Themes in Tolkien

J.R.R TOLKIEN:
Author of my heart.
A report by Joy Fields

Books Read:

1. The Hobbit
2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
4. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
5. The Silmarillion
6. The Unfinished Tales
7. The Book of Lost Tales One
8. The Book of Lost Tales Two

Themes/Sections:


1. Introduction
2. Good and Evil
3. Mortality and Immortality
4. True Love
5. Doom and Freewill
6. Gender
7. Re-worked Myths
8. Footnotes
9. Book Resources

Introduction

When delving into the world of Tolkien one must realize that it is an entirely different world with a language all its own. I have done my best to compile a footnote section of this report to help with vocabulary though the report itself may still be a bit confusing to those who don’t have some knowledge of Tolkien’s world.

Tolkien does not have one overall theme in his books, but he does have several small themes that are nice to explore. His themes are more and more obvious the more books you read that are written by him. One can not just stop with reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for most of his themes occur in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. It’s fun to compare and contrast the differences between the different books. It’s the same story, the same world, and the same themes keep popping up.

Tolkien has created an entire world for his readers to explore, with myths from the creating of the world down to his very own myth for the sun, moon, rainbow, and time itself. He makes up the world’s cultures, languages and species along with all of their histories up to the beginning of the fourth age which we see starting at the end of The Return of the King. His world is complete and it is hard to not be captivated by it to the point where the reader no longer knows the difference between their reality and the reality of J.R.R Tolkien.


Good and Evil

The struggle between good and evil is an ongoing one in the works of J.R.R Tolkien. From the beginning of the creation of Arda1 to the end of the 3rd age there is always evil that destroys and good to conquer it; it is the never ending struggle. Even while Eru Ilúvatar2 is listening to the three themes of the Ainur3 before Arda was ever created Melkor creates a discord in the music4, for he believes that his power is greater than Eru Ilúvatar’s, and he makes his own theme of music that eventually is the thought that creates Arda. It is Melkor’s discord that first creates all of the evil of the world, and he is responsible for all heat, fire, harsh coldness, and malice in Arda. The rest of the Valar5 are so ‘good’ and ‘light’ that they can not even comprehend Melkor’s evil and end up releasing him from his chains in good faith only to have Melkor wreak havoc all across Arda another time. In the end it is the Valar who destroy him and cast him into the great void.

There are two main dictators as far as evil goes; Melkor being the strongest of the two. He has a need to control the light because he has a strong loathing of it. He is never able to have it for himself, so he has to take it away from everyone else. He destroys the Valar’s source of light twice, but the Valar always end up restoring the light. This example ties into the theme of light because darkness can block light, but darkness can never fully destroy it. Shadow and darkness lack substance, and while they can hold light back or obscure it from others seeing it, light will always still be there and be revealed once the source of the shadow is destroyed. Therefore, good will always conquer evil which is a huge theme in the world of J.R.R Tolkien.

The other main dictator of evil appears after Melkor is cast into the great void. He is named Sauron, and the readers meet him in the Lord of the Rings. While Melkor seeks out to torture and confine the peoples of Middle-earth, Sauron takes a more political approach. He wants to enslave the peoples of Middle-earth and take their personality and individuality away. Another name for Sauron is ‘the shadow’ and shadows are also a very huge theme of Tolkien’s - especially in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien uses the word ‘shadow’ to represent a broad scheme of things. Sauron uses it because he wants to cast a shadow over Middle-earth and bring it into his control.

Another use Tolkien has for the word ‘shadow’ is when a character looses his or her personality and becomes a shadow of their former self which is exactly what Sauron
is trying to do to the peoples of Middle-earth. He forges the One Ring to rule them all, and it is the ring that drives Smeagol insane and steals his personality away from him, until all that is left of Smeagol is Gollum who is only capable of lusting after the One Ring. The nine rings of Men have this same effect on the ring bearers to the point where they become wraith-like and are a shadow of their former self.

On the other hand we have the light which will always destroy and conquer the evil. Tolkien was definitely trying to make a point with this theme. The theme is: “light prevails,” and it rings true all the way through his works.


