Department of English and American Studies

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Miluše Jedlinská Mythical and Cultural Archetypes in J.R.R Tolkien Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph D 2011 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography …………………………………………… Author’s signature I would like to thank Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph.D., for his valuable advice Table of Contents Introduction .4 THE DEFINITIONS OF ARCHETYPE ARCHETYPAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE THE MONOMYTH 13 THE JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES 16 NORTHROP FRYE’S TYPES OF HERO 19 The archetypal journeys of Tolkien’s heroes 21 TRAGIC HEROES, FAILED QUESTS 22 What is the role of fate? 22 Fëanor 25 Túrin Turambar 26 BEREN AND LÚTHIEN 28 EÄRENDIL 32 GANDALF 35 BILBO 41 ARAGORN 48 FRODO 53 The Monomyth pattern in Frodo’s journey 54 Frodo’s journey seen through Jungian perspective 62 The Christian perspective 63 Six stages of Frodo’s transformation: loosing consciousness 64 Two important archetypes in the work of J.R.R Tolkien 68 Water 69 Tree .70 Conclusion .72 APPENDIX A - LIST OF CHARACTERS WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED RÉSUMÉ 75 77 79 Introduction It has been perceived by some critics and readers that there are certain similarities between Tolkien’s fiction and various mythical (and other kinds of) stories For most critics the logical explanation is 1) either that Tolkien consciously used mythical elements as he was very well acquainted with them, or 2) that he used these elements unconsciously, not on purpose For these reasons, some people not consider his fiction as being original This thesis suggests that there is another explanation: the similarities between Tolkien’s stories and mythology are caused by mythical and cultural archetypes This interpretation has an advantage of going deeper than considering conscious usage of mythology in literature, and even deeper than the unconscious remembering of what one read or heard in the past: the archetypes originate in the collective unconscious It is true that certain writers and film-makers now use archetypes consciously, drawing on the ‘manual’ that was provided by Joseph Campbell and other writers going in his steps (such as Christopher Vogler), but that was not the case at the time when Tolkien was writing his major works Furthermore, the widespread success of Tolkien’s work can be accounted for by the archetypal structure of his stories Tolkien created his legendarium as a background for his invented languages (most importantly Quenya and Sindarin), because, according to him, a language which does not have a mythological background is always deficient in some respect Another reason for his success might be that after the rule of everymen and anti-heroes in literature (realism, modernism), there arose again a need for stories about heroes with divine qualities Northrop Frye’s scheme of literature had come full circle, back to superhuman heroes, only this time more modern and secular Although the success was a surprise even for Tolkien himself, he concluded that there was an audience for this kind of literature: “But it remains an unfailing delight to me to find my own belief justified: that the ‘fairy-story’ is really an adult genre, and one for which a starving audience exists” (Letters 209) Although Tolkien did not want his stories to be dissected by scholars and become the subjects of research and theses, there is one thing at which he looked with more friendly eyes: I fear you might be right that the search for the sources of The Lord of the Rings is going to occupy academics for a generation or two I wish this need not be so To my mind it is the particular use in a particular situation of any motive, whether invented, deliberately borrowed, or unconsciously remembered that is the most interesting thing to consider (Letters 418) It is precisely these motives ‘unconsciously remembered’ that this thesis concentrates on The first part deals with the numerous approaches to archetypes and provides a brief history of archetypal criticism in literature There are also reasons stated why it is better to choose this kind of approach for the analysis of Tolkien’s work over other types of approaches The second part deals with Joseph Campbell’s theory of monomyth and its relation to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, with occasional digressions to Jungian psychology and archetypal criticism, as presented by Northrop Frye The main focus is on tracing the archetypal structure in the paths of the following heroes: Beren and Lúthien, Eärendil, Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and Bilbo The most important reference works used are: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, The