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 Topic: Learning Lore -1The Gaffer-A Small Digression : Learn/Teach
In an earlier post on the 'Gaffer' , in quoting him, I wrote:
Mr. Bilbo has learned him (note the rustic ‘learned’ rather than ‘taught’) his letters –meaning no harm mark you, and I hope no harm will come of it.
That will learn him! Learn in the ancient sense of 'teach' is now considered archaic or slang. Cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , 'if thou learnest him his lesson'; or Mr. Badger in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows , after he had his grammar 'corrected' by the Water Rat: 'But we don't want to teach 'em. We want to learn' em -learn'em, learn'em.
I had talked of the rustic ‘learned’ rather than ‘taught’ but in fact, the Gaffer was using the now archaic term correctly, for his time. However, knowing how much Tolkien liked to 'pun' and play with words, one suspects that what we have here is a Tolkienian 'double-whammy'! In the time and place of the Gaffer 'learn' is a totally correct use, but Tolkien also knew that it would now be considered archaic or used only by those with a 'lesser education'. He can thus have his cake and eat it- we can laugh at the Gaffer's rusticity and his -to us- incorrect use of the word 'learned' - and Tolkien can smile knowingly- at our own ignorance of the historic use of the word!
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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In the Nordic countries, 'to learn' is still used today also in the sense of 'to teach'.
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Member of the Tolkien Society, the Finnish Tolkien Society, and founder of Lindon, the Swedish-speaking smial of the FTS. My Tolkien-related twitter: http://twitter.com/Ardamir
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 Thanks for that information.
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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There's an interesting 'sidebar' on Ted Sandyman in my thread here :
A Motley Crew of Reprobates
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Learn vs. teach: Yes, that's the same in some of the Romance languages
as well (French and Romanian; I'm not sure about the others). It always
seemed a bit odd to me, but hey.
Sorry I've disappeared again. I do have at least a temporary, seasonal job. It's the same job I had last summer, so at least I know I like it. I was hoping for something more longterm (not to mention slightly better paying), but it's work, and I'm not feeling very picky at the moment. So hopefully I can reappear for awhile. |
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Bill Ferny
Like so many of his fellow villagers in Bree, Bill Ferny has a 'botanical name' as Tolkien puts it in the Nomenclature, (LOTR Companion Hammond & Scull pp. 754, 757}. There is, however, nothing else pleasant about him that is normally associated with things botanical!
A microcosmic figure of evil when compared to Saruman and Sauron, his picture, as verbally painted by Tolkien, reflects the essential pettiness and mean-spiritedness of evil, and throws into true perspective the real nature of its grander practitioners.
We first come across Bill Ferny when Frodo ‘puts his finger in it’ –FOTR- At The Sign Of The Prancing Pony:
But there was one swarthy Breelander, who stood looking at them with a knowing and half-mocking expression that made them feel very uncomfortable. Presently he slipped out of the door, followed by the squint-eyed southerner: the two had been whispering together a good deal during the evening.
The - squint eyed southerner – as we learn from UT-The Hunt for The Ring – is in fact one of Saruman’s most trusted servants, ‘turned’, by fear of the Witch King, to serve as his agent in Bree :
He put therefore the Shadow of Fear on the Dunlending, and sent him on to Bree as an agent. He was the squint-eyed southerner at the inn.
And Frodo later sees him, after the inn has been attacked , hiding in Bill Ferny’s house, (FOTR-A Knife In The Dark).
Tolkien’s turn of phrase in his introduction to us of Bill Ferny is clearly deliberate:
One swarthy Breelander (my bold emphasis).
And Strider (FOTR-Strider) describes him as :
A swarthy sneering fellow
Even if one takes a ‘facial’ gloss, meaning ‘dark in color’, it is quite clear, in the context of what follows that Tolkien is also expecting us to take another, more figurative OE meaning of swart/swarthy – ‘wicked, iniquitous, baleful, malignant {cf. OED}. Remember Letter # 131:
Hardly a word in its 600,00 or more has been unconsidered
And Strider informs the Hobbits that Bill Ferny ‘has an evil name in Bree-land’ – and is not to be trusted.( FOTR-Strider) and aptly summarizes him in these words:
He would sell anything to anybody; or make mischief for amusement {ibid}
Justifying Frodo’s later comment about Ferny to Gandalf (FOTR-Many Meetings) when he describes him as:
stupid and wicked
And just what he has sold is made clear when Merry tells of his experience with the Black Riders, and Strider observes:
They will know all the news soon now, for they have visited Bill Ferny; and probably the Southerner was a spy as well {ibid}
And the truth that Bill Ferny will sell anything to anybody is also, ironically, established when he sells Bill the Pony to the companions as an additional:
way of increasing his profits from the affair {FOTR-A Knife In The Dark}
It is interesting to note how Tolkien’s physical description of Bill Ferny matches both the comments others make about him, and his own actions. He is first introduced to us as:
One swarthy Breelander,
then as
a swarthy sneering fellow
and finally as
He had heavy black brows, and dark scornful eyes; his large mouth curled in a sneer. {FOTR-A Knife In The Dark}
His external appearance certainly reflects his lack of inward grace, particularly his mouth and eyes, for the eyes being ‘the windows of the soul’, in his case, like the mouth, are ‘scornful’-another way of expressing sneering!
And his comment to the Hobbits regarding Strider – Watch out tonight! {ibid} is particularly inappropriate given what he had helped initiate the night before!
Sam’s well aimed apple is an appropriate closure to Ferny’s ill-intentioned jibes!
And from Barliman Butterbur’s lips (ROTK- Homeward Bound) we learn that Bill Ferny’s willingness to betray all and sundry has continued. Early in NY 3019 he and Harry Goatleaf (the gatekeeper) are believed to have let in vagabonds coming up the Greenway and joined with them in fighting against the Breelanders, going off with them when the fight was concluded in the villagers’ favor, although not without loss of life.
Barliman believes them to have:
Gone for robbers …hiding in the woods beyond Archet, and out in the wilds north-away.{ibid}
but in fact Bill Ferny, at least, had landed up with Saurman /Sharkey’s ruffians in the Shire.
When the Hobbits return to the Shire they find the Brandywine Bridge gated, and Ferny overseeing, as ‘the Chief’s Big Man’, {ROTK-The Scouring of the Shire} the hobbit ‘shirrifs’ guarding it.
Awakened by the clamor, and in answer to Merry’s command, and cowed by the sight of naked steel, Ferny unlocks the gate, flinging the key at Merry’s head, and darting out into the darkness:
As he passed the ponies one of them let fly with his heel and just caught him as he ran. He went off with a yelp into the night and was never heard of again.
“Neat work, Bill, said Sam, meaning the pony.{ibid}
It seems a fitting judgment on the worthlessness of Ferny, that his punishment is not before any high court of justice, but an apple on the nose from Sam, and a kick on the shins from Bill!
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Hama
To write about Hama is to enter the world of Beowulf, of Heorot (Hrothgar’s ‘Golden Hall’) or Meduseld (Theoden’s)
there stands aloft a great hall of Men. And it seems to my eyes that it is thatched with gold (Legolas - TT – The King Of The Golden Hall}
and of the discussion over the relationship of the Rohirrim to the Anglo-Saxon World, and of Heorot to Meduseld, and thus Hrothgar to Theoden, and thus LOTR to Beowulf!
But I am going to avoid all of this, as much as is possible and deal with a different theme, that of individual judgment in the face of over-riding superior orders, of the individual conscience in the face of imposed command. For that is the real story of Hama, and it is repeated, with different characters and to a greater and lesser extent throughout LOTR:
The theme of the defiance of authority because the heart says otherwise, and because, to men (and women) of free will, even to men of action acting under orders, judgment has to apply to the actual situation as it occurs, and cannot simply be applied in a blanket fashion with no actual knowledge of the individual context.
* N.B.Those who wish to follow in more detail the A-S and Beowulfian aspects of The King of the Golden Hall, and the Rohirrim in general, should go to the following sources:
HOME V11 The Treason of Isengard Chptr. The King of the Golden Hall
Tom Shippey- The Road to Middle-Earth (revised edition 2006) Chptr. A Cartographic Plot
Heorot or Meduseld?: Tolkien's use of Beowulf in "The King of the Golden Hall". Michael R. KightleyMythlore Jan 1 2006
Tolkien and A-S
To Be Continued
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Those interested in the nature of Hama's actions might also like to look at this thread:
Haldir and Eomer- law-breakers?
Although I did not contribute to this thread it would appear to have some relevance to the discussion that is about to be undertaken regarding Hama.
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Hama – 2
In the Beowulf poem, when the eponymous hero and his men make landfall in Hrothgar’s kingdom they are challenged twice –first by the coastguard, and then by Hrothgar’s doorward.
After the two challenges, and also after leaving their weapons outside, Beowulf and his companions are allowed to approach the Danish king.
Shippey (The Road to Middle –Earth- revised edition Chpt. A Cartographic Plot) observes:
Tolkien follows this dignified, step-by-step ceremonial progress exactly. Thus in ‘The King of the Golden Hall’ Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas , and Gimli are checked first by the guards at the gates of Edoras..and then by the doorward of Meduseld, Hama. He too insists on the ceremony of piling arms.
