Stylistics and Tolkien

[robin_anne_reid]

I have mentioned stylistics as a methodology before in this journal, in relation to the work I'm doing on Racefail 09 and the discourses surround it, but I first learned stylistics in literature courses since it's a method that a few people have been arguing should be used in literary studies, especially since people tend to talk about "good" and "bad" writing (styles) without training or consistent criteria. (Long history here of how 'lit and language' wars in which Tolkien participated ended up with linguistics going into its own discipline and (English) literature its own with a major focus on literary texts from Shakespeare on (i.e. English majors are not required to learn Old and Middle English, as Tolkien would have required!).  (I'm not saying that's bad, but it's good to keep the history in mind--I'm also not sure how other national literatures are taught in the university systems, but that's a topic for another day).

Anyhow, I've been doing stylistics work on Tolkien's LOTR for a while, and now am starting to branch out to the Silmarillion, in a presentation I'm giving at Kalamazoo (gulp) a couple of weeks from now.  I figure I can post some of the stylistics analysis I'm doing as a sample of how the method looks in action.

My main sources for this work:  the single best argument/rationale for stylistics was made years ago by Roger Fowler in Linguistics Criticism  www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Linguistics/LiteraryStylistics/. 

The nuts and bolts of the linguistic work I use is M. A. K. Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar:  www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Linguistics/TheoreticalDescriptiveLinguistic/

Here's a Functional Grammar website:  folk.uio.no/hhasselg/systemic/index.html

Stylistics is basically application of linguistic methodology to written texts (originally focusing on literature, but it's since expanded to include any type of written text).

I have published before on the "grammar" of Middle-earth--how Tolkien's writing gives Middle-earth what I call an animistic agency in LOTR.

So now I'm pulling some excerpts from The Silmarillion to do a stylistic analysis of them. 

My first surprise was how hard it is to find descriptions of the world/lands in this work, but I guess I shouldn't have been (long descriptions of the natural world are not a conventional feature of myth, even myths about the creation of the world!). I found a few passages to work with (given behind the cut).

As with my earlier stylistic work, this project is an exploration, a pilot project, not meant to be comprehensive (in order to develop a more comprehensive analysis, I'll have to work with larger amounts of text); however, this sort of exploratory attempt can show what approaches might be useful to use in developing a fuller analysis.

What's behind the cut are the excerpts in a format that shows clause structure (the clause is the main unit of either written or spoken English--the written form uses sentences (marked with capital letter and full stop), but sentences can include anything from a single word to multiple clauses, so Halliday's work focuses on the clause).  

A CLAUSE consists of one more more GROUPS; a GROUP consists of one or more WORDS; a WORD consists of one or more MORPHEMES.

It's possible to link ("bind") multiple clauses--that's called a CLAUSE COMPLEX. 

It's possible to do linguistic analysis at every rank level noted above in either written or spoken language utterances (and spoken forms can be in either audio format or transcriptions).  My  new colleague does sound and intonation, for example. 

The first level of functional grammatical analysis of a written text is to identify the clause patterns. Then you can analyze the metafunctions and structures.

So here's the clause breakdown (independent clauses are numbered with 1, 2, and 3; dependent clauses with i) ii) iii).

The words in [square brackets] are ones that are in the deep structure of the clause but not written in the surface text (but which the reader supplies to create meaning]. A stylistic analysis 'counts' those elements as well.

Ainulindalë, The Silmarillion

 

1)      Thus began the first battle of the Valar with Melkor for the dominion of Arda;

2)      and of those tumults the Elves know but little. 

3)      For what has here been declared is come from the Valar themselves,

i)        with whom the Eldalië spoke in the land of Valinor,

ii)      and by whom they were instructed;

4)      but little would the Valar ever tell of the wars before the coming of the Elves.

5)      Yet it is told among the Eldar

i)        that the Valar endeavoured ever, in despite of Melkor, to rule the Earth

ii)      and [that the Valar endeavoured ever, in despite of Melkor, ] to prepare it for the coming of the Firstborn;

6)      and they [the Valar] built lands

7)      and Melkor destroyed them [lands];

8)      valleys they [the Valar] delved

9)      and Melkor raised them [the valleys] up;

10)  mountains they [the Valar] carved

11)  and Melkor threw them [the mountains] down;

12)  seas they [the Valar] hollowed

13)  and Melkor spilled them [the seas];

14)  and naught might have peace or come to lasting growth,

i)        for as surely as the Valar began a labour

ii)      so would Melkor undo it [the labor] or corrupt it [the labor]. 

15)  And yet their [the Valar's] labour was not all in vain;

16)  and though nowhere and in no work was their [the Valar's] will and purpose wholly fufilled,

17)  and all things were in hue and shape other than the Valar had at first intended,

18)  slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned

19)  and [the Earth was] made fit. 

