fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The
cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other
minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama" [Carpenter 90]
[Researching, not inventing] "When he wrote The Silmarillion Tolkien
believed that in one sense he was writing the truth. He did not suppose
that precisely such peoples as he described, 'elves', 'dwarves', and
malevolent 'orcs', had walked the earth and done the deeds that he
recorded. But he did feel, or hope, that his stories were in some sense an
embodiment of a profound truth . . . Tolkien believed that he was doing
more than inventing a story. He wrote of the tales that make up the book:
'They arose in my mind as 'given' things, and as they came, separately, so
too the links grew . . . yet always I had the sense of recording what was
already 'there', somewhere: not of 'inventing'." [Carpenter 91-2]
Influences from language: "As to the names of persons and places in 'The
Fall of Gondolin' and the other stories in The Silmarillion, they were
constructed from Tolkien's invented languages. Since the existence of these
languages was a raison d'être for the whole mythology, it is not surprising
that he devoted a good deal of attention to the business of making up names
from them"
Tolkien creates Sindarin, precursor to Quentya
[Development of 'what is real?'] "As the years went by he came more and
more to regard his own invented languages and stories as 'real' languages
and historical chronicles that needed to be elucidated. In other words,
when in this mood he did not say of an apparent contradiction in the
narrative or an unsatisfactory name: 'This is not as I wish it to be; I
must change it.' Instead he would approach the problem with the attitude:
'What does this mean? I must find about." [Carpenter 94]
On the 16 of November 1917 Tolkien gets a son and writes story of Luthien &
Beren
1918 - Tolkien gets job in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary)
1920 - Tolkien gets a professorship at Leeds University
In October of 1920 Tolkien gets second son.
Tolkien writes poems: "Another, 'The Dragon's Visits', describes the
ravages of a dragon who arrives at Bimble Bay and encounters 'Miss
Biggins'. A third, 'Glip', tells of a strange slimy creature who lives
beneath the floor of a cave and has pale luminous eyes" [Carpenter 106] :
Dragon ~ Smaug, Miss Biggins ~ Bilbo Baggins, Glip ~ Gollum
1924 - Tolkien gets a third son Christopher.
1925 - Tolkien becomes a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford
1929 - Tolkien gets a daughter
Tolkien now
[Tolkien's Workplace] "The shelves are crammed with dictionaries, works on
etymology and philology, and editions of texts in many languages,
predominant among which are Old and Middle English and Old Norse; but there
is also a section devoted to translations of The Lord of the Rings into
Polish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese; and the map of his invented
'Middle-Earth' is pinned to the window - ledge." (Carpenter 4) [Tolkien's
view of The Lord of the Rings] "He explains it all in great detail, talking
about his book not as a work of fiction but as a chronicle of actual
events; he seems to see himself not as an author who has made a slight
error that must now be corrected or explained away, but as a historian who
must cast light on an obscurity in an historical document." [Tolkien's
Voice] "He has a strange voice, deep but without resonance, entirely
English but with some quality in it I cannot define, as if he had come from
another age or civilization" (Carpenter 5)
The roots of some Tolkien characters
Gandalf
While reading “The Hobbit” and “The Lord Of The Rings” you will meat
such character as Gandalf. He is a magician (or Istary in the “The
Silmarillion”). And like all magicians he wears a long, thick, grey (or
white) beard, a big cone-shaped hat with wide fields and a wide grey
raincoat. This character owes with his existence to Tolkien’s trip to
Switzerland, where in the shop among the mountans he bought a postcard. It
was a reproduction of a picture of a german painter Madlenner, which was
called “Der Berggeist” (it could be translated as “The spirit of the
mountans”). There was an old man with white long beard and cone-shaped hat
with wide fields, who was seating under the tree. Many years later Tolkien
wrote on the other side of this postcard the following: “The prototype of
Gandalf”…
Sam Gamgee
Sam Gamgee is a hobbit (It tells us many things). He is the best
friend of Frodo and besides that, he is Frodo’s gardener. He is very brave,
bonhomous, kind, but careless and light-hearted, and, as all hobbits, he
likes to eat very much. It is very interesting, that the word “gamgee” can
be translated from one of the English dialects as cotton wool and besides
that, it was a surname of a doctor, who had invented 'gamgee-tissue', a
surgical dressing made from cotton wool. But the real character of Sam was
copied from the character of the mere english soldier of the war of 1914.
You already now from the biographical sketch that Tolkien took part in that
war. He battled on the front line in France. And he knows, what the war
is. Later in one of his letters he wrote: “My Sam Gamgee is indeed a
reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the
1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself”.