And in allowing Hama to exercise discretion in favor of Gandalf keeping his staff- even though he – Hama- observes:
‘The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age’ {TT- The King of the Golden Hall}
Tolkien has him echo the lines of the coastguard in Beowulf:
A sharp-shield-warrior must know how to tell good from bad in every case, from words as well as deeds. I hear {from your words} that this warband is friendly…..I will guide you.{Shippey, ibid}
What Hama actually says is:
Yet in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom, I believe you are friends and folk of honour, who have no evil purpose. You may go in. {TT- The King of the Golden Hall}
thus emphasizing the point made in our earlier post:
the theme of the defiance of authority because the heart says otherwise, and because, to men (and women) of free will, even to men of action acting under orders, judgment has to apply to the actual situation as it occurs, and cannot simply be applied in a blanket fashion with no actual knowledge of the individual context
But, of course, Tolkien has made one very major alteration to the Beowulf sequence, where the guards are imposing the orders of the king. Tolkien’s scenario- in it s final published form, though not in several of the earlier drafts, interposes the figure of Wormtongue between the king and the orders not to let any pass.
The gate guards of Meduseld say to Gandalf and his companions:
It is but two nights ago that Wormtongue came to us and said that by the will of Theoden no stranger should pass these gates. {TT- The King of the Golden Hall}
The dismissive response that Gandalf gives to the name of Wormtongue, and the name itself, alerts us to the fact that something is not right with this individual, whoever he might be, and that he is not, by name alone, to be trusted.
One suspects that the gate guard who speaks with Gandalf also has that same viewpoint for he agrees to go to Theoden and :
Bring you such answer as seems good to him {ibid}
He returns bearing the message that Theoden will see them but that all weapons, including Gandalf’s staff, must be left with the doorwardens. (We later learn that it is Wormtongue who has suggested the order with regard to Gandalf’s staff:
Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff? That fool, Hama, has betrayed us {ibid}
And of course, from Wormtongue’s point of view, he has – he has allowed a wizard to enter with a staff, even though he –Hama – has himself observed:
The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age’ {TT- The King of the Golden Hall}
And he has done so, even though a direct instruction has been received from the king, the one given to Gandalf by the gate guard, that all weapons, including staffs, must be left at the door.
Is then Hama, ‘That fool’ that Wormtongue calls him, just plain stupid, or does he take his decision for a deeper reason, even though it directly contradicts the King’s recent orders?
I do not for one minute believe that Hama is ‘a fool’ and I think that he disobeys the king’s orders because he knows that it is not the will of Theoden per se – it is the will of Theoden as advised by Wormtongue and given through the prism of Wormtongue’s view of the world, to Theoden.
It was a given in both Medieval and Tudor and Stuart Society, that the ‘king could do no wrong’ – ill actions , if and when they took place, were not the responsibility of the King, but of his ministers- he/she was ‘ill advised’. (Clearly the Cromwellian Revolution put a different slant on matters!).
 I think that attitude is reflected in Hama’s decision. He knows- innately – in the situation that is presented to him, that Wormtongue’s advice to the king in this matter –and many others- is wrong- and he gainsays it, for the greater good of the king he loves. And that also distinguishes him, in position and power, from the gate guard who takes Gandalf’s initial message to the Theoden.
It also points to the fact that Hama’s position as ‘doorward’ is not a lowly one- the title misleads- it is a critical one- he is the last line of defence between outsiders and the King- and is noted as ‘captain of the King’s guard’ who fell before the Hornburg Gate defending Rohan.{TT-The Road to Isengard}
And, as Shippey says it also shows Tolkien’s and the Anglo-Saxon world’s deep-seated view that:
In free societies orders give way to discretion. (The Road to Middle –Earth- revised edition Chpt. A Cartographic Plot)
But that must await another post.
To Be Continued.
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Hama -3 -Concluded Hama continues to 'think with his heart' , either in despite of or in anticipation of orders. When Gandalf unveils Grima Wormtongue's plotting in favor of Saruman and releases Theoden from Grima's insidious verbal bondage, Hama is ordered by Theoden to bring Eomer- imprisoned on Grima's advice, to him:Call Hama to me. Since he proved untrusty as a dooward , let him become an errand runner. The guilty shall bring the guilty to judgement.{TT-The King of the Golden Hall}
Theoden, like Aragorn with Beregond later, has both a sense of humor and a sense of justice.
And then Hama does it again! Freeing Eomer he gives him his sword- something that Theoden had not yet ordered:
How comes this? said Theoden sternly.
It is my doing, lord, said Hama, trembling. I understood that Eomer was to be set free. Such joy was in my heart that maybe I have erred.Yet, since he was free again, and he a Marshall of the mark, I brought him his sword as he bade me.{ ibid. my bold emphasis}
Note again it is the 'heart' not the 'head' that -properly-governs Hama's actions, and he -somewhat defiantly- tells the king maybe I have erred-even though in his heart he doesn't believe he has. And neither, of course, does Theoden.
In commenting on individual responsibility and response to orders, in the context of the Mark, Shippey observes:
Hama and Eomer make their own decisions, and even the suspicious gate-ward wishes Gandalf luck. 'I was only obeying orders', we can see, would not be accepted as an excuse in the Riddermark. Nor would it in Beowulf. (The Road to Middle –Earth- revised edition Chpt. A Cartographic Plot.
And it is Hama who brings the discredited Wormtongue before the king, unveiling that he, Wormtongue, has a cache of other men's things, including the king's own sword- Herugrim.
Also it is Hama -the great-hearted- who, in asserting the trust that the people of the Mark have in the House of Eorl, suggests to King Theoden that Eowyn should oversee the Eorlingas while the king is gone:
I said not Eomer, said Hama. And he is not last. There is Eowyn, daughter of Eomund , his sister. She is fearless and high-hearted. All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.
It shall be so, said Theoden.{TT-The King of the Golden Hall - my bold emphasis}
Note, how again, 'heart' - high-hearted features in Hama's thinking and his vocabulary.
And again, notably, it is Hama- the man who 'thinks with his heart'- who recognizes the innate rightness or wrongness of things, even orders, who says, when Gandalf rides off , and some express concern at his departure and say Wormtongue would have a (negative) explanation for it:
True enough...but for myself, I will wait until I see Gandalf again.
Maybe you will wait long, said the other.{TT -Helm's Deep}
Ironically, and tragically, Hama is not to see Gandalf again, or the triumph of Theoden's forces over the armies of Saruman, for he falls before the Hornburg Gate defending his people and his heartfelt principles:
And they {Saruman's forces} hewed Hama's body before the gates of the Hornburg, after he was dead. {TT- The Voice of Saruman}
It is not coincidence that Hama, who had felt with his heart and fought with it, is the one Tolkien chooses the forces of Saruman to desecrate, for in making such a chocie he is emphasizing the distinction between those who follow the Mark and those who follow Saruman.Theoden talks of the 'reckless hate' of the forces of Saruman {TT- Helm's Deep} and that contrasts with the 'reckless heart' of Hama. So it is , perhaps, poetic justice that those whose ''reckless hate' desecrated Hama's dead body as it lay outside the Hornburg Gate, were meted out the cruel justice of the huorns:
Wailing they passed under the waiting shadow of the trees; and from that shadow none ever came again.{ibid}
Hama is a name that appears not just in LOTR but in Beowulf too, and while the characterisation of the two Hama's is somehwat different, it is quite clear that, as with other Beowulf resonances in LOTR - in the King of the Golden Hall Tolkien is clearly wishing us to draw comparisons between what is symbolized in the names of Heorot and Meduseld.
Captain of the King's guard, Doorward of Theoden, Hama is not simply a minor character who has a simple role to play. He represents that bond of individual freedom that connects Beowulf and LOTR and distinguishes Theoden's Mark from Saruman's Isengard.
Yet again, in painting in small brush strokes Tolkien conveys a much bigger picture, one in which the individual moral responsibilities of free men stand out starkly, when necessary, against orders and control, and ultimately, against that which is evil.
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Beregond It is perhaps appropriate that we follow Hama, with Beregond, one of several in LOTR who face:individual judgment in the face of over-riding superior orders, of the individual conscience in the face of imposed command.
But in the instance of Beregond we have a moral dilemma of greater proportions than that involved with Hama, for we are talking not just of dereliction of duty, a 'hanging offence' in its own right, but of the killing of fellow soldiers.
For myself, said Faramir, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace; Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Numenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry,her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.{TT- The Window on the West}
It is this vision to which Beregond has given his heart, not that of the ruling steward, a man, as Tolkien writes in Letter # 183 who:
was tainted with mere politics
Like the prince to whom he has given his heart -Faramir -Beregond wishes for Gondor to re-establish
the title High and throw off having become Middle Men, of the Twilight {TT- The Window on the West}
Our first introduction to Beregond is when he comes to induct Pippin into the guard of the Steward of Gondor (ROTK-Minas Tirith}, when he informs Pippin, and thus us, that he is the son of Baranor. Beregond's response to Pippin's request for food introduces the easy rapport that grows to exist betwen the two- having ensured Shadowfax is well-housed and fed Beregond says to Pippin:
and now for our manger (ibid)
And both Beregond and Pippin share both fear of and yet courageous defiance against the powesr massed against them:
It is the sign of our fall, and the shadow of doom, a Fell Rider of the air (Pippin)
Yes, the shadow of doom , said Beregond. I fear that Minas Tirith shall fall.
No, my heart will not yet despair.(Pippin)
Gondor shall not perish yet (Beregond)
That 'hopeless courage' that indomintable Norse spirit that so captured Tolkien's imagination, shines through again and again in LOTR.
