Music as incarnated beauty in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion: a neoplatonic reading
In this study I examine key conceptual parallels between J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary imagination and a Neoplatonic mythopoetic. Specifically, I discuss how Tolkien’s Silmarillion deploys a transcendental conception of Beauty that, I argue, suggests similarities with the notion of Beauty discussed by P...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2024, Volume: 38, Issue: 1, Pages: 13-26 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1892-1973, The Silmarillion
/ Plotinus 205-270, Enneades
/ Beauty
/ Neoplatonism
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history TB Antiquity VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In this study I examine key conceptual parallels between J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary imagination and a Neoplatonic mythopoetic. Specifically, I discuss how Tolkien’s Silmarillion deploys a transcendental conception of Beauty that, I argue, suggests similarities with the notion of Beauty discussed by Plotinus in his Enneads. Following the scholarship of Lisa Coutras (2016) and Michael John Halsall (2020), this study analyzes key sections from Tolkien’s work to demonstrate a Neoplatonic influence. This influence, I argue, is best understood via an incarnational logic that understands musical harmony and tonal beauty to be signs that signal an ultimate transcendent source in Tolkien’s legendarium. Falling short of arguing for a direct influence of the Neoplatonic tradition on Tolkien, this study seeks to demonstrate only a plausible link between Neoplatonic sources and Tolkien’s work. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frae007 |
