The Standing Stone

[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

[Priya]

Before, I comment on records in our world of single standing stones - I want to try to strengthen the idea about Frodo inadvertently entering Faërie. To do that I think we ought to think more about our world’s tales of faërie. Thus I’ve decided to dig out instances where the land of Faërie pops out to the forefront in our early literature.

So where exactly does a close-quarters faërie loom large?

Actually reports are reasonably numerous and there is sufficient evidence Tolkien knew all below and others too:

(a) Thomas the Rhymer being carried off into fairyland upon the Queen of Faërie’s milk-white steed.

(b) Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, entering Annwn while lost in a magical fog and spending a year in the Welsh otherworld per the Mabinogion.
(c) Sir Orfeo entering the realm of Faërie.

(d) King Arthur’s Avalon – described as both across the water in the west but also at Glastonbury Tor.

(e) The ‘Land below Woolpit’ where two legendary green children emerged according to Ralph of Coggeshall.

(f) The fabled realm below hilly mounds in the legends of the Celtic Tuatha-de-Dannan.

‘Riders of the Sidhe’, John Duncan, 1911

What we need to recognize is that access to a local land-situated kind of faërie has been extensively reported. And in times close to our own – far off from Tolkien’s mythic Ages. It is observable such reports were replete with creatures just like the Professor’s elves.

For Tolkien, faërie was primarily a place – the so-called ‘Perilous Realm’. Putting aside the question of whether such a land or fairies really exist outside of imagination, from what I can tell Tolkien believed that the concept and origin of faërie began with man as a sub-creator in triggering the ‘invention’ of a fairy tale. And that tale might have been born indirectly from hearsay or directly from personal experience; yet it would likely have possessed at least a nugget of truth. A genuine fairy tale always exhibits a magical face and is, more often than not, set in the land of Faërie. A place which is not only the natural habitation of fays (fairy folk to us) but, according to the Professor, also contains creatures such as:

“… elves and … dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 113, HarperCollins, 1983

Tolkien made plain that for humans with a natural bent towards make-believe:

“Fantasy, the making or glimpsing of Other-worlds, was the heart of the desire of Faërie.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 135, HarperCollins, 1983

Of great significance is his employment of the term: “Other-worlds”. Most notably it is delineated in plural form. And thus the case can be made that when engaged in creating his own fantasy, ‘Faërie’ was not in his mind limited to a singular ‘Other-world’. It’s quite possible he had in mind another faerie where all these fantastic creatures existed in some corner or at some time within its own chronological history. So for us, it is essential to grasp the concept of a multiplicity of otherworlds being present in Tolkien’s literature. These can simply be equated to secondary worlds, being distinct from our primary one.



… to be continued

[Priya]

The most definite and obvious otherworld of Tolkien’s sub-created mythology is voiced in Bilbo’s poetic recital at Rivendell:

“… from Otherworld beyond the Sea …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Many Meetings, Poem: Eärendil was a mariner

The fabled province of the ‘gods’, in which lay ‘Elvenhome’, and once part of the Primary World had, due to the transgressions of men, been sundered away into a separate otherworld. Initially termed as ‘Faëry’ in some of the earliest works of the mythology (see The Book of Lost Tales Vols. I & II – by the time of The Hobbit it had become titled:

“… Faërie in the West.”

– The Hobbit, Flies and Spiders



Naturally, as the publication of The Hobbit was swiftly followed by the inception of The Lord of the Rings which in turn, early on, was hindered by preparation for the Andrew Lang Lecture, one might wonder whether multiple worlds in the forefront of Tolkien’s mind actively led to another jump in a developing mythology. After all - as intimated in the Lecture, though witches, trolls, giants, dragons and other such fantastical beings ‘intrude’ into our Primary World – they really belong to Faërie;

‘In Fairyland’, Andrew Lang, Originally illustrated 1870 (above 1979 reprint)

but for Tolkien, certainly not the ‘Faërie in the West’. Because the idyllic ‘Blessed Realm’ where:

“… naught faded nor withered, neither was there any stain upon flower or leaf in that land, nor any corruption or sickness in anything that lived; …”,

– The Silmarillion, Of the Beginning of Days

was wholly incompatible. I simply cannot emphasize that enough!

