Two hours of senseless writing; one click and a defenseless world is exposed to it. Ah the wonders of technology .... I apologise most profusely to the memory of the greatest writer the world has ever known, for attempting to analyse the one chink in his armor - poetry.
Introduction
When J R R Tolkien decided to create his legendarium of the history of Middle-Earth, he took on the gargantuan task of creating a mythology that would carry visceral appeal for any Anglo-Saxon littérateur. Towards this end, he created a veritable menagerie of mythical events and their memories.
If the Silmarillion be an account of the doings upon Middle Earth in the Elder Days, the narrative of the Hobbit as well as the three books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy refers to them as vaguely remembered mythical folklore. In many cases, for greater authenticity, his characters allude to such events through poetry.
While the competence of his poetic expression has been often debated, it cannot be gainsaid that an analysis of his poetry offers us the perfect opportunity to study the use of myths in poetry, with the poetry originating, with exquisite craft and great thought, from the same source as the myth.
Description
As may be expected, the first book of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, contains the greatest number of Tolkien’s poems, as the lead characters are gradually relieved of their naïveté regarding the history of Middle-Earth. The second book has fewer real poems, but still contains multitudes of quoted fragments; there are no complete poems in the third book.
The reader is gradually introduced to the ramifications of the events of the Second Age as the story progresses onwards from the House of Elendil in the first book. The ‘Hobbit’, being prequel to the trilogy, has poems related almost entirely to Nature, expressed in a rather clumsy archaic style.
The first book contains seven complete poems and numerous extracts from other works; these songs are chiefly used to acquaint the reader with the quaint familiarity of Middle-Earth, three are songs by the singular Tom Bombadil. The legend of the Ring, as indeed all the other legends, is mentioned only in small snatches of Elven verse recited by Gandalf and Bilbo.
The second book contains just two complete poems, one an almost Viking elegy to Boromir and the other a very battle-spirited description of Gondor. However, ‘the
In the third book, the action moves too fast to allow for much versification, and consequently, there are no complete poems in ‘the Return of the King’. Besides, the legend of the Ring is too well known at this stage of the story to require further elaboration. Small quotations of old legends, however, are quite numerous.
The Silmarillion, being the substantive account for the myth of Middle-Earth itself, is a treasure trove for Tolkien’s mythic poetry. However, a study of purely Silmarillion verse would not be able to explain the reasons for Tolkien’s idiosyncratic style-shifts. Such an analysis is only possible when the entire body of work – the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Silmarillion – is studied together.
Analysis
Syntactical innovation
A perfect example of Tolkien’s mastery of the intricacies of the epic poetry of the Middle Ages may be seen in the following passage from Earendil the Mariner
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor sight he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.
From the plethora of assonant syllables highlighted, it is evident that this is a highly alliterative passage, written in the style of 14th century ballads that also evinced a similar structural assonance. One hastens to add that this is by no means an isolated example. For a similar passage, let us examine an even more structured alliterative example from
Then the fame of the fights on the far marches
was carried to the courts of the king of Doriath,
and tales of Túrin were told in his halls,
of the bond and brotherhood of Beleg the ageless
with the black-haired boy from the beaten people.
In this passage, it is remarkable that the pattern of alliteration follows a strict 3 to the line syntax. This subtle linguistic nuance, borrowed from Middle English works, is representative of Tolkien’s erudite efforts to imbue his poetry with an archaic feel that mythic poetry requires.
Stylistic differentiation
In Tolkien’s ballads of Middle-Earth, there appear to be three distinctive variations in poetic ‘ability’. On a separate plain, in terms of a heavy infusion of alliteration, impressionism and abstractedness is the poetry of the Elven folk – their myths and Galadriel’s songs. A relevant example would be the evocative “Winter comes to Nargothrond”
The summer slowly in the sad forest
waned and faded. In the west arose
winds that wandered over warring seas.
Leaves were loosened from laboring boughs:
fallow-gold they fell, and the feet buried
of trees standing tall and naked,
rustling restlessly down roofless aisles,
shifting and drifting. The shining vessel
Secondly, we have the folk-ballads of the men and hobbits. These are written in the rough flowery style of Middle Age troubadours, with a heavy stress on assonance and pedantry. A good example in this regard would be the elegy to Gil-Galad in the second book
Gil-Galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.
