Abstract
During and after writing The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien became embroiled in a self-motivated crisis in world-building, endeavoring to ‘modernize’ his mythological cosmology to more accurately reflect the Earth as it exists as a planet orbiting the Sun in space. While Tolkien was ultimately never able to complete a ‘Copernican Revolution’ in his Secondary World, his efforts continued over twenty years through numerous drafts posthumously published in Morgoth’s Ring and The Nature of Middle-earth. This paper applies a particular vignette from our real-world cosmological crises – revisions of Tycho Brahe’s hybrid geo-heliocentric model by Jesuit astronomers seeking not only to ‘save the phenomena’ but to come to terms with the mutability, corruptibility, composition, and mode of motion of the heavens – as a lens through which to view Tolkien’s later failed attempts to rework the cosmology of his Secondary World. In so doing we see how Tolkien’s myth-making cosmological crisis parallels the twenty-year journey of Jesuit astronomer Cristoforo Borri to understand the structure and nature of the heavens.
Recommended Citation
Larsen, Kristine
(2024)
"A Medievalist Myth-making Crisis: Tolkien's Tychonic Cosmology,"
Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 19:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol19/iss1/7
Comments
Presented at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July1, 2024.