Is Tolkien's work a product of the German Romantic Period?

by GreatHylian

The German Romantic period(not sure of the actual name) occurred in the mid-1800s and saw a sort of revival of art and stories from the Middle Ages in Europe. The Grimm Brothers and Wagner compiled and presented old folk tales and mythology and brought it into the public eye once more, and as I understand, other mythologies were being explored and popularized at this time as well.

Considering Tolkien, he was a master of literature, language, and mythology and he sought to create his own mythological world. This might be an extension to the works of Hans Christian Andersen who created his own fairytales very much in the style of the Grimm tales.

Is this a correct assumption? They seem quite similar to me but maybe I am ignoring more relevant sources of inspiration.

-Geistzeit

A few points to consider when mapping out Tolkien's influences:

  • Germanic philology: Tolkien's academic background is squarely in Germanic philology, an academic field in the humanities focused on the ancient Germanic peoples and their influence up to today. The ancient Germanic peoples spoke languages that are the linguistic ancestors of living languages like German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and, yep, English—among many others. The common ancestor of these languages is known among scholars as Proto-Germanic, a tongue that in turn descends from another reconstructed language known as Proto-Indo-European (a topic beyond the scope of this discussion).
  • Jacob Grimm, Rasmus Rask, and folklore studies: The discovery of Grimm's Law in the first half of the 19th century by Danish philologist Rasmus Rask (d.1832) and German philologist Jacob Grimm (d. 1863) was a big deal. It outlines the chain shift that led to Proto-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European. This discovery had an enormous impact not only on linguistics but also the rest of the humanities, so much so that Thomas Shippey compares it to the revolutionary impact Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) had on the life sciences (cf. Shippey 6: 2005).
    It happens also that folklore studies and linguistics are historically entwined, and Grimm is best known today as an iconic folklorist: Reaers know him primarily for he and his brother Wilhelm's incredibly popular and enormously influential book of folktale retellings, Kinder- und Hausmärschen, usually referred to in English as something like 'tales of the Brothers Grimm'.
  • Richard Wagner & William Morris: People familiar with both Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Richard Wagner's ring cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen,1876) know that they have much in common. That commonality is ultimately due to the fact that each stems from their creator's respective familiarity with a popular complex of ancient Germanic narratives know as the Volsung cycle.
    Wagner's opera has been super influential. For example, modern retellings drawing directly from Wagner's ring cycle include Quintin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012) and Studio Ghibli's Ponyo (2008). But a more clear influence on Tolkien's literature is the work of English polymath William Morris (d. 1896). Similarly to Tolkien after him, Morris produced a gorgeous and celebrated (but tough to approach) retelling of Völsunga saga (with Icelandic scholar Eiríkr Magnússon, 1877) and novels inspired by the ancient Germanic peoples, like The Roots of the Mountains (1889). Like Tolkien after him, Morris also studied at Exeter College.
    While the two were very different—Morris was a revolutionary socialist and craftsman who spent his political life focused on the plight of workers, Tolkien was a Catholic monarchist who made clear his support for fascist Spain—Tolkien clearly found much to like and draw from in Morris's fiction. For example, Tolkien reused various phrases and elements from Morris's fiction, and mentions drawing inspiration from Morris as early as 1912 in his letters. (For a solid summary of this, see Perry 2006: 439-441)
  • Retellings and literary fairy tales: I think it's also worth mentioning that the process of retelling a legend, joke, recipe—or any other common type of folklore—is probably as old as human language. We seem hard-wired for it. And a type of retelling you'll frequently encounter today is the literary fairytale, where an author produces a retelling for consumption by a literary audience. Literary fairytales go way back in the history of the written language, and those of the Grimms and Andersen are just a few notable examples.

With all that in mind, it seems wisest to me to say that Tolkien was broadly influenced by early 20th century ancient Germanic studies and related fields, along with the works of authors inspired by the topic of the ancient Germanic peoples and their neighbors. The period you mention above played an important role in the development and history of the field of ancient Germanic studies, but if you're looking for just one person who had the most obvious and direct influence on Tolkien, I'd look closer to Tolkien's home: Morris is probably your man. Hope that helps!

References

  • Shippey, Thomas. 2005. Shadow Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous. Brepols.
  • Perry, Michael W. 2006. "Morris, William" in Michael D. C. Drout. Ed. J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, pp. 439-441. Routledge.