Death, Grief, and the Other in the "Quenta Silmarillion"
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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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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Topic: Fandom Culture, Historical Bias, Historiography and Tolkien, Tolkien Studies
Characters: No characters listed.
The Borders of the (Fictional) World: Fan Fiction Archives, Ideological Approaches, and Fan Identity
Published on 16 July 2016 | Conference Paper
This paper, cowritten and co-presented at the 2016 New York Tolkien Conference with Janet McCullough John, looks at how the various archives used by Tolkienfic writers created both fragmentation in the fandom and also allowed for distinct cultures to develop within those archives. We explore cultural differences within the various archives and the historical context of the wider Tolkien fandom in which these cultures arose.
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Topic: Fandom Culture, Fandom History
Characters: No characters listed.
Character Biography: Pengolodh
Published on 1 March 2016 | Essay
Pengolodh is the most important character never mentioned in the published Silmarillion. This essay discusses what he would have known of the history he wrote about and how that impacts interpreting The Silmarillion for fanfiction.
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Topic: Character Study, Historiography and Tolkien, Tolkien Studies
Characters: Pengolodh
Víressë
Published on 4 January 2016 | Short Story | Gift Story , | Reader's Choice
As Sauron's reach lengthens, Winter lingers overlong in Gondor. In the midst of cold, despair, and the slow march to war, Boromir kindles a forbidden love affair with an unknown errand-rider that creates intrigue and betrayal.
The Loremasters of Fëanor: Historical Bias in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Transformative Works
Published on 13 June 2015 | Conference Paper
Tolkien's Silmarillion contains a pseudohistorical narrator who brings his bias to bear on much of the Quenta Silmarillion. Tolkienfic writers often prefer the characters disfavored by the narrator, using their fanworks to construct an alternate and sometimes corrective narrative from the points of view of characters subject to negative bias.
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Topic: Fandom Culture
Characters: No characters listed.