Tolkien's legendarium

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The phrase Tolkien's legendarium is used in the literary discipline of Tolkien studies, and is used to refer both to the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien concerning his fictional world of Middle-earth, and to the extensive history and legends within that fiction.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Origin of the term

A legendarium is a collection of legends. This obscure medieval Latin noun originally referred mainly to texts detailing legends of the lives of saints. A surviving example is the Anjou Legendarium, dating from the 14th century.^[1] 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 normally refers to the adjective instead of the 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 his fictional writings about Middle-earth.^[2]

[edit] Tolkien's use of the term

Tolkien used the term legendarium in reference to his works several times in letters he wrote:

• 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, describing The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, written c.1951)^[3]
• "... my legendarium, especially the 'Downfall of Númenor' 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)^[4]
• "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)^[5]
• "But the beginning of the legendarium, of which the Trilogy is part (the conclusion), was an attempt to reorganise some of the Kalevala ...." (Letter written in 1955)^[6]

[edit] Later use of the term

The term's use in Tolkien scholarship ranges from the title of a book on the subject (Tolkien's Legendarium), to Christopher Tolkien's introduction to The History of Middle-earth series, where he talks about the "primary 'legendarium'", to the following description 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."^[7]

[edit] See also

• Middle-earth canon
• Mythopoeia (genre)

[edit] References

1. ^ Anjou Legendarium
2. ^ The Ring of Words pp 153–154
3. ^ Letters, #131
4. ^ Letters, #153
5. ^ Letters, #154
6. ^ Letters, #163
7. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, entry "The History of Middle-earth".

[edit] Works cited

• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-31555-7
• Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner (2006). The Ring of Words. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861069-6. 
• Flieger, Verlyn and Hostetter, Carl F. (eds.) (2000). Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30530-7. 
• Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.) (2006). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96942-5. es:Legendarium

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