When Style Becomes Meaning

"People who think like that just do not talk a modern idiom...But there would be an insincerity of thought, a disunion of word and meaning. For a King who spoke in a modern style would not really think in such terms" (Page 206)

 

There is something about Tolkien that defies simple explanation. After finishing The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, I had the impression that Middle-earth originates from a deeper place and that the story has a weight that most entertainment does not, drawing readers into a strange yet familiar universe. The richness of the world-building, the constructed mythology, and the Norse, Anglo-Saxon and religious foundations are the typical targets of criticism. The impact is not fully explained by any of it. Although the bits are visible, they do not contain the spell. But the answer lies somewhere simpler and harder to pin down. It lies in the way the prose itself is written. Shippey identifies three reasons for the continuing appeal of Lord of the Rings that most readers feel but cannot name: flexibility of style, resonance of the highest levels, and the ability to reach mythic meaning while remaining embedded in story. Ultimately, these form one argument about what style actually does in Tolkien, and together they explain why LeGuin in her frosting and cake analogy, the style is the book itself.

 

The impression of an inhabited world starts when Shippey recognises Tolkien's artistic versatility. There isn't a single narrative tone in Tolkien. He allows various registers to coexist in the same narrative, and the contrast really works. Merry and Pippin communicate in a straightforward, comfortable manner that grounds them. Gandalf, Aragorn, and Théoden have a more powerful voice that is moulded by authority and history. This is particularly evident in the Council of Elrond, where Boromir's formal, high register conveys his political identity, pride, and the strain of Gondor's circumstances before he has taken any action in the plot. Here, style is not decorative. 

 

The second feature is harder to pinpoint since the reader's emotions in Tolkien's elevated portions seem more like inheritance than creation. When Aragorn tells the story of Beren and Lúthien or the Company journeys through Lórien, the prose often conveys a feeling of depth and weight that becomes apparent before the reader get to fully comprehending the meaning of the tale itself. Ursula K. Le Guin claims that although Tolkien's vocabulary is simple and mostly unadorned, his writing may go from the everyday to the grandiose and even into a rhythmic or poetic style. Rather than unusual or archaic language, the effect is determined by speed, structure, and tone. Tolkien spent his professional life immersed in older literary traditions such as Old English poetry, mediaeval romance, Norse myth, and the King James Bible, which influenced the underlying movement of his prose. According to Tom Shippey, Tolkien possessed an exceptionally accurate understanding of the meaning that language and style convey. The combined presence of these traditions operating beneath the surface is what readers notice in these passages, giving the text its unique weight but making it challenging to pinpoint the source of that effect. 

 

Thirdly, Tolkien’s rejection of allegory and metaphors in his writing allows his stories such as Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit that give meaning to each individual character beyond what their stated purpose seems to be. For instance, Frodo finishes the quest at Mount Doom but is unable to destroy the Ring, which is eventually destroyed by Gollum. As Ursula Le Guin suggests, the fantasy genre has to go beyond simple storytelling and layer in meanings that are somehow relevant and relatable to the reader so that they are not only fully immersed but also feel this everlasting connection with the works of Tolkien that transcends generations. Moreover, Tolkien does this layering by grounding the stories in the root emotions of familiar human experiences and human quests of endurance, preservice, humility and failure, which ultimately allow us to build resiliency and character. Ultimately, the works of Tolkien through both his style, his use of layering and his deep historical references and inspirations allow him to write with such meaning and in yet such an abstract genre that is somehow relevant and hard hitting to readers through time. 

 

-RS