And then, talking of Faramir, who has replaced his brother in leading the defence of the city, Beregond says;
He is bold, more bold than many deem; for in these days men are slow to believe that a captain can be wise and learned in the scrolls of lore, and song, as he is and yet a man of hardihood and swift judgment in the field. But such is Faramir.(ROTK-Minas Tirith -my bold emphasis.}
Beregond is not one of those who are slow to believe for he shares Faramir's vision that sits behind the sword, he does not
love valour and war as things good in themselves. {TT-The Window on the West} And all this is from one who is:
no captain.Neither office nor rank nor lordship have I, being but a plain man of arms of the Third Company of the Citadel.(ROTK-Minas Tirith -my bold emphasis}
One is reminded of Tolkien's comment regarding the 'Tommies' - the ordinary soldiers in WW1:
My 'Sam Gamgee' is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself.{Humphrey Carpenter-J RR Tolkien:A Biography Chptr. The Breaking of the Fellowship}
To Be Continued
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Beregond -2 In TT-The Window on the West Faramir talks of Numenor in Gondor - and says:Childless lords sat in aged halls
and Pippin, in his initial reactions to Minas Tirith noted that:
it lacked half the men that could have dealt at ease there {ROTK-Minas Tirith}.
And Beregond - watching the evacuees leaving Minas Tirith comments:
there were always too few children in this city{ibid}
It is all the more poignant then, that he has permitted his own son, Bergil, to remain, in a city already in decay, with little young lifeblood, and that remaining likely to fall prey to the depredations of the forces of Mordor.
But, even in the darkest of hours there is humor, and food is never far from the mind of a hobbit, and that particular subtext- started in ROTK-Minas Tirtih- is continued in ROTK -The Siege of Gondor, when Pippin , complaining of being bored waiting upon Denethor and other great persons, says:
And I'm not used, Master Beregond, to waiting hungry on others while they eat.
But food and feasting are immediately put aside when the Nazgul are seen attacking Faarmir's forces as they flee across the plain, and Beregond -ever Faramir's man - rushes to give what help he can:
Ashamed of his terror, while Beregond of the Guard thought first of the captain whom he loved, Pippin got up and peered out.{ROTK -The Siege of Gondor}
And it is Pippin who imparts to Beregond the news that Faramir, badly wounded but still living, is about to be consigned to the fire by Denethor's madness:
Beregond, if you can, do somehting to stop any dreadful thing happening.
The Lord does not permit those who wear the black and silver to leave their post for nay cause. save at his command.
Well, you must choose between orders and the life of Faramir, said Pippin. And as for orders, I think you have a madman to deal with, not a lord.{ROTK -The Siege of Gondor my bold emphasis.}
orders and life - a moral dilemma for one who had been drilled against the background of the autocratic rule of Denethor. And Tolkien, forever the master story teller, throws Beregond a lifeline with the words of Pippin:
I think you have a madman to deal with, not a lord
Beregond can justify deserting his post and saving Faramir because Denethor has gone mad!
But the lifeline, although clever, is not needed. The fact that Faramir is alive and endangered is enough -Beregond will choose with his heart, and that needs no rationale.
And poor Pippin, now caught in the complexities of the war, and the divisions of loyalty, doesn't really believe that Beregond either can or will do anything to save Faramir. As he says to Gandalf:
I have told Beregond, but I'm afraid he won't dare to leave his post: he is on guard. And what can he do anyway?{ROTK- The Pyre of Denethor}
He and Gandalf find out soon enough what Beregond can do, the Closed Door is open and the porter slain. And Beregond is holding the door of the House of the Stewards against Denethor's servants, two of whom he has already slain:
staining the hallows with their blood{ibid}
And the one final attempt by Denethor to consign Faramir to the flames is thwarted by Beregond's intervention:
So! cried Denethor.{to Gandalf}. Thou hadst already stolen half my son's love. Now thou stealest the hearts of my knights also, so that they rob me wholly of my son at last.{ibid}
And clutching the palantir that Sauron has used to decieve him, Denethor immolates himself on the pyre, not realising that the one word he had used in his final outburst to Gandalf- love - was the cause of all this - life (heart) over orders.
Tolkien never makes moral decisions easy. Looking at the body of the dead porter Beregond says:
This deed I shall ever rue...but a madness of haste was on me, and he would not listen, but drew his sword.{ibid}
Small wonder that Gandalf observes of the bloodshed and confusion when talking of Sauron:
Such deeds he loves: friend at war with friend; loyalty divided in confusion of hearts {ibid}.
To be continued
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Beregon -3 - Concluded While not commenting specifically on Beregond's actions in saving Faramir, but at the cost of lives, one can see sympathetic understanding from Gandalf and trust in Beregond when he tells him to hold the key to the House of the Stewards:until the City is set in order again.{ROTK-The Pyre of Denethor}
And it is to Beregond and Pippin that he entrusts Faramir to be taken to the Houses of Healing.{ibid}
Marching to the Black Gate as one of the picked men of the Tower of the Guard (another indicator that what is to follow will not be unfair to Beregond)it is fitting that it is Pippin, who had sent Beregond to save Faramir, who now saves him- stabbing the blade of Westernesse into the vitals of a great troll-chief who had stunned Beregond and knocked him down, and was reaching out to bite his throat and end his life.{ROTK-The Black Gate Opens}.
And then the eagles came.
After his crowning as King, the font of both mercy and justice, those who had transgressed were brought before Aragorn for judgement. Last of all the captain of the Guard brought Beregond.
And the King said to Beregond: Beregond, by your sword blood was spilled in the Hallows, where that is forbidden. Also you left your post without leave of Lord or of Captain. For these things, of old, death was the penalty. Now therefore I must pronounce your doom.
All penalty is remitted for your valour in battle, and still more because all that you did was for the love of the Lord Faramir. Nonetheless you must leave the Guard of the Citadel, and you must go forth from the City of Minas Tirith.........
So it must be, for you are appointed to the White Company, the Guard of Faramir, Prince Of Ithilien and you shall be its captain and dwell in Emyn Arnen in honour and peace, and in the service of him for whom you risked all, to save him from death.
In the opening post on Beregond it was suggested that he had given his heart to Faramir's vision of Gondor and of the man who held it.
This is, it is suggested, reinforced by the actions of the two men to whom , he Beregond, owed allegiance- Denethor and Faramir, and their response to Aragorn.
Compare Faramir's response when healed by Aragorn:
My lord, you called me, I come.What does the king command?{ROTK -The Houses of Healing}
with Denethor's bitter outbust to Gandalf:
I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart. Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur. I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordhsip and dignity.
One can almost feel the bile.
And although Denethor has now passed into despair and madness, that bile is something he has felt for Aragorn and Gandalf from the days of his father Ecthelion 11. (cf. Unfiished Tales - The Palantiri).
No wonder Beregond chose the vision of Faramir, rather than the twisted bitterness of Denethor:
It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor depsised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between orcs and the allies of Mordor. If he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful.{Letter # 183}
In all ways, Beregond had made the right choice- but, it had come with a price:
This deed I shall ever rue...but a madness of haste was on me, and he would not listen, but drew his sword.
Yet again the mastery of Tolkien's story telling allows a 'minor character' to illuminate a great truth .
And, as Shippey says it also shows Tolkien’s and the Anglo-Saxon world’s deep-seated view that:
In free societies orders give way to discretion. (The Road to Middle –Earth- revised edition Chpt. A Cartographic Plot)
Or , to quote Pippin's words:
orders and life.
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Bergil Children, per se, particularly as individuals, do not feature largely in LOTR.We know that hobbit children were parented with a fairly loose rein, and that they 'took a lot of provender'. {FOTR-A Long-Expected Party}.Everard Took and Melilot Brandybuk are seen dancing the Springle-ring, {ibid} but other that that we learn nothing about them. Neither in Bree, nor Rivendell or Lorien are children in any way conspicuous. Indeed, it is not really until we get to Gondor that we learn of children again, that there is a dearth of childern in Minas Tirith and the fact that those who do live there are now being evacuated to safer havens, in the face of the Shadow from the east.
Bergil, the son of Beregond, is thus something of a unique case.
Beregond describes him as:
A good lad {ROTK- Minas Tirith}
Pippin first sees Bergil playing among the pillars with some other boys, the only children he has seen in Minas tirith. It is Bergil who first breaks form the pack and comes to greet Pippin, and we learn that he, Bergil is ten years old and almost five feet. His father is one of the tallest guards. Amazed at Pippin's twenty nine years- given his height- Bergil challenges him to a physical bout:
I wager I could stand you on your head or lay you on your back'.{ibid}
Proudly announcing himself to be 'Bergil son of Beregond of the Guards' he is dsicomforted that he has been less than polite to one who has been sent by his father, and fearful that Pippin brings a message that will send him away with the maidens. His relief on learning that this is not the case ensures the return of his truly sunny nature and he and Pippin, plus other boyish companions go to the Gate to look for the Captains of the Outlands. {ibid}
Bergil's youthful bonhomie is in stark contrast to the grimness of the situation and the 'gravitas' of the city. One is reminded of the earlier ebullience of Merry and Pippin in happier Shire days:
Bergil proved a good comrade, the best company Pippin had had since he parted from Merry, and soon they were laughing and talking gaily as they went about the streets, heedless of the glances that many men gave them.{ibid}
Impressing Bergil with his use of his name and pass-word, which allowed both to pass the gate the two watch the Outlanders marching in to provide aid for Gondor in her hour of need.
Unlike Pippin , Bergil does not notice the significant lack of men who areslowly filing into the city. To him they are like his fatehr and the Lord of the City:
They {the powers of Mordor} will never overcome our Lord, and my father is very valiant.{ibid}
But Pippin has noted the deficiency in numbers, as have many of the older men of the city and sees the setting sun as a sombre comment on what is happening:
So ends a fair day in wrath
But Bergil - who is much like the earlier, irrepressible Pippin of Shire days says:
So it will, if I have not returned before the sundown-bells
breaking the sombre note established by Pippin, and wishing there was no war so that the two together might have 'had some merry times'.{ibid}.