Mortality and Immorality

Tolkien loves playing with the idea of immortality and mortality which is something that most other authors won’t even touch upon. It is indeed a rare case when there are mortal/immortal pairings in Middle-earth, but when there is one it creates a very unique character that goes on to bigger and better things for the betterment of Middle-earth. There is only one example of a Maia/Elf pairing and that is the pairing of the Maia Melian and the Elf Elu Thingol as seen in The Silmarillion. They have one daughter; Lúthien Tinúviel who is a hero in her own right, and with the help from her mortal husband Beren steal a Silmaril6 from Melkor himself. Lúthien and Beren are an example of an elf pairing off with a mortal and out of their marriage Dior is born who in turn marries Nimloth of Doriath7. From the marriage between Dior and Nimloth comes Elwing who marries Eärendil who is also an offspring from another mortal/immortal pairing between Tuor the messenger and Idril Celebrindal. From these pairings comes the line of the Peredhil or the Half-elven of which Elrond is a part of.

Immortality is not all it’s cracked up to be. There is the ever occurring problem of overcrowding and the elves also must deal with the world’s problems forever which ties into the theme of evil and good. Evil will always be present, and the elves will always have to fight it. After the first few millennia it might seem a bit tiring to be dealing with the same evil over and over again. Immorality is more like a chore then a joy, especially for those who are under the Oath of Fëanor8 and must follow Melkor and the Silmarils to death. Galadriel refers to this chore of immorality as the “long defeat” in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Elven death only occurs when they grow weary of the world or when they are slain by another, but even when they die they can not escape the chore of immorality. They must go to the Houses of the Dead9 to stay and wait until the Great End10, or on rare occasions they will be reincarnated, but Tolkien does not go into detail on how this occurs. It is the belief that when reincarnated the Valar send the elves back to Middle-earth by having them born back into the world, but they have no memory of their past life and must learn and live life anew.

The death of Míriel Serindë is an example of an immortal death due to weariness. She is the first wife of Finwë11 and she dies because when she bears her son Fëanor he is so strong and fiery of spirit that it takes everything out of her and she no longer has any desire to fight the evils of Middle-earth. She goes to Lórien12 and lays down to die soon after his birth. Finrod Felagund, on the other hand, is a rare example of an elf cheating death and the Houses of the Dead entirely. He dies from wounds of a werewolf whilst trying to save Beren, his friend. He is not sent to the Houses of the Dead, but instead is sent back to Valinor to live with his Father Finarfin the King of the Noldor13 until the Great End. There are no other examples of something like this happening.

Mortality is Eru’s gift upon Men. They have such frail bodies that are subject to disease, illness and old age. They only live a few hundred years before kicking the bucket, but they love life. So, how is death a gift to those who love life so much? The answer is one that the Men can not seem to grasp. Eru wanted Men to have freedom and free will to do as they would. They are not required to stick around to fight in the Great End, so they may do as they will. Some Men spend their whole life trying to find a way around death and they usually have short and miserable lives, such as Pharazôn. Others grasp life and live it to their fullest, which is what Eru had in mind when he gave this gift to Men.

The evil of Middle-earth just loves to exploit Men’s fear of death. In the case of King Pharazôn and Númenor Sauron allows himself to be captured by Pharazôn in order to plant his seeds of malice in their minds. Sauron convinces Pharazôn that if he can just set foot on the holy land of Valinor he can obtain an immortal life forever. This prospect is too good for Pharazôn to pass up and his greed and love of life clouds his good judgment. Soon Pharazôn has his own army compiled and he sails to find the land of Valinor with the intention of taking immorality by force from the Valar if need be. The Valar become so angry with Pharazôn and Númenor that they not only smite Pharazôn and his army, but also sink their beloved island underwater thus ending the land and lineage of Númenor.

