: Which means what, exactly? I keep reading you saying that
: there is no medievalism in Tolkien, and here you say there is a
: great deal. And precisely what things do you refer to in
: Tolkien which can be found outside of medieval culture but
: which aren't medieval?

I don't say there is no medievalism in Tolkien, but neither am saying above there is a great deal of it. I said THE LORD OF THE RINGS owes a great deal to medievality.

: I think a more useful line of inquiry if you wish to disprove
: medieval influence is to ask what other sources is Tolkien
: LIKELY to have used/been influenced by other than the medieval
: ones with which he was so familiar?

But I don't wish to disprove medieval influence. The issue is whether Middle-earth should look like medieval Europe. I can easily show (and often have) that it doesn't look that way. Even many medievalists have conceded that Middle-earth doesn't approach medieval Europe when looks at what defines the cultures of the period.

But Middle-earth still FEELS medieval to many people, and for most (I believe) the reason it feels that way is they have been immersed in a perception which is not true to either Middle-earth or medieval Europe. And even medievalists don't agree on all aspects of medieval Europe, any more than Tolkienists agree on all aspects of Tolkien.

I am seldom asked what I perceive as "medieval" in Tolkien's world (meaning, what do I feel could only have come from Europe's middle ages). Occasionally we do get around to discussing such things. Nor have I ever claimed to know everything that IS medieval about Tolkien. But the aspects of Middle-earth which people most often point to as "proof" of medievalism are NOT medieval: not the armor, not the weapons, not the methods of warfare, not the forms of government, not the clothing -- all these things are "generic". Tolkien described them in vague enough terms that you can find appropriate examples of all of them outside of medieval Europe (in the more ancient past and the more recent past).

Some things are obviously medieval. Stirrups, for example, are not derived from the classical world (not in western Europe's heritage, at any rate). The parallels people like to draw between "Beowulf" and the approach of Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli to Meduseld have been brought up. Tolkien didn't derive anything straight from "Beowulf", but the similarities between Beowulf's arrival at Heorot and Gandalf's at Meduseld are strong and most likely intentionally so.

But these subtleties are insufficient to make Middle-earth medieval. Tolkien denied some of the claims people make to support medievality. The Rohirrim are NOT modelled on Anglo-Saxons as many people believe. Why? Because Tolkien said so. The Rohirrim were NOT a medieval people ("in our sense of the word"). Why? Because Tolkien said so.

No one knows better than the author himself what his inspirations were. If he was willing to acknowledge influence from "Beowulf" then no one should argue there was no such influence -- and he did concede such influence. But he also said the Rohirrim were neither medieval nor Anglo-Saxon. You simply cannot prove him wrong on that point.

Europe's history and prehistory are much richer than to be confined to the middle ages. And the northern world of the middle ages owes a great deal to classical world, both northern (prehistorical) and Mediterranean (historical). Tolkien was interested in telling a story, and it's a story quite unlike anything before its time, which nonetheless evokes memories of ancient and medieval stories alike.
------------------
Xenite.Org: Science Fiction and Fantasy