The Oxford English Dictionary defines ''Middle-earth'' as ''the world regarded as a middle region between Heaven and Hell, or as occupying the centre of the Universe.'' As you know, it is not an invention of Tolkien's anymore than the words Dwarf, Elf and Gnome were, and neither did he use it to convey the idea of an imaginary world. In a letter to W.H Auden, he wrote:
''I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd>middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumené [related, incidentally, to ecumenical], the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary.'' (The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, no.183).
According to this wonderful book, The Ring of Words, the compound has a long history and prehistory. It is a Germanic formation, found in the oldest Germanic language Gothic, of which Tolkien was especially enamoured, as early as the 4th century in the form midjun-gards, meaning, roughly, ''the middle enclosed region.'' The Old Norse equivalent was Miðgarðr or Midgard, referring to the world of Men between the encircling seas, accounted one of a number of separate regions, such as the more familiar Ásgarðr or Asgard, the dwelling place of the gods.
In Old English, between the 8th-12th centuries, the form was middangeard, which meant simply, as Tolkien says, ''the world in which we live.'' As I wrote in my previous post, the form appears in the Anglo-Saxon translation of St Bede's Ecclesiastical History, in Cædmon's hymn, which refers to the Creation of the World. By the beginning of the 14th century, the form had changed, and in Middle English the form was Middle-earth.
Tolkien did not use the term Middle-earth in the earliest writings of the Legendarium. In the Lost Tales for instance, Tolkien refers to what later became Middle-earth as the Great Lands, the Outer Lands or the Hither Lands. Neither does Middle-earth appear in The Hobbit (which, incidentally, I read for the first time this year over the last two days!). It appears that Tolkien adopted the term in the mid-1930s; we can glean this from its occurrence in the Anglo-Saxon Annals of Valinor found in Volume IV of The History of Middle-earth. I like the form personally, it is fitting philologically and geographically, but I sometimes also use the terms Outer Lands or Great Lands - if only in mere comparison to the smaller, but pleasanter, land of Aman in the West. Outer Lands has a rather negative connotation, adopted by the Eldar of Tirion no doubt to signify the cold, dark and primitive lands whence they came. I use the terms synonymously.
I could have chosen any number of paintings of Middle-earth, but I chose this one by Ted Nasmith depicting the valley of Rivendell because I like Rivendell as a place, and I like the painting. It is one of those places I always wanted to live!
Hi
ReplyDeleteDo you have an opinion on how much Tolkien was influenced by his wartime experiences? Specifically, the creative metamorphosis of experience into his art, particularly with regard to “Lord of the Rings”?
I know that during his time on the Somme, Tolkien, commenced writing in a notebook the beginnings of a mythology that he initially called “The Book of Lost Tales”. Obviously, he never finished this book, but most of it was eventually published as “The Silmarillon”.
In a letter to his son Christopher,(years later) he explained :
"I took to 'escapism': or really transforming experience into another form and symbol with Morgoth and Orcs and the Eldalië (representing beauty and grace of life and artefact) and so on; and it has stood me in good stead in many hard years since, and I still draw on the conceptions then hammered out."
Later, in the foreword to “The Lord of the Rings” he wrote :
"One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead."
He goes on to say:
“I was pitched into it all just when I was full of stuff to write, and of things to learn; and never picked it all up again."
Later still, he stated:
"My Sam Gamgee is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself".
More recently, I encountered this account (which may be new to you?) from Revd John Waddington-Feather, Shrewsbury:
"Many years ago I corresponded with Tolkien's son, a schoolmaster like myself. He said the Dark Riders in his novel were based on a real recurring nightmare from the [First] World War. Tolkien, riding a good cavalry horse, had somehow got lost behind the German lines, and, imagining he was behind his own trenches, rode towards a group of mounted cavalrymen standing in the shade of a coppice.
It was only when he drew nearer he realised his mistake for they were German Ulhans, noted for their atrocities and taking no prisoners. When they saw him they set off in pursuit with their lances levelled at him. He swung his horse round and galloped off hotly pursued by the Germans. They had faster steeds but Tolkien's horse was a big-boned hunter.
They got near enough for him to see their skull and crossbones helmet badges. Fortunately for Tolkien (and us, his readers) he raced towards some old trenches which his horse, used to hunting, took in its stride. The Uhlans horses weren't up to it and they reined in leaving Tolkien to get away to his own side.
He was terrified and the cruel faces of those Uhlans and their badges haunted him in nightmares for a long time afterwards. Years later, when he was writing his novel, the Dark Riders were the result of that terrifying chase.”
Hello Peedee,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Tolkien's war-time experiences were influential (to a certain extent) in his sub-creation but you ought to be careful about this because neither The Lord of the Rings nor any of Tolkien's other work are allegories of war - Orcs do not represent Nazis or Communists, Sauron does not represent Stalin etc.
Such influences are, of course, and typical of Tolkien, very subtle. As Tolkien himself says, Samwise Gamgee represents the ennoblement of the simple English (not British) soldier, the ordinary man, by courage and fidelity - or indeed his own observation of a battle twixt Man and Man, and his thoughts about the dead man's home far away, and what lies or threats compelled him on the long march to war in a foreign kingdom. For a more ''in-your-face'' influence, the best thing to read (at least in The Lord of the Rings) is the description Tolkien gives of the desolation about the Black Gates of Mordor. The passage is too great to quote, but I am sure given the detail of your own comment, you are familiar with it.
I was unaware of the account by John Waddington-Feather, so thank you for this. The only nightmare that I am aware that Tolkien had in his life was the Númenor-related one, the one shared by Christopher Tolkien on at least one occasion, featuring the mighty tidal wave. Are you new to this blog by the way? Also, your Blogger Profile is blocked...
“The only nightmare that I am aware that Tolkien had in his life was the Númenor-related one, the one shared by Christopher Tolkien on at least one occasion, featuring the mighty tidal wave.”
ReplyDeleteIndeed, and if true it’d seem Michael was the source for John Waddington-Feather’s account – although he doesn’t actually name him? John was a “teacher”(Christopher was a lecturer in Old and Middle English as well as Old Icelandic at Oxford, I believe, while John became a priest).
“Are you new to this blog by the way? Also, your Blogger Profile is blocked...”
Not new to your blog, no, although this is the first time I’ve posted here. Your knowledge of Tolkien and his works is far greater than mine, and I was interested in your opinion on just how much influence you felt his war service had on his creations. Also if you’d ever heard of the “Ulhan dream” before.
As to my Blogger Profile…I’m not sure why it’s blocked??
Peter