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Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium Richard Z. Gallant Cormarë Series No. 49
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The theory of Northern Courage was J.R.R. Tolkien’s designation for the heroic ethos found in ‘Germanic’ or Northern heroic lays and epics. Tolkien admired the nobility of the old heroes, such as Beowulf, but wrestled with the inherent cruelty of the Welands, Ingelds, and Gunnars that is also expressed within this heroic framework. This volume explores the means in which this conflict of nobility and cruelty, virtue and vice, expresses itself in Tolkien’s narrative fiction. Such means include the use of secondary-world chroniclers narrating a secondary-world history and tales to a secondary-world audience through illustrative narratives that dramatize the moral and ideological views of the narrators themselves. The narratives are often tragic, but they serve to highlight the different aspects of Northern courage through the examples of the Fingolfians, Fëanorians, and subsequently the Edain and Dúnedain. The moral and ideological views expressed by these secondary-world narrators parallel Tolkien’s own personal correspondence and academic essays, which also criticized the vices and praised the virtues of Northern courage. Gallant’s study is the winner of the 2024 Inklings-Prize in the category ‘best scholarly publication (PhD/Habilitation)’ of the Inklings-Gesellschaft e.V.
Author’s Preface Acknowledgements
Foreword by Tom Shippey: Introduction by Thomas Honegger Chapter 1 The ‘Germanic’: Our World – Tolkien’s World Chapter 2 Original Sin in Heorot and Valinor Chapter 3 The Dance of Authority in Arda Chapter 4 The ‘Wyrdwrīteras’ of Elvish History Chapter 5 The Noldorization of the Edain Chapter 6 Discontinuity of Heroic Ethos Chapter 7 Wergild, Heirlooms and Monuments Chapter 8 Northern Courage in the Dúnedain Successor States Chapter 9 Galadriel and Wyrd Chapter 10 Elessar Telcontar Magnus, Rex Pater Gondor, Restitutor Imperii Conclusion Abbreviations and Tolkien Conventions Bibliography Index table of contents | cover | announcements | more Cover Cover illustration by Anke Eißmann, 'The Oath of Finrod Felagund' (2022). table of contents | cover | announcements | more Announcements
New publication, Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium (17th March 2024)
 
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