History's great impact on Tolkien's Literature
...ict what was to happen. One epic poem, which is one thousand years old, had a great impact on The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. This “one thousand-year-old” (Colbert 19) epic poem is “Beowulf.” It is one of the very few surviving pieces of old English, which is also known as Anglo-Saxon. This form of English is very different from modern day English. Besides from people in universities, “no one takes the trouble to learn it” (Colbert 19). Tolkien however was an expert at this language and he taught it in Oxford University for years. Much of “Beowulf” is dedicated to fights between the warrior, Beowulf and three terrifying monsters. The first fight is between Beowulf and a monster named Grendel who had come to terrorize Danish warriors who had met in a huge mead hall to feast. During the battle Beowulf seriously wounds Grendel who then runs off and eventually dies from his wound. The next day Grendel’s mother comes for revenge and is killed by Beowulf. Many years later when Beowulf is king his country is attacked by a dragon who wants revenge because someone has stolen a golden cup from his treasure. Beowulf kills the dragon but he himself dies from a wound that he had received during the battle. The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit feature some settings just like the ones in Beowulf. In The Hobbit a vital confrontation takes place in a dragon’s lair. Both The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings feature mead halls in which soldiers gather to feast. Thomas Shippey, a Tolkien specialist notes that the description that Legolas the Elf offers to The Golden Hall of Edoras, which is a mead hall, “is the same line that describes the mead hall in “Beowulf.” The line is “The light of it shines far over the land” (Tolkien 496). Tolkien also borrowed characters and names from the poem. For example, Frodo’s name appears in the poem “Beowulf,” and Beorn who is a human chief from The Hobbit is just like Beowulf in every way. “The name of Tolkien’s Orcs comes from orcneas, a word used for monsters in ‘Beowulf’” (Colbert 22). The event with the dragon (when someone stea...