TOLKIEN

The lord of the Hypocrites:
The Critic
Tolkien is a master full writer and scholar, he is a renowned expert on old English literature. His series the Lord of the Rings trilogy is hugely popular, and for some reason he thinks this gives him the right to criticize everyone else. He is especially harsh on those who try and read historical facts into the doccument because they believe they would be more interesting if they were there.

The Fellowship of the Poets:
Tolkien main point is to just read the poem as a poem, to enjoy its backwards nature, and to respect it as an ancient classic. His essay is constantly praising the poets brilliance declaring that few today could write as he could then. He even goes so far as to defend the poet against critics who claim the poem has too little historical relevance and structure, saying that the poet probably didn't realize his version would be the only one to survive the test of time.

The Metaphorical tower:
He feels that the poem has been analyzed so much that its value as a poem is overlooked, as shown in his allegory of the stone tower. One of his main arguments is the poems interesting yet backward way of putting important things on the outreach, while focusing on monsters, and battles. While critics argue that this is a statement of the weakness of the poem, he argues it is a piece of brilliance. That this backward nature give power to the piece, his connection to King Oswald emphasizes this.

The return of the Hypocrite:
Ultimately Tolkien breaks down and analyzes the piece himself, looking into the meanings of dragons especially. He ties the dragons to the mystical qualities of an ancient land, and how the poet respects dragons. Besides being incredibly hypocritical this is actually very interesting. Tolkein states that only 2 dragons appear in northwestern ancient literature, which if true is extremely interesting. It is used as the ultimate evil and establishes Beowulf as truly the ultimate hero, while at the same time could be a symbol of the killing of the old ways of his country.

ps a note to fellow classmates
this is an example of what not to do, dont do it
ppss a note to fielding... Im sorry
pppsss at least theres no slaves




At least the tittles are kind of clever!