The death of Boromir is an example of death through realization. He realizes that he is wrong for trying to take the One Ring from Frodo and in turn sacrifices his life to help Frodo and the others destroy the Ring despite his great lust for it. He, in the end, dies an honorable death. Eärendil is another one of those rare cases like Finrod Felagund. He is a mortal who is allowed the choice of either living an immortal life or continuing to live a mortal life and chooses to live an immortal life in order to stay forever with his wife Elwing. He becomes the star of Eärendil and it is the light of his star that helps save Frodo from Shelob’s lair. There are few examples of suicide in Middle-earth, but there is one story which contains it; the Narn i Hîn Húrin or the Story of the Children of Húrin. It ends much like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with Nienor Níniel believing that her husband and brother Túrin Turambar is dead and, in despair throws herself from a high cliff thus ending her life, but in reality Túrin is very much alive and when he wakes from his unconsciousness he learns that his wife and sister is dead and ends up throwing himself upon his own sword.

True Love

Tolkien believes very strongly in true love and the power of true love. In order to understand where he comes from allow his own story of true love to be explored. When Tolkien was 16 years old he met and fell in love with 19 year old Edith Bratt. Their own story was Tolkien’s inspiration for writing his greatest love story: The Lay of Leithien, or the Lay of Lúthien which is the love story of Lúthien and Beren. Tolkien was told by Edith’s father that he had to wait until he was 21 before he could even date his daughter, and did exactly this. He waited 5 years before learning that his one true love was engaged to be married to someone else. When he found out he went to Edith and convinced her to marry him instead. They were married a year later and that same year, in 1916, he went to war in France. When he came back from France - because of a case of trench fever - Edith took Tolkien to a glade and danced and sang for him in the moonlight. It was this night that inspired Tolkien to write this type of meeting between Beren and Lúthien as well as between Aragorn and Arwen. When Edith died in 1971 he put the name “Lúthien” on her tombstone, and when he later died his son did the same for him by putting “Beren” on his tombstone.

Tolkien spent a lot of time on the story of Lúthien and Beren and it is a classic example of a romance. Tolkien believes that true love is worthy of the largest heroic quest and worth all the sacrifices that comes along with it.

The story of Lúthien and Beren starts out with a chance meeting in the woods. Whilst Lúthien is dancing and singing as it her wont to do, Beren the huntsman finds here there in a secluded glade with moonbeams twinkling about her feet. He instantly falls in love with her and calls out her name. Eventually Lúthien brings Beren home to her father Thingol and mother Melian and is laughed at when she stands up for the man who has strayed into her father’s realm. Beren asks for Lúthien’s hand in marriage and Thingol, in jest, proposes that he may only marry his daughter when Beren gives him a Silmaril cut from Melkor’s Iron Crown. Determined to do as Lúthien’s father asked Beren sets out by himself to steal a Silmaril.

He does not succeed in his quest for the Silmaril and is taken into thralldom by Tevildo the Prince of Cats. Many years pass by and none hear from Beren again. Lúthien grows sad and she asks her father for help in finding Beren, but when Thingol denies her his help he sets her up in a tree house that she may never come down from. Through her own cunning and knowledge of magic she weaves a cloak from her own hair as well as a rope and clambers down from her tree house and alone seeks out Beren her love.

It is in the woods that Lúthien chances upon Huan Prince of Dogs and befriends him. He helps her rescue Beren from the halls of Tevildo Prince of Cats. For years Lúthien and Beren live in the woods with Huan and the dogs until Lúthien begins to miss her mother and father. In despair Lúthien asks Beren to come home with her, but Beren denies her saying that he will never again enter her father’s realm without a Silmaril to give to Thingol the King. So Lúthien and Beren, with the help of Huan Prince of Dogs, go to Melkor’s halls in disguises. Lúthien convinces Melkor to let her dance for him and whilst dancing casts a spell upon Ainu Melkor and all his people casting them into a deep sleep. It is then that Beren and Lúthien are able to cut a Silmaril from Melkor’s Iron Crown, but when they are trying to escape Melkor’s abode they are waylaid by Karakas the wolf who bites Beren’s hand: the one that bears the Silmaril. This causes the wolf to go crazy and run into the woods terrorizing all that come his way, for only those pure of heart may touch a Silmaril unharmed.

