Talk:Tolkien's legendarium/Middle-earth Cycle


 * In this case, discussion is at Talk:Tolkien's legendarium

Introduction

 * The term Middle-earth Cycle stands in sharp contrast to the term Middle-earth canon.  The former is descriptive (seeks to describe the body of literature that reveals Middle-earth), while the latter is proscriptive (seeks to define the limits - external or internal - of what can or cannot be appealed to in a search for 'authority' on the nature of Middle-earth and its inhabitants.)

History of the Term
The literary term 'cycle' is used to tie a group of poems, narratives, histories and songs (and the like) together by virtue of their shared treatment of a common theme and/or characters. The term is most commonly applied to non-fiction when the 'common theme' is attached to a body of myths/legends specific to a culture (e.g., a legendarium commonly detailing the exploits of a hero or set of heroes with which that culture identifies). The Vedas, the Irish Mythological Cycle, the Eddas, the Kalevala and the Mabinogeon are all good examples (when discussing Tolkien) of myth-cycles comprised of a body of writings and/or narratives that are tied together by virtue of a strong common theme, and that contain more than a bare-bones story (i.e., that contain religious and philosophical considerations, songs, poems, etc.)  Mythic Cycles, as such, deal with entire cultures - with origins, purposes, explanations and predictions: they tell us what an entire people think about who they are, whence they came, and where they are going. Concerning fiction, on the other hand, the term has been generally applied to romance, fantasy, science fiction/science fantasy, etc., whenever a series of novels/stories treating one theme are produced (e.g., Asimov's Foundation Cycle, P Anthony's Xanth Cycle, etc.), regardless of the content of those novels (i.e., regardless of whether they represent themselves as mythologies/legends).

An important distinction for this article is the fact that Tolkien's Middle-earth work, as an attempt at culture-and-myth-making (with languages and songs and philosophies and stories all woven together), takes from both the fictional and the non-fictional senses of 'cycle'. To an extent, this distinction sets Tolkien's Middle-earth Cycle in a class all its own.

While familiar to many Tolkien readers, the term 'Middle-earth Cycle' itself lacks a concrete provenance - something that must eventually be determined. Tolkien generally referred to the entirety of his Middle-earth work with the term 'legendarium' (which more properly is applied to the later exploits of the Children of Ilúvatar, but not to Ainulindalë [a creation myth] or Valaquenta [a divinities-index]). A recent specific Google search for "Middle-earth Cycle" resulted in 192 widely varying hits, including (of all things) a sales-caption for the 1980 Rankin-Bass animated film version of The Return of the King (it is unclear if the caption came in 1980 with the film) and a synopsis of an academic book (published by Walking Tree in 2003) dealing with the problem of whether it is appropriate (or even possible) to translate the Middle-earth Cycle from English into other languages.

All things being equal, it seems both a justified and established term, to be sure.

Definition
As for its definition, there can be a very specific application and a more general application:

To treat the subject more specifically, the Middle-earth Cycle is the successive (and perhaps ordered) collection of fictional myths and histories of Middle-earth that begins with events commensurate with those presented in The Silmarillion (in its opening section Ainulindalë), and that carries through The Hobbit and 'ends' with The Lord of the Rings. Taken this way, the Cycle is a step-by-step set of stories starting with the Music of the Ainur, progressing through the history of the founding of the Kingdom of Arda, the establishment of Valinor, the waking of the Eldar and the Edain, the wars for the Silmarils, the fall of Nargothrond, Gondolin and Doriath, the victory over Morgoth, the rise and fall of Númenor, the founding of Arnor and Gondor, the appearance of Hobbits and the downfall of the Lord of the Rings (all of it ending with Sam Gamgee's famous "Well, I'm back.")  This treatment is better applied to strict legendariums and/or typical works of fiction.

Taken more generally, the Middle-earth Cycle is the sum total of all fictional myths, tales, histories, lays and poems written (over a period of 60+ years) by J. R. R. Tolkien, in all their versions and revisions, complete or incomplete, that deal explicitly with or make substantial use of Middle-earth and its fictional mythologies and histories: i.e., the entire body of Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth literature (including the straight histories, contradictory variants, half-finished tales, spin-offs and offshoots, linguistic appendices, genealogies, maps etc.)  This treatment is better applied to typical bodies of myth and other organic works of a given culture.

Though the Cycle is best known for its account of the tail-end of the Third Age of Middle-earth (the space wherein readers find hobbits and wizards and rings and great wars involving them all - i.e., The Lord of the Rings), it is actually a highly complicated and delicate system covering tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of years. A work that grew and developed in the making, there are for each myth, tale and poem, multiple versions and revisions; often there is no clear final form established by authorial (or even editorial) decree. As a fictional body of myths, legends and histories, the Cycle (when it includes all versions, abridgements, revisions and standing contradictions) more closely mirrors non-fictional mythological cycles - something to which the author clearly and indisputably aspired.