Bergil and Pippin reunite in very different circumstances, when, after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Pippin comes across Bergil as he is taking Merry to the Houses of healing, where Bergil is running errands for the Healers.{ROTK -The Houses of Healing}
And it is Bergil the son of one of Faramir's most loyal followers, who brings the six leaves of kingsfoil to Aragorn, the King, in whose hands they become a healing agent for Faramir and those others sorely wounded.
Another simple pen-picture- of youth and ebullience in time of war, of life going on even in the darkest of hours, of innocence unsullied, and of faith ultimately rewarded, Tolkien yet again illuminates the great scenes with the lives of the smaller characters in the seamless web of his great verbal tapestry.
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halfir, I sincerely hope you will continue this thread which I find most interesting.
Am particularly looking forward to your opinion on the elves, and as I heard you complain about 'clapping with one hand' (have you seen the movie, btw?), I promise to contribute to the thread when you get to them (although the value of my posts could probably hardly be underestimated
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Ross: Worry not, I will plod on to the bitter end!
And thanks for the feedback,it's nice to know there is continuing interest in the thread, and although the number of 'hits' should give me reassurance it's great to get actual posts. And no, I haven't seen the movie.And don't bedismissive of your own views -I'm sure they'll be interesting.
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Ioreth In a letter to a Mr. Joukes of 28 August 1967 Tolkien wrote that Ioreth -which in the draft letter was spelled Yoreth :was invented just to fit the character of the old nurse in the hospital, and its Elvish meaning is 'old woman'...Quenya yara -old, Sindarin iaur in compsotion ior-;eth is a feminine ending {Hammond & Scull LOTR Companion p. 579 quoting Rene van Rossenberg Hobbits in Holland p. 68}
But Ioreth - in the hands of the master wordsmith that Tolkien was, becomes so much more than an old nurse in the hopsital ,she develops into a lively and amusing minor character whose love of gossip contains, as Gandalf discerns, among her run-of- the mill prattle, some real words of wisdom, words which galvanize him into action and into using Aragorn and the 'hands of a king' to save both Faramir, Eowyn, and Merry, as well as numerous others.
And it is this inherited 'folk wisdom' -the remembrance of a saying that she herself does not really understand- that turns out to be far more valuable than all the pedantic knowledge of the herb-master.
In a letter to Pauline Baynes- ( Letter # 240) in referring to the Ancrene Wisse - a medieval manuscript that he had just finished editing, Tolkien talks of the three places for gossip in Medieval England:
smithy, mill, and cheaping (market)
It is not too difficult to imagine Ioreth in the market in Minas Tirith when the carriers with their panniers of herbs had come from Lossarnach, talking to the herb sellers- exchanging 'gossip' about the various properties of different herbs - some real- some imagined- and exchanging and learning 'old saws' that contain 'folk history' -passed down from nursing generation to nursing generation, which keeps alive the 'old knowledge'- often in phrases and sayings not understood, but some of which turn out to have great value. As Gandalf says:
Men may long remember your words Ioreth! For there is hope in them {ROTK-The Houses of Healing}
To Be Continued
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Ioreth (concluded) Ioreth was the eldest of the women who served in the Houses of Healing- where the healing of wounds and hurts was still practiced with much of the lore of leechcraft that had been alive in Gondor in olden days. (TT-The Houses of Healing).Seeing Faramir so sorely wounded she utters those words which - as we have already observed- galvanized Gandalf into action:
The hands of the king are the hands of a healer (ibid)
In the midst of the great siege and battle, when the minds of the great are turned to combatting the might of Mordor and saving the West, like the hobbits who have :
risen from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great (FOTR-The Council of Elrond)
one old nurse, reciting old wisdom that she does not fully understand, offers hope when none appeared forthcoming.
As Tolkien observed in Letter # 131:
the last Tale (LOTR) is to exemplify most clearly a recurrent theme: the place in 'world politics' of the unforeseen and unforseeable acts of will, and deeds of virtue of the apparently small, ungreat, forgotten in the places of the Wise and great (good as well as evil).
Ioreth is one of the small, ungreat, forgotten - repeating rhymes she does not fully comprehend- rhymes that are summarily dismissed by the learned herb-master:
Unless, of course, you give heed to rhymes of old days which women such as our good Ioreth still repeat without understanding {ibid}
But Gandalf -and Aragorn later- immediately realise the meaning of the rhymes of old days and their significance.
On Aragorn's arrival at the Houses of Healing, an act he had begged of him, Gandalf says:
For it is only in the coming of Aragorn that any hope remains for the sick that lie in the House. Thus spake Ioreth, wise-woman of Gondor: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.'{ibid}
Yet, even when elevated by Gandalf to the role of wise-woman of Gondor Ioreth continues to 'prattle' when Aragorn asks her if they have any athelas in the house, so much so that Aragorn has to utter the gentle rebuke:
One thing also is short, time for speech!
And, as with her unknowing line about 'the hands of the king' Ioreth - knowing the herb only by its -to her - insignificant name of kingsfoil gives another of her lengthy replies- even after the rebuke!
Oh that!...Well, if your lordship had named it at first , I could have told you. No, we have none of it, I am sure. Why, I have never heard that it had any great virtue; and indeed i have often said to my sisters when we came upon it growing in the woods: 'kingsfoil', I said, 'tis a strange name and I wonder why 'tis called so; for if I were a king, I would have plants more bright in my garden'.Still it smells sweeet when bruised , does it not? If sweet is the right word: wholesome, maybe, is nearer.{ibid}
And it is Bergil, acting as a messenger for the Houses of Healing, having been instructed by Ioreth, who returns with six leaves of kingsfoil, some two weeks old. But that, in the hands of a king, is no problem!{ibid}.
And when, after breathing on the leaves, and crushing them, Aragorn casts them into bowls of steaming water Ioreth exclaims to a female companion:
Well now! Who would have believed it?...The weed is better than I thought. It reminds me of the roses of Imloth Melui when I was a lass, and no king could ask for better. (ibid)
And when the reviving Faramir confirms that Gondor indeed once again has a king, that the king has indeed returned, Ioreth's joy - and self-satisfaction- is boundless:
King! Did you hear that? What did I say? The hands of a healer, I said'.{ibid}
And then, we, and the assembled company in the Houses of Healing are mercifully spared any further comments by Ioreth who we do not meet again until the great celebrations of the Quest success in ROTK-The Steward and the King.
At the enthronement of Aragorn Ioreth returns- again in full flood, this time bending the ear of her kinswoman from Imloth Melui- who is probably ruing making the journey- at least as far as Ioreth's running commentayr is concerned.
Her somewhat 'purple' account of the Mordorian exploits of the hobbits and her elevation of herself as a 'gossip' of Gandalf's is mercifully interrupted by a trumpet blast signalling the surrendering of the office of Steward to the king.{ibid}Yet she has one final attempt- again mercfully cut short by Faramir's speech.{ibid}
Tolkien's portrayal of Ioreth is a delight. With her, he provides us both with a vessel of not clearly understood ancient wisdom, and a prattling gossip who virtuously serves as a nurse in the Houses of Healing. She is like many old ladies we ourselves have known, who combine ancient wisdom- often not clearly understood- with current 'gossip', yet whose worth and value are indisputable- if often- like Ioreth's - too frequently unnoticed by the 'great and the good' of our own times, ourselves included!
In TT -The Riders of Rohan -Aragorn says to Eomer:
For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day.
And Ioreth and all like her carry in their saws and sayings of yesteryear those things, often now seen as legendary, that once had clear meaning and truth, and which, if properly understood, still hold good today.
Which is why Gandalf so rightly says to the pedantic herb-master who is dismissive of the virtues of athelas:
Then in the name of the king, go and find some old man of less lore and more wisdom who keeps some in his house.{ROTK-The Houses of Wisdom}
For all her prattling Ioreth has less lore and more wisdom and for all her 'gossipy' faults is rightly named by Gandalf:
Ioreth, wise-woman of Gondor
Tolkien has crafted yet another gem in giving us this 'minor' character.
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halfir, you state that "... Ioreth is one of the small, ungreat, forgotten - repeating rhymes she does not fully comprehend- rhymes that are summarily dismissed by the learned herb-master: Unless, of course, you give heed to rhymes of old days which women such as our good Ioreth still repeat without understanding {ibid} But Gandalf -and Aragorn later- immediately realise the meaning of the rhymes of old days and their significance." (my underline) which makes me think again about how great importance Tolkien seems to attach to the oral tradition; e.g. Gandalf on his ride with Pippin to Minas Tirith "... murmuring brief snatches of rhyme in many tongues ...", finally reciting the verse of the "Tall ships and tall kings", all of which he name "Rhymes of Lore" and which he use to confirm his initial thoughts about the palantir. (from TTT, The Palantír) But Tolkien's works seem to have many other situations that are resolved through old sayings or rhymes and all sorts of word games, e.g. : -Bilbo wins the Ring in a riddle game (The Hobbit, Riddles in the Dark); -a rhyme will call Tom Bombadil to the aid of lost Hobbits (FOTR, Fog on the Barrow-Downs); -Aragorn recites the verse to his name which Gandalf had mentioned in his letter, thus inadvertantly proving his identity to Frodo (FOTR, Strider); -and you mentioned another example in your earlier Beregond-post: "He is bold, more bold than many deem; for in these days men are slow to believe that a captain can be wise and learned in the scrolls of lore, and song, as he is and yet a man of hardihood and swift judgment in the field. But such is Faramir.(ROTK-Minas Tirith -my bold emphasis.}" my underline 'Song' is here named as equal to 'scrolls of lore' which I think is interesting since Tolkien himself was a scholar, but again it shows the importance of the oral tradition. And there are probably many more examples. |
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Ross: Well pointed out. Funnily enough last night I was reading an essay by Kathryn Crabbe-The Quest as Legend ( JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings- Modern Critical Interpretations edt . Harold Bloom Chelsea House Publications -ISBN 0 7910 5665 1) and she deals at length with what might be termed 'reverence for the past' in LOTR very much along the lines that you have indicated.
