TOLKIEN: MONSTERS, MIDGARD,

AND MEDIEVAL ORIGINS

A Thesis

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University Dominguez Hills

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

m

Humanities

by

Aaron M. Brown

Spring 2016

Copyright by

AARON M. BROWN

2016

All Rights Reserved

To those that love me for me.

To those that see better in me than I see in myself.

Most of all, to my wife, Heather,

who knows and loves me better than all others.

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

COPYWRITE PAGE ............................................................................................................................................11

APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................................iii

DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................................................v

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................... vi

CHAPTER

1. MONSTERS, WORDS AND MEANING ......................................................................... I

Abbreviations ...............................................................................................................5

2. DRAGONS..........................................................................................................................6

3. DARK AND LIGHT ALFAR ..........................................................................................22

Dwarves ....................................................................................................................24 Elves..........................................................................................................................30

4. SHAPE-SHIFTERS...........................................................................................................36

5. HEROIC HUMANITY VS. MONSTROSITY................................................................43

6. THE GREAT WARS AND TOLKIEN' S WAR OF THE RING ...................................48

7. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................54

ENDNOTES ..........................................................................................................................58

WORKS CITED....................................................................................................................62

WORKS CONSULTED........................................................................................................66

v

ABSTRACT

This study explores the concept of mythic monstrosity and how John Ronald

Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien) used it within his own literature. It analyzes the concept

of evil in literary creatures by looking at the traits that they exhibit in medieval literature,

in their modem variants, and the meanings of the words used to describe them.

Monstrous mythic creatures examined include dragons, light and dark alfar, shape-

shifters and humans. Tolkien's use of monsters, relative to his experiences during the

World Wars, is also examined.

1

CHAPTER I

MONSTERS, WORDS AND MEANING

The word is not the thing, but names are a lot closer to things

than are other classes of word. Tom A. Shippey

J. R. R. Tolkien's literature contains a multitude of creatures and races that, by

name, extend back to medieval literature. However, Tolkien changed these creatures to

suit his literary purposes and, in some cases, his creatures reflect the mythic predecessor

by name only. The temperament of such creatures does not mirror the mythic standard

set by the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, Beowulf, and other literature from the Middle Ages.

Rather, transformation of the medieval creatures reflect, in his fictional literature, the

hon-ors that he experienced as a soldier in World War I and living in Europe during

World War II.

As a medievalist himself, J. R. R. Tolkien was heavily influenced by his lifelong

study of medieval languages, literature and Norse mythology, yet Tolkien does not apply

a medieval template directly to the creatures about which he writes. He often changes

them enough to make them likable or lovable when, historically, they are anything but

agreeable. Tolkien's modified creatures are no longer purely the creature of myth and

legend. Instead, Tolkien gives each of his characters, creatures, and races depth so that

they are dynamic, rather than the static creatures with which a heroic character had

2

limited interaction, or who appeared only as a brief mention in a footnote. Tolkien brings

these beings to life.

During Tolkien's career as a professor he taught Old English and fought

arduously to teach Old Norse to the younger generations entering his classrooms.

Philology as an art was in serious decline, and despite Tolkien's love for Old Norse

literature, it was not popular amongst his colleagues or the general reading population.

Therefore, the question must be asked: what did he use directly from his sources and

what did he modify?

Furthermore, one must ask, why change one creature race for the better and not

another? Is this a matter of literary prejudice towards particular types of creatures from

antiquity? On the other hand, are the creatures of the medieval model more innately and

linguistically appropriate for the types of monstrosity and unwavering evil that Tolkien

wished to show? Tolkien understood that historical underpinnings oflanguage give

words a depth of which most people are unaware. Old origin words often have hidden or

lost meanings that Tolkien delighted in playing with. If the reader wants to understand

the author and see where it is that he is coming from, then it is important to look at

Tolkien's sources and how he understood them. For this reason, one must look at

medieval literary creatures closely when exploring how Tolkien uses monsters in the

landscape of the mythology he creates. Just as corporeal creatures mark on the landscape

of history, the mythic and literary creatures touch upon the archetypes of a culture and

mirror the honors of an age. Such is the case with Tolkien's creatures.

