English Paper Help

[Lady Ravyn]

Hi, guys! Remember me? It's been a while, I know, but I've been wuite the busy little bee this past year. I received my GED and started college this fall. I'm in English Comp 1 right now, and my professor is, shall we say... not easy. For our project final exam, we have to write an extremely short paper (only 3 pages!!!) on three achivements of a person. I, of course, chose J.R.R. Tolkien, as he fit all the credentials needed in order to use a person for your topic (I think he was one of maybe three people who fit the description lolol) Anyway, my proffessor apparently has NO taste whatsoever, as he scrunched up his face at the mention of our beloved Tolkien's name. He said, "Well what did he do besides writing about Middle-Earth?" I hid my utter hatred of the man and informed him that Tolkien was also a professor of linguistics at Oxford who had done much research into the origins of the English language as well as other languages. Tolkien also helped to rekindle an interest in archaic British literature, such as Beowulf, by reserching on those topics as well and bringing in new interpretations and...things... My professor eventually caved, and said that as long as I only used LotR and other Middle-Earth related items as ONE achievment, then I could do Tolkien. (Yay me!!! ) So, here's my question: There's plenty of material out there on Toolkien's Middle-Earth writings, but not so much on his other accomplishments. I've found one or two things, but I honestly thought there'd be more that was readily available. (I know- I should have reasearched all that BEFORE I argued to use him; but what can I say? Foresight has never been my strong-suit... ) So does anyone have some ideas as to some good books or websites on his linguistic achievements and his accomplishments with other literature? I e-mailed someone from The Tolkien Society in hopes that they'd smile down on a lowly Tolkien-freak such as I and grant me the knowledge I need. lol
So yeah. Any help would be GREATLY GREATLY appreciated. I mean it. I may even name some children after you.

Good to be Mooting again, btw.

[Earniel]

I don't know how big these acchievements should be, but maybe you can check out his translation and analysis of 'The Fight at Finnsburg'. It's an Anglo-saxon myth/story on which Tolkien worked and gave several lectures about in Oxford.

A booklet I have on it rather makes his work on the poem look like ground-breaking and novel. Tolkien apparently handed all his material on it over to Alan Bliss who then editted the material for publishing. It was quite an interesting read.

But I don't know whether you'll be able to track it down, if you want to. I only found my copy during the Movie aera when all things Tolkien were thrown on the shelves in vast amounts. In any case, the Book is called 'Finn and Hengest' and Tolkien is given as the author with Alan Bliss as editor. Mine is printed by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1998.

[Beren3000]

Maybe you should try looking up stuff about the time he helped with the OED (Oxford Englihs Dictionary) You could probably refer to Humphrey Carpenter's biography of him for that subject.

[Lady Ravyn]

found some stuff on the oed (which i didn't know anything about until just after i posted that! ) and i will look up that book, earniel. thank u!


(o, and any further help would still be appreciated)

[sun-star]

Getting hold of a biography is probably the best place to start. I also suggest you try and find one of Shippey's books on Tolkien - he's a medievalist himself and has written on this aspect of Tolkien's work. You mentioned Beowulf, so I guess you know about "Beowulf and the Critics", Tolkien's lecture (which was later published) on how critics had misinterpreted the poem. That's probably his most famous piece of literary criticism and it definitely counts as an "achievement"! Other important works of scholarship by Tolkien include his editions of Gawain and the Green Knight and Ancrene Riwle, which are still the standard editions of those texts. He wrote many articles on philology - this bibliography might help you find some of them.

[Lady Ravyn]

yes, i have heard of "beowulf and the critics"; i'm attempting to get a hold of it. i also read about "the ancrene riwle" but i can't find that ANYWHERE. i mean, it's on amazon (if you look REALLY hard) but i can't seem to get it from any sort of library and i own a copy of "sir gawain" i shall definetly look up this 'Shippey' person, though... i found a couple books out there by a Michael D. C. Drout- ever hear of him?