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From: pvanheus@frodo.cs.uct.ac.za (P A van Heusden) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Elves in Tolkien and Folklore Message-ID: <pvanheus.722692649@frodo> Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 11:57:29 GMT Organization: Computer Science Department, University of Cape Town Lines: 166

I wrote the article below for our Tolkien society's zine. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Peter

Elf and Faerie : The development of Elves in Tolkien's Mythology

"Though I am old from wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands I will find out where she has gone And kiss her lips and take her hands And walk among the long dappled grass And pluck till time and times are done The silver apples of the moon The golden apples of the sun" W.B. Yeats

Many readers of Tolkien's works are familiar with the faeries of literature and folklore, and the differences and similarities between these and Tolkien's Elves. I believe in Tolkien's Elves we are seeing a reinterpretation of these beings, and by studying them we can glean insights into Tolkien's mythogenic intentions in 'Lord of the Rings'.

The idea of an elf, or fairie, is one which can be traced back thousands of years, for in tales of countless folk there appear memories of the fey folk of the hollow hills, and it seems that they have always hovered out there, beyond the light of the fire, and hidden from us by confusing paths in the wood. With this tradition Tolkien was well acquainted, although we can but speculate on the nature and quality of his sources. He seems not to have had a truly deep knowledge of faerie stories, but that can be expected, given that they were not considered a subject worthy of study in his time. (And seldom are accepted even now.)

It was accepted by most Medieval theologians that faeries were tied to the devil, either as demons, or the spirits of pagan sinners. The Queen of Faerie was a temptress, tempting such 'innocents' as Thomas the Rhymer into lustful abandon, seducing them into accepting the pagan gods, offering them dubious gifts, and partaking in other scurrilous practices. We can note with relief that Tolkien rejected such nonsense. He points out that the road to Faerie is not that to Heaven or Hell(1), indeed, Faerie is a quite separate place, a place defined by its 'feel'. This is the most important aspect of Faerie, and the one which must have most enchanted Tolkien. In considering the folklore that inspired the Elves, we must distinguish between two 'brands' of faerie. On the Celtic side there are those like the Sidhe, inhabitants of hollow hills, dwellers of night and shadow. These are beings seldom seen under the light of the sun and it is of this type that Tolkien is speaking most in 'On Faerie Stories', when he quotes that the road to Faerie is the one 'Where thou and I this night maun gae.' Though two other roads are described, the road to Heaven, and that to Hell, only in this instance is the time of travel defined. So here we have a people who live in a world full of glamour and who remain ever hidden, and indeed it is these faeries we see in early work, such as 'Goblin Feet'.

However, the soft sound of feet in the woods is far from the shining glory of Galadriel. In trying to understand how this change came about, we must consider the creation of Tolkien's mythology. Tolkien did not sit down, as some of us do, and decide to design a world, rather, he decided to design a language, and the world which would give birth to it. If we consider the earliest work from the 'Lost Tales' (considered by some to be dragged out from under the kitchen sink by Christopher Tolkien), especially the travels of Aelfwine, we see a traveller speaking to elves from the outside, more a reporter than an actor. Tolkien created, in his early mythology, a race of beings, once great and mighty, who faded, and became diminutive things hidden in a buttercup. So on this basis he rationalised a race he could identify with, through the faerie of Medieval times, into the modern bumblebee sized sprite. It is also important to note that the very earliest of these tales was set in Britain itself. Middle Earth had not been thought of. It is so easy to think of the coherent subcreation we know of today as the world in which the Elves were born, but the Elves were in fact the firstborn in more than just a mythological sense. Through Tolkien's passion for language, the Elves were born before Middle Earth. As the mythology and language grew, first through what is now the Silmarillion, so the idea of an Elf grew, and grew apart from their Celtic kin. They grew in stature, and in manner, till they came to take the place as the nobility of Middle Earth. Indeed, even when 'The Hobbit' had been written, Galadriel was not on her throne. (Consider a comparison between the Wood Elves of 'The Hobbit' and the Elves of Lorien.) It was only in the writing of 'The Lord of the Rings' that the Third Age, and Lothlorien, came into being. This growth parallels a shift to the second type of faerie, the elf of Germanic mythology. In Germanic mythology, it is the fertility god Freyr(2) who is linked with the elves, and they live with him in his hall, Alfheim. Freyr, and thus the elves, was linked to the sun, and this explains the brighter aspect of the later Elves. However, the Germanic elves have a lot in common with the Celtic faeries: their beauty for one, and the fact that the elves live in the barrows of the dead, a clear link with the hollow hills of the Sidhe.

