Narrative structure ofThe Lord of the Rings
Scholars have described thenarrative structure ofThe Lord of the Rings,ahigh fantasywork byJ. R. R. Tolkienpublished in 1954–55, in a variety of ways, including as a balanced pair of outer and innerquests;a linear sequence of scenes ortableaux;afractalarrangement of separate episodes; aGothic cathedral-like edificeof many different elements; multiple cycles or spirals; or an elaboratemedieval-styleinterlacingof intersecting threads of story. Also present is an elaborate symmetry between pairs of characters.
The first volume,The Fellowship of the Ring,has a different structure from the rest of the novel. It has attracted attention both for its sequence of five "Homely Houses", safe places where theHobbitprotagonists may recuperate after a dangerous episode, and for its arrangement as a single narrative thread focused on itsprotagonist,Frodo,interrupted by two long but critically importantflashback narrativechapters.
Context[edit]
J. R. R. Tolkien(1892–1973) was an EnglishRoman Catholicwriter, poet,philologist,and academic, best known as the author of thehigh fantasyworksThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings.[1]
In 1954–55,The Lord of the Ringswas published. In 1957, it was awarded theInternational Fantasy Award.The publication of theAce BooksandBallantinepaperbacks in the United States helped it to become immensely popular with a new generation in the 1960s. The book has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys.[2]In the 2003 "Big Read"survey conducted by theBBCin the United Kingdom,The Lord of the Ringswas found to be the "Nation's best-loved book." In similar 2004 polls both Germany[3]and Australia[4]also foundThe Lord of the Ringsto be their favourite book. In a 1999 poll ofAmazon.comcustomers,The Lord of the Ringswas judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium."[5]The popularity ofThe Lord of the Ringsincreased further whenPeter Jackson's film trilogycame out in 2001–2003.[6]
Overall structure[edit]
Tolkien scholarshave noted the unusual narrative structure ofThe Lord of the Rings,describing it in a variety of ways, including as a balanced pair of outer and innerquests;[7]a linear sequence of scenes or static tableaux;[8]a fractal arrangement of separate episodes that successively elaborate upon recurring themes;[9]a Gothic cathedral-like edifice of many different elements that combine to create a space with varying lights and vistas;[9]or an elaborate medieval-style interlacing of intersecting threads of story.[10]
Balance of outer and inner quests[edit]
The critic Nicholas Birns proposes thatThe Lord of the Ringsconsists of two quests, balanced against each other. The outer or main quest is the visible one, to destroy theOne Ring,and it occupies the greater part of the book. The inner or moral quest is described in the book's penultimate chapter, "The Scouring of the Shire".This second quest is revealed whenFrodoand theHobbitsreturn home tothe Shireto find it despoiled and industrialised bySharkey'smen. The Hobbits, equipped by the outer quest to deal with such a crisis, raise the Shire and restore it to its rural perfection.[7]Another critic, Bernhard Hirsch, notes the "considerable critical debate" around the chapter, and that Tolkien stated in his foreword that he had "foreseen from the outset" that the book would have as its formal structure a journey outward for the main quest and a journey home.[11]
Linear sequence of tableaux, and a quest[edit]
The humanities scholarBrian Roseburystated in 2003 thatThe Lord of the Ringsis both a quest –a story with heroesand a goal, to destroy the Ring – and a journey, an expansive tour of Middle-earth through a series oftableauxthat filled readers with delight; and the two support each other. Rosebury commented that much of the work, especially Book 1, is largely descriptive rather than plot-based; it focuses mainly onMiddle-earthitself, taking a journey through a series of tableaux – in the Shire, in theOld Forest,withTom Bombadil,and so on. He stated that "The circumstantial expansiveness of Middle-earth itself is central to the work's aesthetic power".[8]
Alongside this slow descriptiveness is the quest to destroy the Ring, a unifying plotline. The Ring needs to be destroyed to save Middle-earth itself from destruction or domination bySauron.Hence, Rosebury argued, the book does have a single focus: Middle-earth itself. The work builds up Middle-earth as a place that readers come to love, shows that it is under dire threat, and – with the destruction of the Ring – provides the "eucatastrophe"for a happy ending. That defines the work as" comedic "rather than" tragic ", in classical terms; but it also embodies the inevitability of loss, as the elves, hobbits, and the restdecline and fade.Even the least novelistic parts of the work, the chronicles, narratives, and essays of the appendices, help to build a consistent image of Middle-earth. The work is thus, Rosebury asserted, very tightly constructed, the expansiveness and plot fitting together exactly.[8]