Archetypes of Collective Unconscious by C.G Jung, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays by Northrop Frye, Tolkien in the Land of Heroes by Anne C Petty and J.R.R Tolkien Encyclopedia by Michael D C Drout The Lord of the Rigs is further on referred to as FOTR – The Fellowship of the Ring, TTT – The Two Towers, and ROTK – The Return of the King The reader is expected to be well acquainted with the listed works of Tolkien and their complexity The definitions of archetype In general, archetype is viewed as a recurring pattern, image, character or theme which appears in mythologies and literatures across different cultures and nations However, each critic/scholar has his/her own definition, depending on his/her area of expertise (psychology versus literature), and clings to one of the many possible explanations of the origin of archetypes C.G Jung (1875 – 1961) explained the archetypes as contents of the collective unconscious (a deep layer of psyche not derived from personal experience), and remarked that the first theories regarding archetypes were those of Plato and St Augustine (although the term itself is of much later origin) The archetype as such is only a hypothetical model, similar to the ‘patterns of behaviour’ in biology (Jung 5) The archetype is the psychic content that has not been yet submitted to the conscious mind Most of the archetypes can be found everywhere and at all times However, the archetype is not an ‘unconscious idea’ for which it is often considered This is because its content is not determined, only its form “For Jung the archetypes taken as a whole represent the sum of the latent potentialities of the human psyche - a vast store of ancestral knowledge about the profound relations between God, man, and cosmos” (Jacobi 49) The archetype is changed when it becomes conscious and is perceived; it becomes coloured by the person in whose consciousness it appears Owing to his studies of dreams, myths, fantasies and visions, Jung was able to trace certain types of figures and situations that were constantly repeating – these he termed as ‘motifs’ The human figures in dreams, mythology and literature can be embodiments of one of the series of archetypes, of which the main ones are: the shadow, the wise old man, the child, the mother, anima and animus The approach of Northrop Frye (1912 – 1991) to the archetypes was very different from Jung’s (owing to the fact that Frye was a literary critic, not a psychologist) Frye intended to set a ‘conceptual framework’ for literature – to discover what were the organizing and containing forms of literature and to create a critical approach which did not work only with sources external to literature (i.e biographies, historical facts), but also with internal structure of literature Frye considered the archetypes as representations of conventional myths and metaphors and viewed literature as the most important extension of mythology According to him, archetypes were shaped by historical and social factors and were not a priori forms in the human mind Nonetheless, they retained continuity of form in literature Primarily, they were communicable symbols, which accounted for the fact that the same archetypes can be found across language and cultural barriers (Anatomy 121) The archetypes appear in primitive and popular literature in particular – or in other words, this kind of literature provides an unobstructed view of archetypes However, Frye said that this quality can be found on every level of literature – from myths, fairy tales, The Bible, to Shakespeare and beyond (and also in a large amount of what he termed ‘rubbish’) (Anatomy 130) Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987) was largely influenced by Jung He saw the archetypes as universal themes and motifs of the human mind appearing in mythology, literature and dreams: “Dream is the personalized myth, myth is the depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche” (The Hero 18) Campbell focused mainly on the archetypal story of the hero’s journey, for which he started to use the term ‘monomyth’ According to him, the standard mythological adventure follows the basic pattern of rites of passage (and vice versa), which is: departure, initiation and return In each stage Campbell identified typical sequence of events and typical motifs (certainly not all of them occur in all the myths and stories) Archetypal approach to literature According to Longman Glossary of Literary Terms, archetypal criticism is: “A type of literary criticism that focuses on particular archetypes, narrative patterns, themes, motifs, or characters that recur in a particular literary work or in literature in general” The Archetypal criticism has its roots in anthropology (James Frazer, Claude LéviStrauss), psychology (C.G Jung), formalism (Vladimir