And so where exactly was the faërie of all those monsters and fay creatures? Was it just a place that resided in his mind, or the minds of other fairy tale inventors? Maybe – but maybe not. Tolkien might well have thought there was more to the matter. A shred of doubt would have been enough to build upon. As such, I believe that for The Lord of the Rings Tolkien subcreated a faërie adjoining Middle-earth. One consistent with existing real-world mythology associated to the soil of England and nearby lands. Intimately connected to ‘Middle-earth Faërie’ and central to the plan, was the standing stone set atop the dished and rounded hill.

Yet before returning to ponder the standing stone, readers of this thread might first ask:

‘Why bother? Was it absolutely necessary to create another faërie? And where is the proof?’


… to be continued

[Priya]

In repetition from my last post:

‘Where is the proof?’


Unfortunately - absolute proof is lacking. But I will say - no scholar has adequately tied in the faerie of Smith of Wootton Major or that delineated in OFS with both TLotR and the elf-related Silmarillion mythology. There is a disconnect here; yes a genuine knowledge gap. But to bridge it we must make a jump using logic. And if we do - much of the meaning behind the TLotR storyline unravels before us. So no proof - just some evidence and pointers.

To me, it’s obvious that Tolkien had a tricky problem - and it was bound to ‘his’ beloved Elves. Needed to be dealt with was the dilemma posed by those elves who chose to remain in Middle-earth after the Third Age. Those that had:

“… long before made their irrevocable choice, preferring Middle-earth to paradise …”.
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #154 – 25 September 1954, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

What happened to them? Where did these immortals go? Where are they now? Believable answers had to be provided. And believability is probably what spurred him to change their fate* for The Lord of the Rings and ensuing mythology. Though Tolkien never provided explicit and detailed explanations**, nevertheless he left sufficient clues.

‘Meadow Elves’ by Nils Blommér, 1850

The spirit to body relationship for Elves was different than mankind’s. Repeatedly we were told that elven spirits slowly consumed their physical bodies from within. To mortal eyes – they faded.

But their bodies did not fade into nothingness. Instead, I contend, Tolkien eventually*** came up with the idea of them fading into another dimension: what I have termed Middle-earth Faërie. Such that in the Primary World they eventually became:

“The Lingerers whose bodily forms could no longer be seen by us mortals, or seen only dimly and fitfully.”
- Morgoth’s Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion 2 – pg. 224, 1993

And we know their disappearance occurred after:

“… the Third Age …” which was “… a Twilight Age, a Medium Aevum, the first of the broken and changed world; the last of the lingering dominion of visible fully incarnate Elves, …”.
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #131 – late 1951, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (my underlined emphasis)

Yes, Eru had to have provided a fitting habitation (after the Third Age) for his longeval and beloved First Born – enamored with Middle-earth and unwilling to forsake it:

“The ‘waning’ of the Elvish hroar must therefore be part of the History of Arda as envisaged by Eru, …”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth – pg. 342, 1993 (Tolkien’s emphasis)


… Well having provided, what I think are, some decent reasons behind Tolkien’s inclusion of another faerie (both historical evidence of a faerie directly connected to Europe, and Tolkien penned hints as to the fate of lingering elves), it’s a good time to return to the ‘standing stone’ …




* We can glean this from the chronological development of the ‘Doom of Mandos’.

Before The Lord of the Rings ~1937:

“Slain or fading their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos …”.

– The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta IV – pg. 100

“… slain or wasted with grief, they died not from the earth, and their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos, …”.
– The Lost Road and other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion – pg. 247

But by 1958, after the publication of The Lord of the Rings:

“ ‘… those that endure in Middle-earth … shall wane, and become as shadows of regret …’ ”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, The Annals of Aman – pg. 118, 1993


** It must be emphasized that the various manuscripts making up the ‘Histories of the Elves’ (and Tolkien’s notes pertaining to them) are of the ‘Elder Days’. At this stage the phenomenon of ‘fading’ was a far future event. It is hinted that even the Valar were not fully aware of Eru’s plan. After Tolkien had ‘completed’ The Lord of the Rings and set it aside, we have ~1951:

“And some have said that the Vision ceased ere … the fading of the Firstborn; …”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, Ainulindale Version D – pg. 31, 1993

So it was impossible for Tolkien, as a reporter of records written long ago, to have been too explicit on this matter. For even by the end of the Third Age, ‘fading’ had not occurred. But in later times, closer to our own, we can reconcile the elves in a local otherworld per Smith of Wootton Major and the elves in ‘Faërie’ per On Fairy-stories as those once of Middle-earth faded into another dimension. The existence of a second Faërie then neatly, and completely ties up all of Tolkien’s mythological writings as regards the fate of the remaining Middle-earth elves.


