We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,567,475.83 | Books Available: 795,702 | Members Online: 60

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Tolkien and Sanskrit (second, expanded edition): The Silmarillion in the Cradle of Proto-Indo-European

Tolkien and Sanskrit The Silmarillion in the Cradle of ProtoIndoEuropean - second, expanded edition
Author: Mark T. Hooker

This is ?The Director?s Cut,? as a cinematographically minded wag termed it.This study is based on the observation that Tolkien calqued the names of the Sapta Sindhavah (Seven Rivers) from the Rig Veda as the Seven Rivers of Ossiriand. In other words, Tolkien created seven Elvish river names that mean the same thing as the river names of the Sap... more »ta Sindhavah. Much has been said of Tolkien?s use of Welsh, Old English, Gothic, Icelandic, Russian, Greek, and Latin. Little, however, has been said about Tolkien?s use of Sanskrit (Refined Speech), the great-great-?grandfather of all the languages above. Sanskrit was spoken in the second millennium B.C. in the valley of the River Indus, the river that put the ?Indo? in the name Proto-Indo-European, a linguistic term for the *reconstructed common ancestor of the European languages. All indications to the contrary (C&G ii, 461), there is little doubt about Tolkien?s knowledge of Sanskrit from the point of view of a linguist. It is de rigueur for any serious philologist interested in etymologies like Tolkien. Tolkien was on the Language side of the English School at Oxford, where he took Comparative Philology as a special subject for Honour Moderations. (G&G ii, 758) In a certain sense, Tolkien?s The Silmarillion can be considered a veiled member of the genre of Raj Literature. The names of The Silmarillion say that in the same way that the names in Tolkien?s poem ?The Mewlips? are masks that hide the fact that it is a poem about World War I. As the present study shows, the names of The Silmarillion say that the locus of Tolkien?s ?Mythology for England? (C&G ii, 244-248) is the India of the British Raj. A literary analysis of Tolkien?s place in Raj Literature is, however, much more speculative than the linguistic analysis that makes up the core of this study, which stands on solid philological ground. The literary analysis will, therefore, be left to another time and place. While the basis of Tolkien?s calque of the names of the Seven Rivers as Ossiriand is Vedic in concept, the superstructure that Tolkien builds upon this foundation is non-Vedic. Some elements of the superstructure are more readily attributable to historical sources, like the history of the India Campaign of Alexander the Great, and the history of the British Raj in India, both of which were a part of the school curriculum when Tolkien was growing up. While the analysis of some of the words | names in this study would not be believable in stand-alone articles, in the context of the coherent structure of words and names presented here, they are worthy of serious consideration. The discovery presented here has the potential to more clearly define the linguistic and philosophical cradle of Tolkien?s ?Mythology for England,? which was always The Silmarillion, and never The Lord of the Rings. It is Proto-Indo-European in the same way that the English language stems from Proto-Indo-European. That does not, however, mean that there is no gap between Proto-Indo-European language and culture, and the language and culture of The Shire. The analysis that follows is not a rehash of the discredited ideas of The Shores of Middle-earth (1981). It is instead, a completely new, linguistic approach to Tolkien?s Silmarillion nomenclature. Also from this author: Tolkien Through Russian Eyes (Walking Tree Publishers, 2003), published simultaneously in Russian. ?Frodo?s Batman,? Tolkien Studies, No. 1 (2004) A Tolkienian Mathomium (Llyfrawr, 2006) The Hobbitonian Anthology (Llyfrawr, 2009) ?Reading John Buchan in Search of Tolkien,? Tolkien and the Study of His Sources, Jason Fisher (ed.). (McFarland, 2011) Tolkien and Welsh (Llyfrawr, 2012) The Tolkienaeum (Llyfrawr, 2014) Iter Tolkienensis (Llyfrawr, 2016)

ISBN-13: 9781540435484
ISBN-10: 1540435482
Publication Date: 11/22/2016
Pages: 262
Edition: 2
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Tolkien and Sanskrit (second, expanded edition): The Silmarillion in the Cradle of Proto-Indo-European

Loading...