Eminence Grise-or "Grey is the new White"

[Anguirel]

I think, to coin another horrible piece of neophilia, that what you and I are both groping at is that Grey is in fact the new Green. By that I mean it is linked with the folklore surrounding Faerie-not necessarily Faerie as in Valinor, but Faerie as in ballads like Tam Lin:

"Tonight is Halloween
And the faeries will be in sight
If you wait for them at Mile's cross.
Please come for me tonight.

And later:

At last he was himself again
So she wrapped him in her cloak.
She was rejoicing in her victory
When the Queen of Faeries spoke.

"If I had know, Tam Lin," she says
"that you were up to no good
I'd have taken out your green eyes
and put in eyes of wood."

"If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"you would have always been alone!
For I'd have taken out your mortal heart
And put in a heart of stone."

This is best exemplified in the perilous forests of Lothlorien and Fangorn, each possessing hidden, ancient powers, sinister and benevolent and once, capricious: the fascinating and beautiful hybrid of Celtic religion and Christianity that are fairies. It is to this strange world, neither Heaven, Earth, nor Hell, that the ambiguous colour grey seems to refer.

Green also functions in this respect, but in a more minor, cheerful, comic and reassuring capacity; we see Glorfindel's gem on the bridge repelling wraiths and Aragorn's Elessar; and green is prominent in Thranduil's jovial woodland court, not yet overcome by Lorien's lovely melancholy.

But the nostalgic and painful grey has altogether more moving qualities. The link with exile from home holds very true.