Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October, 1844 – 25 August, 1900) was a 19th-century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science.

Although J.R.R. Tolkien and Nietzsche both were philologists, it is unknown if Tolkien ever read any work of Nietzsche, and few comparative studies have appeared.

• "Überhobbits: Tolkien, Nietzsche, and the Will to Power", by Douglas K. Blount, published in The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy (2003).
• "Frodo or Zarathustra: Beyond Nihilism in Tolkien and Nietzsche" by Peter M. Candler, Jr., first presented as a paper at the Tolkien conference at Exeter College (Oxford, August 2006), published in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration (2008). This "explores the intricate relationships between philology, creativity, creation, myths, the return to the past and the recurrence of things as discussed by Nietzsche and Tolkien".
• "Also Sprach Fëanor, Spirit of Fire: A Nietzschean Reading of Tolkien’s Mythology?" by Giovanni Carmine Costabile, published in Tolkien the Pagan? (2019)

External links

• Friedrich Nietzsche at Wikipedia
• "Überhobbits: Tolkien, Nietzsche, and the Will to Power" (online version at docstoc)
• "Tolkien or Nietzsche, Philology and Nihilism", a working paper by Peter M. Candler, Jr. (downloadable Word document at The Centre for Philosophy and Theology)
• Nietzsche and Tolkien: reviewing the Will to Power, part 1, continues as part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5