Interlacing[edit]
In the second and third volumes ofThe Lord of the Rings,Tolkien employed an unusual and complex narrative structure, interlacing orentrelacement,[10]also called a "tapestry romance".[12]Known frommedieval French literature,it involves following one character or group of characters at a time, with no information about what all the other characters are doing until the narrative switches over to them. Interlacing enabled Tolkien to achieve a variety of literary effects: maintainingsuspense;keeping the reader uncertain of what will happen and even of what is happening to other characters at the same time in the story; and creating both surprise and an ongoing feeling of bewilderment and disorientation. More subtly, the leapfrogging of the timeline by the different story threads allowed Tolkien to make hidden connections that can only be grasped retrospectively, as the reader realises on reflection that certain events happened at the same time, and that these connections imply a contest of good and evil powers.[10]
The scholar of literature George H. Thomson wrote: "What must interest the student of the novel is the way Tolkien has been able to combine a very nearly complete catalogue of[medieval] romancethemes (many of them extraordinary in the highest degree) with an elaborate, capacious, immensely flexible plot structure and make of the whole a coherent and convincingmodern prose narrative."[12]
| Character | 1 The First Journey |
2 The Journey of the Nine Companions |
3 The Treason of Isengard |
4 The Journey of the Ring-bearers |
5 The War of the Ring |
6 The end of the Third Age | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frodo, Sam |
travel to Bree |
travel to Rivendell |
the 9 meet up, go south |
travel towardsMordor | travel toMount Doom | the friends meet again |
Hobbits scour the Shire | |||
| Merry | awaken theEnts toIsengard |
swearsfealtytoTheoden; Battle of the Pelennor Fields |
||||||||
| Pippin | swearsfealtytoDenethor | Battle of the Morannon | ||||||||
| Aragorn | meets the Hobbits | travel toRohan; Battle of Helm's Deep |
Battle of the Pelennor Fields | |||||||
| Legolas, Gimli |
||||||||||
| Gandalf | advises Frodo, hurries off |
dies in Moria |
reappears; awakensRohan toIsengard |
alerts allies | ||||||
| Boromir | dies at Parth Galen |
|||||||||
| Gollum | (glimpsed in pursuit) |
pursues Frodo andthe Ring |
pursues Frodo; destroys Ring, himself |
|||||||
Non-linear[edit]
The scholar E. L. Risden argued that Tolkien strongly resisted a linear structure forThe Lord of the Rings.He writes that the work instead uses narrative techniques that hemetaphoricallycalls "fractal"and"Gothic".Risden quoted the director ofThe Lord of the Ringsfilm trilogy,Peter Jackson,as saying thatThe Fellowship of the Ringwas the easiest to film, as it was mainly linear; the other two volumes, being interlaced,presented the filmmaker with much greater challenges.[9]
Fractal[edit]
Scholars includingMichael Droutand Risden have called the narrative structure "fractal".[15][9]Drout was alluding to the multiple "stress and release" episodes, all different but repeating a pattern.[15]Risden gave as an example of fractal description the work's combination of text with maps and a mass of names. These imply to the reader, he wrote, quoting Shippey, that Tolkien's approach indicated "that there is a world outside the story, that the story is only a selection" from Middle-earth's near-infinite undescribed diversity.[16][9]
Risden wrote that "asfractalthe narrative moves episodically or incrementally, guided by one or more 'strange attractors', unfolding, varying, gaining complexity. "He saw Tolkien's development of Frodo's" Homely House "as a" fractal development ": it begins as Bilbo'sBag End,a perfect home and base for an adventure, and "fractally" adapts to play the same role, but for Frodo and his quest. The Homely House reappears as the little Hobbit-house at Crickhollow, still much like Bag End and still inside the Shire, but now nearer to the wild. Its next incarnation is Tom Bombadil's house, again full of the comforts of home, but clearly one belonging to somebody else. The comfortable inn at Bree offers Hobbity bed and food and beer, but accompanied now by strange men and possibly half-Orcs,and increasingly obvious risks. Finally atRivendell,having survived desperate danger, the "Last Homely House", now nothing like a Hobbit-hole, offers safety – for a time, and healing, in the house of a powerful figure,Elrond.Risden comments that "Friends, like enemies, come in many shapes and sizes", and the world contains a "charming and marvelous array of folk", concluding that "The varied [fractal] repetition expands the potentials of the world of Middle-earth". "[9]