Hobbits
Hobbits is a people of Halflings. They live in holes. They are very short,
practical, strait-laced and they like tasty food most of all things in the
world. These creatures were created by J.R.R.Tolkien. He was the first,
who used them in his books. There are two versions about the origin of the
word “hobbit”. V.A. Muravjov keeps one of them. He wrote in his entrance to
“The Lord Of The Rings”, that the world “hobbit” is a mixture of latin word
“homo”, which means “human” and english word “rabbit”. But Humphrey
Carpenter explained the origin of this word in a different way. In his “The
biography of J.R.R.Tolkien” he wrote, that in his youth Tolkien read the
book “Babbit” by Sincler Luis and it influensed him very much. Carpenter
shows us the resemblance of the personality of Babbit and Bilbo Baggins,
the main character of Tolkien’s book “The hobbit or there and back again”.
Tolkien himself told in one of his interview, that his hobbits have no even
a hint on rabbits. That is why I can say, that the second version about the
origin of the word “hobbit” is more correct.
The Shire
The Shire is a country of hobbits. But it also has its roots. From the
biographical sketch we know, that four best years of his childhood Tolkien
spent in the village of Sarehole. And wile reading Tolkien’s description of
the Shire I realized, that it is very close to the Carpenter’s description
of Sarehole. The same water-mill, the same pretty flower-beds, the roads
paved with stones of different colors. We can see the festive tree, which
was decorated by hobbits every holiday. And we know, that in Sarehole there
was a tree, that Tolkien remembered all his life. The first his wise tree.
In hobbits-halflings we can see the same efficient, plain and stiff english
peasants so much loved by Tolkien.
Trees and ents
All his life Tolkien loved trees. In his childhood he dreamed, they
could have mind, speak to each other and even move. And his dream came
true as we can see it in his works (mostly in “The Silmarillion” and “The
Lord Of The Rings”). When professor created reasonable trees, he desided to
creat someone, who will look after them. That is how ents appeared. Ents
look like trees, but they more reasonable, more movable and of course they
are immortal. They are not fidgety, but very wise. Their speech is very
slow and calm. Its manner (“Hrum, Hoom”) was copied with the deep bass of
Luis, the best friend of J.R.R.Tolkien.
The elves
The elves in their appearance, whom we can see in the books of Tolkien
were also mostly created by him. The roots of these characters are very
ramified. Professor read a lot of information about all kinds of elves and
finding something general tried to create something new. Finally he got
immortal creatures, who can be killed only with a sword or they can pine
away to death. They are tall, have perfect eyesight, bright hair and brave
harts. They are wise, because of the memory they keep in their immortal
mind. But elves themselves estimate their immortality as end-around
infinity of analogical events, which exhaust and oppress them. But they
have a dream to return to Valinor, country, where their immortality wont be
so hard and difficult.
Lutien
Lutien Tinuviel (“Tinuviel” could be translated from Quenya as
“nightingale”) is the most beautiful elven virgo in the whole Arda (The
Earth). One day she was singing the hymn to Varda in the forest:
Ir Ithil ammen Eruchin (When the Moon is for us, the
children of Eru,
Menel-vir sila diriel Like sky precious stone
shines and saves,
Si loth a galadh lasto din! Let the flower and the tree
listen in silence!
A hir Annun gilthoniel Oh, queen of the West, which
light the stars,
Le linnon im Tinuviel! I sing to you, it’s me,
Tinuviel.)
Beren, the bravest warrior herd this sounds and loved Lutirn in a
moment. But he was mortal and she was an elf. That is why they could not be
together. But their love was so strong, that Lutien managed to ask the
goddess Varda to help them. And Varda helped them, so Lutien became mortal
and shared the destiny of her sweetheart.
Lutien is a copy of Edith Bratt, the wife of Tolkien. Like Lutien
Edith had hair of the color of raven’s wing, satin skin, shining eyes. She
danced and sang very well. And like the elven virgo, she danced for him in
the forest. And there is a inscription on her tomb: “Edith Mary Tolkien
(Lutien)”
Shelob
Shelob is a brainchild of Ungoliant, a jumbo spider with a beak,
pincers and bottomless stomach. Ungoliant is the evil and concentrated
darkness. She terminated the Two Great Trees Telperion and Laurelin and
deprived the world frome the light that give life.
Shelob is smaller then her mother, but she is even more cruel and
always hungry. This creature lives in a lair on the border of Mordor (the
Dark Land). She has a poison in her stinger, using which she kills and
devours her victims.
In his early childhood, being in South Africa, Tolkien stumbled on a
tarantula. It bit him, and he ran in terror across the garden until the
nurse snatched him up and sucked out the poison. Since that time he began
to afraid spiders. Maybe this made him to create such a creature.
“She”+”lob” is a quite wide-spread model of forming words, like female
animals. For example “she-goat” or “she-wolf”. In this case words should be
written with hyphen. Tolkien took hyphen away and used the received word as
the name of his creature. It looks rather horribly, isn’t it?