Out of guilt Beren decides to follow Lúthien home to Doriath, but they find it terrorized by Karakas the Wolf and when Thingol sees Beren he asks for the Silmaril. Beren responds by saying that it is in his hand, but his hand it elsewhere inside the stomach of Karakas. Thingol along with Beren, Huan and Mablung go to hunt the wolf and take back the Silmaril, but Beren is mortally wounded by the wolf and only lives long enough to hand the Silmaril to Thingol and then die.

Lúthien is devastated by the news of her beloved’s death and she allows her spirit to disconnect from her body and goes to the Houses of the Dead. Once there she sings for Mandos the Doomsman a lament of greatest power and for once Mandos is moved to pity and allows Beren to return to Middle-earth with Lúthien and he presents her with the gift of morality. Together they live happily ever after in Middle-earth.

It is obvious that Tolkien believes in true love at all costs by just the story of Beren and Lúthien alone, but that was not enough for Tolkien. He has to reprise the story for The Lord of the Rings and did so in the story of Arwen and Aragorn.

Aragorn and Arwen meet in the same manner that Lúthien and Beren meet. In fact, when Aragorn first sees Arwen he calls her “Tinúviel” which is Lúthien’s other name meaning nightingale. Arwen corrects Aragorn saying that she is not Tinúviel, but Arwen Undómiel daughter of Elrond half-elven. They fall deeply in love, but when Elrond learns of their love he tells Aragorn that no man less than the King of the Reunited Kingdom may marry his daughter. So, guess what Aragorn does? He becomes the King of the Reunited Kingdom by way of helping against the evils of Sauron. As his prize he is given Arwen’s hand in marriage, and they live happily ever after as King and Queen of the Reunited Kingdom.

These are the two main stories that show Tolkien’s belief in true love, but there are many other stories (especially in The Silmarillion) that go along with his theme of true love. Perverted or incestual love never prospers, and there are only three examples of such. Pharazôn King of Númenor marries his cousin Míriel in order to usurp the throne, but since his love was not true love he is doomed to die and does so when the Valar release their wrath upon him and his people. Maeglin also falls in love with his cousin, but she loves him not. Maeglin is slowly driven insane by unrequited love for Idril Celebrindal, his cousin, and in his despair gives up the location of Gondolin the hidden city to Melkor in exchange for Idril’s hand in marriage. It doesn’t work out so well for Maeglin because Idril’s mortal husband Tuor throws Maeglin from the top of the hidden city and he dies upon the rocks below. The last example of incest is the love of Nienor Níniel and Túrin Turambar though they marry each other not knowing that they are siblings. When they find out they are indeed siblings, they kill themselves from despair. In The Book of Lost Tales Two’s version of the story the Valar actually give Nienor Túrin a chance to repent their incestual sins and allow them to become Valar themselves. From these few examples alone it is obvious that Tolkien believes deeply in the power of true love.


Doom and Freewill

Tolkien poses a question that we all struggle with in life: “Are we doomed from birth into being controlled by another divine being or do we through freewill control our own lives?” Tolkien plays with the question, but he never really answers it. There are two major examples of fate versus freewill; the doom of Túrin and the fate of the ring-bearers.

When reading the Narn i Hîn Húrin-or the Story of the Children of Húrin-one story comes to mind: The Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. In the story Oedipus spends his whole life running away from his doom and it is his actions that in the end bring about his doom of marrying his mother. Túrin is doomed in much the same way and also spends his life running away from it, but there is one distinct different between the two. Oedipus is ignorant of his true identity, but Túrin keeps others ignorant of his true identity by picking up several aliases.

Túrin is the only son of mortal Húrin Lord of Dor-Lómin14 and Morwen Lady of Dor-Lómin. Húrin is captured by Melkor and the Ainu casts a curse on Húrin and his family because Húrin refuses to give up the hidden location of the city Gondolin. While Morwen is pregnant with another child and her husband is gone, she sends Túrin away to Doriath to live in safety with King Thingol and Queen Melian for Dor-Lómin has been over run by Easterlings.