Gothic[edit]
AsGothic,according to Risden, the narrative "explores,cathedral-like, pacing,chiaroscuro,and artifice that expands and completes the world of the text. "[9]He notes that Gothic art has been described as relating "transcendental ideas and the finite world", in his view just like Middle-earth; and that Gothic sculpture, in the words of the French art historianHenri Focillon,"was the expression of piety" while also "cherish[ing] humanity; it loved and respected God's creatures as He loved them".[9]He likens several story elements to parts of a cathedral, for instance, for Frodo's quest-journey:
| Story element | Cathedral component |
|---|---|
| Frodo's path toMordor | Aisle |
| Mordor | Altar,place of sacrifice |
| "Homely Houses" | Side chapelsfor prayer and spiritual rest |
| Suffering | Stations of the Cross |
| Way into Mordor | Ambulatory,a covered passage |
| Achieving the quest | Eucharist |
| Rescued byan Eagle | The spirit,John the Evangelist |
In Risden's view, Tolkien's use of classical and medieval literary structures, such as asides and descriptive episodes, "allow for the expansion of character and for the exploration of alternative sources of power and goodness in the world", providing a "sense of the romance of a world at the edge of our imagination but out of tangible reach".[9]
Symmetry[edit]
Shippey writes that "one of the most undeniable..., if least imitated qualities of...The Lord of the Ringsis the complex neatness of its overall design. "He gives as an example the detailed parallels between the Fellowship's encounters withThéodenand withDenethor.[17]The Tolkien scholarJane Chancenotes that the two leader's names are almostanagrams.[18]
| Story element | Théoden,King of Rohan | Denethor,Steward of Gondor |
|---|---|---|
| Subgroup meets a helpful stranger | Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas meetÉomer | Frodo and Sam meetFaramir |
| Subgroup leader confronts the stranger | Aragorn defies Éomer | Frodo hides his quest from Faramir |
| Stranger decides to help the group, against their superior's wishes | Éomer lends horses | Faramir lets Frodo and Sam go |
| Leader is an old man who has lost a son | Théodred died in battle | Boromirdied saving the Hobbits |
| Leader sees other heir as "doubtful replacement" | Nephew Éomer is disobedient | Faramir is scholarly, not warlike |
| Leader dies at time ofBattle of the Pelennor Fields | Théoden dies in battle | Denethor commits suicide during battle |
| Leader's hall is described in detail | Meduseld,the "golden hall" | The stone hall inMinas Tirith |
| A Hobbit swears allegiance to leader | Merryjoins the Riders of Rohan | Pippinbecomes a palace guard of Gondor |
The Fellowship of the Ring[edit]
The first volume ofThe Lord of the Rings,The Fellowship of the Ring,contains three types of narrative structure, not found in the rest of the novel, that have attracted the notice of Tolkien scholars and critics. Firstly, theHobbitprotagonists, having set out on their adventures, repeatedly return to "Homely Houses", comfortable and safe places where they recuperate.[20][21][22]Secondly, Frodo many times confers and eats with an advisor (not necessarily in a "Homely House" ), then makes a clumsy journey in the face of a danger, then encounters unexpected help.[23]Thirdly, the volume switches between action, with Frodo as protagonist, into two exceptionally long chapters of flashback narrative, both critically important for the novel as a whole.[20][21][22]
Frodo's five "Homely Houses"[edit]
Deliberately constructed[edit]
In 2001, in theLondon Review of Books,Jenny Turner wrote thatThe Lord of the Ringswas suitable for "vulnerable people. You can feel secure inside [it], no matter what is going on in the nasty world outside. The merest weakling can be the master of this cosy little universe. Even a silly furry little hobbit can see his dreams come true."[25]She cited the Tolkien scholarTom Shippey's observation ( "The hobbits... have to be dug out... of no fewer than five 'Homely Houses'"[24]) that the quest repeats itself, the chase in the Shire ending with dinner atFarmer Maggot's, the trouble withOld Man Willowending with hot baths and comfort at Tom Bombadil's, and again safety after adventures inBree,Rivendell, and – though not in a house –Lothlórien.[25]Turner commented that reading the book is to "find oneself gently rocked between bleakness and luxury, the sublime and the cosy. Scary, safe again. Scary, safe again. Scary, safe again."[25]