3 Three blockbuster movies based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and the

more recent three movies based on The Hobbit have introduced many new readers to the

literature of J. R. R. Tolkien. A great deal of written material critiques Tolkien's work,

and his literature has been published consistently since the first printing of The Hobbit. 1

However, not all of his literature was fiction. Tolkien is an acclaimed philologist, but

most people also do not know what philology is. The Second Edition of the Oxford

English Dictionary provides the following useful definition of "philology":

The branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical

development, and relationships oflanguages or language families; the

historical study of the phonology and morphology of languages; historical

linguistics. [note] This sense has never been current in the United States,

and is increasingly rare in British use. Linguistics is now the more usual

term for the study of the structure of language, and (often with the

qualifying adjective, as historical, comparative, etc.) has generally

replaced philology [First example dated 1716]. (sic, qtd. in Gilliver 46)

In the literal sense, philology can mean "the love of words," but for Tolkien, it was more

than love: it was an obsession. It filled his life. In the trenches of World War I, Tolkien

manipulated words in his head and on scraps of paper. Until the end of his life, the

meaning, provenance, and history of words were his life's work. In his novels, hidden

under the guise of fantastic imagery and pseudo-historical settings, Tolkien played with

words.

4 Many scholars have observed the sources of Tolkien's borrowed plot points and

character traits. Most notably, as T. A. Shippey in .!. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century

observes, "Tolkien did take from Beowu/ f the idea of the thief stealing a cup, and then

returning, eventually in a company of thi11een" (36). However, exploration into the

changes that Tolkien made to source texts is lacking. Taking a template and adding to a

creature in a novel is one thing; to modify that same creature and depart from the model

is another. This is especially true when the story is a tale of good versus evil, and some

of the good characters in the tale are not historically set as protagonists because of their

monstrous race.

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of mythic monstrosity and how

J. R. R. Tolkien used it within his own literature. The specific aim is to analyze the

concept of evil in literary creatures by looking at the traits that they exhibit in medieval

literature, in their modern variants, and the historical meanings of the words used to

describe those creatures. It will also look at the idea that evil is relative to the situation

by connecting Tolkien's use of monstrous creatures to his experiences during the World

Wars.

The methodology being employed in this study is a practice of comparative

literature. An initial examination of J. R. R. Tolkien's literature shows a variety of

creatures found in medieval literature. From this study, lists have been compiled

detailing the traits of creatures and races that Tolkien uses. Next, an assortment of

medieval literature was examined, specifically literature that Tolkien translated himself

or is known to have been familiar with. Lists were made from this second study also.

Abbreviations

Beowu( f

Beowulf and the Critics

Bea.

Critics

Fellowship of the Ring Fellowship

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien JRRT

The Letters of J R. R. Tolkien Letters

The Lord of the Rings LOTR

Roverandom Rover.

The Silmarillion

Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham

Silm.

Smith

The Two Towers Towers

Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 2.

World War I

TM2

WWI

World War II WWII

5

This work was done in order to analyze the creatures in antecedent literature that are the

forbearers of those that

J. R. R. Tolkien employed in his own fictional works. Finally, the two studies

were examined together to determine how Tolkien uses these monstrous predecessors and

where he deviated from the past model, thereby making the creatures and races unique to

his literatures.

6 CHAPTER 2

DRAGONS

Whatever may be his origins infact, or invention, the dragon in legend is

apotent creation of men's imagination, richer in significance than

his barrow is in gold. J R. R. Tolkien

In the East, dragons are positive creatures that are beneficial to the people and the

land. The dragons of the West are different. They are more chaotic, greedy and

dangerous. Western dragons are a rarity, even when you look at the literature of the

northern European cultures that believed in them. According to T. A. Shippey, "For

Tolkien's taste there were too few dragons in ancient literature, indeed by his count only

three" (Author 36). However, this count was wrong; the master linguist overlooked one.

Tolkien took into account the Midgard Serpent, the dragon Fafnir from the Sigurd

legends, and of course the unnamed dragon in Beowulf. The later two dragons came to

greatly-influence how dragons are presented in his literature.

Generally, dragons are innately elemental creatures. Ifone considers the basis of

the dragon of myth and legend, they are the anthropomorphization of nature's most

dangerous parts. They have fire breath, and the destructive hunger for all things that it

desires to consume. Dragons create wind from their giant wings flying overhead

battering all things like the winds of a tornado. They also embody the dangers of vicious

tooth and claw found in the wild lands, outside of the small medieval communities that

7 offer some degree of safety. These creatures bring together the worst of nature in a

creature that is beyond the ability of the average person to fight. Even worse, dragons

hide themselves away from the world of men in dark, dank caves promising danger may

come whenever hunger strikes.

