The Standing Stone

[Priya]

Now it’s not just the hill of Tara, which I think Tolkien modeled the Barrow-downs midday halt location upon. I have a strong suspicion that Tolkien also represented from Arthurian lore - Sir Gawain’s quest destination: the ‘Green Chapel’.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – the Green Chapel in Tolkien’s (& Gordon’s) own words was:

“… nothing else than a fairy mound; …”. 

– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Note to Line 151, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925

“… a hollow green mound.”
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Introduction – pg. ix, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925

Illustration from ‘MS Cotton Nero A.x’

It was barely more than a hillock of grass featuring a depression. As such, the eerie location resonates with the shallow hill which the hobbits encountered soon after leaving Tom and Goldberry. Once again, I repeat from the chapter:

“About mid-day they came to a hill whose top was wide and flattened, like a shallow saucer …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The slope being mild enough to ride their ponies up meant that it was just a gentle tumulus. After riding across they decided to turn and descend:

“… into the hollow circle.” 

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

So, subtly placed in the Barrow-downs adventure are indications of a similar sacred feature (to Tara and the Green Chapel) in the landscape. Yet not sacred to pagans (or obviously Christians) – but, with its standing stone, perhaps instead to fairy-folk? So what I’m advocating is that Tolkien pictured for his tale another ‘fairy mound’. And it was to both Celtic/Arthurian legends and perhaps we can say: fairy tale, that he turned to for the halt in the journey.

But what exactly is a fairy mound? And why a standing stone in its midst?

To the former - I tried looking up dictionary definitions. The New English Dictionary, which Tolkien worked on before his 1925 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight work, is of little help. So I turned to Google AI instead:

AI Overview

A faerie mound, also known as a fairy hill or fairy fort, is a folklore term, particularly prevalent in Irish and Scottish Gaelic traditions. These mounds are often associated with ancient earthworks like ringforts, hillforts, or burial mounds, and are believed to be homes or portals to the Otherworld, inhabited by fairies, or aos sí. Many believe that disturbing these mounds can bring bad luck or even curses.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Priya

Hello Huinesoron

Those links were very much appreciated. The one of Mayburgh Henge is, as you say, a great match - and I quite agree.

By the way, is there a ‘real’ English region (with a capital D) called the Barrow-Downs?

There is not, but it's definitely there anyway. I have previously described driving and walking across the Berkshire/North Wessex Downs, which are exactly the countryside Tolkien described. It's positively eerie how horizonless they are; the land is just this smooth rolling surface in all directions. And it is absolutely studded with barrows; every hilltop seems to have either a barrow or two, or a line of trees. I'm utterly convinced this is what Tolkien was describing when he talked about the Barrow-Downs.

(From Oxford, he would cross them going south, for instance if travelling to Stonehenge. In that thread I compare the northern edge of the Berkshire Downs to the exit from the Barrow-Downs; nothing is perfect.)

Originally Posted by Priya

The Historic Hill of Tara, County Meath, Ireland [/center]

[...]

The Tara stone does have a finger-like shape. Though I’m perplexed as to how anything finger-like could be termed ‘shapeless’.

Okay, Tara is a strong find. It's one of very few Irish locations I could name, and the only one I know is associated with a battle, so it has the cultural presence to show up in Tolkien's works. The fact that merging the two perfectly creates the hollow-and-stone is very nice. And the stone is both finger-like and shapeless - or rather unshaped, as in not carved or worked. It may not be right, but it's a good possibility.

Originally Posted by Priya

But what exactly is a fairy mound? And why a standing stone in its midst?

And fairy-mounds are, folklorically, based (at least partly) on barrows. It's far from the only entry into the hollow hills in Tolkien: Menegroth, Nargothrond, and Mirkwood are all classic "the Elves live underground, and mortals who enter emerge changed and enchanted" fairy-mounds, and it's hard not to see the same DNA in Amon Rûdh, Henneth Annûn, or even Bag-End. (I have to exclude the various dwarf-mines and burrows and fortresses of evil... the Paths of the Dead, the gates of Gondolin, the Glittering Caves... wow, Tolkien really put a lot of stuff underground!) The Great Barrow isn't even the only one that puts the characters to sleep, either - Bilbo's fall does the same, leading to his encounter with Gollum, and there's magical sleep associated with both Mirkwood (the river) and Menegroth (Beren).