Propp) and its unique branch consists in the work of Northrop Frye Although archetypal criticism started to emerge only in the 1930s, some time after Jung began to publish his works, there were earlier attempts to apply this approach to literature and mythology For example the Austrian psychologist Otto Rank (1884 – 1939) published in 1909 the book called The Myth of the Birth of Hero, which traces the common aspects surrounding the birth of the hero in mythologies of different cultures (Greek, Persian, Indian, Celtic, Roman and so on) Rank clung to the theory that the common elements in myths are caused by the common traits of the human psyche Approximately at the same time, the Scottish anthropologist James Frazer was working on his major book, The Golden Bough, which compared mythological and religious beliefs in ancient cultures This book has been very influential among writers and literary critics Frazer was the first to include ‘Christian mythology’ in comparison with the other mythologies, showing that there were many common themes The readers at the time were scandalized, but not long afterwards such a comparison started to be accepted and used by other scholars Northrop Frye even wrote in 1950s that: …there’s nothing in the bible that can’t be found in some form - or to which some analogy cannot be found - in some mythology folklore elsewhere But we could reverse the axiom and say that there is nothing really essential in the folklore or mythology of any civilization whatever that cannot be found in some form in the Bible (Biblical Myths 43) In 1934 Maud Bodkin published her Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, which is considered to be the first real piece of archetypal criticism In this book, Bodkin applied the theories of C.G Jung to literature and examined, for example, the archetypes of rebirth, heaven, hell, hero, etc Since then there was an increasing interest in archetypal criticism up till the end of 1960s, when the interest started to decline Nonetheless, the archetypal approach is a good choice for analysis of Tolkien’s work Tolkien himself wrote: These tales [The Silmarillion] are ‘new’, they are not directly derived from other myths and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of ancient wide-spread motives or elements After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of ‘truth’, and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear (Letters 147) He also said: “My work is not a ‘novel’, but an ‘heroic romance’ a much older and quite different variety of literature” (Letters 414) Furthermore, he described in a letter to one of his friends, how The Lord of the Rings came to be written, and this letter conveys a sense of ‘discovering’ the heroes and the plot on the journey, not of struggling to invent them (obviously, the ‘discovering’ does not apply to all the heroes because Tolkien did struggle with some parts of his books): I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had 10 to this laid hold of him…something seemed to be compelling him to disregard all warnings, and he longed to yield…as he swooned…with a last effort Frodo slipped the Ring from his finger (FOTR 257-258) On Weathertop Frodo almost passes into, as Tolkien calls it, realm of the shadow However, on this occasion the temptation is mixed with resistance, resulting in Frodo’s consciousness not being dissolved in the unconscious yet Moreover, this time the danger is even graver than before as the enemy, the Witch-king, is much more dangerous Then, near the ford of Bruinen Frodo is at first unwilling to run away: “‘Ride forward! Ride!’ cried Glorfindel to Frodo He did not obey at once, for a strange reluctance seized him…he turned and looked back” (FOTR 279) Afterwards, when the Black Riders are swept by the flood, he looses consciousness again: “Frodo felt himself falling, and the roaring and confusion seemed to rise and engulf him together with his enemies He heard and saw no more” (FOTR 281) The lesson learnt on Weathertop was not in vain – the second time that Frodo felt the urge to wait for the Black Riders, he did not it Frodo’s transformation after these two episodes is more profound than before: “…there was a faint change just a hint as it were of transparency, about him…to what he will come in the end not even Elrond can foretell…He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can’ ” (FOTR 289) This is to mean that Frodo saw ‘the other side’ and ‘the wraith-world’, as Gandalf calls it, while wearing the Ring After his beginning to ‘fade’, he is able to see the other side even when not wearing the Ring – for example when he sees Glorfindel’s shining figure on the other bank of Bruinen Even though he is eventually healed, his senses become much sharper, not only as regards seeing well in the dark, but also “more aware of