| Cycle | "Scary" | "Safe again" (in Frodo's Five "Homely Houses"[24]) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ————— | 1.1Bag End |
| 2 | 1.3Black Ridersin pursuit inthe Shire | 1.5 The little house at Crickhollow |
| 3 | 1.6Old Man Willowand theOld Forest | 1.7 The house ofTom Bombadil |
| 4 | 1.8Barrow-wight | 1.9 The Prancing Pony inn atBree |
| 5 | 1.11 Black Riders on Weathertop 1.12 Black Riders in Flight to the Ford |
2.2Rivendell,"the last Homely House east of the sea"[26] |
"Groping for a story"[edit]
Shippey had noticed the alternation at the start ofThe Lord of the Ringsbetween moments of dangerous adventure and of recuperation. Rather than suggesting that Tolkien had constructed this pattern deliberately, he proposed four explanations of how Tolkien might naturally have created this sort of material. Shippey suggested firstly that the text gives the impression not of a moment of inspiration followed by a period of careful invention, but of a lengthy period of laborious invention, in search of some kind of inspiration. Tolkien would write and invent characters, places, and events. He would then naturally run into the complications that inevitably arise when different story-elements collide. These then led at last to an inspiration.[28]
Shippey comments that the work gave the impression that Tolkien had been "initially groping for a story and keeping himself going with a sort of travelogue".[20]In search of material, Tolkien indulged in "a sort of self-plagiarism",[28]repurposing and expanding his own earlier inventions from, for instance, the poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil"which he had written in 1934. This gave him the characters Tom Bombadil, Old Man Willow, and theBarrow-wight.[28]Tolkien's professional knowledge of philology, too, came to his aid, with careful concern for places and placenames, starting in the rather English Shire and then moving outside it. Finally, Tolkien allowed himself a measure of whimsical fun, describing the delicious meals the Hobbit protagonists were able to enjoy when each adventure was over, singing cheerful songs in the form ofpoems embedded in the text,describing the Hobbits playing about like schoolboys when a hot bath suddenly became available in Tom Bombadil's comfortable house, and most pleasurably, constructing humorous dialogue. Shippey comments that "Tolkien found it too easy, and too amusing, just to let the Hobbits chatter on." His friends had to tell him to cut back the Hobbit-talk.[20]
| Critic | Proposed explanation | Implied writing method |
|---|---|---|
| Jenny Turner | Deliberate storytelling for "vulnerable people" | "Scary, safe again. Scary, safe again."[25] |
| Tom Shippey | Laborious inventions in search of inspiration | Invent characters, places, events. Run into complications: find inspiration at last. |
| Use any materials you wrote earlier | Expand old poems, develop characters mentioned in them (Old Man Willow, Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-wight). | |
| Concern for places and placenames | Develop placenames inthe Shireand then elsewhere (e.g.Bree)using philology. | |
| Whimsical fun | Describe meals in detail; have the characters singsongs, included in the text;let the hobbits "chatter on" and play exuberantly. |
Cycles and spirals[edit]
InA Tolkien Compass,the scholar of literature David M. Miller describes bothThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsas "there and back again" tales "with various digressive adventures upon the way".[23]In his view, the setting is thus the road, and the novel is to an extentpicaresque,with the crucial distinction that the components are nearly always essential to the plot. The protagonist, Bilbo and then Frodo, experiences one adventure after another, "perhaps learning and maturing as he goes, but encountering each experience essentially afresh."[23]Miller identifies nine such "cycles" inThe Fellowship of the Ring:[23]
| "Conference in tranquillity" | "Blundering journey" | "Danger" | "Unexpected aid" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gandalf, Frodo | Woody End | Black Rider | Gildor's Elves |
| Elves, Frodo | Stock Brook | Black Rider | Farmer Maggot |
| Farmer Maggot, Frodo | Ferry "(no blunder)" | Black Rider? | Hobbits |
| Frodo, Hobbits | Old Forest | Old Man Willow | Bombadil |
| Bombadil, Frodo | Barrow-downs | Barrow-wight | Bombadil "(expected)" |
| Bombadil, Frodo | Party inPrancing Pony | Black Riders | Strider |
| Strider, Frodo | Weathertop | Black Riders | "Frodo himself", Strider as healer |
| Strider, Frodo | Last Bridge | Black Riders | Glorfindel |