The Elves of Middle Earth live in areas of lush forest, bright and green. Though it may seem that the Elves glean their life from the forest, it is the forest that gleans life from the Elves. The Elves tend the forest in a way no man could, forever, since they are immortal. Not the false immortality of the Ring Wraiths, with lives stretched out beyond enduring, but the true immortality of ones whose whole essence is life. For how else are we to interpret Gandalf, when he says "A mortal, Frodo, when he keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow, or obtain more life, he merely continues till at last every moment is a weariness."(3) If this is false immortality, then the true immortality of the elves must mean to gain more life as each minute passes, to be as constant as the earth. For even if Elves die "their spirits go to the Halls of Mandos and eventually return to Middle Earth re-embodied" (4). Beyond their mere immortality, they are, as First born of Middle Earth, more intimately linked to the world than the mere residents, the Men, the Hobbits(5), and the Dwarves. They are, as it were, the tenders of the land. By nature, they are tied to its very spirit. Thus, by examining the Elves, we examine the very essence of Middle Earth itself. In the link between the Elves and life, we can see a link to Germanic mythology, though here the Elves are the children of Eru, the One, and not of one fertility god amongst many. (An obvious, and understandable, Christianisation, having also the restrospective link between fertility and the Christian god.) They are generally, though not always, good, and when they err, it is always towards the side of strength, for they are too proud, too lofty, and reach beyond their station of guardians, into the realms of the Valar themselves. So it was with Feanor and the Silmarils. So also, Galadriel is seen by Frodo as she would appear if given the Ring: "She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful."(6) Though Elves are Man ennobled, Man before the fall, they may yet fall. Adam erred by wishing for the Fruit of all Knowledge, and Satan (along with Melkor) erred by wishing for the creator's place. Though their aspect is that of lords, that is not their place. Thus, Galadriel "will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel". The noble must fade, and the mundane live on.

Indeed, in all writings of elves that we know of, the elves fade, and the gates of faerie remain forever closed, making Faerie as unreachable as the Golden Isles. But whereas we look upon the elf of (particularly Celtic) tradition with ambivalence, we may look upon Tolkien's Elf with hope, for he is man unbound, and ennobled. The final glory of the Elves lies in the heart of Tolkien's viewing of Faerie, for he said that after the fantasy of subcreation must come recovery, a returning to reality, and thus an ennobling of our world. "By the forging of Gram cold iron was revealed, by the making of Pegasus horses were ennobled; in the Trees of the Sun and the Moon, root and stock, flower and fruit are manifested in glory."(7) And by the making of Elves Man is ennobled.

Tolkien felt the pull of the Faerie Queen even with the humble beginnings of 'Goblin Feet', yet he went beyond that, and chose to build his own private world, where Elves blossomed through the mirror of his mind. And as readers we go beyond that, and the Elves become seeds for still further forays into Faerie. Tolkien's Elves certainly are not the fey inhabitants of the hollow hills, yet they are still beings of magic, in a magic land.

1 'On Faerie Stories', Tree and Leaf, page 5 (Text quoted in 'The Tolkien reader')

2 H.R. Ellis Davidson, 'Gods and Myths of Northern Europe', p. 156

3 Tolkien, 'The Fellowship of the Ring', pg. 71

4 Richard L. Purtill, 'J.R.R. Tolkien - Myth, Morality, and Religion', pg 111

5 It seems Hobbits are merely small bourgeois Men, as Tolkien says, "The Hobbits are, of course, really meant to be a branch of the specifically human race (not Elves or Dwarves)", Tolkien's Letters, pg. 150

6 Tolkien, 'The Fellowship of the Ring', pg. 473

7 Tolkien, 'On Faerie Stories', pg. 59

-- ******************************************************************************* Peter van Heusden "The extreme always makes an impression" CS2, UCT, Cape Town, RSA J.D. - Lethal Attraction pvanheus@frodo.cs.uct.ac.za