Tolkien once said that dragons were "as rare as they were dire" ( Critics 107). If

one considers their sheer size, strength, and power, dragons would wipe out all life on

earth if they where as numerous as pigeons or if they even had the numbers of tigers. If

you consider the ramifications of hundreds or thousands of dragons having the ability to

reason and communicate with humans like Fafnir, then you are not looking at the

extinction of humanity but the oppressive domination of humanity by dragon overlords.

In Norse Mythology there is no physical description of the Midgard Serpent,

Fafnir, and Tolkien's missed Nordic dragon, Nithhogg. Only with the Beowulf dragon

does the reader get anything resembling a physical depiction. Theoretically, this is the

case because everyone in that part of the world during the Middle Ages knew the myths

and undoubtedly!mew what a dragon looked like. This is just as how the ancient people

of Greece knew what a centaur was and what they looked like without needing to have it

described to them. Shippey notes, "ce1tainly the [Bea.] poet's pagan ancestors could

have thought of dragons as things they might one day have to face" (Road 44). For the

people of northern Europe, dragons were a reality of the known world just as they knew

that giants caused ice and snow and that the Asgardian god Thor was the reason for

thunder. Tolkien's description of his dragon Smaug is perhaps the ideal to which all

other dragons would strive to have themselves immortalized in writing:

8 There he lay, a vast red-gold dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from

his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in

slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and

about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay

countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and

jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. (Hobbit 215)

Tolkien's description of Smaug creates an iconic image for most dragons in modern

books, movies, and artwork. Some dragons, however, are too massive to worry

themselves about such things as treasure.

Like most monsters in Norse Mythology, the Midgard Serpent was born from the

mating of the Alsir Trickster-God Loki and the giantess Angrbotha. Its proper name in

Old Norse is Miogarosormr, a compound from Miogaro meaning world or Middle-earth,

the physical realm in which humans live, and the word sormr, meaning serpent, worm, or

dragon. It is also known in Old Norse as Jormungandr, or "huge monster" (Simek 179).

This massive dragon is also referred to by the kenning, "The world-encircling serpent"

(Hollander 337).

The Norse belief is that the serpent lives under the sea wrapped entirely around

the whole mortal realm of Midgard. While this dragon is too large for man to measure,

according to its mythology, it causes great waves to crash upon the shore when it stirs

under the sea. Yet the Midgard Serpent is greater in size than what medieval man could

calculate because of how little they knew about their planet. Ultimately the creature was

9 created and lives for the day when it can, according to prophesy, kill the god Thor and

therefore leave the realm of man uninhabitable.

Tolkien's life work was the book The Silmarillion. This book is the Middle-earth

equivalent to the Old Testament of the Abrahamic religions. It tells the tale of how the

world came into existence and how it was corrupted. Unfortunately, the book was never

finished by JRRT, and his son C!Il"istopher Tolkien pieced it together and edited it for

publication after the Elder Tolkien's death. In The Silmarillion, Tolkien built a

diminutive version of the Midgard Serpent in the semblance of Glaurung. In Tolkien's

Middle-earth, Glaurung is the first of the race of dragons and therefore referred to as

"father of the dragons" (Silm. 229). He is neither the most powerful, nor the largest

dragon to come, but he caused a great deal of havoc in his own time because nothing like

him existed in the world. The distinction of holding the title, "the mightiest of the

dragon-host" goes to Ancalagon the Black (302). While he is not near the size of the

Midgard Serpent, he shares a similarity in his parentage and purpose.

According to The Silmarillion, initially everything in the world was good.

However, Melkor, an entity of great power, got greedy and sought dominion over the

world. Melkor is often compared to the Biblical character Satan in this regard. Most

critics make the association because Tolkien was a Catholic. On the other hand, Satan

parallels Loki from Nordic myth as well. In each of these three mythologies, Melkor,

Satan and Loki are all the origin of evil and monsters.

Like Satan, Melkor's many heinous acts caused his physical form to change. His

name was made taboo, and he was forever after called Morgoth. Unlike Loki who was

10 the biological father, or mother in some cases, of the Nordic monsters, Morgoth began

experimenting with creatures to make an army of his own design. With these creatures,

he sought to have dominion over the world of Middle-earth. In doing so, he had no

qualms with destroying the races of good and light; in fact, he reveled in it. Glaurnng

was one of the most powerful creations of Morgoth. The fortunate part of the story for

the good races of the world and the unfortunate part for Morgoth is that the great wyrm

was impatient and showed himself to the world before becoming full size and well

armored. He was able to do significant damage but was defeated and forced to retreat

back to the mountainous lair in which he was spawned.

