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Location
Weatherford, Oklahoma
Document Type
Paper
Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-54.htm
Start Date
25-7-2026 3:30 PM
End Date
25-7-2026 4:20 PM
Description
As a text, The Lord of the Rings is obsessed with the natural and the magical in the mundane. However, what is often neglected in Tolkien studies is the idea of the space in which the natural and the magical exist. Here, I present the theory of spatiomagus to help us understand space in fantasy literature. Building off the Deleuzoguattarian theory of smooth/striated space, spatiomagus asserts that space in fantasy texts is influenced physically and/or created virtually by the magical “light” and “dark.” This intersection of magic and space can create, destroy, and alter places via metaphysical means, and spatiomagus helps support our understanding of how space functions in fantasy by providing a framework with which to understand these aforementioned intersections. In this paper, I turn to The Lord of the Rings as a primary example of how this theory functions. To illuminate spatiomagus and its related concepts—such as becoming-Gollum and the Sauron-assemblage—I utilize examples of places, spaces, and journeys such as Minas Morgul, the wraith-world, and the journey of the Fellowship in Tolkien’s legendarium. Lastly, I turn to Frodo, the ring-bearer, whom I posit as a spatial nomad and the Deleuzoguattarian ‘war machine.’ As a nomad/war machine, Frodo is able to travel fluidly between both real space and virtual space (from Middle-earth to the wraith-world) as well as navigate the virtual space of the Sauron-assemblage, utilizing the light of Eru Ilúvatar to smooth the striated space of darkness that exists within it. The aforementioned theory of spatiomagus illuminates how Frodo’s nomadism functions. In this analysis, I emphasize the uncomfortable fluidity of Frodo’s being post-One Ring, and how in his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Orodruin, he becomes-nomad.
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Included in
Spacing Out of the Shire: Spatiomagus and Spatial Nomadism in The Lord of the Rings
Weatherford, Oklahoma
As a text, The Lord of the Rings is obsessed with the natural and the magical in the mundane. However, what is often neglected in Tolkien studies is the idea of the space in which the natural and the magical exist. Here, I present the theory of spatiomagus to help us understand space in fantasy literature. Building off the Deleuzoguattarian theory of smooth/striated space, spatiomagus asserts that space in fantasy texts is influenced physically and/or created virtually by the magical “light” and “dark.” This intersection of magic and space can create, destroy, and alter places via metaphysical means, and spatiomagus helps support our understanding of how space functions in fantasy by providing a framework with which to understand these aforementioned intersections. In this paper, I turn to The Lord of the Rings as a primary example of how this theory functions. To illuminate spatiomagus and its related concepts—such as becoming-Gollum and the Sauron-assemblage—I utilize examples of places, spaces, and journeys such as Minas Morgul, the wraith-world, and the journey of the Fellowship in Tolkien’s legendarium. Lastly, I turn to Frodo, the ring-bearer, whom I posit as a spatial nomad and the Deleuzoguattarian ‘war machine.’ As a nomad/war machine, Frodo is able to travel fluidly between both real space and virtual space (from Middle-earth to the wraith-world) as well as navigate the virtual space of the Sauron-assemblage, utilizing the light of Eru Ilúvatar to smooth the striated space of darkness that exists within it. The aforementioned theory of spatiomagus illuminates how Frodo’s nomadism functions. In this analysis, I emphasize the uncomfortable fluidity of Frodo’s being post-One Ring, and how in his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Orodruin, he becomes-nomad.
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc54/schedule/18
