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"You Tempt me Grievously to a Mythological Essay": J. R. R. Tolkien’s Correspondence with Arthur Ransome
- Author(s):
- Alaric Hall (see profile) , Samuli Kaislaniemi
- Date:
- 2013
- Subject(s):
- Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973, Literature--Study and teaching
- Item Type:
- Book chapter
- Tag(s):
- Arthur Ransome, Brotherton Library, J. R. R. Tolkien, Tolkien studies
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M61Z41S3S
- Abstract:
- ' "You Tempt me Grievously to a Mythological Essay": J. R. R. Tolkien’s Correspondence with Arthur Ransome', edits a letter from Tolkien to Ransome held in the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds. On December 13th 1937, the celebrated children’s author Arthur Ransome wrote to J. R. R. Tolkien with a few comments on Tolkien’s newly published book The Hobbit. Tolkien lost no time in replying, and his letter provides one of his earliest comments on his published fiction, and a relatively early explicit commentary on his mythic writing. This article publishes for the first time Tolkien’s response to Ransome in its entirety, and answers some of the questions regarding the chronology of Tolkien’s correspondence which arise. An analysis of the letter reveals that while, as many scholars have shown, the ‘sources’ and ‘inspirations’ of The Hobbit include the likes of Beowulf and the Poetic Edda, already in 1937—and contrary to his own later claims—Tolkien’s principal primary source for fleshing out his prose stories with characters, places, and references to historical events was the vast legendarium he had created himself.
- Notes:
- Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, 90
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book chapter
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 5 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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