English Language and Literature Commons^™

"Slain Ye Shall Be": Eschatological Morality And The House Of Feanor In Tolkien's The Silmarillion, Ashley Anteau

Honors Projects

This thesis expands on existing research and analysis of the eschatology of J. R. R. Tolkien’s invented mythology, with a critical analysis of how it relates to morality and the overarching exploration of good and evil, primarily in The Silmarillion. By analyzing Tolkien’s medieval and spiritual influences, as well as Tolkien’s unfinished works published posthumously by Christopher Tolkien, it explores the effect of the relationship between morality and mortality on the emotional core of Tolkien’s work. It offers new insights into the text by engaging especially with the often overlooked story of the sons of Feanor, and how this story …

From A Non-Consensual Incestuous Relationship To A Promotion To Priestess: The Way That A Father Controls Their Daughter Determines The Status Level That A Woman Can Hold In Apollonius Of Tyre, Sarah Haggerty

Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Showcase

Is a woman only considered a woman when she is owned by a man? How does the relationship between father and daughter shape the way a woman is seen or treated in medieval society? This project examines the Old English version of Apollonius of Tyre, a rare example of secular 11th century prose, as translated by Benjamin Thorpe. Apollonius of Tyre deals with three different familial relationships and the various ways that the fathers as both leaders of the house, and royal officials treat their daughters as property that they own. From one daughter having basic freedoms such as being …

"Saint Galadriel?: J.R.R. Tolkien As The Hagiographer Of Middle-Earth", Jane Beal Phd

Journal of Tolkien Research

Abstract: Galadriel is perceived in different, sometimes contradictory ways both within the world of Middle-earth and the world of Tolkien scholarship. In some ways, she is a liminal figure, on the threshold between Middle-earth and Valinor, and between secular and sacred influences from the primary world Tolkien actually lived in. One neglected context that may help readers to understand Tolkien’s characterization of Galadriel is the medieval cult of the saints.

The cult of the saints provides specific practices and beliefs that shaped how Tolkien consciously characterized Galadriel as saint-like, especially in terms of her beauty, holiness, and power. Her saintliness …

Containing The Blemmye: Anxiety Towards Congenital Difference In The Old English Wonders Of The East, Jessica L. Carrell

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to illuminate early medieval anxieties about sex, procreation, and congenital physical difference by applying a lens of critical disability theory to the Old English Wonders of the East, primarily as it survives in the eleventh-century manuscript, London, British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius B.v. This thesis focuses on the textual and illustrative representation of one Wonder, the Blemmye—an approximately eight-foot-tall, eight-foot-wide androgynous humanoid, whose eyes and mouth are in their chest and who does not possess a head—as a historic embodiment of what disability meant in relation to the early medieval English worldview. This thesis considers the …

The Game At The Green Chapel: A Game-Oriented Perspective On Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Joshua David Maldonado

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Like many things in life, the very idea of a game contradicts itself. A game is so many conflicting things at once. All in good fun, but with the focused goal of winning. A closed space with no consequences, yet personally affecting outside its boundaries. Often playful, yet deathly serious. The games we make and play often have a hand in deciding our identities. What kinds of games do we play, and how often? Who do we play them with? How seriously do we take them, and how do we react to certain outcomes? Do we learn from our mistakes …