*** The contention is that Tolkien abandoned the idea of elves (interchangeably termed fairies) becoming:

“… small and tenuous, filmy and transparent …”.

– The Book of Lost Tales 2, The History of Eriol or Aelfwine – pg. 326

Because the reason for such changes, namely the waxing of men, simply wasn’t credible.

[Priya]

So after exploring reasons as to why Tolkien included another faerie into his great story, I now want to get back to our ‘standing stone’; rather an equivalent one where, once again, mysterious happenings related to an ‘otherworld’ occur. This is the record I wanted to get to; it being an account of a parallel realm which is tied to the soil of our Primary World. And the record, perhaps not unsurprisingly, is a fairytale: a Welsh fairytale.

Moving chronologically back from the Fog on the Barrow-downs chapter to the new story’s beginning, of the many early problems Tolkien faced in constructing an elaborate tale – there were two that particularly concern us. The first was what was he going to do with a preexisting Tom Bombadil; meaning - how was he going to blend him into the storyline, and what role and function would he serve? The second was a major preoccupation in preparing an ‘Andrew Lang’ lecture paper. Refreshing his memory on Andrew Lang’s twelve fairy-story books (and many other fairy tales) must have had an impact in itself. Dealing academically with ‘faërie’ and ‘fairies’, over the course of five months*, might simultaneously have led to contemplating roles and firming up genera for our merry couple. Particularly as this time period overlapped with his formulation/revision of at least two of the early chapters involving Bombadil.

Andrew Lang’s Twelve Colored Fairy Books

In putting out a thesis about fairyland and fairies – was his new ‘fairy tale’ going to be devoid of such a place and creatures? Were the many historical accounts telling of fairy encounters on European soil just mumbo jumbo? Were the tales of how men and women had disappeared with the fairies, oblivious of a different pace of time in the mortal world, totally fictitious?

You can make your own mind up - but what we do know is that Tolkien did considerable research for the lecture by accessing many library-stored fairy-stories. No doubt he consulted a personal collection too. I can’t prove he read the ones cited below** - but here remarkably in one of them we have a record of a hill blanketed in fog which had a doorway leading to fairyland:

“The … tenant … of the farm of Auchriachan in Strathavon, while … on a hill … found himself suddenly enveloped in a dense fog. … Suddenly he beheld a light … and found that it proceeded from a strange-looking edifice. The door was open, and he … learned that this was an abode of the fairies …”.

– The Fairy Mythology, The Stolen Ox – pg. 390, T. Keightley, 1870 (my underlined emphasis)

Yet I think it was another Welsh tale which caught the Professor’s eye. For here, at last, we not only have fog, a ringed place and a hollow - but now we also have a single ‘standing stone’ linking to the fairy-realm:

“One day when it was cloudy and misty, a shepherd boy going to the mountains … came to a hollow place … where he saw a number of round rings. He recognized the place as one he had often heard of as dangerous … He tried to get away from there, but he could not. Then an old, merry, blue-eyed man appeared. The boy, … followed the old man, and the old man said to him, ‘Do not speak a word till I tell you.’ In a little while they came to a menhir (long stone). The old man tapped it three times, and then lifted it up. A narrow path with steps descending was revealed, … ‘Follow me,’ said the old man, ‘no harm will come to you.’ …”.

– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Einion and Olwen – pg. 161, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911 (my underlined emphasis)

Hmm … the old merry, blue-eyed man is a bit of a surprise. Yet even more astounding is that in an other version*** of the same story the boy met a “little fat old man with merry blue eyes” !

Anyhow, the blue-eyed old man descended with the boy into an otherworld. A merry old man endowed with the characteristics of a creature of faërie – and one, given my ‘source’ theory, Tolkien could reconcile as Bombadil perhaps?

