This thesis studies leadership in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion by way of social network analysis (SNA) methods. I combine the fields of leadership studies and social network analysis by...Show moreThis thesis studies leadership in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion by way of social network analysis (SNA) methods. I combine the fields of leadership studies and social network analysis by constructing and analysing the social networks in The Silmarillion. I analyse which characters act as leaders in a selection of tales from Tolkien’s Silmarillion, since these tales form the basis for Middle-earth and lay bare the roots of how power and leadership function in Tolkien’s secondary world. In order to do so, I use the social network visualisation software Visone, which also enables users to conduct various calculations on the constructed networks. Social networks can lay bare the key actors in a network and show the ways in which leaders exert their power, which is why I compare the Silmarillion network to networks that depict leaders and leadership types in real life. In doing so, I examine which characters come to the fore as leaders in The Silmarillion, how they exert their power, and how realistic the social networks in Tolkien’s fictional narrative are. The characters that came to the fore as leaders when observing the social networks of The Silmarillion were mostly kings and Valar. In this way, the results indicate that leadership is presented realistically in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion, and they also provide information about the ways in which the leaders of the work exert their power. This thesis showed that SNA can be used successfully to study works of fiction, and that it could be further used in order to obtain a deeper understanding of Middle-earth, realistic fiction, and good leadership.Show less
This thesis compares the property rights and inheritance rights of women in the Germanic laws of the Visigoths, Lombards and Anglo-Saxons from the sixth to the ninth century AD.
This bachelor thesis (2020) explores how a target-oriented and a source-oriented translation of the Old English poem 'The Dream of the Rood' into Dutch affect the choices in translation procedures...Show moreThis bachelor thesis (2020) explores how a target-oriented and a source-oriented translation of the Old English poem 'The Dream of the Rood' into Dutch affect the choices in translation procedures and how these choices ultimately shape the resulting target texts in prose and verse translation respectively.Show less
Reading Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings through the literary criticism trauma theory. Investigates the impact of war trauma on the presence of heroism, evil and post-war developments.
The Nowell Codex is popularly known as a book of monsters. It was a fascination with the monstrous which conceivably motivated the medieval compilers to assemble the codex's current constituent...Show moreThe Nowell Codex is popularly known as a book of monsters. It was a fascination with the monstrous which conceivably motivated the medieval compilers to assemble the codex's current constituent parts. This thesis argues for another unifying theme, that of 'community', which connects all of the Old English texts. As such, each text is subjected to a close reading centred around communal affairs such as the Germanic warband, kingship and hospitality in order to highlight their central importance to the understanding of the individual texts and the codex as a whole. Taken together, these close readings strengthen the main claim of the thesis that community represented a crucial driving force behind the compilation of the Nowell Codex.Show less
J.R.R. Tolkien took the values and virtues found in Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and applied them to his Legendarium. Tolkien established his own form of modern heroism by examining Old English...Show moreJ.R.R. Tolkien took the values and virtues found in Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and applied them to his Legendarium. Tolkien established his own form of modern heroism by examining Old English works such as "Beowulf" and "The Battle of Maldon". He admired the Germanic heroic tradition, yet condemned its pagan nature. This comparative paper discusses four works of heroic literature - i.e. "Beowulf", "The Battle of Maldon", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Children of Húrin" - focusing on the heroes of each work and how their actions reflect their ethics. The author emphasises Tolkien's disapproving views of Anglo-Saxon heroism found in "The Children of Húrin" in which its prideful hero Túrin brings about disaster and tragedy upon himself and those around him.Show less
