.

While I previously discussed the appearances of upper class hobbit-lasses from the Shire at the beginning of the Fourth Age during my article about Elanor Gardner Fairbairn , I wanted to expand upon this explanation to include more Shire Hobbits from this time who would appear in the framing device . The opening scene of the hypothetical animated musical would occur during Shire Reckoning (S.R.) 1482 on the day after Mid-Summer and feature a diverse gathering of hobbits. Their clothing style would reflect real-world fashion from the 1890s in Western Europe and North America, while their physical appearances or phenotypes would follow the descriptions first presented in the “Prologue: 1 Concerning Hobbits” , and further explained below. As a leading scholar of medieval studies, Tolkien must have been well-acquainted with the variety of cultures living in Europe throughout its history, and I believe The Lord of the Rings paralleled his interpretation of real-world people and eve...

The Lord of the Rings: Part One, Fellowship of the Ring opens on page 1 not with lush scenery or snappy dialog, although plenty of this will come later, but with an approximately 7,500-word essay on the fictional world of Middle-earth. Fourth grade Abby found this authorial decision to be delightful, but readers unprepared for a short thesis might quietly place the book back on the shelf and step away. For the next few weeks, I will dive into the Prologue from the perspective of a historian, examining where events in the essay mirror those in the real world. Today’s post reflects on the authorial decisions of writing style for the overall Prologue, the origin of the text that Tolkien claims to translate, and the use of anthropology in the first section, “1 Concerning Hobbits”. The longest of the five sections, J.R.R. Tolkien details the physical traits and skills of the race; their evolution, migration, and colonization; and how their beliefs differ from other races in the wor...