The Crisis of Arda Marred and How (Not) to Unmar It [Conference Presentation]

the Ring, the Tongue, and the Tower as the New Wheel of Fortune, The New Tower of Babel, and The New World Tree

This paper has been presented at:

• July 1st, 2024 | IMC Leeds

Abstract

The Second Age began in crisis as the peoples of Middle-earth faced the aftermath of war—one violent enough to destroy a continent—as well as the loss of knowledge and skills as the Eldar returned to Valinor. In response to this “disorder,” indicative of “Arda Marred,” Sauron sought the “rehabilitation” and “reform” of Middle-earth “neglected by the gods.” Over the next two millennia, Sauron produced several works of craft that became building blocks to his eventual totalitarian empire: The Rings of Power, The Black Speech, and The Dark Tower. Building on the scholarship of Charles Huttar, Jerold C. Frakes, and Jonathan Himes, I will explore Sauron’s creations in light of their possible functions as tools of physical and metaphysical “reform” in Middle-earth by arguing that they may represent attempts at replacing metaphysical linchpins symbolized in Medieval thought via Boethius’s Wheel of Fortune, The Tower of Babel, and The World Tree.

Publication

Forthcoming!

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