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The recent release of the first of three major films based on the British writer's medieval fantasy novels has prompted curiosity about where Tolkien sought the inspiration for his highly imaginative yarns. The answer, in large part, is in the Old Icelandic sagas and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.
JOHN ROLAND REUEL TOLKIEN (1892-1973), perhaps the most successful and most influential fantasy author of the 20th century, is known for his lively and varied chronicles of Middle-earth: the endearing children's book The Hobbit (1937), the sprawling trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) and his posthumously published Silmarillion (1977). These, along with a handful of shorter works, comprise an opus which animates and sustains a richly alluring, yet wistfully remote world, one which has captured the imaginations of millions of readers in print, and is reaching even larger audiences through the recent film Fellowship of the Ring.
Where did Tolkien come up with his fantastic beings and their strange, multisyllabic names? The answer lies in Tolkien's day job, that of an Oxford medievalist who specialized in Old and Middle English literature but who was endlessly fascinated by the cultures of the Nordic region. Particularly important to Tolkien's writings, in fact, are products of Nordic imagination: the Old Icelandic sagas, medieval Old Norse, Elias Lonnrot's Finnish national epic Kalevala, and the Finnish language. It is the influence of these Nordic sources that we explore here.
Tolkien's creative genius cannot be underestimated. Yet his creations also show influence from the medieval materials and colleagues he knew at Oxford. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were friends and belonged to a group of Oxfordians called the Inklings, who met regularly to read from their works in progress. Lewis's creation was the Chronicles of Narnia series, which he based on biblical stories. As a number of scholars have shown, Tolkien based his works in large measure on the myth and sagas of Scandinavians; indeed, even the name of his fantasy world, Middle Earth, derives directly from the ancient Scandinavian name for the human realm between the heavens and the underworlds, Midgard.
Each of Tolkien's major works shows a slightly different set of Nordic influences. His children's tale The Hobbit draws its form in part from folktales-we know from...