{Tolkien and the Greeks}[9th August 1990]

[Redbook7:204-205][19900809:1007b]{Tolkien and the Greeks}[9th August 1990]

.1007

[continued]

Tolkien,* incidentally** – and the point is not derived from this*** poem – was much more in debt to the Greeks than he seems to have wanted to be. His aim to create a ‘Northern European’**** myth, rejecting the dominance of Classical European culture, resulted in a world which is indeed largely northern in imagery, but almost entirely Greek in emotion. The sense of loss and removal, of exile, which drives and marks his battle-and-quest scenario, is far more Greek than Germanic or Scandinavian;# but it does have strong Celtic echoes, where Celtic and Greek culture share this theme, which is ironic as Tolkien believed strongly in a specifically Anglo-Saxon culture and ‘ethos’.#*

#**

*[J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of Middle Earth, & author of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ &c]

**[See last previous entry fn=**]

***[See last previous entry]

****{Specifically for the Anglo-Saxons, I think – the [continental] Northern Europeans already have one, and a ring-myth too.}

#(It is?}

#*[But one of Tolkien’s invented Elvish languages owes much to the form of Welsh....]

#**(Do I really know enough about Greek#*** culture to be able to say that?)

#***{or Northern}

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