Túrin grows up in Doriath until one day his doom catches up with him and he slays an elf out of anger. In terror of the wrath of King Thingol he flees Doriath and becomes an outlaw. He spends the rest of his days trying to escape his doom, but he ends up either killing all in his path in a blind rage or causing everyone around him great pain. Túrin meets Gwindor the elf and Gwindor’s beloved Finduilas falls deeply in love with Túrin, but that love is not returned to her. Again Túrin’s fate catches up to him and as Gwindor lays dying in his arms, Gwindor tells Túrin that Finduilas is the only one that can save him from his doom, and that if Finduilas dies then so shall the curse become true, but Túrin is tricked by the dragon Glaurung into seeking out his mother and sister Nienor in Dor-Lómin instead of following after Finduilas. While Túrin is searching fruitlessly (because Morwen and Nienor have already left Dor-Lómin for Doriath in search for Turin) in Dor-Lómin for news of his family, Finduilas is captured by Orcs and slain.

Meanwhile Morwen and Nienor grow tired of waiting in Doriath for Túrin and go out into the woods to seek him out, but they are waylaid by the dragon Glaurung and Nienor becomes lost from the group. Glaurung casts a spell upon Nienor and she falls into a deep sleep. When she awakens she has no knowledge of who she is, where she is or even the knowledge to speak. It is as if she has been reborn and must learn everything anew. In terror she flees from Glaurung and when finally she stops she unknowingly lies upon the green mound (grave) of Finduilas and cries herself to sleep.

It is like this that Túrin finds his sister, but he does not know that she is his sister, nor does she know that he is her brother for he has changed his name to Turambar by this time. He takes finding her lying upon the grave of Finduilas as a sign and takes Nienor into his care renaming her Níniel or Tear-maiden. Together with Túrin’s outlaws they move to Brethil, fall in love, and are married soon after.

A year later when Níniel is pregnant with Turambar’s child the city of Brethil is being threatened by the dragon Glaurung. Turambar, against Níniel’s wishes, goes to slay the dragon. Níniel, being stubborn, follows after Turambar without him knowing. Turambar approaches the dragon alone and stabs the dragon in his gut, but the black and foul blood of the dragon falls upon Túrin and he falls to the ground barely alive. It is like this that Níniel finds Túrin and believes him to be dead. The dragon, with his last breath, sees Níniel and laughs, telling her that she has married her brother and now carries his child in her stomach. When the dragon dies the spell that he cast upon Nienor in the past drifts away and she remembers all that befell of her in her past and she remembers her true name. In terror and despair for she believes Túrin to be dead she flings herself from a high cliff and ends her life in the rivers below, but saying first: “Farewell, O twice beloved! A Túrin Turambar turun ambartanen: master of doom by doom mastered! O happy to be dead!"

When Turambar wakes and finds out from Brandir15 what Nienor has done he too ends his life by falling upon his own sword. It is in this way that the curse and doom of Melkor finds it’s way into Túrin’s life. He tries so hard to escape his doom, but in the end it is because he tried so hard to hide who he truly is that he winds up dead.

Another example of fate in the works of Tolkien is in The Lord of the Rings through the ring-bearers. All who bear a ring of power are fated in the same way. If the One Ring falls into the power of Sauron then all of the peoples of Middle-earth fall under his dominion including the elves, but if the One Ring is destroyed then all who wear a ring of power either die or loose their powers rendering them helpless in a world of evil.

The ring-bearers are fated to leave Middle-earth in one way or another. Either they will die or they leave for Valinor the Blessed Realm. The wraiths and Sauron disappear from Arda, but those who bore the elven rings and the One Ring leave of their own freewill in order to seek peace elsewhere. Círdan and Gandalf bear Narya the Ring of Fire while Elrond bears Vilya the Ring of Air and Galadriel bears Nenya the Ring of Water; they along with the One Ring bearers - Frodo and Bilbo - cross the sea into the Blessed Realm and thus complete the fate of the ring-bearers by leaving Middle-earth and never being able to enjoy the land that they fought so hard to save.