things that could not be seen” (FOTR 403) and more perceptive to approaching evil It is interesting that Gandalf uses 66 the term ‘wraith-world’ in connection with the Black Riders and ‘other side’ in connection with Glorfindel, but what is actually meant is the same thing – in Tolkien’s legendarium the reality inaccessible to anybody who does not wield magic or magical objects It is therefore fitting that the main hero should gain at least a partial access to this reality, thus transcending his initial status (hobbits in Middle-earth, unlike Elves and Dwarves, are not naturally able to control magic) And it is also appropriate that the price for this ability is not small For the fifth time, Frodo looses consciousness at Cirith Ungol As this phase of his transformation was already discussed enough in detail, it can only be added that this is one of the few moments when Frodo acts rashly; the consequence of which is his being stung by Shelob “As he had run forward, eager, rejoicing to be free, Shelob with hideous speed had come behind and with one swift stroke had stung him in the neck” (TTT 415) The temptation here is not the sleep or the Ring, but a desire to escape the danger in what seems to be the easy way And finally, at Mount Doom, Frodo succumbs to the temptation of the Ring and claims it for his own Shortly after being deprived of the Ring by an external force, he looses consciousness again and is rescued from without “Side by side they lay; and down swept Gwaihir, and down came Landroval and Meneldor the swift; and in a dream, not knowing what fate had befallen them, the wanderers were lifted up and borne far away out of the darkness and the fire” (ROTK 275) In each of these cases there is a confrontation with the enemy, and each enemy is more dangerous than the one before – Old Man Willow is nothing compared to Sauron In the end, Frodo is not transformed into a bold hero, but into a wise, non-violent and peaceful person His rejection of violence goes even so far as to urge his friends not to kill any of the ‘shirriffs’ back in the Shire and not even Saruman, whose intention was to 67 spoil Frodo’s beloved Shire And it is also Saruman who recognizes, and even appreciates in his own way, the change in Frodo (unlike most of the hobbits in the Shire): “Saruman rose to his feet, and stared at Frodo There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect and hatred ‘You have grown, Halfling,’ he said ‘Yes, you have grown very much You are wise, and cruel’ ” (ROTK 365) Two important archetypes in the work of J.R.R Tolkien In the work of J.R.R Tolkien there are many recognizable archetypes, but among them, water and tree are the most important They are not significant only because they often appear in mythology, but also because Tolkien held nature itself in a high reverence: “…for Tolkien trees represented Faerie itself In listing the elements that attracted him most to fairy stories as a child, he names forest as one of the most important because of its mystery and sense of the ancient unknown world before humans began to dominate the landscape” (Petty 233) According to Frye, water and tree are among the most important of the biblical and classical images: “In symbolic terms, what Adam loses is the tree and the water of life On practically the first page of the Bible we are told that Adam loses the tree and the water of life in the garden of Eden…in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, the prophet has a vision of the tree and the water of life restored to man” (Biblical Myths 22) In The Silmarillion, the Two Trees are lost to the Valar and the Elves, but according to an apocalyptic prophecy (not published in The Silmarillion because of the inconsistencies it would have triggered) the Silmarils will be regained after the final battle (an analogy with Norse Ragnarök) and with their light the Two Trees will be 68 healed, and the mountains of Valinor levelled down so that the light of the Trees can encompass the whole world (Drout 138) Water In Frye’s view, water traditionally belongs to the realm of existence below human life, the state of chaos and dissolution which follows after death; this being the reason why the dead souls frequently have to cross water in mythology (Anatomy 160) From the Jungian point of view, water is the commonest symbol of the unconscious (Jung 19) and is connected with the Mother archetype, being at the same time lifegiving and life-taking In Tolkien’s legendarium, water is the domain of the Vala called Ulmo While the other Valar concentrate mostly on Valinor, Ulmo still takes care of Middle-earth as well and through water speaks to those who are willing to listen For that reason, water is mostly a helpful element for the heroes Water-crossing is usually an important moment in the hero’s journey: the Elves in The Silmarillion have to cross the sea in order to reach the earthly paradise, Valinor (some of them did not dare to undertake this journey); Fëanor and his followers have to cross the sea again while returning to Middle-earth; the four hobbits in The Lord of the Rings have to cross four rivers – Baranduin, Snowbourne, Nimrodel and Anduin – each of the crossings being an irreversible choice (especially in the case of Anduin) And finally, Frodo, Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond cross the sea in order to reach Valinor As Drout says, “…the departures of the Elves, Gandalf, Bilbo, and especially Frodo clearly recall the departure of the wounded Arthur for a place where all will be healed and made whole again…” (Drout 69) Frye says that “One of the most important contrasts in biblical imagery is the contrast between living water and dead water” (Biblical Myths 35) In The Lord of the 69 Rings this contrast is present as well Take for example the stream of Nimrodel, about which “…it is said that the water is healing to the weary” (FOTR 437), or the lake of Kheled-zâram which mirrors stars even in the full daylight, or the mirror of Galadriel These are in contrast with the dead artificial lake before the gate of Moria, or the Dead Marshes where “ ‘All [is] dead, all rotten Elves and Men and Orcs The Dead Marshes’ ” (TTT 283) The absence of water is as crucial an element as its presence In Mordor there is no water, safe for the few exceptions which keep Frodo and Sam alive Without water, the land is a perfect wasteland: “There the last living things gave up their struggle; the tops of the Morgai were grassless, bare, jagged, barren as a slate” (ROTK 237) Tree In The Bible, in the Garden of Eden, there are two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life In Valinor there are also two trees: Laurelin and Telperion About their fate all the tales of the Elder days are woven (Silmarillion 31) In the Norse mythology there is one tree: Yggdrasil, the vertical aspect of existence, one of its levels being ‘middle-earth’ (not ‘Middle-earth’, though) All of these are images of the Axis Mundi (see chapter about Monomyth) Nonetheless, the idea of a tree that is also a source of light is quite unique It is also unique that the Sun and the Moon are only secondary, imperfect, products, being created from the fruits of Telperion and Laurelin as a last recourse to have new sources of light After the destruction of Laurelin and Telperion, the line was continued in the Tree of Tol Eressëa (which, however, did not give off any light), and ages after in the White Tree of Númenor, and finally, in the White Tree of Gondor The archetype of Axis Mundi in the form of a tree thus runs through almost all of Tolkien’s legendarium, but the original 70 perfection of the Two Trees is not to be achieved before the destruction and renewal of the world It is interesting that the Axis Mundi does not have to be confined to a single occurrence For example, in the Shire where most of the hobbits have never heard about the Two Trees of Valinor, the mallorn tree planted by Sam becomes the local Axis Mundi; in Gondor it is the new White Tree planted by Aragorn, and so on According to Frye, the tree of life is in the mode of romance most often transformed into the magician's life-giving wand and in the high-mimetic mode into a fluttering banner high above the city (Anatomy 151; 165) In The Lord of the Rings, which can be considered in some parts as romance and in some parts as high mimesis, Tolkien left all of these images together, so that in Minas Tirith there is the White Tree and there is also a high tower with s fluttering banner and at the same time there is Gandalf with his magical wand One reason for this might be that the Tree is simply too important to be left out, being the link with the past and with Valinor It is also a piece of nature that should have its place even in a city18 On the other hand, The Silmarillion, which is mostly restricted to the mode of myth, there is no displacement of the image of the tree of life Tolkien does not attach importance only to a single tree, but also to the forests When Yavanna created the trees, she was also permitted to create the shepherds of the trees – the Ents, so that the forests are not defenceless against Men and Dwarves On the contrary, the Elves hold the forests in reverence, which can most clearly be seen in the Elves of Lothlórien, who even live in houses in the trees When Merry and Pippin speak with Treebeard, he expresses a deep regret over the vanished forests: “Time was when I could walk and sing all day and hear no more than the echo of my own voice in the 18 When Legolas and Gimli first see Minas Tirith, Legolas remarks that the city needs more trees: “‘They need more gardens,’ said Legolas ‘The houses are dead, and there is too little here that grows and is glad If Aragorn comes into his own, the people of the Wood shall bring him birds that sing and trees that not die’” (ROTK 173) 71 hollow hills The woods were like the woods of Lothlórien And the smell of the air!” (TTT 78) The disappearance of forests is equated with change of the world and with coming of a new age Forest, as already mentioned, is also the symbol of the collective unconscious, and as such it often serves as a turning point in the hero’s journey Take for example Bilbo’s change in Mirkwood, Frodo’s meeting with helper figures in the Old Forest and Lothlórien, or the role of Pippin and Merry in Fangorn Forest Furthermore, it is in forest that Beren and Aragorn meet Lúthien and Arwen respectively, and it is also in forest where they spend unsanctioned time together Conclusion One of the messages of The Lord of the Rings is that the great tales never end: “ ‘It’s going on Don’t the great tales never end? ‘ ‘No, they never end as tales,’ said Frodo `But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended’ ” (TTT 392) Or, as Bilbo put it in a song, ‘the road goes ever on and on’ If this is applied to the present situation in mythology and literature, one perceives that Western mythology is no longer alive; therefore the ‘tale’ has to be continued in another way It used to be through Western classical music and currently it is also through fantasy books and films The popularity of The Lord of the Rings shows that there is a starving audience for this type of fiction It is a pity, though, that the fantasy genre has not yet started to be taken seriously by the literary critics It is true that there is a lot of ‘trash’ in this area, but there are also some outstanding works This thesis suggested that there is a recognizable archetypal structure in Tolkien’s fiction The journeys of Tolkien’s heroes are similar to each other to a certain 72 degree, most of them following the departure – initiation – return schema Obviously, the differences, not only the similarities are also important It is both of these that make mythology and literature so variable and interesting The monomyth pattern is most clearly seen in the journeys of Frodo and Bilbo Furthermore, all the heroes go through some form of transformation (Frodo’s path of transformation being the longest) and even rebirth; they meet and/or fight monsters; receive aid from helper figures and often possess magical artefacts It was also shown that the archetypes of water (water of life/water of death) and tree (the world tree – Axis Mundi) are firmly weaved into the net of Tolkien’s stories, as well as they are weaved into the biblical imagery Another message of The Lord of the Rings is that even seemingly insignificant people can ‘alter’ the course of history However, this notion is complicated by the fact that the course of history in Tolkien’s legendarium is to a certain extent fated Nonetheless, the heroes have to make effort to fulfil their destinies Each hero brings back some kind of boon: Lúthien and Beren bring a strain of Elvish blood into humankind; Eärendil brings salvation from Morgoth’s evil; Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn each contribute to the victory over Sauron; Bilbo is the finder of the Ring and has a share in protecting the north of Middle-earth from the dragon19 From the Jungian point of view, each hero becomes at the end of the journey a fully-fledged personality in the process of individuation 19 Although The Hobbit is narrated quite light-heartedly, Tolkien later on set the plot in more important context: Smaug would eventually become an ally of Sauron and oppress the people in the North, for which reason the Shire, Frodo and the Ring would not be safe 73 74 Appendix A - List of characters 1) Elves Fëanor – the greatest of the Noldor; the creator of the Silmarils; his name means "spirit of fire" Finrod Felagund –the brother of Galadriel; king of Nargothrond in Middle-earth Galadriel - one of the exiled Elves in Middle-earth; in the later ages the queen of Lothlórien Idril - the only child of king Turgon; wife of Tuor Legolas - the son of the King of the Woodland Realm in the Third Age; member of the Fellowship of the Ring Lúthien – the only child of king Thingol; she fell in love in Beren; as an exception among Elves she really died Míriel – mother of Fëanor Noldor – one of the branches of Elves who went to Valinor; they were interested in lore, warfare and crafts; they went to exile in Middle-earth because they thought the Valar were exercising control over them Thingol – the king of Doriath in Middle-earth; his wife, Melian, was one of the Maiar Turgon – one of the exiled Noldor; the king of Gondolin Vanyar – the high Elves 2) Half-Elves Arwen – daughter of Elrond; the later queen of Gondor Eärendil – son of Idril and Tuor; a great mariner who made a journey to Valinor when it was hidden and pleaded for pardon and help to Elves and Men in their war with Morgoth Elrond – son of Eärendil; he chose to be united with Elves and thus became immortal; lord of Rivendell in Middle-earth in the Third Age; bearer of one of the Rings of Power (Vilya) Elwing – granddaughter of Lúthien; wife of Eärendil 3) Men Aragorn – one of the Dúnedain in Middle-earth; member of the Fellowship of the Ring; the king of Gondor and Arnor Beren – one of the Elf-friends in the First Age; he loved Lúthien and managed to wrestle a Silmaril from Morgoth as the bride-price for Lúthien Boromir – son of Denethor; member of the Fellowship of the Ring Denethor – the last steward of Gondor Dúnedain - "men of the west" – the descendants of the Númenóreans who settled in Middle-earth Faramir – the younger son of Denethor; unlike Boromir he was interested not only in war, but also in learning Húrin – father of Túrin; the greatest warrior of Men in the First Age; in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears covered Turgon’s retreat and was captured by Morgoth Númenóreans – the Men who helped the Elves in wars with Morgoth; for this they were rewarded with the gift of a new land (Númenor) and longer lives Túrin – son of Húrin; a tragic hero who was mastered by his fate Tuor – the cousin of Túrin; he gained a great respect in Gondolin and married Idril; the only Man who became immortal 75 4) Hobbits Bilbo Baggins – the finder of the Ring Frodo – Bilbo’s nephew; member of the Fellowship of the Ring; he was permitted to go to Valinor for a healing before he died Gollum – a former Hobbit with unnaturally prolonged life because of the power of the Ring Merry and Pippin – members of the Fellowship of the Ring Sam – the servant and friend of Frodo 5) Other beings Ainur – the angelic beings created by Ilúvatar; they were sub-creators in his creation Valar - "the Powers of the World" – those of Ainur who descended into Arda (Earth) in order to work on its development and supervise it according to the vision given to them by Ilúvatar Mandos – his Halls in Valinor are the gathering place of the dead Elves and Men Manwë – chief of the Valar Melkor – the most powerful of the Ainur; he has fallen to evil and subcreatively introduced evil into the world; he was given the name Morgoth by Fëanor, which means "Dark enemy of the world" Ulmo – Lord of Waters; friend to the exiled Elves in Middle-earth Yavanna – Giver of Fruits; creator of the Two Trees of Valinor Maiar – the Ainur of a lesser order Balrogs – spirits of fire corrupted by Melkor into evil Gandalf – one of the wizards sent to Middle-earth by the Valar in the Third Age in order to help Men and Elves resist Sauron Sauron – originally one of the servants of Melkor; later on a Dark Lord on his own; creator of the ruling Ring; the last physical incarnation of evil Saruman – a wizard; his original name, skilled in speech and smithcraft; began to lust for power and domination, fell to evil and was replaced by Gandalf as the most powerful wizard Ents – the oldest beings in Middle-earth; shepherds of the forest; they looked like trees Carcharoth – Morgoth’s wolf that bit off Beren’s hand with the Silmaril; later on he was the cause of the first death of Beren Glaurung – one of Morgoth’s dragons; killed by Túrin Ilúvatar – the creator of the universe Ringwraiths – the Dúnedain who accepted the Rings of Power from Sauron, were overmastered by their power and became servants of Sauron Ungoliant – a giant spider who poisoned the Two Trees of Valinor 76 Works cited and consulted Carpenter, Humphrey J.R.R Tolkien: a Biography London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1977 Print Campbell, Joseph The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension New York: Harper Perennial, 1990 Print - The Hero With a Thousand Faces Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004 Print - The Power of Myth New York: Anchor Books, 1991 Print - The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959-1987 Novato: New World Library, 2008 Print - Proměny mýtu v čase Praha: Portál, 2000 Print - Mýty Praha: Pragma, 1998 Print Curry, Patrick “Tolkien and His Critics: A Critique.” Root and Branch: Approaches towards Understanding Tolkien Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2005 pp 81148 Web 30 January 2011 Drout, Michael D C, ed J.R.R Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment New York: Routledge, 2007 Print Elwood, Robert Frodo's Quest Wheaton: Quest Books, 2002 Print Frye, Northrop Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 Print - Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004 Print - Spiritus Mundi: Essays on Literature, Myth, and Society Richmond Hill: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1991 Print - The Great code: The Bible and Literature Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006 Print Jacobi, Jolande The Psychology of C.G Jung: An Introduction with Illustration London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968 Print Jones, Leslie Ellen Myth & Middle-Earth: Exploring the Medieval Legends Behind J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Press, 2002 Print 77 Jung, Carl Gustav The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990 Print Jung, Carl Gustav; Kerényi, Karl Věda o mytologii Brno: Nakladatelství Tomáše Janečka, 1995 Print Lévi-Strauss, Claude Mýtus a význam Bratislava: Archa, 1993 Print - Structural anthropology New York: Basic Books, 1963 Print Longman Glossary of Literary Terms Pearson Education, n.d Web January 2011 Petty, Anne C Tolkien in the Land of Heroes: Discovering the Human Spirit Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2003 Print Propp, Vladimír Morfologie pohádky : se studií Clauda Lévi-Strausse Praha: Ústav pro českou literaturu ČSAV, 1970 Print Rank, Otto The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: Psychological Interpretation of Mythology New York: Robert Brunner, 1957 Print Shippey, T A The Road to Middle-earth London: Grafton, 1992 Print Skogemann, Pia Where the shadows lie: a Jungian interpretation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Wilmette, Ill.: Chiron Publications, 2009 Print Storr, Anthony The Essential Jung Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983 Print Tolkien, J.R.R The Letters London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1981 Print - The Hobbit London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999 Print - The Lord of the Rings Part 1, The Fellowship of the Ring Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982 Print - The Lord of the Rings Part 2, The Two Towers Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982 Print - The Lord of the Rings Part 3, The Return of the King Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982 Print - The Silmarillion London: HarperCollins, 1999 Print - Unfinished Tales London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1986 Print 78 Résumé This thesis suggests that the monomyth pattern of the hero’s journey (initiation, departure, return) is clearly perceptible in the paths of Tolkien’s heroes, although the scenario is a bit different in each case As all of Tolkien’s works combine many tales in them, it was more useful to analyse each tale in the monomyth terms rather than analyse the whole books The common pattern in the journeys of his heroes may as well originate in the archetypes of collective unconscious, rather than be a result of Tolkien’s conscious20 choice The archetypal structure of his stories may also be one of the reasons for Tolkien’s success – the archetypes are universal and common to all cultures, therefore his stories are universally received (although each reader usually interprets them in more or less different way) Another reason might be that after the rule of everymen and anti-heroes in literature, there appeared again a need for stories about heroes with divine qualities From the Jungian point of view, each hero becomes at the end of the journey a fully-fledged personality in the process of individuation The longest path is that of Frodo – he begins as an everyman, or low-mimetic figure, and ends as a saviour figure, who has learnt wisdom through suffering, and who is permitted to visit the earthly paradise The second most important hero of The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn, is much less complicated, being a medieval type of hero (the fulfiller of prophecy, the noble exile, being the true heir, having a legendary sword) The other heroes bring back some kind of boon as well, be it in a microcosmic triumph, such as Bilbo’s, or in a macrocosmic triumph, such as Eärendil’s 20 At the time when Tolkien was writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the texts which later became The Silmarillion, Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) had not yet been published It is not known whether Tolkien was familiar with the work and C.G Jung (which is concerned with mythology and literature only partially) or Maud Bodkin, but it is highly dubious that he would use these works even if he knew them 79 80 ... conception of fate and free will resembles that of Boethius: the God dwells out of time, therefore his sight and 23 knowledge of ‘future’ does not change the nature and properties of things and the... temptation of the Ring (and of technology in general) and ultimately fell, while Gandalf refused the offer of the Ring and became greater than before “‘Yes, I am white now,’ 40 said Gandalf ‘Indeed... time Tall as the sea-kings of old…ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him