Tolkiens view on some events from
The Bible and archaic history
The crash of the Lamps
In the beginning of ages in “The spring of Arda” (“Arda” means “The
Earth”) there was no light at all. The Earth was bare: no trees, no plants,
no animals. The Valar saw, that there was a need of the light. And then
“Aule at the prayer of Yavanna wrought two mighty lamps for the lighting of
the Middle-earth which he had built amid the encircling seas. Then Varda
filled the lamps and Manwe hallowed them, and the Valar set them upon high
pillars, more lofty far than are any mountains of the later days. One lamp
they raised near to the north of Middle-earth, and it was named Illuin; and
the other was raised in the south, and it was named Ormal; and the light of
the Lamps of the Valar flowed out over the Earth, so that all was lit as it
were in a changeless day.” And then plants and trees began to grow. And
Arda filled with different animals and creatures. But when Morgoth (the
lord of darkness and evil) saw the fragrance of Arda in his anger he
decided to destroy this all. He built an unshakable citadel in Utumno and
concentrated all his dark forces there. His power grew and he started the
war. He made his stroke when the Valar where not prepared. “He assailed the
lights of Illuin and Ormal, and cast down their pillars and broke their
lamps. In the overthrow of the mighty pillars lands were broken and seas
arose in tumult; and when the lamps were spilled destroying flame was
poured out over the Earth. And the shape of Arda and the symmetry of its
waters and its lands was marred in that time, so that the first designs of
the Valar were never after restored.”
See, how gracefully professor Tolkien handled the legend of the ruin of
dinosaurs and the fall of a giant asteroid which destroyed everything on
earth! Isn’t he a genius?
The fall of Beleriand
It was the end of the first age of Arda. The forth battle of Beleriand
against Morgoth and Sauron (the “right arm” of Morgoth) finished with a
defeat of the forces of the light, the armies of men, elves and dwarves.
And the only hope of the light was Earendel, the man, who dared to try to
find Valinor and ask the Valar for help (men never were in Valinor and they
where forbidden to go there). He sailed so long, and he was so tired, that
he thought to turn back. But suddenly he saw a big white bird like a white
cloud under the see. There was a shining silmarill on her bosom. The bird
flew on Earendels ship and he saw, that it was his wife, Elwing. Together
they continued their sail and the silmarill lighted their way to Valinor.
When the Valar saw the bravery of this man and his wife (by the way, she
was an elf), the understood, there is something in Middle-Earth, they must
save. That is how the fifth and the final battle for Beleriand started.
This battle was named The War of Wrath. The Valar, with the power of
their fire of anger terminated Angband (the citadel of Morgoth), they
knocked Morgoth down and numbed him with the chain of Angoinor. Sauron was
forgiven and turned into light, he became Majar again, as he was before
Morgoth tempted him.
But in their destructive anger, the Valar didn’t even noticed, that
they had destroyed the Beleriand. Many of Elves where save and settled in
Imladrise, Lothlorien and Mirkwood. But Beleriand was swallowed by the See
and no one could ever see its beauty: “Thus an end was made of the power of
Angband in the North, and' the evil realm was brought to naught; and out of
the deep prisons a multitude of slaves came forth beyond all hope into the
light of day, and they looked upon a world that was changed. For so great
was the fury of those adversaries that the northern regions of the western
world were rent asunder, and the sea roared in through many chasms, and
there was confusion and great noise; and rivers perished or found new
paths, and the valleys were upheaved and the hills trod down…”
Critics say, that this story is the Tolkiens view on the legend about
Atlantis. Who knows, maybe it was really so…
The fall of Numenor
In the end of the second age of Arda after the War of Wrath and the
fall of Beleriand the Valar opened a new land for elected genders of men.
It was an island. And it didn’t belong neither to Middle-Earth nor to
Valinor (the country of the Valar). The Valar decorated it with gardens,
fountains and flowers from Valinor. And this land was named Numenor (The
Western Land).
The life of the inhabitants of Numenor was very long – near 300 years.
But they still stayed mortal men. Hundreds of years passed and their
discontent about their mortality grew. They began to murmur on the Valar:
“Why didn’t they give us eternity, if they love us so much? They told us,
they could not. Maybe, they just don’t want to?” But the Valar really
couldn’t deprive men from death, the Eru’s gift (Eru – the one, who create
the Valar and Arda, elves and men and everything), just because they
couldn’t understand it.
And exactly in this moment, when the faith of men staggered, Sauron,
who betrayed the Valar and turned in the Darkness again, made his stroke.
He tempted men and directed them against the Valar. Finally the king of men
concentrated all his forces and threw his giant army against the Valar. Eru
saw this and made abyss to swallow this army and the isle of Numenor and
men and Sauron: “But Iluvatar (the other name of Eru) showed forth his
power, and he changed the fashion of the world; and a great chasm opened in
the sea between Numenor and the Deathless Lands, and the waters flowed down
into it, and the noise and smoke of the cataracts went up to heaven, and
the world was shaken. And all the fleets of the Numenoreans were drawn down
into the abyss, and they were drowned and swallowed up for ever.”
