Date of Award

5-1980

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Bonniejean Christensen

Abstract

J.R.R. Tolkien employs a form of interlace in his work The Lord of the Rings that has roots in medieval French romances, Anglo-Saxon literature of the seventh and eighth centuries, and as far back as Ovid. The technique evolved in the medieval romances as a means of handling multiple action and multiple themes. The technique reappears after long absence in Tolkien's work, with emendations and improvements by Tolkien to fit his modern audience

Tolkien employs the technique in three major areas: the paralleling of story, character, and setting; the forewarning and foreshadowing; and what I have called the time-flash. This last area is Tolkien's own contribution to the tradition of interlace and serves not only as a device to aid the modern reader struggling with the multiple action but powerfully reinforces the theme. The time-flash is signalled by narrative tags such as "And even while," "And even as," and "So it was," that pull the reader out of the present tale and direct his attention to another, simultaneously occurring tale.

Tolkien develops the parallels of story, character, and setting to give a sense of cohesiveness to the tale, to juxtapose actions, ideas, and characters, and to endow themes with shades of meaning. In this manner Tolkien provides for simultaneous action while giving a panoramic view of a world at war, and he develops themes which are reflected to varying degrees by the actions of characters and the places through which they travel.

In the area of forewarning and foreshadowing, Tolkien employs interlace with a mastery rivalling his medieval auctours. The forewarnings and foreshadowings rely heavily on the reader's ability to store and retrieve narrative bits of information at appropriate points in the tale. They may be employed to enhance, elaborate, or throw new light on material that has already been presented. Forewarnings are specific warnings from a character which are recalled by the characters involved when the forewarning is fulfilled. Foreshadowings are subtler statements or observations by characters, the significance of which will be explained later in the narrative.

Tolkien draws on his own scholarly background with Anglo-Saxon works such as Beowulf (see his essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"), to include elements of interlace that John Leyerle says were so prevalent during that period. Tolkien has also picked up on several of the medieval techniques, especially the digressio that he employs in the separation of tales. His essay "On Fairy Stories" discusses elements in fairy tales and describes his theory of sub-creation, which in part accounts for his use of interlace. Tolkien employs interlace to achieve verisimilitude for his tale and the technique allows him to narrate the various tales of people who are warring against Sauron. At the same time, interlace allows him, especially in the time-flash, to focus the reader's attention on the quest of Frodo to destroy the Ring. In perhaps the most important achievement of interlace, Tolkien shows us how the fate of Middle-Earth depends on Frodo's success while all the other elements in the tale point to the near impossibility of that success. As Frodo triumphs, we see that "naked will and courage" that Tolkien sees in Beowulf in operation in The Lord of the Rings.

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