J R R Tolkien’s achievement:

‘One Ring to rule them all’

Although this is a poetry series, I trust I may be excused a digression to prose. This is to make amends for a faux pas in my last article, when I classed 'The Lord of the Rings' as a popular entertainment. This may have been pardonable in reference to the record-breaking film. That, however, was based on the book which, though extremely popular itself, is far superior and far more than an entertainment. It is a literary masterpiece.

"Popular entertainment" would, on the other hand, seem an apt description of the 'Harry Potter' series, not just the films but the books. The latter appear to have little literary merit and one cannot escape the impression of their seemingly being written according to a formula or recipe for success -namely, as it appears, to glamorise various aspects of everyday bourgeois experience by investing them with an aura of mystery, fantasy and sorcery. As such, their appeal might be said to be of a piece with the current morbid and inexplicable fascination with vampires and the other quasi-supernatural subjects of popular screen fare. Typical of this glorification of the humdrum is the much-featured game of quidditch, a wizardly version of lacrosse cum football in which the players are airborne. The enthusiasm generated by the event and the conduct of both players and spectators are strongly reminiscent of that observable at a typical game of professional football. Nor is there any element of satire to validate the elaborateness of the description as, for instance, with Pope's quasi-heroic descriptions of the trivialities of high society life in 'The Rape of the Lock.'

Enthusiasm

J R R Tolkien

The popularity of the 'Harry Potter' series would seem to owe much to a form of process management, whereby book follows book and film version follows book at regular intervals so that reader and viewer anticipation and enthusiasm are maintained at fever pitch. On the evidence of literarily undistinguished best-selling series of the past, it is conceivable that its fame will subside once its creator ceases production. On the other hand, one wonders whether this eventuality could be circumvented by entrusting the continuity of the series to a computer. All that would seem to be necessary, in that case, would be to feed it with the current formula and give it a few additional commands.

The fame of 'The Lord of the Rings', however, has long outlived its author and has grown steadily during the more than half-century that has passed since its completion. It has established itself as the masterpiece of modern heroic writing. It is, in fact, in the great tradition of the Old English, Middle English and Elizabethan epic poems 'Beowulf', Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight' and 'The Faerie Queen', respectively. Moreover, it is based on a mythology and a timeline that have been entirely devised by Tolkein and that extend deep into the past and the future of the story's action. It purports to be translated by the author from an ancient language of 'The Third Age', again of his own invention, complete with its own alphabet, vocabulary, pronunciation, script and grammar. The investigation of this original language might well provide a useful source of paleographic, philological and linguistic stuidies. More seriously, the trilogy is interspersed with exquisite poetry pertaining to the story and its various characters, all of it composed by the author.

Action

Much of epic-type fantasy creation of recent times can be seen to have been influenced in some way or other by Tolkien's 'Ring' trilogy. For example, although the 'Star Wars' series may be classed as space fiction, it owes much of the scale of its action, the diversity of its characterisation and its contextual variety to the Tolkien prototype. One thinks, for instance, of the correspondencies between Palpatine and Sauron with their plans for universal domination, Luke Skywalker and Frodo as initially unlikely heroes, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf as mentors and protectors, Darth Vader and the Nazgul as terror-inspiring agents of an evil Power, and the Death Star and Mordor as fearful enemy realms that are destroyed at the last.

'The Ring' is the archetypal heroic-fantasy of the modern age. CS Lewis' 'Narnia' series may also seem to qualify for this distinction. In fact, the first of the 'Narnia' books came out in 1950 whereas 'The Ring' was not published until 1954.

However, Tolkien had shown Lewis the proofs of his work in progress, and the subsequent appearance of 'Narnia' had reportedly taken Tolkien aback, leading to a noticeable cooling in relations between the two. Of course, this could have been due simply to professional rivalry. The fact remains that, as to sheer length of narrative, breadth of imagination, depth of experience and height of intensity, 'The Ring' surpasses 'Narnia.'

Unlike Lewis' 'Narnia' series, the Lord of the Rings has neither allegorical significance nor moral intent.

Our antipathies and sympathies for the negative and positive forces represented in the story are enlisted purely by the imaginative skill of their presentation. Tolkien's style ranges from heroic to comic to tragic to lyrical to dramatic, but is never melodramatic and is ever charged with narrative power. His decription of the ever-changing scenes of travel, flight, battle, relaxation, his creation of atmosphere from the nightmarish to the homely, his capturing of the myriad tones and accents of speech and dialogue - all this is done with Keatsian negative capability as well as gusto, evocative richness as well as control.

Excerpts

Here are a couple of defining moments from the second chapter of the first book:

" 'I do really wish to destroy it!' cried Frodo. 'Or, well, to have it destroyed. I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?'

" 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.'

" 'But I have so little of any of these things! You are so wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?'

" 'No!' cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. 'With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.' ".........

" 'No, and I don't want to,' said Frodo. 'I can't understand you. Do you mean to say that you..have let him live on after all those horrible deeds?...He deserves death.'

" 'Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the wise cannot see all ends.' "

Some surmise that the story was inspired by the events of World War 11, but it was actually begun before this and Tolkein has rejected the notion. In any event, sources of inspiration are irrelevant to the reader for whom what should matter is the final product which, as in this case, must have a unique life of its own.

The relation to real life that the work has, though, is that it underlines the formidable nature of the temptations of power, both in the world at large and in the individual psyche. Also, the enduring value of qualities such as loyalty, courage, compassion, honesty, self-sacrifice, dedication to a cause greater than oneself, unity, friendship and love. There is no greater prose-fictional dramatisation of the principle that "power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

To those who enjoyed the film trilogy and also to those who may have not seen it, I recommend the far superior experience of reading the trilogy - 'The Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King.' It is probably the finest multi-volume novel of recent times, surpassing even Paul Scott's 'The Raj Quartet.'