Of course, there is by now such an enormous amount of books and articles on Tolkien and his works that it has become quite impossible to keep track of even the most momentous contributions to the critical debate – and this, of course, applies even more to an ‘outsider’ whose academic interests are not fully focused on this particular field of enquiry. With a practical example, the study explores more broadly the important discoveries source criticism yields about the influence of previous literature on the creative process of writing.ĭiscussing Tolkien studies poses several serious problems to a scholar who is trying to approach the subject unbiased and without a specific agenda in mind. He exploited the consistencies and contradictions in older sources to weave new seamless tales that cloak their legacy and achieve a new authorial purpose at the same time.

This analysis reveals important details on the way Tolkien borrowed material to craft his stories. Secondly, by taking earlier source studies further (Anderson, Atherton, Bowers, Hillman, Honegger, Lee, Rateliff, Shippey, Solopova and Wickham-Crowley) and unravelling how the themes of abduction and otherworld, as taken from Sir Orfeo, are incorporated into Mirkwood. Firstly, by showing that twenty-one years (1915-36) of devotion passed since Tolkien encountered Sir Orfeo in Oxford, till the finished typescript of The Hobbit was sent to the publisher Allen & Unwin. Tolkien’s sources, this paper aims to demonstrate that the relationship between Sir Orfeo (c.1330) and The Hobbit (1937) is of influence and not of mere similarity.

In view of Jason Fisher’s (2011) principles for a rigorous study of J.

Download stuart beavis