This theme also goes along with the theme of immortality and mortality because the immortals (Eldar, Valar, Maiar, Ainur) are ‘doomed’ to stay with the world until its Great End. The mortals have the freedom of leaving Arda and are not forced to stick around until the Great End.

There are several examples of freewill all throughout the works of J.R.R Tolkien. The choice of Lúthien Tinúviel and Arwen Undómiel to become mortals is one major example of freedom to choose one’s destiny. Because Arwen Undómiel is a descendent of Lúthien Tinúviel and all her people are Peredhil (half-elven) they have the choice to escape their elven doom by staying in Middle-earth and letting all the other elves diminish into the Blessed Realm of Valinor without them. This is what Arwen Undómiel does for love of Aragorn thus proving that freewill does exist in Tolkien’s works as a theme.
Another example of freewill is in The Silmarillion when Fëanor and the Noldor decide that they no longer want to stay in Valinor with the Valar and opt to leave. The Valar do not restrain the Noldor from going, but in their hearts they know that only evil can become of it. The Valar allow the Noldor to explore their freedom and freewill because the Noldor believe (by the deceit of Melkor) that the Valar mean to keep the Noldor in Valinor as slaves thus impending on their freedom. Both doom and freewill are present in these books and Tolkien obviously enjoyed playing with the question of our lives being controlled by ourselves or by some other divine being.


Gender

The presence of gender in Tolkien’s stories is very interesting to explore. For one there is not one single example of any female character having a sister. Every female character is either the only child or has one or more brothers. Arwen has two brothers and no sisters, Galadriel has three brothers and no sisters, Éowyn has one brother and no sisters, Aredhel has two brothers and no sisters, Lothíriel has three brothers and no sisters, and the list goes on and on like that. The only example of a daughter having a sister is Nienor’s older sister Lalaith, but Lalaith dies in youth and Nienor and Lalaith never know each other in life so in reality she is the only female child.

Another alarming thing about the females in Tolkien’s stories is most of the mothers of the books are either dead, or in the case of some of the elves left behind in Valinor. Where is Éowyn’s mother? Where is Arwen’s mother? Where is Galadriel’s mother? Where is Aredhel’s mother, Lothíriel’s mother, Boromir and Faramir’s mother, Aragorn’s mother, Frodo’s mother, or Legolas’ mother? There are very few examples of characters having mothers that are alive.

There are very few examples of strong female roles in Tolkien’s stories. There is only one example throughout all eight books of a female ruling her own realm without the help of a man. Lothlórien is run by Lady Galadriel the Lady of Light, and since she has one of the elven rings of power she is able to run her realm without help from her husband Celeborn or at least very little help. Galadriel has the only strong female role all throughout the stories though getting to the top of the totem pole literally took her a few millennia, and she only runs Lórien for about two ages before she has to give it all up again.

There are other examples of strong female roles in Tolkien’s works, but all the rest of the female roles are either forced to give up their power or do so for a man. Take Éowyn as an example. She starts out as a cold hearted Shieldmaiden of Rohan who only wishes to seek death and glory in battle. She fears neither pain nor death much like a man and even goes so far as to dress up like a man to be able to fight with them in the Battle of Pelennor Fields. Just before she kills the Witch King of Angmar she proclaims “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter.”

It seems to be a pretty huge statement for women that Éowyn makes in this action alone, but what does she go and do? She gives up her love of Aragorn, for she loved him because she longed to be Queen and have the power of a Queen, and succumbs to Faramir. She gives up everything that makes her a strong female role and for what? She gives it all up for a man.

Melian the Maia is another example of a female of power giving it all up for a man. First she gives up her home in Valinor to live with Thingol the elf in Doriath their realm, but it doesn’t stop there. They live a decent life in Doriath with Melian weaving her spells about the forest to keep Melkor and his minions out of their realm though Thingol never heeds Melian’s forebodings even though he knows she has the gift of foresight. It’s most likely that Thingol never heeds her warnings because she is merely a female and in the world of Tolkien females are merely supposed to sit around, look pretty and remain uneducated; they are there only to service their man and they are nothing without a husband. In the end when Thingol dies during the sack of Doriath Melian gives up her power and withdraws to Mandos to abide with him there. She is a woman of such great power – much like Éowyn – but she gives it all up for a man.

