Overview

Tolkien and Shakespeare: one a prolific popular dramatist and poet of the Elizabethan era, the other a twentieth-century scholar of Old English and author of a considerably smaller body of work. Though unquestionably very different writers, the two have more in common than one might expect. These essays focus on the broad themes and motifs which concerned both authors. They seek to uncover Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien through echoes of the playwright's themes and even word choices, discovering how Tolkien used, revised, updated, ""corrected,"" and otherwise held an ongoing dialogue with Shakespeare's works. The depiction of Elves and the world of Faerie, and how humans interact with them, are some of the most obvious points of comparison and difference for the two writers. Both Tolkien and Shakespeare deeply explored the uses and abuses of power with princes, politics, war, and the lessons of history. Magic and prophecy were also of great concern to both authors, and the works of both are full of encounters with the Other: masks and disguises, mirrors that hide and reveal, or seeing stones that show only part of the truth.

Full Product Details

Author:   Janet Brennan Croft ,  Donald E. Palumbo ,  C.W. Sullivan III
Publisher:   McFarland & Co Inc
Imprint:   McFarland & Co Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.449kg
ISBN:  

9780786428274

ISBN 10:   0786428279
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   05 April 2007
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction: Tolkien and Shakespeare: Influences, Echoes, Revisions      FAËRIE Clashing Mythologies: The Elves of Shakespeare and Tolkien      “How Now, Spirit! Whither Wander You?” Diminution: The Shakespearean Misconception and the Tolkienian Ideal of Faërie      Just a Little Bit Fey: What’s at the Bottom of The Lord of the Rings and A Midsummer Night’s Dream?      “Perilously Fair”: Titania, Galadriel, and the Fairy Queen of Medieval Romance      POWER “We Few, We Happy Few”: War and Glory in Henry V and The Lord of the Rings      The Person of a Prince: Echoes of Hamlet in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings      How “All That Glisters Is Not Gold” Became “All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter”: Aragorn’s Debt to Shakespeare      “The Shadow of Succession”: Shakespeare, Tolkien, and the Conception of History      “The Rack of This Tough World”: The Influence of King Lear on Lord of the Rings      Shakespearean Catharsis in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien      MAGIC Prospero’s Books, Gandalf’s Staff: The Ethics of Magic in Shakespeare and Tolkien      Merlin, Prospero, Saruman and Gandalf: Corrosive Uses of Power in Shakespeare and Tolkien      “Bid the Tree Unfix His Earthbound Root”: Motifs from Macbeth in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings      THE OTHER Hidden in Plain View: Strategizing Unconventionality in Shakespeare’s and Tolkien’s Portraits of Women      Something Is Stirring in the East: Racial Identity, Confronting the “Other,” and Miscegenation in Othello and The Lord of the Rings      Self-Cursed, Night-fearers, and Usurpers: Tolkien’s Atani and Shakespeare’s Men      Gollum and Caliban: Evolution and Design      Of Two Minds: Gollum and Othello      About the Contributors      Index     

Reviews

"""some worthwhile contributions here""--Library Journal; ""recommend[ed]""--Mythlore; ""this collection is well worth the time of scholars of Tolkien and Shakespeare alike. Both sides will find insights into their own author...Croft has done an admirable job of assembling a strong collection of essays that should persuade many to rethink basic assumptions about Tolkien's relationship to Shakespeare""--Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts; ""of interest to children's literature scholars""--Children's Literature Association Quarterly; ""I enjoyed--and found my thinking stimulated by--this book...will look forward to new work from its authors, including its editor""--Tolkien Studies; ""scholars of English literature explore how the Elizabethan playwright and poet influenced the 20th-century scholar of Old English and writer of fantasy in terms of themes, motifs and word choices""--Reference & Research Book News."

some worthwhile contributions here --Library Journal; recommend[ed] --Mythlore; this collection is well worth the time of scholars of Tolkien and Shakespeare alike. Both sides will find insights into their own author...Croft has done an admirable job of assembling a strong collection of essays that should persuade many to rethink basic assumptions about Tolkien's relationship to Shakespeare --Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts; of interest to children's literature scholars --Children's Literature Association Quarterly; I enjoyed--and found my thinking stimulated by--this book...will look forward to new work from its authors, including its editor --Tolkien Studies; scholars of English literature explore how the Elizabethan playwright and poet influenced the 20th-century scholar of Old English and writer of fantasy in terms of themes, motifs and word choices --Reference & Research Book News.

Author Information

Janet Brennan Croft is liaison to the school of communication and information and librarian for disability services and copyright at Rutgers University Libraries in North Brunswick, New Jersey. She has written on the Peter Jackson films, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors, and is editor or co-editor of five collections of literary essays and edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore.

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