Tolkien and Norse Mythology

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

There are a lot of interesting thoughts on this thread. Like others, I've always seen something of a parallel between Melkor's chaining and the chainings of Loki and Fenrir in Norse mythology.

It's true that there are many differences between Melkor and Loki; most importantly, Melkor is more explicitly evil than Loki, who is more of an amoral trickster. But I think that if one looks at the Book of Lost Tales mythology, one finds in 'Melko' a much closer similarity to Loki. Melko is there presented, at least at the outset, not as being explicitly the enemy of the Valar. Compare the accounts of the destruction of the Lamps in the Lost Tales and in the later Silmarillion. In the Silmarillion, the Valar make the Lamps after fighting a war with Melkor; Melkor later returns to Arda and destroys the Lamps. In the Lost Tales, Melkor works together with the Valar to make the Lamps - his part is to fashion the pillars on which the Lamps will stand. But he secretly fashions them out of ice, which then melts, destroying the Lamps. This earlier story strikes me as exactly the sort of mischief that Loki would engage in.

A small correction - I believe that when Lalwende says:


. . . she means BoLT (the Lost Tales) not UT (Unfinished Tales). Which fact reinforces the comparison between Norse myth and, specifically, the earliest incarnation of Tolkien's Legendarium.

Correct sir! I just looked for the quote online to save me getting up and going to the bookshelf - serves me right for being idle.

I've a couple of interesting books knocking about here that might turn up some more goodies too. One of the things I've been noticing a lot lately is links in language - Tolkien has pulled elements of the language from Norse mythology into his own languages and naming in particular. One odd one is a link between Golfimbul and Fimbulwinter - though quite what an Orc who inspires the game of Golf has to do with the endless triple winter that presages Ragnarok I'm not sure.