...human stories are practically always about one thing, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. - J.R.R. Tolkien
Today is the hundred and twenty eighth birth anniversary of the reknown high fantasy fiction writer, J.R.R. Tolkien. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a British academic, poet, writer and soldier of the First World War. He is most famous for having written the epic fantasy novel 'The Lord of the Rings' as well as it's prequel, 'The Hobbit', both of which were adapted to the screen by the Kiwi director, Peter Jackson in the twenty first century. I was first introduced to Tolkien through the Peter Jackson films in the early 2000's. The films are amazing, with great performances, some fantastic cinematography and entrancing visuals.
This lead me to read, 'The Lord of the Rings', and being new to the genre of fantasy, I marveled at the complexity of the plots, the sheer volume of characters and sub-plots and story arcs to process, and at one, I was comparing it to the Mahabharata, the Indian epic. There were the familiar motifs of a wise sage, of indeterminate age, guiding the protagonists; the concept of good and evil; tragic heroes and separated lovers; magic and mountain lore; and the genealogies of the characters and people going back to generations in the mists of time.
I wondered at the mind and the imagination of the man who could invent all these mystical things, entire worlds with their geographies mapped; cities, villages, vales and forests, rivers and lakes and swamps thought of in detail; set in Middle-Earth, the theater of the epic fantasy, set in a mythical planet of Arda. My mind struggled to grasp the histories of the mythic races that populated this world; dwarfs and elves, men and hobbits, wizards and warlords, goblins and orcs, and their hellacious cross-breeds the Urukai; conjured complete with their unique physiology and features, their tongues and their scripts. Taking in all of this, I was struck by another question that dazed me further. If one man could think up of all of this in this grand and massive scale, could not one man conjure up an entire epic in his mind, people it in lands known to him.
The Mahabharata is nearly three times the size of 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' put together. But, could it be possible that it was an entire fiction made up in the mind of one man. A decade or so after I first came across Tolkien, I read another epic saga, 'The Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin. At the time of writing this article, Martin has released only five of what is considered to be a seven part series and already, the combined length of the five books nearly equals that of the Mahabharata. If and when he finishes the rest of it, it will easily have overtaken the epic.
I do not believe that the Mahabharata is entirely fictional. The epic is most probably rooted in historical fact, though how much of it is fact and how much fiction, is a subject of debate. But, before I came across Tolkien, and later, Martin, I would have not thought it possible that such vast mythologies and epics could be creations of just one human mind.
Food for Thought!
This lead me to read, 'The Lord of the Rings', and being new to the genre of fantasy, I marveled at the complexity of the plots, the sheer volume of characters and sub-plots and story arcs to process, and at one, I was comparing it to the Mahabharata, the Indian epic. There were the familiar motifs of a wise sage, of indeterminate age, guiding the protagonists; the concept of good and evil; tragic heroes and separated lovers; magic and mountain lore; and the genealogies of the characters and people going back to generations in the mists of time.
I wondered at the mind and the imagination of the man who could invent all these mystical things, entire worlds with their geographies mapped; cities, villages, vales and forests, rivers and lakes and swamps thought of in detail; set in Middle-Earth, the theater of the epic fantasy, set in a mythical planet of Arda. My mind struggled to grasp the histories of the mythic races that populated this world; dwarfs and elves, men and hobbits, wizards and warlords, goblins and orcs, and their hellacious cross-breeds the Urukai; conjured complete with their unique physiology and features, their tongues and their scripts. Taking in all of this, I was struck by another question that dazed me further. If one man could think up of all of this in this grand and massive scale, could not one man conjure up an entire epic in his mind, people it in lands known to him.
The Mahabharata is nearly three times the size of 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' put together. But, could it be possible that it was an entire fiction made up in the mind of one man. A decade or so after I first came across Tolkien, I read another epic saga, 'The Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin. At the time of writing this article, Martin has released only five of what is considered to be a seven part series and already, the combined length of the five books nearly equals that of the Mahabharata. If and when he finishes the rest of it, it will easily have overtaken the epic.
I do not believe that the Mahabharata is entirely fictional. The epic is most probably rooted in historical fact, though how much of it is fact and how much fiction, is a subject of debate. But, before I came across Tolkien, and later, Martin, I would have not thought it possible that such vast mythologies and epics could be creations of just one human mind.
Food for Thought!
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