I am definitely going to tackle all of the topics eventually! Probably over the summer while I'm on break. The canon issues interest me immensely (I've done the most so far with looking at data on how users of different sites and archives differ on their willingness to bend canon and in what ways, and that proved much more fruitful and interesting than I expected).
Alas, readers and feedback won, which is fine by me because I've done almost nothing with my reader data. And I know writers always want to know this stuff. :) The lone request I've had for a post about my data has been about writers who don't comment, from a writer, of course. :)
I am familiar with Måns Björkman's page; in fact, it can be seen as having spurred this current project because, when I first found it, when I was first starting my research, I hadn't heard of some of them either. And that made me realize that I really needed to go back through and reread (or sometimes read for the first time, since I haven't read all of the HoMe, even though I own them all) with this particular filter.
It's so easy to read over these little references to the transmission of lore without really noticing them
It is! So much so that, even when reading to look for them, I sometimes catch myself skimming and go back and discover that I've missed one or two.
I'm starting to see patterns in their use and, most of all (most importantly, for my purposes) deliberateness; they are not just embellishments but are used at times when the narrator would have likely lacked a primary source. (Or that's been my observation so far; I'm still in "Of the Ruin of Beleriand.") I don't think I've appreciated the intricacy of Tolkien's work so much as I have since beginning this research and how skillfully he managed truly minute, almost unnoticeable details like this to great effect.
Of course, I think of the formulaic language of Beowulf, being as my thesis was on formulaic language in Beowulf and all! :D
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-03-22 12:37 am (UTC)Alas, readers and feedback won, which is fine by me because I've done almost nothing with my reader data. And I know writers always want to know this stuff. :) The lone request I've had for a post about my data has been about writers who don't comment, from a writer, of course. :)
I am familiar with Måns Björkman's page; in fact, it can be seen as having spurred this current project because, when I first found it, when I was first starting my research, I hadn't heard of some of them either. And that made me realize that I really needed to go back through and reread (or sometimes read for the first time, since I haven't read all of the HoMe, even though I own them all) with this particular filter.
It's so easy to read over these little references to the transmission of lore without really noticing them
It is! So much so that, even when reading to look for them, I sometimes catch myself skimming and go back and discover that I've missed one or two.
I'm starting to see patterns in their use and, most of all (most importantly, for my purposes) deliberateness; they are not just embellishments but are used at times when the narrator would have likely lacked a primary source. (Or that's been my observation so far; I'm still in "Of the Ruin of Beleriand.") I don't think I've appreciated the intricacy of Tolkien's work so much as I have since beginning this research and how skillfully he managed truly minute, almost unnoticeable details like this to great effect.
Of course, I think of the formulaic language of Beowulf, being as my thesis was on formulaic language in Beowulf and all! :D