Home » Reading & Literature » J.R.R. Tolkien » The Downfall of the Lore of the Rings - Page 5

The Downfall of the Lore of the Rings - Page 5

© Michael Martinez

Shippey constructs a wonderful argument about how Tolkien sought roots for many of the things in The Lord of the Rings in Anglo-Saxon literature or words. But Tolkien was being very Greek about the process. Middle-earth is intrinsically woven from the charges of Alexander and the courage of Harold and Alfred. Homeric beauty mingles with the Gothic prestige of the Rohirrim. Tolkien just happens to use his beloved Anglo-Saxon language to portray the Rohirrim's culture. But the Anglo-Saxons achieved nothing like the Rohirrim or the Greeks and Goths. They achieved their own greatness, and yet much of it was lost in 1066. So Tolkien borrowed from more ancient peoples whom he no doubt believed shared similar pathos for life and adventure. There is an echo of Jason and the Argonauts in Earendil, of Hercules in Hurin, of Achilles in Turin. Troy sings to us from the fallen stones of Gondolin. Atlantis becomes Atalante, Numenor the Downfallen. These are not trivial comparisons. Tolkien might very well have been saying "Here is how Homer might have sung of the heroic Anglo-Saxons before the Normans came and took away all their legends". A modern author, wishing to construct (or reconstruct) English mythology, might turn to the Norse myths for inspiration. But this would be a mistake, and I can't say I understand why Tolkien would regard it so, but I know why I say it's a mistake. The Norse had their own culture and they weren't really regarded as invaders like the Greeks and Anglo-Saxons. Greek culture had moved into Greece with a historical people, just as Anglo-Saxon culture had moved into Britain (England) with a historical people. The Scandinavians had their own waves of immigration, but those were so long ago there is now no memory of them in any legend or myth. The Norse myths are thus alien to Anglo-Saxon tradition. The Anglo-Saxons remembered an older world, another land their forefathers once called "home". Offa of Angel is a Continental hero of the Angles of Britain, a name brought west by their immigrant ancestors. All the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms resemble the ancient Greek city-states. The political geography of both countries passed through phases of consolidation, although the Greeks never achieved a full national statehood before the Macedonians imposed one on them. Invaders came and gradually took over land from older peoples, and eventually settled down beside them. Tolkien was looking for the similarities in the heroic past of the peoples he used for models. The Norse myths are not founded on a migration period. The Bronze Age myths of the Greeks are raw and primitive like the Norse myths but they are the myths of tribes and nations, not of individual heroes. The Anglo-Saxons like the Greeks achieved something of a national identity despite all their differences. Or one can form the impression they did. Their name for their country, "Angle-land", implies a unity of identification which didn't really exist in Scandinavia. There were Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. When they sent out colonists these peoples became Faeroese, Icelanders, Greenlanders. They were northmen to the rest of the world but they were unique groups to themselves. And their legends and myths emphasized the individual over the nation. The Anglo-Saxons are remembered as Anglo-Saxons, not as Haestingas, Icings, Hwicce, etc.

The copyright of the article The Downfall of the Lore of the Rings - Page 5 in J.R.R. Tolkien is owned by Michael Martinez. Permission to republish The Downfall of the Lore of the Rings - Page 5 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.