Fairies about a Standing Stone, Artist unknown

Are all these connections merely coincidental? I would be totally floored if they were? But what about you? Are you flabbergasted?

I’ll leave you to chew upon that, but I have a feeling our Professor, learned in the matter of fairy-stories, guilefully used elements from such tales in a supremely subtle, yet cunning plan of his own. More of which will soon be revealed!




* The Andrew Lang Lecture award offer was officially sent to Tolkien on 8 October 1938. Lecture delivery date was 8 March 1939.

** It can be inferred that Tolkien knew a few Welsh fairy tales and the Irish ones about the Sidhe-fairies from his 1939 OFS lecture paper - but he was not specific:

“ … in special cases such as collections of Welsh or Gaelic tales. In these the stories about the ‘Fair Family’ or the Shee-folk are sometimes distinguished as ‘fairy-tales’ from ‘folk-tales’ …”.

*** See Welsh Folk-lore A Collection of the Folk-tales and Legends of North Wales, Men Captured by Fairies, 1887 by Elias Owen; also see Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx – Vol. I, The Fairies’ Revenge – pg. 112). Curiously the ‘little old man leading a mortal to an otherworld’ also arises in Owen Goes A-Wooing in The Welsh Fairy Book, 1908 by William Jenkyn Thomas.

[Priya]

I am shortly going to return to fairy tales because, per the example provided in my previous post, the standing stone of Einion and Olwen guards the entrance to fairyland; thus it is key. And to recognize that is vital in this quest to understand what Tolkien did.

But before I discuss how the stone of the Barrow-downs may have been used in a similar way to gain entry into Middle-earth Faërie, I would like to highlight some of what Tolkien said about ‘time’ and its relationship to faerie. Also, I would like to chat a little about a ‘green sun’. Tolkien made some candid remarks about these two phenomena. Perhaps his comments will help dispel hesitancy and doubts among readers of this thread as to the existence of a Middle-earth Faërie in The Lord of the Rings.

Now, using faerie of fairy tale lore, Tolkien employed not only ‘Other Place’ but had the hobbits unknowingly:

“… open a door on Other Time, …”.

– Tolkien On Fairy-stories, Manuscript B MS. 4 F73-120 – pg. 228, V. Flieger & D. Anderson, 2014

Upon emergence back through the doorway created by the two standing stones, Frodo’s friends were long gone. His all too brief venture into the otherworld of Middle-earth Faërie reflected our world’s reports:

“There are, for instance, many stories telling how men and women have disappeared and spent years among the fairies, without noticing the passage of time, or appearing to grow older.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – Note F, HarperCollins, 1983

A Doorway in Fairyland, L. Housman, 1923

Our Primary world and Tolkien’s Faërie touched, but both occupied a different space in the Universe, and both operated under different clock cycles:

“There must be some way or ways of access from and to Faery … but it is also necessary that Faery and the world [of Men], though in contact, should occupy a different time and space, or occupy them in different modes …”.

– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

“If Faery Time is at points contiguous with ours, the contiguity will occur in related points in space.”

– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

So by inadvertently entering Middle-earth Faërie, Frodo avoided initial capture by the Wight and thus escaped from the deep ‘sleep’ spell and ceremonial dressing imposed upon the other three hobbits. It allowed him to call for aid. But what I want to emphasize is how Tolkien voiced there was more than one method of gaining entry:

“There must be some way or ways of access from and to Faery …”.
– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

Hmm … yes I know there is a lot to ponder upon; yet a mixture of fairy tales and Celtic legends allows us to solve and finally fully comprehend another mysterious happening in the fog-laden chapter. We should acknowledge that there is still much to uncover, and remind ourselves only Tolkien knew it all. Even the most renowned of scholars has noted there are things in the novel that appear inexplicable:

“The scene with the wight is especially mysterious …”.

– J.R.R. Tolkien Author of the Century, Chapter II – pg. 67, T. Shippey, 2014

What exactly was the green light in the Wight’s barrow that seemed to emanate from the ground about Frodo and then slowly intensify?

“… a pale greenish light was growing round him. … the light seemed to be coming out of himself, and from the floor beside him, …”.