“There came a mighty wind and a tumult of the earth, and the sky
reeled, and the hills slid, and Numenor went down into the sea, with all
its children and its wives and its maidens and its ladies proud; and all
its gardens and its balls and its towers, its tombs and its riches, and its
jewels and its webs and its things painted and carven, and its lore: they
vanished for ever. And last of all the mounting wave, green and cold and
plumed with foam, climbing over the land…” And the world has changed.
Only those who stayed faithful to the Valar was reminded about
forthcoming cataclysm. They sailed to Middle-earth on ships and founded
several kingdoms their: Gondor, Arnor and Eriador…
This legend intertwines with the Bible Great Flood. As in the Bible we
can see the sin of men and retribution for it. As in the Bible water
swallowed the sinners. And as in the bible there are some people, who
stayed faithful and who was saved and prized for their faith.
How the world changed
When Eru punished men in Numenor and destroyed the island, he changed
the whole world as well: “But the land of Aman and Eressëa (the islands of
Valinor) of the Eldar were taken away and removed beyond the reach of Men
for ever. And Andor, the Land of Gift, Numenor of the Kings, Elenna of the
Star of Eärendil, was utterly destroyed. For it was nigh to the east of the
great rift, and its foundations were overturned, and it fell and went down
into darkness, and is no more. And there is not now upon Earth any place
abiding where the memory of a time without evil is preserved. For Iluvatar
cast back the Great Seas west of Middle-earth, and the Empty Lands east of
it, and new lands and new seas were made; and the world was diminished, for
Valinor and Eressëa were taken from it into the realm of hidden things.”
Before the fall of Numenor the Earth was flat, but Eru changed her:
“Thus in after days, what by the voyages of ships, what by lore and
star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round”
By this episode Tolkien managed to conciliate two archaic theories
about the form of our planet. He intended that at first the Earth was flat
and then changed its form. Of course it is just a myth, but who knows,
maybe it was really so…
About wars
In “The Silmarillion”, in “The Lord Of The Rings” and even in “The
Hobbit” we can see wars. In his works Tolkien shows us real war with its
blood, pain and cruelty. Why does he pay so much attention to War? The
answer is simple. In 1916 he was in army and took part in the battle of the
Somme (France). Many of his friends fell in this battle. There Tolkien saw
all sides of the war. This period of his life influenced on his creative
work very much. That is why we can see so many wars in the books of the
professor.
Conclusion
Well, I think, that now, when I have studied many reasons and roots of
different characters of “The Silmarillion”, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord Of
The Rings”, I understood Tolkiens philosophy and his views on things a
little bit deeper. But the views of the Professor on such events, as I have
mentioned in my work, can’t be named allegory, because Tolkien himself
always declined the presence of any kind of allegory in his books. But the
method of his viewing can be called “myth-poetical method”. In his “The
Silmarillion” and “The Lord Of The Rings” we can see all sings of myth-
poetical space, which makes the book fantastic, historical, mythable,
poetical and very informative. Besides, “The Lord Of The Rings” is very
real and vital. And there is no such question for me, on which I couldn’t
find an answer in it.
Well, to my mind, my own experience in the sphere of literature,
tolkienism and just life experience is enough to advise you to read this
book. I think, after such reading, you wouldn’t forget it!
List of used literature
1. J.R.R.Tolkien “The Silmarillion”
2. J.R.R.Tolkien “The Lord Of The Rings”
3. J.R.R.Tolkien “The Hobbit or There And Back Again”
4. J.R.R.Tolkien “The appendix to “The Lord Of The Rings”
5. V. Muraviov an introductory article to “The Hobbit”
6. H. Carpenter “The biography of J.R.R. Tolkien”
7. Pictures by J.R.R.Tolkien, Karen Wynn Fonstad, Patrick Wynne and
frames from the film “The Lord Of The Rings” by Peter Jackson.
Appendix
-----------------------
The map of Numenor
The map of Beleriand
Beren and Lutien
The elven virgo Galadriel
Ent Treebeard
Hobbits hole inside
Gandalf the Grey
Ronald with his family in South Africa
Ronald and Hilary
Edith Bratt
Ronald in student years
Ronald in army
Prosessor J.R.R.Tolkien
The spring of Arda
The Change of the world
The Monogram of
J.R.R.Tolkien
Elvish and runic scripts made by J.R.R.Tolkien
“The door of Moria”
by J.R.R.Tolkien
Professor Tolkien
Ronald and Edith
Tolkien
The last photo of
The tomb of Edith Mary Tolkien (Lutien) and John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
(Beren)
Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2
