| There is no thoughtful preparation for an adequate comprehensive understanding of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Addressing a social or cultural gap or need, this thesis provides a prolegomenon to The Silmarillion. Not being a literary analysis, this prolegomenon addresses the need for a mature complex introduction to The Silmarillion in relation to the concepts of myth and ideology, and it provides a discussion of how they may manifest themselves in any creative work.;My thesis is that Tolkien's writings perpetuate mythological themes that impose order on the communication of moral or ethical values to their reader, and also on explanations of the complex natural and psychological phenomena made sensible by those mythological themes. Tolkien's myth-making shapes the ideological mindset of his readers in a collective way, resulting in the existence of a common understanding and worldview among participants in the cultural phenomenon connected to Tolkien's works.;Certain truths expressed in Middle-earth are translated in the mind of the reader to the real world, and if he believes in them, and can relate to a community of "like-minded beings" familiar with the same language and images (to my way of thinking), and as his understanding of "the purposes of God" and appropriate moral conduct take shape under these ideological matrices, his personal experience will be favorably altered, and perhaps that of society as well. |