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

The scholar John Garth has put forward a theory* that the scene may have been linked to Tolkien’s World War I trench warfare experiences and the combative deployment of poisonous gases. But this idea appears tenuous. Especially because Tolkien refers to the aura as ‘light’. A far better and more believable explanation is that here we have simply a continuation of a faerie theme. In tandem with my fairy tale approach advocated all along, very succinctly – the green light was part of Tolkien’s vision of Middle-earth Faërie. Here by the tumuli of the barrows, where two different worlds came closest to touching, the veil was thinnest. It was here why we can truly understand why:

“… green was a fairy colour, …”.

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

And that was because Tolkien added to its folklore importance by giving his Faërie a ‘green sun’! A sun which was beginning its ascent** in fairyland below!

Aurora Borealis: Perhaps the nearest we can get to imagining a ‘Green Sun’

Quite astoundingly it is all codified in On Fairy-stories. In perhaps his most interesting paper, advice from a personal perspective on secondary world-building faithfully flowed down into his own novel. For an inexperienced novelist trying to invent a fantasy world, Tolkien lectured:

“Anyone … can say the green sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

Surely Tolkien took the words of St. Augustine who mused upon the creativity of man. Emphasizing that though he had never seen a ‘green sun’ nevertheless it was within his:

“… power to conceive of it as square, …” or “… what color I please, …”.

– The Doctrinal Treatises of St Augustine of Hippo, Book XI Chapter 8 – pg. 156, translated by J. Verlag/J. Beck, 2012

Picking up from where St. Augustine left off, Tolkien warned intense effort would be necessary:

“To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible***, commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

Otherwise, it would not possess “an inner consistency of reality”. The reader would disengage and be thrust back into the Primary World. However if sufficient credible ‘realism’ was input, at the end of the exercise would be success:

“Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed narrative art, storymaking in its primary and most potent mode.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

A virtual confession was thus voiced in his paper On Fairy-stories. Tolkien in no roundabout way told us his intentions for The Lord of the Rings. How could he not practice what he preached? Especially as to all intents and purposes confirmation was later openly aired. The Lord of the Rings:

“… was a practical demonstration of the views … expressed.”,

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #234 – 22 November 1961, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

in that ever so revealing On Fairy-stories paper. A ‘green sun’ for Middle-earth Faërie was, I must conclude, Tolkien’s creative artistry at its very best!



… to be continued




* Frodo and the Great War, in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder, ed. Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2006).

** Rational reasons (other than the theory cited) for a slowly growing green light coming from under the earth are hard to arrive at. In any case, one might conclude that after Frodo’s sword-stroke the Wight ‘shrieked’ a counter-spell in retaliation. This instantaneously sealed off the barrow from Middle-earth Faërie (and thus the green sun’s light) in a presumed attempt to cut off external aid.

*** The idea seems to have intrigued Tolkien at least since 1931:

“You may say green sun or dead life and set the imagination leaping.”
– The Monsters and the Critics: And Other Essays, A Secret Vice – pg. 219, HarperCollins, 1983.

Also see Editor’s Commentary by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson – Tolkien On Fairy-stories, pg. 111, 2014.

[Priya]

… continued from my previous post


Having discussed Tolkien’s documented thoughts about a ‘green sun’ and other ‘time’, I think that it’s worth delving a little more into fairy lore, and so I want to briefly talk about ‘hills’ and ‘mist’.

Now Fairyland as a locally accessible otherworld in historical literature has always had a strong connection to ‘green hills’ in our world. The fairy tale accounts are numerous – and as examples I have listed an assortment below from both Britain and Ireland.


Celtic Tales:

“ ‘I come from the Plains of the Ever Living,’ she said, ‘there where there is neither death nor sin. … And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round green hills , men call us the Hill Folk.’ ”,

– Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden – pg. 1, J. Jacobs, 1892 (my underlined emphasis)

“The Queen o Fairies she caught me, 
In yon green hill to dwell.”,

– The English and Scottish Popular Ballads – Part II, Tam Lin – pg. 342, F.J. Child, 1898 (my underlined emphasis)

“On a certain night the old man told him the green round hill, where the fairies kept the boy, would be open.”