Key Elements
The key elements of Tolkien's Middle-earth Cycle can be grouped into several subcategories (not authoritative, but rather simply for this article only and for easier explanation): Metaphysics, Myths & Legends, Poems & Songs, Linguistics & Geography.

The Metaphysics of Middle-earth are to be gleaned from Ainulindalë in particular, but from all the works in general, as well as from Tolkien's personal notes and letters. Wherever Tolkien treats of the nature of being, of spirituality in Middle-earth etc., he is expressing the Metaphysics of Middle-earth. An example would be the nature of how created beings stand in relation to their Creator: in Middle-earth, they stand as manifest representations of His thematic concepts, or ideas/thoughts, to which independent existence has been given.

Plot and Action are what make up the main Myths and Legends of Middle-earth. These include Ainulindalë (the cosmogony, or creation myth, of Middle-earth); Quenta Silmarillion (or 'Silmarillion Proper': the history of the Coming of the Children of Ilúvatar, the War for the Silmarils, and the legends of the heroes [e.g., Beren, Túrin, Tuor and Eärendil]); Akallabêth (the 'Atlantean' legend of Númenórë); and The Lord of the Rings. These correspond roughly to four 'Ages' of the World, prefaced by a 'time-before-time', and are the 'main' elements of Middle-earth history - but not the only elements.

The Poems and Songs of Middle-earth can appear within formal histories (like Sam's in The Lord of the Rings), or as separate entities altogether (as in Bombadil or Road). There are also a large number of poetic works written many years before these works, some of which have been published in The History of Middle-earth or other places. Many of these early works relate to Middle-earth. A listing of poems can be found at Poems by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Middle-earth's Linguistics & Geography have been credited as being the things upon which Tolkien built its myths and legends, its poems and songs, and around which he wrapped its metaphysics. A philologist by trade, Tolkien created entire languages (entire families of languages) for which he attempted to create 'explanatory' situations - tales or stories wherein this-or-that word could come to be, or where such-and-such phrases reasonably might be used. Quenya, Sindarin, Black Speech, Adûnaic, Khuzdul - these are but some of the languages and dialects existing in Middle-earth (or, more properly, around which Middle-earth came to be). Maps and charts were also critical for development of the mythologies and legends. Tolkien said himself that he started with maps (after languages), and these maps affected and shaped the nature of the tales to come. Maps of Middle-earth, its regions, its place in the World etc., can be gotten from the main texts - but especially from Christopher Tolkien's many volumes of The History of Middle-earth.

Complete Cycle
There are other works that more generally apply to the Cycle, yet that defy a chronological placement because they are not thoroughly date- and/or plot-specific (Bombadil, Road), or because they are otherwise completely anachronistic (Smith) with respect to the 'chronology' and plot of the major myths and histories.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of poems presented as having been collected by Hobbits, though this may not have been the intentional contextual circumstances of every version of every poem contained in the book.

The Road Goes Ever On is a recording of many Middle-earth poems put to music. As meaningful versions (endorsed by the author) of bonafide Middle-earth poems, they too fit in the Cycle, as would Bilbo's Last Song.

Though Smith of Wootton Major takes place in a locale that sounds like historical Medieval England, this work clearly references or echoes the myths and legends of Middle-earth (e.g., the concepts of Faëry/Faërie and The Lost Road, the Star of Elendil, etc.). Thus the book deserves its place in the Cycle - perhaps as the 'last' element, chronologically speaking.

Other products of Tolkien's talent include Roverandom and The Father Christmas Letters, which contain remarks or words that may seem to reference Middle-earth. As it stands, this article contains no reason to either exclude or include these two pieces in the broader Cycle. However, unless it can be shown exactly how these pieces necessarily utilize Middle-earth and its (fictional) mytho-historical bases, they cannot (by definition) be considered elements of the Middle-earth Cycle. That is, unless it can be shown how and to what extent these works treat the common theme that is 'Middle-earth', it will be difficult to justify their inclusion in the Middle-earth Cycle.

Impact
While all its elements remain works of pure fiction (and thus have never actually served as a 'cultural context' to any actual society or peoples), Tolkien's Middle-earth Cycle is nonetheless commensurable with many non-fictional mytho-historical cycles like the Eddas. As such, the Cycle's elements have found their way into Comparative Mythology classrooms around the world.
 * This section under construction