Miogarosormr and Glaurung differ most noticeably in their respective ends. The

Midgard Serpent kills his greatest opponent, Thor, while Glaurung is defeated in his

prime by Tolkien's literary hero Turin Turambar. Again, this is an example of Tolkien's

Cluistianity coming out and hints at a fundamental difference between the Old Norse

polytheistic faith in comparison to the monotheistic religion Christianity. As Shippey

points out in J R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century:

In a sense this Northem mythology asks more of people than Christianity

does, for it offers them no heaven, no salvation, no reward for virtue

except the somber satisfaction of having done right. Even the heathen

Valhalla is only a waiting-room and training-ground for the final defeat.

(150)

Ifthe reader only looks at the dragons, one wins and one fails. The failure of the dragon

gives humankind and other good races hope for the future that good will always triumph

11 at the end no matter how dire the situation may appear. The old nmihern faithful knew

the exact opposite of this. They knew there would be good times, but in the end, the

dragon would always win. Itmay have been subconscious, but Tolkien sided in his saga

with the good over evil and had good win the day when it mattered.

The second dragon recognized by Tolkien in Norse Mythology is Fafnir. In fact,

after J. R. R. Tolkien's death, his son edited together the book The Legend of Sigurd and

Gudrun from the piles of notes of stories that the elder Tolkien had started and various

translations that he had completed. This book is not a translation of the original myths

but a retelling of them with his own literary miistry used to fill in where the ancient

stories had gaps. Fafnir is one of the most popular dragons in western mythology while

arguably not a true dragon at all. He was not born a drngon, birthed from an egg as the

general legend of the creature goes. He was a human who transformed into a dragon and

thereby gained his draconic notoriety. Prior to becoming a dragon, "Fafnir thrnst his

sword into his father Hreithmar while he slept" (Hollander 219). This act of patricide

was born from a disagreement over Hreithmm·'s refusal to split the wergild for Fafnir and

Regin's dead brother Otr.2 Unknown to Hreithmar and his sons, the wergild payment

was cursed by Odin.

In The Saga of the Volsungs, Fafnir's greed was evident in that "he wanted to call

everything his own" (Byock 57). His greed leads to his patricidal actions over mere gold.

This human greed then translates into dragon-sized addiction when, according to Regin,

"it was murder since he hid the body. I obtained none of the treasure. Fafnir becmne so

ill-natured that he set out for the wilds and allowed no one to enjoy the treasure but

12 himself. He has since become the most evil serpent and lies now upon his hoard" (59).

The curse upon the gold also taints the brother Regin, leading to his death when his own

greed guides him to seek out a hero to slay Fafnir so that Regin can have an easier

opponent to kill for the treasure. Like most plans in mythology concerning a cursed

object, nothing goes as planned. Whether it is the curse placed upon the gold that

transformed Fafnir, the evil and greed in his heart, or an amalgam of all the above, the

man became a monster of myth and legend.

When people think of the western dragon, they tend to envision the fire-breathing

serpent. Fafnir is not a fire dragon, but he had a breath weapon. The Eddie poem

Fafnismal states, "Now when Fafnir left his lair on the gold, he spewed poison "

[emphasis mineJ (Hollander 223) and "I spewed venom as I sprawled on the hoard I of

my father's gleaming gold" (226). None of the other early medieval dragons have the

ability to expel poison in this manner. The Beowulf dragon is the first that gives the

legendary blast of flame that has become the calling card of future dragons of note.

Another unique ability for Fafnir is his ability to speak a language that humans can

understand. This ability undoubtedly originates from his having been a human.

Although this may have been a rare ability among dragon-kind, it is one that Tolkien

thought highly enough of that he wrote it into his epic draconic character "Smaug the

Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities" (sic, Hobbit 222).

The dragon in the epic poem Beowu?f is arguably not as smart as Fafnir since the

dragon never speaks or gives any sense of cognitive ability beyond having anger about

missing treasure. The Beowulf dragon is arguably better written into the literature of the

13 medieval period. The gift of the unknown poet is that the reader has more descriptive

words to create mental images of the dragon and its actions. These often come in the way

of kennings, but even then the reader, or if the poem was meant to be heard aloud, the

listener is never given a complete description of the ferocious beast. Nothing comes in

the way of the shape of the wings, color of the scales or length of the tail. As stated

before, this was unnecessary for the time as when it comes to "the naked dragon of I fell

heart that flies wrapped about in flame: him do earth's I dwellers greatly dread" (Tolkien,

Bea. lines 1911-1913). As Tolkien's translation shows, this scant description shows that

people fear this flying monster of fire and hate. Nothing else needed to be said for the

people of that time to know that a dragon was being discussed.

