Tolkien and Voice

Sound Descriptions in The Lord of the Rings

Abstract

In this article at the intersection of literary studies and sound studies, I extend academic analysis of sound in modernist literature to the fantasy genre, focusing on the treatment of sound and voices in relation to the narrative building of invented worlds. Not only is sound an arguably under-analysed dimension of literary text, but the affective potential of reading, the sound of specific words, and the distribution and description of voices have wide-reaching implications for the ways authors can both subtly and overtly influence a reader’s reception of a text, a character, a scene, and – in the case of fantasy literature – entire invented races.

I demonstrate how sound can play a unique role in fantasy worldbuilding and the potential narrative impact which sounds – if any – an author chooses to include or highlight in their work. Using the sound studies concept of ‘voice’, I analyse examples from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy to show the way that descriptions of voices signpost whether a character or race is friendly or antagonistic and explore the possible affective influence of such choices on the reader’s judgments. More specifically, I focus on the contrast between Saruman’s ‘enchanting’ voice which leads the listener astray and Gandalf’s ‘clear’ one countering it, as well as the descriptions of sounds emitted by the Black Riders versus the Ents, after a brief examination of which invented races get to speak in the first place or make other characteristic sounds. Thus, I illustrate the interplay of sound with fantasy worldbuilding, the importance of an author’s choice in who to give a speaking voice (or any sound at all), and the potential effect of sound descriptions on the reader.