CULTURE
Tolkien Exhibit Brings Middle-Earth to Marquette University BY DAVID LUHRSSEN
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o one was more astonished by J.R.R. Tolkien’s popularity than Tolkien himself—except perhaps for his contemporaries, Edmund Wilson and other highbrow critics, who condemned him and all literature that stood apart from modernism. Tolkien’s major work, The Hobbit (1937) and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (1954-1955), were published to slight acclaim and gained readers slowly by word of mouth. During the 1960s his realm of imagination, Middle-earth, was embraced by the counterculture. Since then, Tolkien’s popularity has only grown, even before Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations, along with academic appreciation. Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art and Raynor Memorial Libraries are mounting an exhibition, “J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript,” featuring more than 120 items created by Tolkien, many of them previously unexhibited, including manuscripts from The Hobbit and “The Lord of the Rings.” Marquette’s long relationship with Tolkien began during the author’s lifetime. The Tolkien Collection’s curator, William Fliss, credits library director William Ready for acquiring Tolkien manuscripts in the 1950s as part of his project to house the papers of Roman Catholic writers. The author’s son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, fulfilled his father’s wishes by delivering additional material to the Marquette library in the 1980s. “The working drafts of Tolkien’s canonical texts are the strength of Marquette’s collection,” says Fliss’ cocurator, UWM art history professor Sarah Schaefer. “Our aim with this exhibition is to examine multiple levels of Tolkien’s work through the manuscripts.”
DEEP SOURCES FOR FANTASY Tolkien was an accomplished scholar at Oxford University of the Anglo-Saxon and Old English literature that was one of the deep sources for Middle-earth. The Marquette exhibit is prefaced by some of the medieval material, including the manuscripts Tolkien studied, which formed part of his literary as well as academic world. “The key point is how those scholarly materials informed the stories and legends he developed,” Schaefer explains. “The Art of the Manuscript” isn’t just words on paper. There will also be maps and calligraphy that Tolkien developed to richly endow Middle-earth with a palpable sense of history. Tolkien created entire languages for the mythical inhabitants of his imaginary
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world. “You’ll see how the appearance of his languages developed, the way he created a complex chronology and conception of space,” Schaefer says. Tolkien created manuscripts in medieval style as part of his literary project. On display is a text referenced in “Lord of the Rings,” the Book of Mazarbul, drafted in pen and colored pencils with three painted pages (on loan from Oxford’s Bodleian Library). Tolkien was the late product of a medieval revival whose exponents included William Morris and a host of writers and artists who turned their back on industrialized modernity, the “dark Satanic mills” decried by William Blake. And yet, the vividness of Tolkien’s vision was honed under fire as a lieutenant during World War I. His learned experience of the tragedy of war, the danger of tyranny, the reality of evil and the difficulty of making good are as integral to Middle-earth as his readings of Beowulf. Tolkien’s themes and moral values are embodied by characters who embark on an inner journey of self-knowledge as well as a quest to defeat Mordor, taking them through a sentient landscape of enchantment. He dressed universal archetypes in the language and costume of Anglo-Saxon sagas. Why has Tolkien endured when the bestsellers of his day are forgotten and high literary classics are seldom read outside the classroom? “How to begin to scale that question?” Fliss says. “Tolkien is that rare author who wins new readers as the generations unfold. Fans who read him had children who read them and they in turn had children. ‘Why’ is the big question? He created a world that suspends our disbelief populated by memorable characters. The values at the heart of the stories— friendship and loyalty—come through strongly and resonate with readers of all ages.” “J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” will be on display Aug. 19-Dec. 12 at the Haggerty Museum of Art. For more information, visit Marquette.edu/haggerty-museum.
David Luhrssen is the author of several books on film and music history and is managing editor of the Shepherd Express.
Old paper texture by ke77kz/Getty Images. Flame cloud image by gschroer /Getty Images. Leather texture by Lava4images/Getty Images..
