Sci Fi Channel mini-series _Tin Man_ presents a darker, futuristic ‘Oz’ story, that illustrates how a text can subvert the ideologies of its intertext without mocking or deriding it. Judy Garland’s Technicolor journey down the Yellow Brick Road is arguably one of the best loved and most watched films in cinema history, and _The Wizard of Oz_ has been remade and adapted, its characters and tropes incorporated into other stories, many of which repeat the patriarchal ideologies of the MGM film. Such as the similarity of quests, as in Dorothy’s quest in The Wizard of Oz to contact a wizard in order to be returned to her home, just as the little dog Rover must go on his own quest to plead with the wizard Artaxerexes in order to be restored to his proper size, home, and his boy. Examine how the settings in this story and the frame work are similar to the quests and ordeals of other characters in similar stories. I will also investigate inspirations from other Children’s stories preceding this work including such authors as Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Frank Baum, and especially the works of J.M. The metamorphosis Rover goes through as he goes from one type of environment to another. I’ll explore the use of metamorphosis as is described in the story of Eärendil and Elwing. The paper will look at sources of inspiration for the tale from Tolkien’s earlier work such as the Cottage of Lost Play, especially as it pertains to dream worlds and other world adventures of mortal children. I will relate local legends from Filey which may have been known to Tolkien, and could have had some influence for the mysterious nature of the beach where the toy dog was lost. Such as the etymology of Pershore and it’s relation to Persia and the production of fruits, citing the word’s definition and history from the 1905 publication Worcestershire Place Names by William Henry Dunigan. I will examine the etymology of character, place, and animal names that appear in the story. I’ll look at the qualities of the animals in the story in relation to human traits. I will try to ascertain what if any are the moral lessons to be learned from the tale. I will define why it is a beast fable as well as its being a fairy tale according to Tolkien’s own definition of fairy tales. I have chosen to look closely at this story as it is the closest thing to an actual beast fable ever written by the author.
This is a tale created before The Hobbit or The Lord of The Rings.
A story understood to have been created to console one of the Tolkien children for the loss of a toy, a little lead dog. The topic of my paper will be the short story Roverandom. Abstract for Tolkien’s Bestiary 2012 Conference at U.V.M.
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