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.
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Author’s Preface
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Tom Shippey:
Tolkien’s Thought and Tolkien’s Inner World
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
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Cover
Cover illustration by Anke Eißmann, 'The Oath of Finrod Felagund' (2022).
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Announcements
New publication, Germanic Heroes, Courage, and Fate: Northern Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium (17th March 2024)
251 pages, Walking Tree Publishers 2024, Cormarë Series No. 49, ISBN: 978-3-905703-49-8.
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