The Ghost of the Father: Hauntology, Derrida, and the ‎Shahnameh in Tolkien's Line of Kings

This article applies Jacques Derrida's concept of hauntology—the logic of spectral return that ‎unsettles binary distinctions between presence and absence, life and death—to the ‎genealogical structures of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. While Tolkien criticism has ‎productively addressed the "long defeat" and the weight of history in Middle-earth, the ‎specific mechanics of how the failed or absent father haunts the present remain ‎undertheorized. This article argues that Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Persian national epic, ‎offers a vital comparative vocabulary for understanding this spectral inheritance. Through ‎close readings of Aragorn's hesitation at the Paths of the Dead, the ghost of Isildur's failure at ‎the Cracks of Doom, and the return of the King as a "work of mourning," I demonstrate that ‎Tolkien's line of kings is structured by a hauntological demand. Drawing parallels with the ‎Shahnameh's treatment of the martyred Siavash and the tragedy of Rustam and Sohrab, this ‎article contends that both epic traditions conceive of inheritance not as linear descent but as an ‎ethical burden carried by the son. Ultimately, a hauntological reading reveals that Aragorn's ‎kingship is not a simple restoration of a lost origin but a transformative negotiation with the ‎ghosts of the past—a dynamic that resonates with the Persian concept of farr (divine glory) ‎and deepens our understanding of spectral sovereignty in Tolkien's work.‎

کلیدواژه ها:

Tolkien ، Derrida ، Ferdowsi ، inheritance ، spectrality ، hauntology ، Shahnameh ، kingship‎