Finally, we have the compositions attributed to the characters themselves – the most celebrated instance being Bilbo’s Walking Song of course. These are extremely simple, almost bucolic, in their structure and tend towards an ‘abcb’ structure. Frodo’s lament for Gandalf is a good example in this regard
When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.
It seems quite likely that this is a deliberate effort on Tolkien’s part to subtly distinguish between the intellectual capabilities of his characters. Thus, for instance, Gandalf’s brief verses, both composed and quoted, are usually in the first style, befitting his role as a link to the Elder Days. The hobbits’ repertoire is almost entirely described by the third classification. Their own compositions are markedly inferior to their memorized verses; as befits a non-intellectual people.
Elven verse is mellifluous in its cadence and is characterized by a love for trees and stars; their mythic poetry is extremely detailed and subtly haunted by a sense of futility in warding off the ravages of time on their pristine race. A sense of impermanence, fragility and lack of form is also evident in much of Elven mythic poetry.
The verse of the Dwarves, much like themselves, is crudely and roughly shaped, and is gruff in its cadence. While forced rhyming is a natural flaw in much of Tolkien’s poetry, its incidence is rather high in dwarf verse. This might be a coincidence, or it might argue a deliberate effort on the author’s part to suggest the dwarves’ ineptitude for artistic creation.
This suspicion is highlighted by the fact that most of Tolkien’s human (and Hobbit) characters, even the least portentous ones, while perhaps not attaining great heights of poetic creativity, manage to confirm to the basic rules of meter and cadence without too much discomfort.
Where there is an ambiguity in categorization of a particular poem in this regard, it is more often than not reflected in a corresponding ambiguity regarding the related characters in the text. Thus, for instance, Bilbo’s prophetic verse for Aragorn, while written in ‘abcb’ like his other rhymes, carries a tinge of Elven abstraction and presentiment. In the light of subsequent events, this is readily perceived as a device to create uncertainty regarding the Ranger’s identity
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be waken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Compositional differentiation
Setting aside the obvious distinction in the subject matter of the ballads of the different races; there are numerous idiomatic idiosyncrasies in the verse of the non-humans that distinguishes it from human verse. The most significant is the use of adjectives or adverbs to open a new sentence, a much maligned pseudo - device for developing rhetorical tension. Thus, “Dark are the waters ………” to Gimli the Dwarf and “Long are the waves on the
Perhaps as a consequence of their numerous dislocations, the human memory in Middle-Earth is rather hazy, making epic poetry possible only for them. In comparison, the Elves seem to retain records of their ancient history, thereby negating the possibility of the development of an epic form of verse in their cultures. Whereas Dwarves, facing much adversary and exile throughout their history, arrive at the epic form of their own accord, the hobbits do so only through contact with humans.
Philosophical differentiation
At a higher level, we find that Tolkien’s characters express views entirely in conformance with their assigned personalities. Thus, while Gandalf the Grey exudes prescience and secret wisdom in his somewhat abstruse verse, Bilbo’s songs express an indomitable spirit matching a bright but simple mind. The other hobbits, with the exception of Frodo, who is changed by his encounter with the Ring, follow Bilbo’s lead in this regard.
The most interesting comparison here is between the Elven and human myth songs. Whereas the Elven singers subscribe to a very submissive Semitic view of existence being a delusional dream inching towards eventual dissolution, human poetry in Tolkien’s work, while brushing upon the Semitic aspects of Middle-Earth mythology – the destruction of Numenor, for example – expresses elements of joy in struggle against adversity and at times a masochistic glory in Valhalla-like destruction. In this sense, it is more influenced by Nordic myth than the rest of Tolkien’s compositions.
Summary
In our analysis of J R R Tolkien’s poetry with reference to his legendarium of Middle-Earth, we find that he uses mythology masterfully to provide a framework for his characters to express their views regarding questions very fundamental to the human spirit. In doing so, Tolkien shows very clearly that the greatest purpose of mythology is to provide a detailed sociological frame of reference for analyzing human activity.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