– Popular Tales of the West Highlands Vol. II, The Smith and the Fairies – pg. 29, J.F. Campbell, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)


English Tales:

“Away rode the prince and Kate through the greenwood, … They rode on and on till they came to a green hill. The prince here drew bridle and spoke, ‘Open, open, green hill, and let the young prince in …’ ”,

– English Fairy Tales, Kate Crackernuts – pg. 200, J. Jacobs, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)

“ ‘Go on a little further,’ said the henwife, ‘till you come to a round green hill, surrounded with terrace-rings, from the bottom to the top; go round it three times, widershins, and each time say: Open, door! Open, door! And let me come in. …’ ”,

– English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland – pg. 120, J. Jacobs, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)

“Once upon a time … there was wont to walk many harmless spirits called fairies, dancing in brave order in fairy rings on green hills with sweet music.”

– Fairy Gold: A Book of Old English Fairy Tales, Robin Goodfellow – pg. 129, E. Rhys, 1906 (my underlined emphasis)



Not only ‘hills’, but a connection of ‘mist’ with fairies has also been extensively reported. The Tuatha Dé Danann concealed themselves at times with the féth fíada or fairy mist (also known as the: ceo Sídhe). The Welsh fairies, the Tylwyth Teg, according to Sir John Rhys’ investigations* frequented mountainsides covered with mist. And we’ve already seen two other fairy tales (per my post of 9/24/25) where mist/fog is somehow involved whenever entry is granted into fairyland.

So what we might surmise is that as well as a standing stone and foggy conditions, it was particularly important that a ‘hill’ was present. For from a fairy tale standpoint, time and again, this would be the place where magical happenings first sprung.

So getting back to Fog on the Barrow-downs, our mysterious hill with its ominously erect stone was possibly the key to opening a portal linking two different planes of reality. A dangerous place it was for common folk, amid equally dangerous barrows close by. But no matter what the peril – aid would be there for those who asked. For, I believe, the hobbits had a mighty fay being on their side. An angelic knight would emerge from between two magical menhirs – perhaps modeled on those real ones adjacent to Tara. And a green girdle may not have been Tom’s only magical garb. An ability to travel speedily may have been fairy tale linked to those standout big yellow boots.

It would not be at all surprising if Tolkien had endowed Tom with a pair of legendary ‘seven-league boots’**. These automatically adjust to the wearer, allowing him, when needed, to traverse seven leagues for every stride taken. Was myth and fairy tale behind why:

“… his feet are faster.” ?

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

Is that how he appeared so quickly at the barrow?

Tom Thumb*** stealing a pair of seven-league boots, 1865

But back to the hill. What exactly happened? Why did a way into Middle-earth Faërie suddenly appear?

Perhaps there was a covert way into a seemingly underground faërie; perhaps it involved a hill, a hollow place, the color green, mist, a solitary menhir and the number three. Those appear to be most of the common factors extractable from our world’s fairy lore, don’t you think?

Then did Frodo and his companions somehow inadvertently and unknowingly open a doorway into Faërie?

But how? What was the trigger?

… to be continued




* See multiple instances documented in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, Vol. I, The Fairies’ Revenge & Fairy Ways and Words, 1901 by John Rhys – one of Tolkien’s lecturers at the University of Oxford.

The Welsh Fairy Book, 1908 by William Jenkyn Thomas also documents the Tylwyth Teg located on a foggy mountainside in the tale of The Forbidden Mountain.

** These boots crop up in a plethora of European fairy tales. The most notable English one is Jack the Giant Killer. Tolkien’s awareness of them is not in doubt as he makes specific mention of this classic fairy tale motif when discussing Andrew Lang’s Prince Prigio (see Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014 by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson, Manuscript B, pg. 250).

*** It’s quite possible that Tolkien’s thoughts went along the line that in the great ‘Cauldron of Story’ Tom Bombadil had got mixed up with Tom Thumb. Yes, that legendary diminutive English hero also owned ‘shoes of swiftness’! Who knows if Tolkien made such a connection? But remarkably in England’s earliest prose version, the ‘Queen of Fayres’ gifted the tiny man not only magical footwear but also:

“… an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility and a shape-changing girdle …”.

– The History of Tom Thumbe, R. Johnson, 1621 per Wikipedia article: Tom Thumb (my underlined emphasis)

Booklet front cover, ‘The History of Tom Thumbe’, Richard Johnson, 1621