The relationship betwen Music/Singing and Magic

[Durelin]

Skip mentioned the Barrow-wight's song in his first post. I did not read over the previous thread very carefully, so I don't know if this was discussed over there, or if it has been discussed on another thread about Barrow-wights, but this thread made me think of some things I looked at for a paper I wrote for a mythology class. I wrote it about the "draugar" of Norse/Icelandic folklore, and discussed at the end a bit about the continuation of a lot of the aspects of draugr in Medieval Europe and even modern times, and talked a bit about Tolkien's barrow-wights.

One of the main things was the connection with verse. Of course as has been pointed out from the beginning of both threads, music/verse is often related to magic, but one of the types of magic its related with is that of the "undead." I dunno, I thought it was cool when I did the comparison.

Frodo does not see the Barrow-wight, but he does hear it, as it sings a verse. The connection of song or poetry with the draugar is not an uncommon one. Nora K. Chadwick notes in "Norse Ghosts: A Study in the Draugr and the Haugbui" that there is a “constant association” between the draugar and the barrow, and “skaldskap and music.” The draugr of a king named Ögváldr in Hálf’s Saga is heard chanting in his barrow, declaring his former kingship; and the draugr of Gunnarr in Njál’s Saga is seen sitting in his barrow staring at the moon and singing. In Hervarar Saga, Hervör converses with the draugr of her father, Angantýr, in verse. There are magical happenings involving draugar in which a person receives the gift of poetry or eloquent speech from a draugr. In a story contained in the Flateyjarbók, the shepherd Hallbjörn wishes to compose a panegyric for a skald buried in a barrow he often sleeps on at night. One night the dead skald visits him, and recites a verse to the shepherd while holding him by the tongue, granting him the gift of poetry. In another story in the Flateyjarbók, a man spends a night on a barrow, and “dreams” that he enters the barrow with the two draugar who occupy it, and fights one of the draugr for “gold which had the power to bestow the gift of speech” to give to his mother, who is dumb.

Tolkien’s Barrow-wight displays strongly these supernatural aspects of draugar and their connections with song or verse. The power of verse is especially clear in the rescue of the Hobbits by Tom Bombadil. After Frodo cuts the hand off of the crawling arm, “there was a shriek and the light vanished,” and in his desperation Frodo remembers Tom Bombadil and “the rhyme he had taught him.” He sings the rhyme, and Tom Bombadil answers it with his own verse and suddenly enters the barrow with a rumbling of stone. Tom then drives away the Barrow-wight with a verse. The power of “dreams” is touched upon when Merry, one of the four Hobbits, wakes, and remembers what has happened, he “clutche[s] at his breast,” believing he had been stabbed, but then says, “No…I have been dreaming.” Apparently the dreams were vivid and powerful enough to seem like very real happenings. (That last part was related to the topos that draugar would sometimes appear to people in a dream-like state, but would leave a physical token or sign behind, proving that they were there.)

It wasn't the best paper (it never is), or best researched (I would love to do more, but you know...), but I really had fun writing it.

When it comes to song and magic, you could talk about Tom Bombadil all day...

[Pitchwife]

Thanks, Durelin, that's an interesting connection between the draugar and singing - considering that the Elves seem to have made the most use of musical magic, and Celtic folklore closely associates (sometimes even identifies) the elves or fairies with the spirits of the Dead, as both kinds of beings are said to dwell in hills/mounds/barrows.

Originally Posted by Ibrin

the piece was titled "Geographical Fugue" by Ernst Toch, and was first performed in 1930, I believe

That one! Yes, it sort of rocks in a way. Here's a link to a good performance, if anyone's interested in what it sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b59Tpi_tDYo
The funny side is that the 'lyrics' consist entirely of place names from all over the world (hence the title).
Toch probably got some inspiration from the German and French Dadaists' experiments with Lautpoesie (sound poetry) - rhythmic recitations of nonsense or half-nonsense words/syllables for musical effect (e.g. Hugo Ball's famous Caravan or Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, probably the most elaborate attempt in this direction). Some of these things can sound very much like incantations.