Tolkien and Psychedelics

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Sardy

I am currently beginning a re-reading of The Lord of the Rings and my reading of my favorite chapter Three Is Company (coincidence that the "Three" might also describe the three Elven rings, as well as the three Hobbits?) prompted me to consider this topic.

There is much in Frodo's encounter with Gildor that resembles a traditional psychedelic experience, and the prose is poetically replete with descriptions that lend themselves to the experience of altered consciousness. For example:

"The hobbits sat in shadow by the wayside. Before long the Elves came down the lane toward the valley. They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet. They were now silent, and as the last Elf passed he turned and looked toward the hobbits and laughed."

The Elves behavior, and attitude towards the Hobbits in this scene also perfectly describes a state of altered perception. They are at once both perfectly in tune with nature and the woods around them, and at the same time aloof and detached. Tolkien describes the scene, several times, as, "being in a waking dream."

So much of this scene is surreal, from the unlikely appearance of the wooded hall in the greenwood, the beds prepared for the Hobbits in the boughs of the trees, the Elven drink... it's a timeless moment. And one that echoes of the dream world, the under mind, and altered perception. In the trilogy no other scene (save perhaps Lothlorien) speaks as powerfully of the subtly strange and different---and psychedelic---mindset of the Elves as does this.

A fascinating topic! I'm not quite sure I would use the word 'surreal' to describe this scene. After all, "Three's Company" is the chapter with the self-reflective fox, and Sam saying his farewells to the beer barrel in the cellar and Frodo not selling his wine cellar to Lobelia, so many things are possible.

I went back and reread this chapter and one thing that came to my mind was how like the elves are to Buddhists in their compassionate detachment and how like this shimmering is to eastern philosophies of universal light and healing energy. Whether it is Qi Gong, or Ki, or Reiki, or prana, eastern cultures have a strong tradition of mind/body meditation and reflection--to say nothing of Ayurvedic medicine with its herbs and healing hands.

Like Lal, I would not use the word 'psychedelics'. It is of too recent a coinage (Dictionary.com places it at 1956; haven't checked out the OED yet) to suit Tolkien's ethos. After all, Tolkien's work begins with his interest in the historical development of language. In his study of languages, did he learn Sanskrti? Do we know what books and lore Tolkien might have learned of from the east?