20)  And thus was the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar established at last in the Deeps of Time and amidst the innumerable stars. 

Chapter 1 of Qenta Silmarillion, The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days"

 

1)      In that time the Valar brought order to the seas

2)      and [the Valar brought order to] the lands

3)      and [the Valar brought order to] the mountains,

4)      and Yavanna planted at last the seeds

i)        that she had long devised. 

            i)    And since, when the fires were subdued or buried beneath the primeval hills,

5)      there was need of light,

6)      Aulë at the prayer of Yavanna wrought two mighty lamps for the lighting of the Middle-earth

i)        which he had built amid the encircling seas.

7)      Then Varda filled the lamps

8)      and Manwë hallowed them [the lamps],

9)      and the Valar set them [the lamps] upon high pillars,

i)        [which were] more lofty far [sic]

ii)      than are any mountains of the later days.

10)  One lamp they [the Valar] raised near to the north of Middle-earth,

11)  and it [the lamp] was named Illuin;

12)  and the other [lamp] was raised in the south,

13)  and it [the lamp] was named Ormal;

14)  and the light of the Lamps of the Valar flowed out over the Earth,

i)        so that all was lit as it were in a changeless day.

PARAGRAPH

15)  Then the seeds {..}  began swiftly to sprout and to burgeon

i)        {that Yavanna had sown,}

16)  and there arose a multitude of growing things great and small, mosses and grasses and great

ferns, and trees

i)        whose tops were crowned with cloud

ii)      as [if] they were living mountains,

iii)    but whose feet were wrapped in a green twilight.

17)  And beasts came forth and dwelt in the grassy plains,

18)  or [beasts came forth and dwelt] in the rivers and the lakes,

19)  or [beasts came forth and dwelt] walked in the shadows of the woods. 

20)  As yet no flower had bloomed

21)  nor any bird had sung,

22)  both these things waited still their time in the bosom of Yavanna;

23)  but wealth there was of her imagining,

24)  and nowhere more rich than in the midmost parts of the Earth,

i)        where the light of both the Lamps met and blended. 

25)  And there upon the Isle of Almaren in the Great Lake was the first dwelling of the Valar

i)        when all things were young,

ii)      and [when] new-made green was yet a marvel in the eyes of the makers;

26)  and they [the Valar] were long content.

Chapter 14 of the Quenta Silmarillion, The Silmarillion, "Of Beleriand and its Realms,"

 

1)      Now the great and fair country of Beleriand lay on either side of the mighty river Sirion,

2)      renowned in song,

i)        which rose at Eithel Sirion

ii)      and  [which] skirted the edge of Ard-galen

iii)    ere he [the river Sirion] plunged through the pass, becoming ever fuller with the streams  of the moutains.

3)      Thence he [river Sirion] flowed south for one hundred and thirty leagues, gathering the waters of many tributaries,

i)        until with a mighty flood he [Sirion] reached his [Sirion] many mouths and sandy delta in the Bay of Balar.

            4.i)And following Sirion from north to south

4)      there lay upon the right hand in West Beleriand the Forest of Brethil between Sirion and Teiglin,

5)      and then [there lay] the realm of Nargothrond, between Teiglin and Narog.

6)      And the River Narog rose in the falls of Ivrin in the southern face of Dor-lómin,

7)      and [the River Narog] flowed some eighty leagues

i)        ere he [the River Narog] joined Sirion in Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows. 

8)      South of Nan-tathren was a region of meads filled with many flowers,

i)        where few folk dwelt;

9)      and beyond [the region of meads filled with many flowers] lay the marshes and isles of reeds

10)  about the mouths of Sirion,

11)  and the sands of his [Sirion's] ]delta [were] empty of all living things save the birds of the sea.  

Akallabêth, The Silmarillion,  "The Downfall of Numenor, "

 

1)      Of old the chief city and haven of Númenor was in the midst of its western coasts,

2)      and it [the chief city and haven of Númenor] was called  Andúnië

i)        because it [the chief city and haven of Númenor] faced the sunset.

3)      But in the midst of the land was a mountain tall and steep,

4)      and it [the mountain tall and steep] was named the Meneltarma, the pillar of Heaven,

5)      and upon it [Meneltarma] was a high place

i)        that was hallowed to Eru Ilúvatar,

6)      and it [the high place hallowed to Eru Ilúvatar ] was open and unroofed,

7)      and no other temple or fane was there in the land of the Númenóreans. 

8)      At the feet of the mountain were built the tombs of the Kings,

9)      and hard by upon a hill was Armenelos, fairest of cities,

10)  and there stood the tower and the citadel

i)        that was raised by Elros son of Eäendil,

(a)    whom the Valar appointed to be the first King of the Dúnedain.