The trustworthiness of traditional and intuitive knowledge is a part of the larger value of respect for the past. Respect for the old tales and the refusal to assign them merely to the nursery or to the 'cracked' is an attribute of both pragmatic and absolute good. On the pragmatic level, the usefulness of the information gained from the traditional sources is clear. From the old books Gandalf has learned the secret of the Ring. From the advice of the ancient seer, Aragorn is reminded to ride the path of the dead.
But it is not only, or even primarily, for such immediately pragmatic purposes that reverence for the past is valued. More significantly, and more generally, the literature and lore of the ancient days of Middle-earth, like the literature and lore of our own world, reflect the continuities of earthly human existence.
Returning, however, to the 'pragmatic' value of the past , a line from Celeborn (FOTR-Farewell to Lorien) captures it beautifully:
But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know
As for archived threads there is one on proverbs, but not one, as i currently recall, that deals specifically with the burden of your thread. I'll have to check.
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Ross: Here is the thread on proverbs :
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halfir, thanks for providing the various info - I thought you'd have something up your sleeve.
Ms. Krabbe puts it very well: "... the usefulness of the information gained from the traditional sources is clear... " and Lord Celeborn says the same in other words: this was my view on it.
However, Ms. Krabbe's suggestion that "... the literature and lore of the ancient days of Middle-earth, like the literature and lore of our own world, reflect the continuities of earthly human existence" certainly adds some depth to Ioreth & co.'s ramblings: Imagine sayings passed down from generation to generation, some of them perhaps originating back in the times where the second-born first woke on Arda ...
Oh, and thanks so much for the proverb link - it's great to see so many of them listed in one place and I've bookmarked it for re-reading the next time I need to be cheered up a bit.
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The herb-master The herb-master is as pedantic as Ioreth had been garrulous and, in his own way, equally as long-winded.Aragorn had gently rebuked the chattering Ioreth wiith:
One thing also is short, time for speech {ROTK -The Houses of Healing}
and he has to make a similar intervention with the herb-master:
Therupon the herb-master entered , 'Your lordship asked for kingsfoil , as the rustics name it,' he said; 'or athelas in the noble tongue, or to those who know somewhat of the Valinorean.....
'I do so,' said Aragorn,'and I care not whether you say now asea aranion or kingsfoil, as long as you have some.{ibid}
which, of course, the herb-master doesn't! Like so many who are reliant on 'book-learning' and reject the value of an oral tradition of medicine- no doubt dismissing its cures as worthless nostrums, the herb-master - by saying that the Houses of Healing are only for tending:
the gravely hurt or sick {ibid}
rejects any value for athelas as he does Ioreth's verse on the subject, which is ignored as:
a doggrel...garbled in the memory of old wives {ibid}
This leads an exasperated Gandalf to break into the conversation with:
Then in the name of the king, go and find some old man of less lore and more wisdom who keeps some in his house {ibid}
In the sense that they are polar opposites both Ioreth and the herb-master show a reamrkable affinity in their equal lack of understanding as to the value of the old saws and the remedies they propound. But one is the result of ignorance, the other of arrogance.
However, in the way that one can't really do anything but smile at Ioreth nor can one really do anything but laugh at the herb-master when one reads these words of Aragorn to Merry:
If your pack has not been found, then you must send for the herb-master of this House.And he will tell you that he did not know that the herb you desire had any virtues , but that it is called westmanweed by the vulgar, and galenas by the noble, and other names in many tongues more learned , and after adding a few-half forgotten rhymes that he does not understand, he will regretfully inform you that there is none in the House, and he will leave you to reflect on the history of tonngues. And so must I.
{ibid}Both Aragorn- and Tolkien- have a great sense of humor, and this interchange, and the role of the herb-master is a marvellous way of illuminating aspects of the major characters through their interaction with the minor ones.
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halfir:
Another little bit of humour in The Houses of Healing is revealed by the first comments of Faramir, Eowyn and Merry when Aragorn brings them back:
Faramir: "My lord, you called me. What does the king command?"
Eowyn: "Eomer! What joy is this? For they said that you were slain."
Merry: "I am hungry. What is the time?"
- a true hobbit response!
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"I am no longer young even in the reckoning of Men of the Ancient Houses."
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Dorwiniondil: Thanks for sharing that.
Magnificent bathos- and, as you say, so typically hobbitlike.
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Gildor Inglorion "Me, sir!' cried Sam springing up like a dog invited for a walk.'Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!' he shouted, and then burst into tears.{FOTR- The Shadow of the Past}
It is fitting that Sam's reaction to Elves precedes the chapter in which he meets them for the first time, for it shows that Sam too, like Frodo, is a 'different' hobbit- one touched by the magic and mystery of beings that to date he has only heard about, from Bilbo and Frodo, never seen. It is a marker of the person he is to become.
And it is Sam too, who in Three Is Company (FOTR) first exclaims the presence of the Fair Folk, the High Elves led by Gildor Inglorion.
In ROTK App F 11 On Translation - Tolkien has this to say of the elves that Sam and Frodo encounter in Three is Company:
They were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings , who now are gone:the people of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finfarfin; and their voices had more melodies than any mortal voice that now is heard.
It is a wonder that Sam did not burst into tears again when he first encountered such beauty!
The whole Gildor episode is fascinating, for it tells us, so much, and so little, about the preceding history of the elves, for Gildor and his group represent the great story of The Silmarillion, as yet unpublished when LOTR went to print, and uncovered fleetingly here and in the further text of LOTR and more fully- yet still in a circumscribed fashion, in its Appendices. It also gives us many indicators as to the story that is about to unfold, which will be highlighted as we explore Gildor and his group.
Frodo tells Sam, and us, that the elves come into the Shire only in spring and autumn, the birth and the decline of the year, and that their own lands are away beyond the Tower Hills. And they are High Elves:
These are High Elves! They spoke the name of Elbereth! {ibid}
More significantly, Frodo notes- and we thus learn- that the Black Rider slipped away as soon as he heard the elven voices. Here we have an early pointer to the fear that the Black Riders have of the elves- the People of the Stars -and in particular of their invocation of Elbereth- Queen of the Stars whose name when used by Frodo on Weathertop, struck such fear into the heart of the Witch King.
The leader of the Elves introduces himself to the hobbits as Gildor Inglorion - of the House of Finrod, and again we get a 'snippet' of the story of The Silmarillion. They are Exiles who are only tarrrying in ME a litle while longer before returning over the Sea.
As Hammond & Scull point out - LOTR Companion - these are elves very different to those of The Hobbit. While they love song and laughter they are far more serious - which makes sense in the context of the darker story with which these particular elves are involved.
On learning of the hobbits' encounters with the Black Riders they break their usual custom and allow them to travel with them to the woods on the hills above Woodhall. And they name Frodo 'Elf-friend' - a title that has a history all of its own, but one that will not be discussed in detail in this thread! { cf. In the Footsteps of Aelfwine- Verlyn Flieger in Tolkien's Legendarium edt. Flieger and Hostetter}
In declining to give Frodo details of the Black Riders:
I think it is not for me to say more {than Gandalf already has} lest terror should keep you from your journey
Gildor fully justifies Fodo's later comment:
Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes
for, as Frodo observes:
I cannot imagine what information could be more terrifying than your hints and warnings'
But Gildor is in fact correct. Frodo and his companions need several more 'rites of passage' before they arrive at that determining point in The Council of Elrond when Frodo is able to say:
I will take the Ring..though I do not know the way.
To be told too much, too soon, would indeed potentially keep them from their journey.Elrond's response to Gimli is relevant here:
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens, said Gimli.
Maybe, said Elrond, but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not yet seen the nightfall {The Ring Goes South}
And the ignorance, and innocence, of the hobbits of the wider, darker world, one that they are not yet equipped to deal with, is encapsulated in Frodo's remark about:
our own Shire {Three is Company}
to which Gildor replies, in a comment prescient of what is to follow in ROTK-The Scouring of the Shire:
But it is not your own Shire...Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here agin when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out. {my bold emphasis}.
And in going on to give Frodo advice on how to best continue his journey, Gildor poignantly illuminates- without directly mentioning, the history of elves and men that is contained in The Silmarillion, a history that includes the sundering of their relationship cf. Faramir- TT- The Window on the West:
But in Middle-earth Men and elves became estranged in the days of darkness, by the arts of the Enemy, and by the slow changes of time in which each kind walked further down their sundered roads.
But Frodo is an Elf-friend, and so, for good or ill, In responding to Frodo's request for advice Gildor says:
I will for friendship's sake give it {Three is Company}
But he cautions:
Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
And , in a reference to the 'sundering ' he comments:
The Elves have their own labours and their own sorrows, and they are little concerned with the ways of hobbits, or of any other creatures upon the earth.Our paths seldom cross theirs by chance or purpose. In this meeting their may be more than chance...
In this meeting their may be more than chance -Gildor too introduuces this concept, already mentioned by Gandalf, and to be picked-up on by Elrond- 'chance' that plays such an important role in the Quest story. So again, a minor character is used to reaffirm a major theme.
And Gildor gives Frodo good advice: continue on to Rivendell; take trusty friends with you, do not go alone. And in wishing the protection of Elbereth for Frodo, in the face of the many dangers that will beset him, Gildor promises that :
those that have the power of good shall be on the watch,
and formally says:
I name you Elf-friend.
