摘 要

约翰·罗纳德·里埃尔·托尔金（1892-1973）是现代奇幻文学的先驱，被誉为20世纪英国最受欢迎的作家之一。数十年以来，他的代表作亦是严肃奇幻派巨著——《指环王》三部曲（1954-1955），称得上是世间最成功的奇幻作品。这套经久不衰、好评如潮的小说和托尔金本人的巨大影响力，启发和影响了斯蒂芬·金、乔治·马丁和J.K.罗琳等当代奇幻文学作家。奇幻故事通常发生在一个天马行空的幻想世界中，而支撑起这些非凡故事的基本理念，就是托尔金在《论童话故事》（1947）中提出的“第二世界”理论。

此前的大多数研究往往关注了“第二世界”理论对创作理论模式的影响，而忽略了托尔金构建奇幻世界本身的目的与意义。因此，本篇论文根据托尔金的“第二世界”理论结合政治、经济、文化、历史等因素对奇幻小说的影响对《指环王》进行文本细读，挖掘《指环王》中“第二世界（阿尔达）”里意象及象征的表达手法，旨在诠释托尔金在《指环王》中构建的“第二世界”及其象征意味，并探讨奇幻文学借幻想之名而行恢复、逃避与慰藉之实的功能。

关键词：《指环王》；第二世界；象征；奇幻文学；现实意义

Abstract

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), known as one of the most welcomed British writers in the 20th century, is considered to be the pioneer of modern fantasy literature. For decades, Tolkien’s masterpiece — The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), has been defined as “High Fantasy” and regarded as one of the most successful fantasy works in the world. With the enduring popularity of his novels and acclaimed fame, effect of the author, J.R.R. Tolkien has inspired and influenced more and more contemporary writers to devote effort toward creating the fantasy literature, such as Stephen Edwin King, George R.R. Martin and J.K. Rowling. Without exception, obeying his literary theory of “Secondary World” published in On Fairy-Stories (1947), Tolkien often set an otherworldly (or subtly altered) world with many supernatural but infinite possibilities in the monumental story.

In the past, most of the researches on the “Secondary World” were limit to discuss the influence on the theoretical mode of literary creation, but ignored to explore Tolkien’s initial purpose of constructing the fantasy world. Therefore, based on Tolkien’s theory of “Secondary World”, this paper digs deeply into the imagery and symbolism in the “Secondary World (Arda)” of The Lord of the Rings by specific text analysis, discussing the politic, economy, culture, history and other essential impacts on fantasy novels. Moreover, the paper aims to analyze the construction of the “Secondary World” in The Lord of the Rings and its symbolic meaning as well as to discuss the realistic function of fantasy literature: recovery, escape and consolation.

Key Words: The Lord of the Rings; Secondary World; Symbolism; Fantasy Literature; Realistic Significance

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The “Secondary World” in Tolkien’s Theoretical System 3

2.1 Tolkien’s Views on Literary Creation of Fairy-Stories 3

2.2 Tolkien’s Views on Construction of “Secondary World” 4

2.3 The Characteristics of the “Secondary World” 5

3 The Construction of Symbolic “Secondary World” in The Lord of the Rings 7

3.1 Political Symbolization of Territories 7

3.1.1 Shire: Patriarchal Clan System 7

3.1.2 Rohan and Gondor: Enfeoffment System 8

3.1.3 Mordor and Isengard: Absolute Monarchy 8

3.2 Social Symbolization of Reality 9

3.2.1 The Impact of Industrial Civilization on Ecological Civilization 9

3.2.2 The Longing for Peaceful Country Life under the Two World Wars 10

3.3 Cultural Symbolization of Myth 10

3.3.1 Myth: the Origin and the Foundation 11

3.3.2 The White Tree: Divine Power and Royal Power 11

4 The Realistic Significance of Fantasy Literature 13

4.1 Recovery: Regaining a Clear View 13

4.2 Escape: Breaking the Chains of Reality 14

4.3 Consolation: Retrieving the Lost Spirit 14

5 Conclusion 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

Construction of the “Secondary World” in The Lord of the Rings and Its Symbolic Significance

1 Introduction

In the history of western literature, fantasy literature is a literary mode produced by human’s fantasy thinking which is closely related to reality. In fantasy texts, people are acutely aware that life cannot always be material and rational, but can be spiritual, dreamlike and imaginative. Because of the particularity of content and theme, fantasy literature not only represents a new type of literature, but also has high value: questioning the status quo, re-examining civilization of the whole world, trying to extend the way of human existence, and enriching the conventional thinking of rationalism. (Zhou, 2008)

Although some authors had written fantasy works before, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), as a British writer, poet, linguist, and a professor of Oxford University, received great success of his masterpieces, such as The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) and The Silmarillion (1977). Tolkien himself was widely acknowledged as the “father of modern fantasy literature” — or, more accurately, “High Fantasy”. And The Lord of the Rings was regarded as the ground-breaking new work and the first work of High Fantasy.

As The Lord of the Rings gained worldwide fame, Tolkien’s theory of “Secondary World” got widely known and became the guiding principle for fantasy writing. Tolkien defined the “Secondary World” in his On Fairy-Stories (1947). It is a generalized parallel world created by imagination and enriched by both sub-creator and reader. Although it’s with some sort of anti-reality, this world also includes the “inner consistency of reality” with the real world of the sub-creator and the reader while these two worlds are completely independent of each other. (Wu, 2011) Since the theory came out, it has far-reaching influences on many famous contemporary fantasy literary works, such as The Dark Tower (1982-2012) by Stephen Edwin King, A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-2014) by George R.R. Martin and Harry Potter (1997-2007) by J.K. Rowling.

In the past, most of the researches on the “Secondary World” only focused on the influence on the theoretical mode of creation, but ignored the fundamental purpose of Tolkien’s constructing of the fantasy world itself. Therefore, the paper focuses on studying the origin, characteristics and associated development of Tolkien’s theory of “Secondary World”, exploring the symbolic significance of “Arda” — the “Secondary World” in The Lord of the Rings, and comparing the realistic society with the imaginary world in the text. Moreover, in the internal research work, attention will be paid to the intensive reading of the text and personal perception in the analysis and evaluation of specific works, and then strive to support the argument with representative and persuasive details in the text.

The final aim of this research is to probe into the unique significance of fantasy novels — the fundamental significance of constructing the “Secondary World”.

2 The “Secondary World” in Tolkien’s Theoretical System

When contemporary realist writers tried to meet the realism standard in their creations, Tolkien believed that realism was merely a copy of the real world rather than creating it, so Tolkien chose to create fantasy literature to explain the world and truth. In his works, he constructed a huge and amazing “Secondary World” based on myth and the real world but not exactly the same.