But as far as I know, there's no particular association of fairy-mounds with standing stones on them... probably because that isn't a thing in England, as I discovered last post (to my surprise!).

hS

[Priya]

Hello Huinesoron

I quite understand how your personal experience of the Downs in actual English counties left a deep impact. Deep enough that it ought to have had a memorable effect on Tolkien too. So, I agree, it would not be at all surprising if his personal vision for the novel’s localized countryside followed suit. Nevertheless, now that we have an inkling that one particular hill of our tale has a decent connection to Ireland’s Tara - it’s worthwhile contemplating whether other links can be uncovered.

But firstly, from my previous post - I much prefer to explore links to ‘fairies’ of the ‘fairy mound’. One idea I get from TLotR text is an underlying picture of little legendary creatures beneath a mushroom:

“The fog rolled up to the walls and rose above them, and as it mounted it bent over their heads until it became a roof: they were shut in a hall of mist whose central pillar was the standing stone.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The Intruder, John Anster Fitzgerald, 1860

Do any other readers get the same kind of notion come to their minds? And then does Tom and Goldberry’s cavorting around the dining table leave an impression of fairies dancing in a circular fashion?

“… in some fashion they seemed to weave a single dance, neither hindering the other, in and out of the room, and round about the table; …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

In combination, is that the sort of impression Tolkien wanted to leave?
Was his tale meant to be the origin of our world’s superstitions about ‘fairy rings’ and connected folklore to mushrooms?

A Mushroom Ring - A Natural Phenomenon

Pondering deeper on fairy connections, we also have the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tale - where Lord Bertilak (and presumably his wife) are:

“… fay-magic folk …”,

– ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, W.P. Ker Lecture Paper

Central to that fairy-story is the hollow hill of the Green Chapel and the lady’s ownership of a ‘green girdle’. It is a magical item which will protect its possessor from any deadly or injurious blow:

“For whoever goes girdled with this green riband, while he keeps it well clasped closely about him, there is none so hardy under heaven that to hew him were able; for he could not be killed by any cunning of hand.”
– ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, W.P. Ker Lecture Paper, 1953

Beyond coincidence is Tom’s remarkable possession of one too!

“green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;”.

– The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962 release

Hmm … was Tom practically invincible in battle? Is that why he came across as so cock-sure? So then, was Tom the original owner of the green girdle and thus conceived as a ‘fay’ creature? Is that a reasonable possibility? Back in 1934 at his first public release in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, he certainly exhibited powers beyond that of mortals or elven-kind!

I really do not want this thread to descend into a discussion about Bombadil, but a ‘supernatural’ Tom certainly has knowledge about the standing stone and its perilous nature:

“ ‘Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone …’ “.
-The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Nevertheless, in the next couple of posts, I will try to outline additional evidence pointing to Tom being of the fay race himself. I will try to be as succinct as possible. However I think a little discussion of such sorts is needed, if readers are to align themselves with perhaps a new/different line of thinking. For beneficially to us - there exist several clues that Tom is connected to Tara of legend. This may help us in the road to understanding why Tolkien included the standing stone. Because, it seems to me that textually much unrealized substructure exists behind this segment of the tale - knowledge of which will help fill a void, and make the Barrow-downs episode all the more satisfying.

[Priya]

As I intimated in my previous post, in order to reconcile Tolkien’s hollowed-out and mounded hill with our world’s fairy-lore we need a bit more evidence. Tom Bombadil is obviously intricately involved. Or at least - knowledgeable.

But was Tom conceived as a creature of Faërie as I have suggested? To examine that angle, in depth, would take many lengthy posts - and I would love to chat more about that. Unfortunately such side-tracking isn’t desirable for this particular thread. So instead, I’m just going to summarize some of what I’ve gathered over the years in studying Tolkien’s marvelous creation.

Don’t fall over - but one prognosis is that Tolkien employed his ‘usual’ trick of making his tale a ‘source’, and gave Tom a purpose through making him the origin of many characters of our world’s fairy-stories, myths and legends. But to do so - he had to do it in a fragmentary way. Only bits and pieces of his tale could be tied up with our world’s accounts. At least - that is what I believe was his plan.

However, I caution - I’m just grazing the surface here. Tom is an extremely complex character; indeed an extraordinary piece of subcreation. By no means is this all there is to him, or the final say. And you are all welcome to discuss and argue with me - but please, if you don’t mind, in a different thread.