{cf. Goldberry's comment about Frodo- In The House of Tom Bombadil:
But I see that you are an Elf-friend; the light in your eyes and the ring in your voice tells it}
and Elrond's in The Council of Elrond}
Of Gildor himself we learn litle. Hammond & Scull LOTR Companion Chptr. Three is Company suggest that his name -Gildor-means 'star-lord' and that Inglorion contains the element 'glor' or gold. His actual provenance is somewhat obscure and I personally tend to go with one of the several suggestions put forward by H & S in explanation, that Tolkien:
may simply have used names which seemed suitable for the purpose.{ibid}
But Gildo'r real role is to give us -and the hobbits- some 'back-history of the elves, to help illuminate the nature and danger of Frodo's quest, and to give him, and us, information which unfolds in more detail as the Quest continues.
Yet again a minor character is used to supplement and enhance our understanding of a major player and of his story.
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In the opening post:
Hail you MASTER h. for your efforts, for no other loremasters have come to aid !! I hope the 'lore newbies' in this virtual classroom appreciate it!  |
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Aldo:
I suspect Siana Dunami thoguht this would go more quickly than it has and that a new loremaster would by now have taken over with a new topic in Learning Lore 2. But I still have way to go!
As for interest in the thread I am delighted it has had so many 'hits' and I have received confirmation, both within the thread and by private email that it is being found both enjoyable and helpful- 'profit and delight' as Ben Jonson would say, so I am content.
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Arwen Undomiel So it was that Frodo saw her whom few mortals had yet seen; Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Luthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undomiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people.....Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind {FOTR-Many Meetings}
Estel, Estel! she cried, and with that even as he took her hand and kissed it, he fell into sleep.{ROTK - App A (V) Tale of Aragorn and Arwen)
In these two quotes both the beauty- and the tragedy -of Arwen are laid bare, for they describe her in the full bloom of her elven loveliness:
Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind
and they depict her -having accepted the Doom of Men, in her all too human grief at the loss of Aragorn, and the realization that 'Estel'- both Aragorn {Estel) and hope (Estel) have now left her:
Estel, Estel! she cried
I must indeed abide the the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill: the loss and the silence.....For if this is indeed , as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive..{ROTK - App A (V) Tale of Aragorn and Arwen)
It might , at first sight, appear perverse to classify Arwen as a 'minor character: daughter of Elrond; wife of King Elessar; intercedent for Frodo's passage Over-the Sea; party to the fulfillment of Eru's 'plan, all this, and much else , do not appear to denote the term 'minor'. And yet in terms of textual representation, other than App A (V) Tale of Aragorn and Arwen) she does not play a major role.In actual terms, however, she does.
And Tolkien is only too well aware of this paradox:
But the highest love-story, that of Aragorn and Arwen Elrond's daughter is only alluded to as a known thing.It is told elsewhere in a short tale, Of Aragorn and Arwen Undomiel.{ Letter # 131}
And of course, it has to be so, for this is ultimately the Hobbits' tale.
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel -2 Arwen impinges on and illuminates aspects of three major characters in LOTR- Aragorn, Elrond, and Frodo, and it is to her interaction with these three that we should give most attention. Other aspects- her role in the fulfilment of Eru's plan, her comparison and contrast with Galadriel, her grandmother, are also necessary to touch upon, but the main thrust of this analysis will be primarily concerned with her interaction with the three major characters already specified.Arwen and Aragorn
Tolkien's comment in Letter # 131:
But the highest love-story, that of Aragorn and Arwen Elrond's daughter is only alluded to as a known thing.It is told elsewhere in a short tale, Of Aragorn and Arwen Undomiel
certainly holds true for most of the main text of LOTR. When Frodo arrives at Rivendell,FOTR ,through Many Meetings, The Council of Elrond, The Ring Goes South,there is no overt reference to any relationship between Arwen and Aragorn. (Although there is one clue in Many Meetings, which we'll return to later).
Of course one could argue that Aragorn does in fact alert us to the fact of his love for Arwen in FOTR- A Knife in the Dark in that when he recounts the story of Beren and Luthien he is also thinking of Arwen and himself. But that is ex post facto rationalisation as at that point none of us have any idea that Arwen features so prominently in Aragorn's life- indeed we have no idea who she is -anymore than do the hobbits to whom the tale of Beren and Luthien is recounted.
Hammond & Scull- LOTR Companion p. 178, quoting Paul Kocher's Master of Middle -earth ( a book well worth acquiring if you do not already have it) say:
None of the hobbits has the faintest glimmer of an idea why Aragorn chooses this particular legend to recite, and neither have we at first reading, thanks to Tolkien's failure to mention Arwen at all up to that point {Kocher was of course writing some 9 years before the Letters were published, and particularly Letter # 131}. But in the light of later revelations it can dawn on us that the longing for Arwen is a torment, a joy, a despair, a comfort to Aragorn in a time of little hope. Small wonder he is 'strange and grim at times', but seldom speaks of the life of private emotions stirring within.
And, as was said earlier, ther is one clue in Many Meetings, although you'd probably have to be eagle-eyed and prescient to pick-up on it. When Bilbo talks to Strider about the feast Frodo had attended he says:
Where have you been my friend? Why weren't you at the feast? The Lady Arwen was there. Strider looked down at Bilbo gravely. I know, he said. But often I must put mirth aside. Elladan and Elrohir have returned out of the wild unlooked-for, and they had tidings that I wished to hear at once.' { my bold emphasis}
In commenting on this Hammond & Scull LOTR Companion p. 209 say:
This is the first clear indication that Arwen is of importance to Aragorn. She was added late to the story, but this did not involve much additional text or rewriting, since the tale is told mainly from the viewpoint of Frodo and the other hobbits, and we learn no more about the relationship than they do. They, and we (on a first reading) are equally surprised when Arwen arrives at Minas Tirith to marry Aragorn.
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel - 3 When Tolkien said that the highest love story is only alluded to in the main text of LOTR he was not joking. Only the acutely alert reader would have picked-up on the fact that there was a relationship between Arwen and Aragorn after reading FOTR-Many Meetings and they might well have questioned their own judgment on this when nothing further, by way of clue emerges until we get to ROTK-Lothlorien.Here we learn that Aragorn was wrapped in some fair memory, and we hear him utter the words:
Arwen, vanimelda, namarie! Arwen, beloved lady, farewell.
But, as we are unlikley to have read App A at this point, and not learned any Elvish, it is highly unlikely that we will know that it was at Cerin Amroth some 30+ years earlier, that Aragorn and Arwen had promised their love and plighted their troth to one another!However, the suspicion that there is more to their relationship than meets the text is likely now to be dawning on the discerning reader, although perhaps not on most of us. We are, after all, reading the story, not analyzing the text!
Further clues come our way in FOTR Farewell to Lorien when Aragorn tells Galadriel:
Lady, you know all my desire, and long held in keeping the only treasure that I seek. Yet it not yours to give me.
He is, of course, talking of Arwen, who had lived in Lothlorien as well as Rivendell, but again, unless the reader is a psychic, such a reference is hardly likely to illuminate on first reading. More direct is Galadriel's comment that Arwen (Celebrian's daughter) had left the Elesssar as a gift for Aragorn, and Aragorn names Arwen Evenstar in accepting the gift.
So now, perhaps we can see that the bond between Arwen and Aragorn is somewhat deep, although most of us - caught up in the flow of the story, have probably yet not twigged to the real reality.
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel -4 We do not have any reference to Arwen in The Two Towers. It is not until The Passing of the Grey Company - ROTK and the messages and gifts that are bought to Aragorn by the Dunedain and the sons of Elrond, that Arwen's name appears again in connection with Aragorn, and we get another intimation of the intimacy of their relationship.Halbarad gives to Aragorn the gift from the Lady of Rivendell- Arwen, and although Aragorn knows what it is, all we know at this point is that it is a standard or banner, which had been made in secret ,and over a long time, by Arwen.
Halbarad also brings these words to Aragorn from Arwen:
The days now are short. Either our hope cometh, or all hope's end. Therefore I send thee what I have made for thee. Fare well, Elfstone.
Again, we become wise after the event. Estel - hope - as we later learn from App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen -is the name that Aragorn was given and his true identity hidden.So Arwen's message has a 'double-entendre' . Here as elsewhere , 'hope' means just that, but it also means 'Aragorn'. So one can perhaps gloss Arwen's words as meaning that the hope of all- Aragorn returned as rightful king and thus conqueror of the powers of evil, is going to come into his own, or all hope- all belief in success , will fail with his defeat.
No wonder, on receiving both the word's and the banner- whose true import he knew- Aragorn :
fell silent and spoke no more while the night's journey lasted.
And, because it is such a change in language tone, we pick-up on the fact that Arwen uses 'thee' - in her message to Aragorn.
In Home X11 -The Peoples of ME - The Appendix on Languages a note of Tolkien's says:
Where thou, thee, thy, appears it is used mainly to mark a use of the familiar form where that was no usual. For instance its use by Denethor in his last madness to Gandalf, and by the Messenger of Sauron, was in both cases intended to be contemptuous. But elsewhere it is occasionally used to indicate a deliberate change to a form of affection or endearment.
Arwen's use of it here is clearly a form of affection or endearment, and is another verbal clue as to the relationship that exists between her and Aragorn. But again, unless we are effectively prescient, it is hardly likely that we will be tuned in to this even though we will clearly have noticed the change in tone because of the usage of 'thee'.
And just to complete the obfuscation, the Dunedain have brought with them Roheryn - Aragorn's horse which we learn, through the help of Hammond & Scull's LOTR Companion,p.528 referring us to The Silmarillion -Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names is so called as it means 'horse of the lady'- and was so named because it was given to Aragorn by Arwen.
