Tolkien's legendarium
Encyclopedia
The phrase Tolkien's legendarium is used in the literary discipline of Tolkien studies
to refer to the part of J. R. R. Tolkien
's high fantasy
fiction being concerned with his Elven
legends; that is, historic events that have become legendary from the perspective of the characters of The Lord of the Rings.
It may also be found more colloquially in Tolkien fandom to refer to any or all of Tolkien's Middle-earth
writing considered as a whole, thus including works such as The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings.
s. This obscure medieval Latin
noun
originally referred mainly to texts detailing legends of the lives of saint
s. A surviving example is the Anjou Legendarium
, dating from the 14th century. Quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary
for the synonymous noun legendary date from 1513. The Middle English
South English Legendary is an example of this form of the noun.
In modern times, legendary is normally used as an adjective instead of a noun. The legendarium form is still found in several European languages, and was in occasional use in the English language
when J. R. R. Tolkien
used it to refer to some of his fictional writings about Middle-earth
.
:
by John D. Rateliff, as the body of Tolkien's work consisting of:
All of which comprise the different "phases" of Tolkien's Elven legendary writings, posthumously edited and published in The Silmarillion
and in their original forms in the series The History of Middle-earth
.
While other Tolkien scholars have not seen fit to define their use of the term, it is used in the following contexts:
Tolkien Studies
Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review is an academic journal publishing papers on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson, Michael D. C. Drout, and Verlyn Flieger. It states that it is the first scholarly journal published by an academic press in the area of Tolkien...
to refer to the part of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's high fantasy
High fantasy
High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...
fiction being concerned with his Elven
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
legends; that is, historic events that have become legendary from the perspective of the characters of The Lord of the Rings.
It may also be found more colloquially in Tolkien fandom to refer to any or all of Tolkien's Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
writing considered as a whole, thus including works such as The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
and The Lord of the Rings.
Origin of the term legendarium
The term "legendarium" refers to a literary collection of legendLegend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s. This obscure medieval Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
originally referred mainly to texts detailing legends of the lives of saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s. A surviving example is the Anjou Legendarium
Anjou Legendarium
The Anjou Legendarium is a Gothic illuminated manuscript of a collection of stories from the life of saints important to the House of Anjou of Hungary. It was made on the occasion of the journey of Charles I of Hungary and his son Prince Andrew to Naples in Italy in 1330.The legendarium was a...
, dating from the 14th century. Quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
for the synonymous noun legendary date from 1513. The Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
South English Legendary is an example of this form of the noun.
In modern times, legendary is normally used as an adjective instead of a noun. The legendarium form is still found in several European languages, and was in occasional use in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
when J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
used it to refer to some of his fictional writings about Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
.
Tolkien's use of the term legendarium
Tolkien used the term legendarium with reference to his works in a total of four letters he wrote between 1951 and 1955, a period in which he was attempting to have his unfinished Silmarillion published alongside the more complete The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
:
- On The Silmarillion: "This legendarium ends with a vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli and the 'light before the Sun' ...." (Letter to Milton Waldman, written c.1951)
- On both texts "... my legendarium, especially the 'Downfall of NúmenorNúmenorNúmenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
' which lies immediately behind The Lord of the Rings, is based on my view: that Men are essentially mortal and must not try to become 'immortal' in the flesh." (Letter written in 1954) - On The Silmarillion: "Actually in the imagination of this story we are now living on a physically round Earth. But the whole 'legendarium' contains a transition from a flat world ... to a globe ...." (Letter written in 1954)
- Encompassing both texts: "But the beginning of the legendarium, of which the TrilogyThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
is part (the conclusion), was an attempt to reorganise some of the KalevalaKalevalaThe Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...
...." (Letter written in 1955)
Use of the phrase Tolkien's legendarium
"Tolkien's legendarium" is defined in the analytical work The History of the HobbitThe History of The Hobbit
The History of The Hobbit is a two-volume study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. It was published by HarperCollins in June and July 2007 in the UK, with both volumes released in the United States by Houghton Mifflin on September 21, 2007; a boxed set combining The Hobbit with The History of The...
by John D. Rateliff, as the body of Tolkien's work consisting of:
- The Book of Lost TalesThe Book of Lost TalesThe Book of Lost Tales is the title of a collection of early stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, and of the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyses the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the...
- The Sketch of the Mythology and contemporary alliterative verses
- The 1930 Quenta SilmarillionQuenta SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion is a collection of fictional legends written by the high fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published after the author's death in The Silmarillion together with four shorter stories...
and first Annals - The 1937 Quenta and later Annals
- The later Quenta Silmarillion
- The final Annals
All of which comprise the different "phases" of Tolkien's Elven legendary writings, posthumously edited and published in The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
and in their original forms in the series The History of Middle-earth
The History of Middle-earth
The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books published from 1983 through to 1996 that collect and analyse material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Some of the content consists of earlier versions of already published...
.
While other Tolkien scholars have not seen fit to define their use of the term, it is used in the following contexts:
- Christopher Tolkien's introduction to The History of Middle-earthThe History of Middle-earthThe History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books published from 1983 through to 1996 that collect and analyse material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Some of the content consists of earlier versions of already published...
series, where he talks about the "primary 'legendarium'" in referring to core episodes and themes of The Silmarillion which were not abandoned in J.R.R. Tolkien's constant redrafting of the work. - Tolkien's LegendariumTolkien's LegendariumTolkien's Legendarium is a collection of scholarly essays edited by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter on the History of Middle-earth series of books relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien...
, a collection of critical essays on The History of Middle-earth edited by Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter. - The following definition of The History of Middle-earth series in the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: "The History of Middle-earth is a longitudinal study of the development and elaboration of Tolkien's legendarium through his transcribed manuscripts, with textual commentary by the editor, Christopher Tolkien."
- Verlyn Flieger states "...the greatest is the creation of the Silmarils, the Gems of light that give their names to the whole legendarium", equating the legendarium concept with the Silmarillion (which itself is used to denote sometimes the work published under that name and sometimes the larger body of un-edited drafts used to create that work).
- Dickerson and Evans use the phrase "legendarium" to encompass the entirety of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings 'for convenience'.