Fairytale

Tom appears in the role of the old ‘fairy-man’ in:

(a) Jack and the Beanstalk

Who was that odd-looking old man whom Jack had traded with?

“He hadn't gone far when he met a funny-looking old man, who said to him: 'Good morning, Jack.' ”

- English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 60, J. Jacobs, 1890

Surely only a fairy being would have been in possession of magic beans?

The Queer Old Man, 'Jack and the Beanstalk', English Fairy Tales, F. Steel, 1890 (Illustration by Arthur Rackham)

One of the earliest printed illustrations of the famous tale records a bearded short man with a conspicuous hat and a blue jacket. Might he have been Tom?

Illustrations from 'The History of Mother Twaddle and the Marvellous Achievements of Her Son Jack', Benjamin Tabart, 1807

Then after the swap what happened to Jack's cow: 'Milky-White'?

Hmm ... for our tale clearly Tom had access to a providing farm animal. After all, the extent of dairy produce on the dinner table was substantial:

“... yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread and butter; milk, cheese, ...”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

So we can see that there was no shortage of food during the hobbits' respite. With much of it being milk based, we might ascertain Tom's cow was a prodigious producer. Resonating with:

“... Milky-white, the best milker in the parish, ...”.

- English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 61, J. Jacobs, 1890

And one can readily imagine that legends of Milky-white and her ample output originated in hobbit folklore to be passed along through the ages to our own world's myth through blended and corrupted tales of Tom's residence being awash in 'white milk':

“Frodo … watched the white chalky path turn into a little river of milk and go bubbling away down into the valley.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil (my underlined emphasis)

And then on another matter, to the hobbits - who exactly were these black men, so much larger than them (and thus in comparison – of ogreish size), who had invaded a thoroughly English Shire with such animosity for its inhabitants? Many of the rustic little people had never encountered the Big Folk; from their viewpoint they must have looked gigantic:

“Sam ... was finding his first sight of Men ... quite enough, ...”.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

Apart from the 'ogre' fueled chase echoing Jack's experience, what about that heightened sense of smell? What was all the sniffing about?

“... inside the hood came a noise as of someone sniffing ...”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Three is Company

Presumably it was connected to Aragorn's revelation:

“... at all times they smell the blood of living things, desiring and hating it.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, A Knife in the Dark

Hmm ... the smelling of blood combined with raw hatred! Now where have we seen that theme before? Yes, we must hark back once again to Jack and the Beanstalk and that most famous of English rhymes:

“ '... Fee-fi-fo-fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he alive, or be he dead

I’ll have his bones to grind my bread.' ”

– English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 63, J. Jacobs, 1890

Aren't the similarities becoming obvious now? Isn't it obvious how The Lord of the Rings mirrors Jack and the Beanstalk in that both heroes look out from a window on to beanstalks first thing in the morning!

“Frodo ran to the eastern window, and found himself looking into … a tall line of beans on poles; ...”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

“So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think he saw? why, the beans ... had sprung up into a big beanstalk ...”.

-English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk pg.63, J. Jacobs, 1890

… and there is quite a bit more …



(b) The Little Folk’s Presents - In Grimm’s Fairy Tales

In being extremely succinct, the most interesting part for us is the implied ‘fairy pact’ between two mortals and a little old fairy-man. In order to seal the agreement:

“… the old man clapped them both on the shoulder, in a friendly manner …”.

– The Little Folks’ Presents – Tale 182, Grimm’s Household Tales, J. & W. Grimm, Translated by M. Hunt, 1884 (my underlined emphasis)

Such an act is also present in The Fellowship of the Ring where Tom, as an old man, taught the hobbits a summoning verse. Then via a specific motion:

“… he clapped them each on the shoulder with a laugh, …”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil (my underlined emphasis)

and thereby his side of the ‘fairy pact’ was sealed in agreeing to answer a distress call.

(c) Other fairytales in which we encounter resonances to Tom

The Blue Mountains in Andrew Lang’s Yellow Fairy Book
The Bell Deep by Hans Andersen
Tom Thumb as set down by Richard Johnson
The Legend of Bottle Hill as set down by T. Keightly

& no doubt there are several more!

………..

But I want to put fairytales aside and instead turn to ‘Legends’. Because it’s Tom’s hidden likenesses to the god Lugh, and thus a connection to Tara - that I really want to get to!

