The Standing Stone

[Priya]

Described as a “warning finger” and possibly imbued with enchanted powers the standing stone was characterized, as I have already surmised, to resemble Tara’s. Furthermore, it shared commonality with the one the Irish hero Cuchulainn* (recorded as a reincarnation of Lugh - see my previous post) fell asleep against:

“Cuchulainn went away to a menhir where he sat down and fell asleep.”
– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Chapter VI – The Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn – pg. 345, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911. (my underlined emphasis)

Ring any bells?

Anyhow, although men were the presumed shapers and erectors of menhirs, no absolute proof exists. The Celts of Brittany, where menhirs are closely clustered (more so than anywhere else in Europe), spoke of legends telling of fairies carrying enormous stones:

“The fairy builders, says tradition, went about their work in no haphazard manner. Those among them who possessed a talent for design drew the plans of the proposed structure, the less gifted acting as carriers, labourers, and masons. Apron-carrying was not their only method of porterage, for some bore the stones on their heads, or one under each arm, …”.

– Legends & Romances of Brittany, Chapter II, L. Spence, 1917

Megaliths in Brittany at Carnac

So if fashioned and positioned by fairies, it’s not hard to infer that some of these stones were likely spell-bound. But were they somehow linked to an otherworld?

“What otherworld?” - you are perfectly entitled to question.

“Faërie”, is my answer.

The Faërie Tolkien spoke of in his On Fairy-stories lecture paper. The Faërie depicted in Smith of Wootton Major.

No - not the ‘imitation otherworlds’ founded by the elves, and depicted as realms governed by Galadriel and Elrond, and whose decay was stemmed through the power of the elven-rings. Nor the one across the sea - sundered from the Primary World by the One. But instead, what I coin as ‘Middle-earth Faërie’; a parallel secondary world created by Eru and existing side-by-side to ours.

So it is to ‘Middle-earth Faërie’, and clues to its existence in TLotR that I want to turn to next. For I think it’s the ‘missing link’ in our understanding of what really happened in the Barrow-downs adventure, and to boot - explanations of the many oddities In the House of Tom Bombadil chapter.

Any objections?




* Tolkien was certainly aware of Cuchulainn – see Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – Note to Line 2452, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925. It seems probable that a connection to Lugh was also known:

“Lugh appears to Dechtire, the mother of Cúchulainn, and tells her that he himself is her little child, i.e. that the child is a reincarnation of himself; and Cúchulainn, when inquired of as to his birth, points proudly to his descent from Lugh.”

– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Reincarnation of the Tuatha De Danann, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911