Not simple, is it?
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel -5 Although the banner that she sent to Aragorn is used to great effect in the chapters that follow Arwen herself disappears from the main text until we reach ROTK-The Steward and the King. Then she reappears -on Midsummer's Eve - in the role of the bride to be of Aragorn.In commenting on this Hammond & Scull LOTR Companion p. 209 say:
They, {the Hobbits} and we (on a first reading) are equally surprised when Arwen arrives at Minas Tirith to marry Aragorn.
How very true!
And Aragorn the King Elessar wedded Arwen Undomiel in the City of the Kings upon the day of Midsummer, and the tale of their long waiting and labours was come to fulfilment.{ROTK - The Steward and the King}
Yet again we have a masterstroke from Tolkien in the unfiying - in his text- of a celebration -Midusmmer- that held /holds significance for pagan and Christian alike.
The Druids- Celtic paganism- celebrated
Alban Heruin ("Light of the Shore"). It was midway between the spring Equinox (Alban Eiler; "Light of the Earth") and the fall Equinox (Alban Elfed; "Light of the Water"). "This midsummer festival celebrates the apex of Light, sometimes symbolized in the crowning of the Oak King, God of the waxing year. At his crowning, the Oak King falls to his darker aspect, the Holly King, God of the waning year..."
In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those Aboriginal people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable.
The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Tradition holds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives. This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of the crops, was the traditional month for weddings. This is because many ancient peoples believed that the "grand [sexual] union" of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine. Since it was unlucky to compete with the deities, many couples delayed their weddings until June. June remains a favorite month for marriage today. In some traditions, "newly wed couples were fed dishes and beverages that featured honey for the first month of their married life to encourage love and fertility. The surviving vestige of this tradition lives on in the name given to the holiday immediately after the ceremony: The Honeymoon." In the Christian church the pagan festival has been 'christianized' as the Feast of St. John the Baptist.
What, of course, is significant through all pagan and Christian festivities, is that this is a time of birth and renewal, of a preparation for that which follows.For the pagan, marriage and then birth, for the Christian the Feast of the Saint who was the precursor to Christ, for the peoples of Middle Earth the dawn of a new age and era of peace with the return of the king.
Thus does the master magician -Tolkien- weave his spell to create a tapestry which unifies the two great driving forces in his own life, his deep religious commitment, and his unwavering love of things Nordic.
As Stephen Hart has so aptly put it:
Tolkien’s soul was in the Lord’s keeping, but his heart -- like that of his friend C.S.Lewis - quickened to a pagan drumbeat.
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel - 6 With the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn in the LOTR text we can finally turn to ROTK App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen to the highest love story as Tolkien described it in Letter # 131, which in the LOTR main text- is only alluded to as a known thing. It is told elsewhere in a short tale,Of Aragron and Arwen Undomiel. But that 'short tale' is critical in a number of ways.In App A Annals of the Kings and Rulers 1 The Numenoraen Kings (1) Numenor, we are told :
There were three unions of the Eldar and Edain: Luthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn. By the last the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored.
Of course, when Tolkien wrote about the three unions in the LOTR Appendices his reading public did not have the context of The Silmarillion to fall back on - that was to come some 22 years later. So the detail of the beginning of those unions, how the respective love stories came about, is left undetailed for the first two unions, other than a short paragraph provided by Tolkien- and , of course the Tale of Tinuviel as told by Aragorn to the Hobbits in FOTR- A Knife in the Dark.
In that retelling Beren saw:
Tinuviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen and for Beren:
Enchantment healed his weary feet
and his heart was no longer his own.
Idril, Turgon's only child, called Celebrindal, was, of all the wonders of Turgon's city of Gondolin, the fairest:
the Silver-foot, whose hair was as the gold of Laurelin before the coming of Melkor {The Silmarillion- Of the Noldor in Belrainad}.
Tuor -like Aragorn later with Elrond - was fostered by elves:
taken to foster by Annael of the Grey-elves {The Silmarillion- Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin}
Coming to Gondolin at the behest of Ulmo, with dire warning for Turgon, Tuor remains in the city and
the heart of Idril was turned to him and his to her (ibid)
No 'enchantment' in this meeting, for that we have to turn to The Tale of Aragon and Arwen and the third meeting and union:
And suddenly even as he sang {part of the Lay of Luthien} he saw a maiden walking on a greensward among the white stems of the birches; and he halted amazed, thinking he had strayed into a dream, or else that he had received the gift of the Elf-minstrels, who can make the things of which they sing appear before the eyes of those that listen.
He had been singing that part of the Lay of luthien that tells of the meeting of Luthien and Beren in Neldoreth:
And behold! there Luthien walked before his eyes in Rivendell, clad in a mantle of silver and blue, as fair as the twilight in Elven-home; her dark hair strayed in a sudden wind, and her brows, were bound with gems like stars.{ibid}
But of course this was not Luthien Tinuviel but :
Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Luthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undomiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people.....Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind {FOTR-Many Meetings}
And like Beren, Aragorn is enchanted:
he saw the elven-light in her eyes and the wisdom of many days, yet from that hour he loved Arwen Undomiel daughter of Elrond.{ ROTK App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen}
To Be Continued
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Arwen Undomiel - 7 For Aragorn had been singing a part of the Lay of Luthien which tells of the meeting of Beren and Luthien in the Forest of Neldoreth {ROTK- App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen}
One has to ask-why? Happenstance, chance, fate, serendipity, coincidence, foreshadowing ? What was it about that Lay that had fixed it in the young Aragorn's mind so deeply, and why was it at that particular moment, just prior to his meeting Arwen, that he was singing that particular part of the Lay?
And when and where did he come across it? At Rivendell - heard from Elrond- Luthien's great-grandson, or from elves retelling the tale in The Hall of Fire? It is unlikely to have been told him by his mother as we know that Elrond 'kept his true name and lineage ...secret'- so Aragorn was unaware of it when he came to Rivendell, and thus of his own descent via Elros from Luthien.
I'd be fascinated to receive your ideas- whatever they might be.
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I'd be fascinated to receive your ideas- whatever they might be.
And so far only a resounding silence!
I really would like to know why you think Aragorn was so attracted to the Lay of Luthien, which then, of course, almost became the 'private song' for him about Arwen ( it is not for nothing that is his choice in FOTR- A Knife in the Dark).And also, where you think he first heard it? Come on, a little intelligent speculation might illuminate us all, and I can't be the only one who has views on the subject! |
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Poor Master!
The most annoying thing - to have a silent audience.  I'd say that from what I have read here in this thread two are the topics most appealing to me personally - that of 'orders vs. reason' (for it's not a matter of emotions/heart, really), and the last one - about 'Aragorn and the Lay of Luthien'. And though I unfortunately don't have much time to share more views, I'd at least speculate on the latter, assuming that young Aragorn might have heard the Lay when a child, living still with his mother among the remnants of his once mighty people. I expect them - being Numenoreans - to have preserved much of the Elvish/Man's lore, and the story of the union of an elven maiden with a mortal man must have been one of the most favourite tales to be told by the fire. |
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to have a silent audience
I'm not in any way annoyed, I'd just be interested to have a little bit of intelligent speculation regarding what might have lodged the Lay so strongly in Aragorn's mind and why it was at that precise moment that the lines of the Lay and the reality of Arwen 'coalesced.'
There are no penalties for providing a specualtive interpretation- as long as it has some substance in the text to give it a tithe of support and I hope that perhaps some of our newer members might be coaxed into saying something. I can't believe that everyone is so satisfied with my analysis that they have nothing left to say!
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AAH! You bunch of meanies. No response to my simple questions and invitation means I shall have to wrack my overtaxed brain for an answer to my own questions. Most unfair!
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I'm going to take you at your word (no question will be deemed 'too elementary')
and stick my nose into the discussion. I very much like the idea behind
this thread and would like to encourage it to continue. And I'd hate to be lumped in the category of a bunch of meanies.
In your analysis I appreciated the comments about the double meaning behind the word Estel - I'd never made the connection before with the message Arwen sent to Aragorn, but that's a really interesting use of language, and I like that they were conscious of the meaning behind his childhood name. I have one question about the quote where Tolkien calls their relationship 'the highest love story' - what does he mean by that? I don't have a copy of the letters, so I'm missing the context, but does highest mean that it's the most noble? pure? of the most importance to the fate of Middle Earth? something else entirely? It seems like Beren and Luthien could put up some stiff competition for some of those superlatives... In regards to your question, I have some speculation, though not much to back it up. The meeting between Aragorn and Arwen happens just the day after Elrond tells Aragorn about his true identity, and I'm imagining his state of mind: this young, confident 20-year-old who's just found out that the great heroes of the past that he's heard about are actually his ancestors. I would think his head would be filled with thoughts of their deeds and perhaps imagining himself living up to them, which would also contribute to his surprise when one of them seems to come true before his eyes. A problem with that theory is that it would seem more likely for him to be thinking of battles and heroic deeds than a romantic love story, and that's really the question: why is it the Lay of Luthien in particular that he's singing? It's true that one of the heirlooms he received the day before was the ring of Barahir, which is a link back to Beren, isn't it? So maybe he was thinking about Beren, and it's true that the story of Beren and Luthien is very compelling; it must have been so for the people of Middle-earth too. I don't know where he would have heard it, but I'd think it plausible that he remembered it even without knowing it had any bearing on his own life. And perhaps while he was living in Rivendell Elrond made sure he heard the stories of his people, so that when he came of age he would be able to understand the significance of who he was. Perhaps the Lay hadn't been of any special significance to him before, but it certainly would after this meeting with Arwen. I'll stop before I drown in 'perhaps'es and 'maybe's.  |
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Elinnea: I'm delighted that you have posted. While I appreciate the readership of this thread I would like to see more active participation such as you and Lady D'E have shown. I can't really believe I am the only one with something to say!