[Priya]

Legends

It’s curious that below Tara - within hollow hills, as legend has it, dwelt the race of the Fairies. Here in Irish myth lay the entrance to the underground land of the Celtic daoine sithe (Tuatha Dé Dannan). A spiritual place whose famed hill, is under the guardianship of the greatest of Celtic gods: Lugh (also known as Lug and Lugus). And it’s this deity’s historically recorded mythical attributes that I want to bring out to the forefront. Because I see some of them reflected in our Tom Bombadil’s persona. As such, this lends to the idea that Tolkien made Tom an ultimate source.

Lugh, shown triple-faced, Reims region, France

From what we can tell from surviving statues, Lugh was crowned with leaves just like Tom’s:

“… thick brown hair was crowned with autumn leaves.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

One of Lugh’s major characteristics is his ‘sun god’ depiction:

“… Lug … as a sun-god occupies a distinguished place in Irish legend.”

– Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, The Zeus of the Insular Celts – pg. 210, J. Rhys, 1888

And indeed, it is not hard to see shades of the hypothetical origin of this ‘red-cheeked’ Celtic solar deity in The Lord of the Rings. For powerfully depicted, there was a ‘red-faced’ Tom at the barrow:

“… framed against the light of the sun rising red behind him.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Adding to a solar deity manifestation was Lugh’s other role as a Storm god – echoed in the following semblance:

“ ‘… I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. …’ ”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest

Interestingly the Celtic god was titled Lugh Lámfada meaning ‘Lugh of the Long Arm’. Once again this, I believe, was cleverly characterized in The Lord of the Rings. This time through Master Bombadil immobilizing the hobbits beyond normal arm’s length:

“…holding up one hand, and they stopped short, as if they had been struck stiff.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest (my underlined emphasis)

Lugh was also described to be a ‘master of all trades’ which is perhaps reflected by Tolkien’s assignation of a ‘master’ title to Bombadil. Connected to the underworld by his mother’s marriage to the Formorian god Balor, Lugh shares a similarity of below earth mastery with Tom. Because Bombadil’s voice was heard:

“… as if it was coming down through the ground …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Hopping and chanting before going into battle, Lugh’s unorthodox behavior was also mimicked in the skirmish involving Old Man Willow:

“… a deep glad voice was singing carelessly and … singing nonsense … hopping … along the path, … there came into view a man, or so it seemed.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest

Lugh was ultimately more powerful than the Formorian leader, and arch enemy of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, the baleful ‘one-eyed’ Balor. Exhibiting supremacy over the ‘eye’, the ‘trickster’ Lugh defeated Balor of the ‘Evil Eye’ just as Tom defeated Sauron’s magic:

“Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little finger … There was no sign of Tom disappearing!”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

“Tom … spun the Ring in the air – and it vanished with a flash.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Lugh also had a legal side. It seems that in emulating this god of ‘oaths and sworn contracts’, Tom consummated an implied promise:

“… he taught them a rhyme to sing, if they should … fall into any danger …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Belted for battle with an enchanted green girdle – Tom would fulfill the compact and save them from disaster. In the nick of time he would arrive, but less like a mortal knight and more like a divine fairy. For the legend of Conn at Tara tells us that a horsed “fairy prince” emerging from the fog:

“… disclosed the future history of his country …” and “… is stated to have been called Lug, …”.

– Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, The Zeus of the Insular Celts – pg. 210, J. Rhys, 1888 (my underlined emphasis)

Because the disclosure was about future Irish monarchs we have a situation paralleled in The Lord of the Rings. Another fairy-like being similarly transmitted to the hobbits a faërian projection of lordly men and a Gondorian king from the past with a premonition of perhaps one to come. When Bombadil:

“… spoke they had a vision as it were of a great expanse of years behind them, like a vast shadowy plain over which there strode shapes of Men, tall and grim with bright swords, and last came one with a star on his brow.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

As myth handed down from time immemorial perhaps the Barrow-downs scene became distorted. Perhaps the fairy prince that rode out from the fog was really Tom on Fatty Lumpkin! And just maybe the legend morphed even more from a fairy rescue to one made by a Tolkienian deity!

Last, but not least, when it comes to Tara, Bombadil and Celtic fairy tales, it is really not that surprising that Tolkien strengthened the trio’s relationship by deliberately including an archaeological artifact of relevance: a brooch. One rooted on the famous ‘Brooch of Tara’.