| Glorfindel, Strider | Ford of Bruinen | Black Riders | Gandalf, Elrond, River Bruinen |
Miller makes several comments on these cycles. Each "conference" involves food, so the cycles are of feast and famine. Each danger "is total", since defeat at any point would end the quest. The unexpected helper in each cycle is the advisor in the next cycle. Miller notes that the cycles involving Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wight are anomalous, as the stages do not get the Ring any closer to Rivendell, nor are the hostile characters at all concerned with the Ring. Instead, the "OldForest,OldMan Willow, Tom asEldest"(his emphasis)stand outside time,"left over from theFirst Age";and like the quest," time spurts and lags with discernible rhythm ": time seems to stop in the Elvish dwelling-places of Rivendell and Lothlórien. As for the episode with the Barrow-wight, he is in theSecond Age,and Frodo enters Men's defeat at the hands of theWitch-king'sforces from Carn Dûm. Miller draws parallels between this encounter, where Frodo cuts off the Barrow-wight's hand, and Merry's with the Witch-king at theBattle of the Pelennor Fields;between his call to Bombadil and his own call toElberethfromShelob's lair; and between the destruction of the barrow with the wight's banishment, and the final destruction ofBarad-Dûraccompanied by the wind's blowing away of Sauron. Miller concludes that "The events of Book I form, not so much a cycle as a spiral. The stakes are constantly increased and the gamblers become increasingly self-aware."[23]
Shippey describes Miller's analysis as giving "a sense of cycles and spirals"[29]rather than a feeling of linear progression. Shippey suggests that these structures might have been "created in part by Tolkien's work habits, rewriting continually", in many small stages like waves of an incoming tide, "each one rolling a little further up the beach."[29]
Flashback chapters[edit]
Scholars includingVerlyn Fliegerhave remarked the narrative structure of the two books ofThe Fellowship of the Ring,observing that unlike the rest ofThe Lord of the Rings(which has an elaborately interlaced narrative structure), all of it is told as a single thread with Frodo as the protagonist, with the exception of the twoflashback narrativechapters, "The Shadow of the Past"and"The Council of Elrond".Those two chapters, each the second in its respective book, combine summaries of the history of the Ring with quoted dialogue.[21]Further, they are similar in having a wise old character – theWizardGandalfor theElf-leader Elrond – recapitulate the past so as to explain the present situation.[22]Both chapters are exceptionally long; both are critical in setting the direction of the entire novel; and both are unusual in consisting essentially entirely of dialogue, with no action. The structure is unconventional, even daring, as it violates the basic "show, don't tell"precept for good writing.[30][22][31]
| Book | Single narrative thread withFrodoasprotagonist |
Flashbacknarrated by GandalforElrond |
Importance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ring Sets Out | "A Long-expected Party" | ||
| "The Shadow of the Past" | "the crucial chapter" (Tolkien);[32]"the vital chapter" (Shippey); defines the work's central plot; Frodo and the reader realise there will be a quest to destroythe Ring[33] | ||
| 10 more chapters | |||
| The Ring Goes South | "Many Meetings" | ||
| "The Council of Elrond" | Exceptionally long at 15,000 words; explains danger of the Ring; introduces theFellowship members;defines thequest(rest of novel)[34] | ||
| 8 more chapters |
References[edit]
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- ^Curry 2020,pp. 369–388
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- ^Chance 1980,pp. 119–122.
- ^Shippey 2001,pp. 50–52, 96.
- ^abcdeShippey 2001,pp. 59–68.
- ^abcdNepveu, Kate (27 March 2009)."LotR re-read: Fellowship II.2, 'The Council of Elrond'".Tor.com.Retrieved3 December2021.
- ^abcdeFlieger 2001,p. 21
- ^abcdefMiller 1975,pp. 95–106
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- ^abcdeTurner, Jenny (15 November 2001)."Reasons for Liking Tolkien".London Review of Books.23(22).
- ^Tolkien 1954a,book 2, ch. 1 "Many Meetings"
- ^Beal, Jane (2018)."Who is Tom Bombadil?: Interpreting the Light in Frodo Baggins and Tom Bombadil's Role in the Healing of Traumatic Memory in J.R.R. Tolkien'sLord of the Rings".Journal of Tolkien Research.6(1). article 1.
- ^abcdShippey 2005,pp. 118–119.
- ^abcShippey, Tom(2003). "Foreword".A Tolkien Compass(Second ed.).Open Court.pp. vii–xi.ISBN0-87548-303-8.
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- ^The Lord of the Rings,2nd edition, "Foreword".
- ^Shippey 2005,p. 154.
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