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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 227: Memory in Tolkien's Medievalism, II

Monday 2 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Cardiff Metropolitan University
Organiser:Dimitra Fimi, Department of Humanities, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Moderator/Chair:Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar, Brighton
Paper 227-aTolkien Remembering Tolkien: Textual Memory in the 1977 Silmarillion
(Language: English)
Gergely Nagy, Independent Scholar, Budapest
Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 227-bRemembering and Forgetting: National Identity Construction in Tolkien's Middle-Earth
(Language: English)
Sara Brown, Independent Scholar, Conwy
Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 227-cLonging to Remember, Dying to Forget: Memory and Monstrosity
(Language: English)
Penelope Holdaway, Department of Humanities, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 227-d'Forgot even the stones': Stone Monuments and Imperfect Cultural and Personal Memories in The Lord of the Rings
(Language: English)
Kristine Larsen, Department of Geological Sciences, Central Connecticut State University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Abstract

J.R.R. Tolkien's 'secondary world' unfolds in an immense depth of time.This sense of depth is inherent in The Lord of the Rings and is apparent in scenes such as the Council of Elrond, during which Elrond himself reminisces about events that took place thousands of years previously. What is more, it is not a literary device: Tolkien spent most of his lifetime inventing an extended mythology that detailed the history of his imaginary world over millennia, including a cosmogonic myth and a great number of interrelated legends and tales. This session will explore time in Tolkien's legendarium with an emphasis on memory. Papers can focus on topics such as the value, nature, means, or trauma of remembering and/or forgetting the past in Middle-earth, the role of memory in shaping the future, memorials and monuments, the fictitious transmission of the legendarium (via texts or orally), and remembering and forgetting as part of Tolkien's 'secondary world infrastructures' (Wolf, 2012) such as timelines, genealogies, languages, cultures, etc.