As to your question the term is used to describe the love story of Arwen and Aragorn in the context of LOTR:
Since we now try to deal with 'ordinary life',springing up ever unquenched under the trample of world policies and events, there are love-stories touched in, or love in different modes , wholly absent from The Hobbit.But the highest love -story, that of Aragron and Arwen Elrond's daughter is only alluded to as a known thing. It is told elsewhere in a short tale, Of Aragorn and Arwen Undomiel.
As to your speculation, I think that Elrond had very clearly touched upon the elf-man relationship in talking to Aragorn. The Ring of Barahir was:
the token of our kinship from afar.
And after seeing Luthien and telling his mother of his love Gilraen replies:
And it is not fit that mortal should wed with the Elf-kin.
To which Aragorn replies:
Yet we have some part in that kinship..if the tale of my forefathers is true that I have learned.
It is true- said Gilraen...
So I think you are correct, and I will return in my next post to comment a little further on your proposition which is also mine!
Edit Note: As Gwerin points out below the line And after seeing Luthien and telling his mother of his should read And after seeing Arwen
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My profuse apologies for the delay in my posting in this on-going thread. I wanted to refresh my memory of an excellent paper of Saranna's on Orphans before I continued. Unfortunately the computer cotanning that file has crashed and is in for repair. This computer does not contain the info so I am having to search through a pile of back-up discs in the hope that I can find it there. In the interim please accept my apologies for the delay
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In a fascinating paper :
Maternal Deprivation and the Quest
Love, loss, and seeking: maternal deprivation and the quest
Saranna explores the relationship between the loss of a mother at an early age- Tolkien, Lewis, George MacDonald -and the possible relationship between that and themes in their imaginative literature. (The url link might not be currently functional- if anyone wishes a copy of her paper they can email me davgran@ksc.th.com and I can make it available).
I wanted to remind myself of what she had written because with Aragorn I was following a different path- the loss of a father at an early age. Aragorn lost his father when he was two years old, Tolkien lost his when he was four years old. And, no, I am not suggesting any connection between the two events, but I am suggesting that we might speculate what impact the loss of a father at such an early age had on Aragorn, how he reacted to his fostering with Elrond of Rivendell, and how he developed his own self-image when his actual lineage was not revealed to him until he was 20 years old.
Did that revelation- including the knowedge that his forefathers had wed with the Elf-kin - cause him to dwell on the story of Beren and Luthien, or was it just serendipity that he happened to be singing that particular verse when he 'chanced' upon Arwen in the woods of Imladris, and was it, as Elrond had said in a different context- The Council of Elrond - FOTR -
by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered...?
To Be Continued
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That would be a miracle if Aragorn is seeing Luthien
That should be Arwen, i think.
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Gwerin: Indeed it should. I transposed the names because I was dealing inter-alia with the story of Beren and Luthien. Thanks for the correction.
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He that would foil me must use such weapons as I do, for I have not fed my readers with straw, neither will I be confuted with stubble.
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Those who are following the Aragorn and Arwen posts in this thread might be interested in contributing to a new thread I have just opened in the People and Races forum- The 'Divine Couple':
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In a thread in People and Races- The ‘Divine Couple’ –
which was inspired by this thread in Books- there is a quote from Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 116 about love:
It is the star to every wandering barque
about which I wrote:
{ this is } particularly pertinent to both the Aragorn/Arwen and the Sam/Rosie relationship. Like Earendil - the Mariner's Star, the star so beloved of the Elves, the love of those two couples, particularly, is that : “unwavering love between souls that gives them the strength to live through such desperate times”.
I think it very relevant to the Aragorn/Arwen relationship, which Tolkien described as - 'the highest love story' Letter # 131, much more so than Sam and Rosie, for Sam also has his love for Frodo to provide him focus and support.
But Aragorn is very much dependent upon Arwen – and this dependency- while not given in great detail in the LOTR text, does surface quite strongly, again and again, as we have seen in earlier posts about the two in this thread.
And Arwen’s love for Aragorn, so poignantly captured in ROTK App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen when she cries out at his deathbed ‘ Estel, Estel’ to me is captured perfectly by this poem of WH Auden’s –‘Stop all the clocks’ :
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. In a sense – the highest love story – gains from being ‘only alluded to’ –Letter # 131, it is indeed ‘ the untold stories that are most moving’ –Letter # 96.
And of course, in a sense we have already had the story of Aragorn and Arwen’s love, in the tale of Beren and Luthien. And, as Frodo says in answer to Sam’s question:
‘Don’t the great tales never end?
‘No, they never end as tales’, said Frodo. ’But the people in them come and go when their part’s ended. {TT-The Stairs of Cirith Ungol}
Luthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn, and in another dimension, but equally relevant- Ronald and Edith!
To Be Continued
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Arwen, Aragorn, and Hope
In Letter # 181 in writing about the themes in LOTR , Tolkien writes, inter alia:
Here I am only concerned with death as part of the nature, physical and spiritual , of Man, and with Hope without guarantees. That is why I regard the tale of Arwen and Aragorn as the most important of the Appendices; it is part of the essential story, and is only placed so, because it could not be worked into the main narrative without destroying its structure: which is planned to be 'hobbito -centric', that is, primarily a study of the enoblement (or sanctification) of the humble. {my bold emphasis}
The question of 'hope' in LOTR is the subject of two brilliant threads by Largo- and I highly recommend them to those interested in the topic:
Here, however, I only wish to touch upon the aspect of 'hope' as it relates to Arwen and Aragorn.
Aragorn is of course named "Estel' - hope and he is the 'hope' of his people and indeed of all those of Middle-earth who seek the downfall of Sauron. It is Aragorn's 'hope'- that he will be able to marry Arwen- and his love for her- and her for him -that gives them -as Indo has put it in another thread -the strength to live through such desperate times”.
Ivorwen- the foresighted- had said of the marriage of Gilraen her daughter to Arathorn- Aragorn's father:
If these two wed now, hope may be born for our people.{App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen- my bold emphasis}
And ' hope' Estel - was born in the form of Aragorn - named Estel - 'hope'.
And when Elrond forespoke Aragorn's 'doom':
You shall neither have wife, nor bind not woman in your troth, until your time comes and you are found worthy of it {ibid}
he was referring as he said- not...of my daughter alone {ibid}
And for Aragorn, in the many years he laboured against Sauron, and was denied sight of Arwen although:
His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid on him...hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart {ibid}
and the wellspring of much of that hope was his love for Arwen Undomiel.
And when he and Arwen plighted their troth on Cerin Amroth he said to her:
Yet with your hope, I will hope {ibid}
And when Elrond learned of this news he spoke to Aragorn of a time when hope will fade {ibid}, by which he meant both his- for he had lost Arwen, and Middle -earth's - under the Shadow. Yet Elrond's loss of hope- because of the loss of his daughter- he saw could well be the medium through which the Kingship of Men may be restored{ibid} and Elrond's loss of joy be to you {Aragorn} hope of joy for a while.{ibid}
And while he was away and she remained in Rivendell :
she watched over him in thought; and in hope she made for him a great kingly standard {ibid}
And, continuing the theme of sacrifice and personal loss being the price to be paid for the gain of others- as Elrond was to lose Arwen, Gilraen, Aragorn's mother- was to die before seeing her son's great victory - saying to him:
Onen-i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel amin - I gave Hope to the Dunedain, I have kept no hope for myself {ibid}
And with the fall of Sauron and the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn:
The Third Age thus ended in victory and hope { ibid}
And the final and most poignant reference to 'hope' , Arwen cries out as Aragorn dies:
Estel, Estel {ibid}
for both he, Estel- Hope, and 'hope' -Estel, are now gone from her:
and the light of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she had become cold and grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. {ibid}
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. To Be Continued
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Arwen and Elrond In one of several footnotes to Letter # 131 Tolkien has this to say about Elrond:Elrond symbolizes throughout the ancient wisdom, and his house represents Lore - the preservation in reverent memory of all traditions concerning the good, wise, and beautiful.....
But it is not that aspect of Elrond that is illuminated by his interactions with his daughter, Arwen, but those of a father, and of a father who has not only to 'lose' his daughter in marriage, but to lose her totally from that journey Over the Sea to Elevenhome.
And although in his final meeting with Arwen -LOTR-Many Partings -we do not get the poignancy of her severance from Aragorn- Estel! Estel! -the verbal economy of 'bitter was their parting' cannot hide the fact that the pain for Elrond was as great as Arwen's over her loss of Aragorn.
We have already seen something of the 'poisoned chalice' from which Elrond would have to drink in earlier posts on Aragorn and Arwen, above, yet it is probably most perfectly captured in these words:
But there will be no choice before Arwen, my beloved, unless you, Aragorn, Arathorn's son, come between us and bring one of us, you or me, to a bitter parting beyond the end of the world.You do not know yet what you desire of me. {ROTK App A Tale of Aragorn and Arwen}
Yet the 'doom' that Elrond spoke regarding Aragorn was not one solely related to his love for Arwen and the price he had to 'pay' to prove himself worthy of her
You shall neither have wife, nor bind not woman in your troth, until your time comes and you are found worthy of it {ibid}
Elrond was referring as he said- not...of my daughter alone {ibid}
For any of those options Aragorn had to:
rise above the height of all your fathers since the days of Elendil {ibid}
But to win the hand of Arwen he had to be :
the King of both Gondor and Arnor.
To Be Continued |
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