The Well of Remembrance: Tolkien

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November 29, 2009

Tolkien and the Northern Tradition

Tolkien and the Northern Tradition

By Kveldulfr Gundarsson
J.R.R. Tolkien was a Professor of Anglo‑Saxon at Oxford for twenty years and, for some time thereafter, a Professor of English Language and Literature (his specialization was the West Midland dialect of Middle English). These positions required him to be fluent and deeply versed in Old English and Old Norse language and literature and to be a first‑rate philologist ‑ an expert in Germanic language and myth. His essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", for instance, has been one of the most influential writings in the scholarly study of that complex Anglo‑Saxon epic.

'The modern man has lost his connection to the soil of his forefathers. The modern man's connection to his forefathers and the gods of his blood is lost too. He travels all across the Earth as a creature with no roots anywhere. He no longer grows his own food, he no longer catches his own fish or meat, he no longer milks the cows or collects eggs, berries, nuts, fruit and sea shells from nature. He no longer builds his own home or buries his own kin. He has lost his respect for nature, for his fatherland and for his kin, but he has gained nothing. The soul of the modern man is dead. He has lost almost everything.'
Varg Vikernes