Tolkien and Wales : Language, literature and identity / Carl Phelpstead.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phelpstead, Carl.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973--Criticism and interpretation.

Tolkien, J. R. R.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973--Knowledge and learning--Language and languages.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973--Knowledge and learning--Wales.

Themes, motives.

Criticism and interpretation.

Wales.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973--Themes, motives.

Physical Description:

xxii, 183 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cardiff : University of Wales Press, 2011.

Summary:

This book explores how that love influenced Tolkien's ideas about linguistic taste, his invention of languages, many of the themes and motifs in his creative writing, and his sense of a (regional) English identity.

Drawing on unpublished material as well as Tolkien's published fiction, poetry and academic writing, Tolkien and Wales describes more fully than ever before the extent and depth of Tolkien's debt to the Welsh language and Welsh literature. It also argues that Tolkien's love of Wales and Welsh is inseparable from his love of England and his sense of belonging to the border country of the West Midlands. Besides discussing such famous books as The Hobbil and The Lord of the Rings, particular attention is paid to relatively neglected texts such as Tolkien's lecture on 'English and Welsh' and a poem that he published in The Welsh Review, The Lay of Aotrou and Iotroun.

Where earlier scholarship has addressed Tolkien's debt to Welsh it has tended to do so in the context of 'Celtic' influence in general, but this book shows that Tolkien had very different attitudes to different Celtic languages. Tolkien and Wales reveals the seminal influence of Wales and Welsh on the writings of the twentieth century's most popular writer. Book jacket.

Contents:

I: Language

Encountering Welsh

Linguistic taste

Inventing language

II: Literature

Mythological sources

Arthurian literature

Breton connections

III: Identity

Insular identities.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [163]-176) and index.

ISBN:

9780708323724

0708323723

9780708323915

070832391X

OCLC:

670480181