Downplaying the role of women in Middle-earth is not the only way that Tolkien plays with gender. He also enjoys playing around with gender role reversal. In other words he’ll put masculine traits in a female character and feminine traits in a male character and pair them up. This proves the belief that Tolkien believes that every relationship needs a masculine and feminine part in order for that relationship to work.

Galadriel has many masculine traits. In fact Tolkien describes her as having a lot of masculine features to her face as well as being as tall as a man. Galadriel’s mother even gives Galadriel the name Nerwen which means ‘man-maiden’ and she fights valiantly alongside her brothers in the wars of Middle-earth in the 1st age. Who does Tolkien pair her up with? Why none other then Celeborn the wise, yet very feminine elf. This pairing is an example of gender role reversal as well is the pairing between manly Éowyn and womanly Faramir.

The last example of gender role reversal not only ties into this theme, but also the next theme of re-worked myths. First recall the death of Romeo and Juliet in the Shakespeare play. Juliet ‘kills’ herself first and when Romeo finds her asleep and takes her for dead he kills himself from despair. When Juliet wakes up and finds that her beloved Romeo is dead and has killed himself she takes her own life following swiftly after him. Tolkien takes this death scene and reprises it in the death scene of Nienor and Túrin her brother. Nienor finds Túrin lying swooned next to the dragon Glaurung and she mistakes him for dead. In despair she throws herself off a cliff into the waters below, and when Túrin finds out of his wife’s death he also takes his own life. It is the exact same plot of the death scene of Romeo and Juliet except the gender is reversed for Nienor and Túrin. Tolkien uses gender in many different ways; to keep women repressed and to prove the point of relationships needing a male and female in order to work.


Re-worked Myths

The last theme is Tolkien’s love for re-working other myths, stories or plays. He took the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex and recreated it in the Narn i Hîn Húrin. In Oedipus Rex Oedipus spends his life running away and trying to get away from the prophesy that says he will marry his mother and kill his father, but it is because he runs away and is ignorant of his own true name that he ends up killing his father and marrying his mother. Túrin is the same for he runs away from the curse of his family, but the only difference is he keeps others ignorant as to who he is instead of being himself ignorant of his true name. He spends his whole life running away from Melkor, but in the end it is because he runs away that he ends up marrying his sister and killing himself. There is also the aforementioned story of Romeo and Juliet’s death in the Narn i Hîn Húrin which is another example of Tolkien taking an existing story and making it his own.

The death of Buddha’s Mom - Queen Maya - is the same death that Míriel Serindë has in The Silmarillion. Buddha’s Mother dies within five days of her son’s birth and it is said that she died because her son was so strong that he took all of her strength away in birth. She gave birth to such a strong and powerful son that she no longer had the strength nor will to live. The same is true with Míriel Serindë for she dies soon after Fëanor, her son, is born. Fëanor ends up being a very strong, fiery and powerful elf among the Noldor and many Noldo follow him just like he is a being of divine power.

Remember the story of Rapunzel? She lets down her hair from her tall tower in order to be saved by the knight in shining armor. Lúthien also uses her hair to escape from her tall tree house, but there is no knight in shining armor waiting there for her at the bottom. Rather she must seek Beren – her knight – out.

Tolkien especially loves to take Greek or Roman gods and re-work them into the Valar or Maiar, but that is a whole other paper to write. These are only three examples of Tolkien taking myths or plays and re-working them into his own, but there are many other examples in his books to explore.