The Celtic Brooch of Tara

Being arguably the most treasured of all Ireland’s ancient jewelry it is the only significant piece associated to the Hill of Tara. Again in a remarkable parallel, the most precious item of jewelry from the barrow-hoard was a brooch:

“He chose for himself from the pile a brooch …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

……

Now we should not expect everything known about Lugh to match up with our Tom. Legends, of course, usually only contain small amounts of truth. But what we see is perhaps a better match than expected, don’t you think?

Anyway, it’s to the standing stone that I want to return; with particular focus on its possible connection to an ‘otherworld’.

[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

[Priya]

Now we must not forget how one of Tolkien’s early memories was a recollection of one of only two surviving words spoken by pre-Celtic aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles:

“… nothing of the languages of primitive peoples (before the Celts or Germanic invaders) is now known, except perhaps ond = ‘stone’ (+ one other now forgotten).”

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #324 – 4-5 June 1971, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

For us it is not just the word ‘ond’ which is of significance, but the fact that it meant ‘stone’. Yes, necessarily a core theme would be the inclusion of ‘old stone’ for his story. But did the novel’s ancient standing stone, of the Downs, somehow connect to Faërie? That’s an idea I haven’t seen bandied about before.

Well … if so, how? That’s what we must determine!

At this stage, some members/readers might already have joined some imaginary dots. Just like I did, you might be pondering on the very same thoughts that arose in my mind - such as:

(a) Did Frodo very briefly enter Middle-earth Faërie after passing between the two standing stones?
(b) Did these two ‘magically appearing’ standing stones form a gateway to another world?

On the fringes of the Hill of Tara beside a Church are two standing stones*

(c) Was Frodo allowed through because he held a necessary visa (the ‘magic’ Ring)?
(d) Was it dark because it was nighttime in Faërie?
(e) Did his pony bolt and head back because the beast, being a mortal of the Primary World, did not belong in the Perilous Realm?
(f) Did his companions not follow because they lacked a ‘visa’?
(g) Did the other hobbits not hear Frodo’s calls because his voice hadn’t the power to transcend across a different plane of existence?
(h) Upon reentering the Primary World did the other hobbit voices seem so far away because time in the Primary World had elapsed at a different rate to that in Faërie which operates under a different clock cycle?
(I) Was the light in the barrow coming through the ground from Faërie?
(j) Was this region of the Barrow-downs the place where two different planes of existence touched?
(k) Was the light growing because dawn was breaking in Faërie?
(l) Was the light green because Faërie had a green sun? (or perhaps an atmospheric condition in that realm led to green sunlight)?

A Rising Green Sun (or thereabouts!)

Hmm … the existence of another world would certainly help to logically explain several loose ends - don’t you think?

Yet first, I think it’s worthwhile taking a step back and convincing ourselves that there is a real chance another Faërie was subtly included. And to do that we have to recall that fundamentally Tolkien’s opus:

“… is a ‘fairy-story’, but one written … for adults.”

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #181 – January or February 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)

“… this is an ‘imaginary’ world …”, 

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #190 – 3 July 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)

created to possess:

“… coherent structure which it took me years to work out.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #190 – 3 July 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

And I think Tolkien achieved coherency by blending in some of the most ancient folklore and legends of the European continent. His famous denial of C.S. Lewis’s:

“… myths are lies, even though lies breathed through silver.”,

- Tolkien A biography, Jack – pg. 147, H. Carpenter, 1977

left him to search deeply for those elusive and hidden grains of ‘truth’.

Absolutely necessary then, would be the presence of historical connections to our own world. After all, if there was little to nothing ancestral in common – we might as well be reading a story set on an entirely make-believe planet. Yes, maybe one similar to Earth, but certainly not authentic, nor one we could happily relate to or empathize with:

“I have … constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in ‘space’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #211 – 14 October 1958, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

Then it was those historic links which were so essential. And this aim could best be achieved by entangling some of our world’s records deeply into his own storyline. To be maintained was:

“… the literary pretence of historicity and dependence on record …”.
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #129 – 10 September 1950, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (my underlined emphasis)

But though modern-day archaeologists, historians and folklorists have speculated a great deal, there are no ancient surviving records on the function of single (or isolated) standing stones.

Or are there?




* Note how from this angle how they lean towards each other in the same manner as the text:

“… suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs