Here's a cheery tale. Húrin, the lord of one of the kingdoms of Men in Beleriand during the First Age of Middle Earth, is captured and imprisoned by Morgoth. who places a curse on Húrin's family, that anything they turn their hand to shall come to evil, then sets Húrin up on a throne and condemns him to watch the curse unfold. Túrin, Húrin son, carries most of the ensuing action, wandering Beleriand and rising to a position of influence wherever he goes. Characters in Tolkien always surrender decision-making to the kingliest one around, but Túrin's decisions are almost always bad. He kills one of the Elf-king's advisers in Doriath, then impulsively goes into self-exile before he can learn of his pardon, he falls in with outlaws and ultimately leads them to slaughter, he counsels the king of Nargothrond to a war policy that results in a dragon curling up in the middle of the city, he kills his best friend, and he marries his own sister. And he regifts an Elvish knife. In the end he slays the dragon, but he and his sister both commit suicide upon learning each other's true identity. (I'm not spoilering anything. It's all there in chapter 21 of the Silmarillion.) All of which would add up to a tragedy of Greek proportion, if it weren't so Victorian. A great amount of time is spent arguing over who's a churl and who isn't. Then there's the endemic racism, even if it is directed at made-up peoples. It left me wishing for something set in a less aristocratic universe, with snappier dialogue.
Douglas
Two questions:
1. Does this Turin dude remember to bring the map?
2. Are there any non-rhyming character names?
Posted by: Heather | 25 April 2007 at 08:32 PM
1. No. Geographical knowledge is pretty word of mouth in Middle Earth. There's a line in the story somewhere about Morgoth, who makes a big deal about being just about all-knowing, not knowing very much about the seacoast.
2. Yes. One thing I didn't mention is the inordinate amount of nicknaming in this story. Whenever two characters form any kind of bond they rename one another, which causes confusion for third parties and really ramps up the dramatic irony.
Posted by: Douglas | 25 April 2007 at 08:47 PM
Who's a frigging churl!!!
There was map at the back of my copy. Are all the problems in Tolkien's books really just the result of wide-spread illiteracy?
Posted by: Alan | 26 April 2007 at 06:06 PM
I think because Middle Earth is created (Silmarillion, chapter one), there's no petroleum in the ground. No petroleum, no BP road atlas.
Posted by: Douglas | 26 April 2007 at 08:18 PM
So: http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedread/story/0,,2064264,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=10
Posted by: Heather | 26 April 2007 at 10:01 PM
Speaking of endemic racism against non-existant peoples...and churls...what, then, is up with those Geico Neanderthal ads anyway? Is it funny because it is racist?
My name in Nargothrondian is "Gurg"
Posted by: Alan | 27 April 2007 at 02:54 PM
I hadn't seen those commercials until I looked them up on YouTube just now. See, there is a use for Web 2.0 after all. The commercials are funny because they're about racism. The racism in Tolkien isn't that funny because you're expected to buy into the old blonde=noble, swarthy=evil paradigm. Then there's the theological problem of the Orcs, who are treated as irredeemably evil, which is not very good religion. Gurg is more of an Orc name. Your Nargothrondian name would be something more like Aelion. Or whatever means Beer-Friend in Elvish.
Posted by: Douglas | 27 April 2007 at 08:28 PM
Ylvmeldir.
Posted by: Douglas | 29 April 2007 at 12:04 AM
OK, nickname.
The Geico ads do have an underlying premise that it is OK to speak about racism as a joke - but only as against an extinct group. How does this differ from a similar campaign naming Beothics or Visigoths for that matter?
Posted by: Alan | 29 April 2007 at 11:22 AM
It's not living versus extinct. It's us versus them. You can make fun of pretty much anyone as long as you signal that you're making fun of us. Cavemen and Visigoths are us because they eventually turned into us. Beothuks are more difficult because they were all killed off, and not too long ago. Kind of hard to make that funny.
This is a bit off topic because Tolkien is not trying to be funny. He just wants you to buy into his version of us versus them.
Posted by: Douglas | 29 April 2007 at 01:56 PM
There is no "off topic" when the topic is a cruddy book.
I need to teach the kids "cruddy".
Posted by: Alan | 29 April 2007 at 11:34 PM