Historical Bias
Death, Grief, and the Other in the "Quenta Silmarillion"
Published on 7 September 2024 | Conference Paper
The narrator of the Quenta Silmarillion uses death, grief, and mourning rituals to generate sympathy for or dehumanize groups of characters considered the Other.
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Genre: No genre listed.
Characters: Pengolodh
Pairing: No pairing listed.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion"
Published on 12 April 2024 | Conference Paper
In the Quenta Silmarillion, the narrator of The Silmarillion allows characters to experience grief and express mourning in different ways, reflecting the biases that he brings to the text.
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Genre: No genre listed.
Characters: Pengolodh
Pairing: No pairing listed.
The Most Important Characters Never Named: Unveiling the Narrators of The Silmarillion
Published on 6 April 2019 | Conference Paper
This paper, presented at the 2019 Tolkien at UVM Conference, considers the question of who (fictionally) wrote The Silmarillion, what evidence exists for this authorship, and what implications arise when reading and understanding a Silmarillion narrated by a fully developed character.
Attainable Vistas: Historical Bias in Tolkien's Legendarium as a Motive for Transformative Fanworks
Published on 1 September 2016 | Article
The Silmarillion was constructed as a pseudohistorical text and contains evident biases. Motivated as they often are by a desire to correct their source texts, Tolkien fanfiction authors use this bias as a motive for creating fanworks. However, this is not a universal impulse, and survey data coupled with data from Tolkienfic archives illustrates key cultural differences between Tolkienfic communities. Published in the Journal of Tolkien Research.
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Characters: No characters listed.
Pairing: No pairing listed.
“Thus Wrote Pengolodh”: Historical Bias, Its Evidence, and Its Implications in The Silmarillion
Published on 8 April 2017 | Conference Paper
The fictional author of The Silmarillion impacts how the story is told. This paper, presented at the 2017 Tolkien at UVM Conference, makes the case for Pengolodh as the author of much of the Quenta Silmarillion and explores how his biases manifest in the text.
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Genre: No genre listed.
Characters: Pengolodh
Pairing: No pairing listed.
The Deaths of Kings: Historical Bias in the Death Scenes of Fëanor and Fingolfin
Published on 8 March 2017 | Essay
The death scenes of Fëanor and Fingolfin parallel each other closely in plot, beginning with the rash pursuit of single combat with Morgoth. Yet the manner in which the narrator of The Silmarillion, Pengolodh, employs language and symbolism leads to two very different conclusions that likely served to advance Pengolodh's political and personal agenda.
Caranthir the Slandered: Narrative Bias, Cross-Cultural Alliances, and Fëanor’s Angriest Son
Published on 26 July 2018 | Essay
Caranthir is relentlessly described in The Silmarillion as dark and harsh and haughty, yet these descriptions bear little resemblance to his actual deeds. Instead, I argue in this essay, Caranthir serves as one of the rare cosmopolitans of the Noldor and is deliberately cast by the Silmarillion's pseudohistorical narrator as a foil to the equally cosmopolitan Finrod Felagund in order to elevate the reputation of the latter.
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Genre: No genre listed.
Characters: Caranthir, Elu Thingol, Finrod Felagund, Pengolodh, Turgon
Pairing: No pairing listed.