Your suggestions about my future research topic

[Anna Labingi]

Hello, dear friends!

My name is Anna. I'm a huge Tolkien fan and at the same time a philology student from Russia. I need your help! Please read to the end. Here's the thing.

After enrolling in my faculty almost by accident (because when I was 17, I had no idea where to go or what to do), I understood that maybe I had chosen the wrong specialty. Without thinking too much, I chose German as my first language (in terms of my studies at the university. At school, I only learned English). Therefore all topics of my scientific work have to be connected with German literature. And German literature is great, but ... After some suffering, I understood that my enthusiasm is only enough for subjects related to Tolkien's works. Because I love them very much, and love gives power, you know ^^ (Sauron would never understand that, haha: D)
Unfortunately there is a very inflexible system in my university and it is problematic to change specializations. Students have to suggest variants of topics themselves and now I'm totally confused. I think something like a comparative work (Tolkien and something from German literature) or an analysis of literary translation would suit me. I know that my German is not good enough at all, but I want to try. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to register on the German forum, but maybe you will be able to help. So, it would help me a lot if you can advise me about the peculiarities and problems (e.g. style or translation of own names, etc.) of the existing German translations (we Russians can talk about our translations and argue a lot!) and also which German books and on what grounds you can compare with Tolkien (the Niebelungenlied doesn't suit! Maybe you can recommend some books about it in German or English.

I hope for your support, dear mellons! Tolkien unites hearts.

Best regards
Anna

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

How about it, Mr. O? 😁

 

[Halasían]

How about it, Mr. O? 😁

Yeah, where is he when you need him? 😄

 

[Olorgando]

How about it, Mr. O? 😁

Yeah, where is he when you need him? 😄

Caring for my ill wife. 😠

 

[Halasían]

Caring for my ill wife. 😠

Oh dear. Hoping Mrs Gandolorian is feeling better soon!

 

[Kolbitar]

Hrrooom---my hasty reply might be--I would first look to Goethe's Faust Tragedy, as it might be said to deal with the subject of great forbidden desire in a not dissimilar path with that of Sauron's or Melkor's. Neither Tolkien nor Goethe fall within the realm of Comedy--looking at a story from the "outside" and laughing, but rather (especially with The Children of Hurin, but certainly with his other works as well) within the "Tragic" tradition--there is a purification process of the soul demanded of the reader. There is "mithril" to be mined in a comparison with Faust. The principalities which govern the zeitgeists of Germany throughout the ages and which are somewhat manifest in Faust are the same principalities which manifest AS germanic archetypes in various Northern European legends--even that of a certain gray, wandering, pilgrim--and have inspired a cascade of other stories as numerous and varied as the leaves on the trees of the Black Forest. An over-hasty reply, to be certain. Hrrooom....

 

[Olorgando]

... and also which German books and on what grounds you can compare with Tolkien ...

That's the fly in the ointment for me. I have read practically nothing of what might be considered Germany's "classics" (this would be mostly Goethe and Schiller, I would guess - which would make people familiar with the "genre" possibly roll their eyes). The one possible exception might be Thomas Mann - "Buddenbrooks" and "The Magic Mountain" - which I read in college in the US over 46 years ago, and haven't re-read since!.

When it comes to that, I'd have trouble naming English books I might consider comparable to Tolkien - I simply haven't read any of them, never mind if they'd be categorized as "classics" - this is almost entirely Bill from Stratford uA? (A snarl at Wikipedia: "the world's greatest dramatist", my bottom!) - or what the terminally snobbish (and thus automatically also terminally ignorant) sector of anglophone "criticism" has sniffed at as "mere fantasy". The world of JRRT is a singular anomaly in my reading, encompassing more books than the next four authors combined, all non-fiction writers, the top two combining for 40 books (22 + 18).