Alright, listen up friends.
I am not a complicated person with complicated
hobbies.
If you asked someone to name 3 things I like,
they would be totally justified in saying
“Anime, Shakespeare, and Lord of the Rings.”
So today I want to talk about the intersection
of two of these excellent things.
No… not Anime Romeo and Juliet…..though….I
mean, it is a good show...it fixes some of
the problems I have with the original….maybe
next time.
No, no, today we are going to talk about how
JRR Tolkien absolutely freakin hated Shakespeare
and that’s why Eowyn is a badass.
So, let’s start by talking about Tolkien.
John Ronald Ruel Tolkien was born on January
3rd, 1892.
The Hobbit was written in 1937, after he had
served in world war 1, when Tolkien was 45.
The Lord of the Rings was written in stages,
the last book being released in 1949, when
he was 57.
So for most of his life, Tolkien was not “the
guy who wrote Lord of the Rings.”
Instead, for most of his adult life, Tolkien’s
claim to fame was his research, translation,
and annotation of Beowulf.
(Yes, the Beowulf that your well meaning 12th
grade English teacher is going to force you to read.)
You see, Tolkien was a professor of English
and Literature at Oxford.
Fun fact, he also worked on the Webster dictionary
(specifically on words that began with W with
a germanic origin.
Dictionary writing is apparently very specialized.)
He gave lectures and did research on ancient
English literature and language as his specialty.
And let me make something clear.
As a person who is academically trained in
English literature, this ensures 2 things
are true about Tolkien: 1.
He was a huge nerd.
And 2.
He had Opinions.
-
And Tolkien hated Shakespeare.
Hated him.
You see, Tolkien believed that too much time
was spent in English Literature departments
reading and studying Shakespeare.
But before you leap to agree with him, know
this: It was Tolkien's opinion that a well rounded
student of literature should spend little
to no time reading ANYTHING more modern than
Chaucer.
Yeah, the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer.
That’s right kids, anything more modern
than 1478 was hip modern dribble unworthy
of serious study.
(Can you imagine what Tolkien would think
of modern lit classes these days?
Ha.)
But more than that, Tolkien believed that
fantasy inherently could not be adequately
represented on stage, and that any attempt
to do so was fundamentally flawed.
(This is where I point out that there are
several stage adaptations of Lord of the Rings,
including a musical version, all of which
are pretty bad and all of which  I am sure Tolkien would
have hated)
Tolkien also took objection to Shakespeare drawing
on Greek and Anglo-Saxon inspiration for his
fairies and elves, rather than what Tolkien
saw as a more refined and authentic source:
Norse and Celtic traditions.
Tolkien looked at Shakespeare's elves and
fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
felt that these corrupt, diminutive depictions
of elves were horrible.
They weren’t REAL elves.
They didn’t act the way REAL elves should
act!
Like I said, the man had Opinions.
Strong opinions about...elves. Among other things.
-
And that brings us to Macbeth.
Set aside Tolkien for a moment while we go
into some backstory about The Scottish Play.
Macbeth is arguably Shakespeare’s bloodiest
tragedy.
First performed in 1606 (Well after our Tolkien
approved literary cut off of the 1470s) it
follows the story of a well respected general
Macbeth.
One day on the road he comes across a trio
of witches who give him a prophecy.
Invoking the greek tradition of the 3 fates
and greek prophesy, this premonition is destined
to be true.
They tell Macbeth that he will be king.
Macbeth relays this information to his wife,
Lady Macbeth who...basically bullies him into
regicide and murder so he can, in fact, become
King.
She tells him that she’s more of a man than
he is because he’s pussyfooting around multiple
premeditated murders of friends and allies. Macbeth goes through with these murders
And Lady Macbeth eventually kills herself out of regret
and guilt.
So Oops on that one.
In the midst of all this killing and mayhem,
Macbeth seeks out the witches again and asks
them for more prophecy.
Will he remain king?
Will he be deposed, as he deposed the last
king?
So they give him three prophecies. First, they tell him to beware his rival Macduff.
Second, they tell him that no man born of
a woman will kill him.
Third, they tell him he will be safe until
the great Birnam Wood comes to the castle.
He feels pretty safe after hearing this, since two of these three
seem pretty impossible.
All men are born of women and forests don’t
generally go walking around, he reasons.
In the end, just as with all prophecy, these
things so come true anyway.
Kind of.
Macduff reveals that he was born via C-section,
which, apparently counts as “not being born
from a woman.”
And a whole bunch of soldiers use branches
of the Birnam forest to disguise themselves
as they march on the castle.
Macbeth is killed, and thus this tragedy of
lust for power and greed has its tragic end.
-
Now, despite your English Teacher’s most
persuasive arguments, your future does not
ultimately hinge on your ability to read and
appreciate Macbeth.
It will help you understand all the allusions
in Hocus Pocus, and will probably strengthen
your, ya know, general reading comprehension
and cultural awareness, but ya know, you won’t
die without it.
And Tolkien hated Macbeth. He hated it.
Specifically, he really took issue with, what
he felt, was a cop out with the final 2 prophecies.
He felt that the loopholes about c-section
and camouflage cheated the audience, and he
was not having it.
So.
Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien’s excuse to write entire languages
and genealogical histories with a loose thread
of plot to move from one intense exploration
of some odd bit of lore to another.
Along with satisfying his need to write a
new mythology for England and be the world’s
biggest linguistics nerd, Tolkien was also
able to address and ultimately fix what he
saw as these flaws in Macbeth.
The first is the prophecy about Birnam forest
marching on the castle.
Rather than have the ~bullshit~ loophole about
normal everyday soldiers using branches as
camouflage, Tolkien looked that plot point
in the eye and declared ENTS.
Living, walking, actual tree people.
Screw Shakespeare and the limitations of the
stage.
He could actually have a forest rise up and
march on a fortress if he damn well wanted
to.
And so he did.
The ents attack Sarumon's tower in stunning
fashion.
The man inside the castle, corrupted by a
lust for power, is defeated.
The next, and ultimately coolest, is Eowyn.
Specifically Eowyn’s duel with the Witch
King.
Take a minute and picture that scene in Return
of the King.
The Witch King stands over Eowyn on the battlefield,
all confidence and radiating evil, and he
declares “No man can kill me!”
The Witch King is, also, Macbeth- a human
king driven to acts of evil by his lust for
power.
In Macbeth the “no man born of a woman can
kill me” is solved by...c-section apparently
not counting as being born?
Tolkien looked that plot point dead in the
face and threw Eowyn at it.
SHE is no man.
She, a woman, breaks that prophecy in a much, much
more satisfying and less bullshitty way than any c-section ever could.
And she does it with a sword and with armor and looking like a badass.
So yes.
That’s how Tolkien wrote one of the greatest
scenes in modern fantasy just to pick a fight
with William Shakespeare.
Bonus fact, years later CS Lewis would similarly
pick a fight with Tolkien because Tolkien
had said that electric lamps had no place
in fantasy.
CS Lewis responded by putting a damn lamppost
in the middle of Narnia just to mess with
him.
In summary: Authors are petty and I love them.
So yeah.
Thank you for watching this video!
This channel is still really new, so I always
appreciate comments and likes.
I’ll be sure to see yall down in the comments.
And as always, if you enjoyed listening to
this queer millennial feminist with a BA in
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