Article: The blade against the burden: the iconograpgy of the sword in The Lord of the Rings.(Critical essay)

IF ONE CONSIDERS THE TERM "ARTIFACT" in relation to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, several thoughts spring to mind. First and foremost is the way in which his work has been regarded as cultural artifact, born out of his generation's experience in World War One, but so wildly received by subsequent generations that its popularity informs, either for or against his work, in scholarly opinions of his novels. It is also an artifact of both the medieval and the modern world. The frame story conceit of The Lord of the Rings, that Tolkien is not a novelist but a translator, and the story we read is in fact "Frodo and the One Ring" found in the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch ...

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