Christopher Rush

Content Summary

Crabbe’s essay analyzes Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings from the perspective that its mythic/epic qualities can be accurately interpreted as a connection to the past.  Obviously, the concept of “myth” is greatly past-centered, and for Crabbe, the success of characters and themes in Lord of the Rings depends in part on how well those characters and themes adhere to the “legends” of the past.  Highlights of ideas presented by Crabbe include the nature of a hero, especially in the hero’s connection to the past; the nature of creation; and the natures of good and evil within the framework of Lord of the Rings, again related to how the “good” and the “evil” maintains its connection to and appreciation for the past.  Crabbe’s overall emphasis, though, under which she uses the aforementioned subtopics for support, is what the title of her essay implies: The Lord of the Rings is a quest story with semi-archetypal quest-like heroes, and the plotted quest of the novels and the character quests of the heroes are connected to the legends of Middle-earth’s past, especially how language distinguishes the “good” from the “evil.”  Crabbe apparently approaches her analysis simply as formalist textual criticism, observing the text itself and understanding it from the perspective mentioned above, focusing on the elements in their connection to Middle-earth’s past.  Though not strictly formalist, in that she does demonstrate an understanding of previous ages of Middle-earth’s history not strictly recounted within the text of The Lord of the Rings proper, her analyses do not extend beyond Middle-earth, except in the application of broad, universal concepts of myths, heroes, quests, legends, and the like.

Author’s Perspective and Purpose

Crabbe does not present any overt biases within this essay, other than her apparent affinity for Tolkien’s sub-created world.  By connecting The Lord of the Rings to “classical” things that matter (myths, heroes, quests), she places a fairly high importance on the story and text itself.  She treats it all seriously, unlike other Tolkien critics who only want to ridicule and denigrate Middle-earth and its inhabitants (especially in Bloom’s collection).  As mentioned above, Crabbe seems to apply only a formalist textual criticism; she does not describe heroes in how they treat or mistreat female characters as a feminist critic might do, nor does she draw parallels to real-life overtones or symbols, as a Christian critic or an eco-friendly critic might do.  She is concerned with what is presented in the text and how that text can be understood in its own relation to Middle-earth’s past.  I have never heard of Katharyn W. Crabbe outside of this essay (though that doesn’t necessarily mean anything), but the edition notes she “has been the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the State University College in Geneseo, New York” and has some other publishing credits, so she does have an academic and critical background and is not just a Tolkien “fan.”

Since Ms. Crabbe analyzes The Lord of the Rings from the perspective of language and its relation to quests, myths, and heroes, she probably has some background in linguistics, if not just on a personal-interest level: she does not use within the essay any technical terminology in linguistics or mythology, but that could just be her intention of allowing for a wide readership of her essay.  She does demonstrate quite well, though, through the essay a clear understanding of the unity of Tolkien’s work, and her ideas about language, mythic quests, and heroes are very lucid and helpful.  Her other points about the natures of heroes and how they relate to the past of Middle-earth are very well done.  She clearly connects her ideas about language and the (legendary) past and how they are important throughout The Lord of the Rings, both as distinguishing the races of characters broadly, as well as distinguishing elements in heroes and villains within those races finely.

Critical Response and Evaluation

Ms. Crabbe’s overall thesis of language as a unifier of peoples and past in Middle-earth is insightful, if not thoroughly helpful, though I do find many of her other insights very helpful.  Her thirty-page essay was one of the longest and most cohesive essays I have read recently.  Many other essays from, perhaps, more scholarly sources, seem to pad the length through digression or bald topic changes without much relevance to the guiding thesis; Ms. Crabbe’s essay, however, is unified throughout.  Her essay is well-written enough that the ideas most helpful, especially concerning the nature of heroes in The Lord of the Rings, are inherently meaningful and consistent even if separated from her thesis of language’s importance in the legendary past and culturally distinctive present in Middle-earth.

When reading The Lord of the Rings, it is possible (especially in the post-movie version era) to focus only the plot, as it is with any novel.  Crabbe’s essay helps remind us that Tolkien’s purpose is not just to spin an exciting yarn about days gone by, but that he was recalling an extended episode of a place that had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and so did its peoples.  Her idea, “the trustworthiness of traditional and intuitive knowledge is a part of the larger value of respect for the past,” is very helpful in seeing this.  Many other critics have noted Tolkien’s penchant for nature and opposition to technology (in fairly heavy-handed arguments), but Tolkien’s Middle-earth is not just a yearning for a return to Rousseauean/Wordsworthian Natural idolatry — it is, as Crabbe says, a world that values and respect its past.  The most successful, most internally unified heroes in The Lord of the Rings are those who are attuned to that past.  Another good example is her comments about Faramir: “The difference between Boromir and Faramir is an expression of the difference in what they have inherited from their Númenórean past….  It is not only knowledge of the past but reverence for it and understanding of it that set Faramir apart, and that knowledge, reverence, and understanding are his links to the golden age….  By exemplifying a hero who values the spiritual life of a culture as well as its physical life, Faramir links the Rohirrim to Aragorn, King of the Númenóreans.”  Aragorn is obviously one of the main heroes of the novel, but Faramir, according to Crabbe, has similar heroic qualities, in that he, too, understands and reveres his past.  This, more than his father’s love according to Peter Jackson’s movies, is what truly sets him above his brother Boromir, who, unfortunately, has a limited perspective concerning his people and his role in Middle-earth.

Katharyn Crabbe’s essay is a very useful examination of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.  Even though she has a seemingly-narrow focus for her thesis, how language relates to people groups of Middle-earth and their connection to its legendary past, Crabbe has enough examples well-explicated that make it worth reading for a variety of purposes.  I found many of her insights useful to me almost despite her perspective of the role of language.  Her ideas on heroism and the mythical past of Middle-earth are helpful, even beyond the pair of specific quotations referenced above.  Though other essays I’ve read that describe the heroes of Lord of the Rings in more detail provide more ideas, the wide range of examples from Katharyn Crabbe distinguish her essay as useful to all Tolkien enthusiasts or critics, regardless of their linguistic backgrounds.