Footnotes

1. Arda is the place in which all of the stories in the works of Tolkien happen. It is the equivalent to earth.
2. Eru Ilúvatar means ‘all-father’ and he is the ‘God’ of everything. He created the Ainur, or angels, as well as Ëa or earth.
3. Ainur are Tolkien’s equivalent to earth’s angels. They are the god-like beings who eventually become the Valar and Maiar of Middle-earth and live in Valinor watching over all of the peoples therein.
4. It was the Ainur’s music and Melkor’s discord in said music along with Eru Iluvatar’s powers that make Arda into being.
5. Valar are the fourteen greatest Ainur who chose to enter Ëa to fulfill the vision of Iluvatar. Seven male, seven female; they are ruled by Manwë and Varda. Each Vali are concerned with the completion of Arda according to their individual knowledge of various aspects of Iluvatar’s vision.
6. The three jewels fashioned by Fëanor that shine with the light of the two trees. They are the greatest works of all the children of Eru Ilúvatar and after Melkor steals them from Fëanor the Oath of Fëanor is taken. Fëanor and all of his seven sons vow to follow Melkor and the Silmarils to his or their death.
7. Doriath is Malian’s and Thingol realm in Middle-earth of which they are King and Queen of.
8. The Oath of Fëanor is the oath that Fëanor and all of his sons take after Melkor steals all of the Silmarils. They vow to follow Melkor and the silmarils to death or until they get the silmarils back.
9. The Houses of the Dead is run by Mandos who is the Doomsman of the Valar. He passes out judgment upon death and his wife is Nienna who mourns forever for the fate of Middle-earth.
10. Tolkien never specifies what, exactly, the Great End is, but he does refer to it quite often in all of his books. He is very ambiguous, but all that is known about the Great End is it is when all evil of the world is destroyed along with Arda itself and the Dwarves and Elves must help rebuild the world.
11. Fëanor’s father and one of the first born elves.
12. Lórien is the dream-land of Valinor where Lórien the Valar is leader of. The forest of Lóthlorien is named after this dream-land.
13. The Noldor are the elves who leave Valinor in order to follow under the Oath of Fëanor and follow Melkor to his death. Galadriel is half Noldorin and is the only Noldor left alive in the 3rd age. Finarfin, Galadriel’s father, is the King of the Noldor left behind in Valinor.
14. Dor-Lómin is a city in Doriath given to Men by King Thingol and Queen Melian.
15. Brandir is the lord of the Haladin in Brethil, but when he met Túrin he also met his doom.



Book Resources

1. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Hobbit” Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
2. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
3. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
4. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
5. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Silmarillion” Ballantine Books
6. J.R.R Tolkien, “The Unfinished Tales” Ballantine Books
7. J.R.R Tolkien “The Book of Lost Tales One” Ballantine Books
8. David Day “Characters from Tolkien” Chancellor Print
9. Grey Harvey “The Origins of Tolkien’s Middle-earth for Dummies” Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10. Daniel Grotta “J.R.R Tolkien Architect of Middle-earth” Running Press
11. Robert Foster, “Tolkien’s World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-earth” Ballantine Books
12. J.R.R Tolkien “The End of the Third Age” Houghton Mifflin Company
13. J.R.R Tolkien “Roverandom” Houghton Mifflin Company
14. J.R.R Tolkien “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” Ballantine Books
15. J.R.R Tolkien “Pearl” Ballantine Books
16. J.R.R Tolkien “Sir Orfeo” Ballantine Books
17. Ruth S. Noel “The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth” Houghton Mifflin Company
18. J.R.R Tolkien “The Tolkien Reader” Ballantine Books
19. J.R.R Tolkien “Smith of Wootton Major” Ballantine Books
20. J.R.R Tolkien “Farmer Giles of Ham” Ballantine Books
21. J.R.R Tolkien “Bilbo’s Last Song” Alfred A. Knopf
22. J.R.R Tolkien “The Book of Lost Tales Two” Ballantine Books
23. J.R.R Tolkien “The Lays of Beleriand” Ballantine Books
24. J.R.R Tolkien “The Shaping of Middle-earth” Ballantine Books
25. J.R.R Tolkien “The Lost Road and Other Writings” Ballantine Books
26. Seamus Heaney “Beowulf” Norton