There can be an argument that the dragon in Beowulf is not aggressive naturally

until provoked and is in reality the victim of the story. This is undoubtedly a losing

argument since all western dragons are chaotic beasts at heart. For argument's sake, one

must look at the fact that Beowulf s foe is an unknown factor in the history of the land

until its home and peaceful solitude is disturbed by the violation of a human thief. In

fact, the poet himself says that the "despoiler of men for three hundred I winters kept

beneath the earth that house of treasure" (lines 1916-1917). Then and only then does the

dragon become provoked and seen as an aggressor and threat to the land. What happened

three hundred years earlier and how the dragon came about having all the treasure in his

hoard is not a matter of record. The dragon could have been on a peaceful excursion and

by pure luck come across a cave to take a nap, and lo and behold, he lucked into an

ancient treasure hidden away for a millennium.

14 Regardless of the past, had it not been for the wayward thief, it is possible that the

dragon episode of Beowulf would never have been and therefore the mighty hero-king

may have died in his bedchambers many years later. In Norse thought, this would have

been tragic for such a mighty hero and king since the most desirable way to die was

honorably in battle, thereby becoming one of the Alfather Odin's chosen and earning a

seat in Valhalla, Odin's hall. The chosen of Odin are called the Einherjar ("those who

fight alone" Simek 71). They are the soldiers chosen to fight during the great battle at

Ragnarok. They spend their days training for the major battle, fighting to the death

amongst each other, and at the end of the day they are healed. Throughout the evening

and night, they feast on a sacred boar that is also made whole again every day. That is, if

the dragon, were not stirred, we would have a poor ending to an otherwise dramatic hero

story. Likewise, as Tolkien himself notes, the same can be said for The Hobbit:

Beowulf is among my most valued sources; though it was not consciously

present to the mind in the process of writing, in which the episode of the

theft arose naturally (and almost inevitably) from the circumstances. It is

difficult to think of any other way of conducting the story at that point. I

fancy the author of Beowu( f would say much the same. (Letters 31)

The use of this medieval storyline gave Tolkien's work both a perfect end to patt of his

book, but it also tied his work to the antecedent literature, which he wanted to share with

others. Fmthermore, the dragon is the greatest of the three monsters that Beowulf faces,

therefore, it is a more dramatic end to have the hero-king who is now in his seventies

probably, die while proving once again that he is wmthy of the title 'hero.' Beowulf's

15 age is an estimate since one figures Beowulf would have been a hero for sometime into

his twenties before being made a king and then serving as a king for another fifty years

before the waking of the dragon.

The Beowu?f dragon seems to have an aversion to the sun. Initially introducing it

as "a certain one in dark nights began to hold sway" gives the reader the immediate

understanding that he is a nocturnal creature (Tolkien, Bea. lines 1857-1858). Then later

when the dragon realizes that a favored piece of treasure, a jewel encrusted goblet, has

been stolen, he waits "In torment the Guardian of the Hoard abode until evening came"

(lines 1936-1937). Even though the idea that his treasure hoard has been violated drives

him to "thought with joy of battle, of making war" (line 1933), the dragon will not leave

and immediately seek out the thief and his treasure. Instead, he searches as if under an

obsessive compulsion to find the goblet in his hoard knowing that it is gone, waiting for

the sun to go down:

Then, to his delight,

the day waned and he could wait no longer

behind the wall, but hurtled forth

in a fiery blaze. (Heaney, lines 2306-2309)

This is another part of the Beowu/ f poem that Tolkien bonowed. Tolkien's version came

in the form of Smaug leaving his treasure to raze the "lake-town Esgaroth" for helping

the dwarves in their plot to steal Smaug's treasure (Hobbit 247). This flight leads to the

death of Smaug and the beginning of a war over that treasure.

16 In the Third Age of Tolkien's Middle-earth saga, dragons are almost extinct and

Smaug is the mightiest of those remaining. If for no other reason than the dragon has an

epic movie with his name in the subtitle,3 the most popular of Tolkien's dragons is

undoubtedly Smaug. Tolkien uses his linguistic prowess to play with words in the name

of this dragon and points this out in his personal correspondence: "The dragon bears as

name-a pseudonym-the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze

through a hole: a low philological jest" (Letters 31). The name is a hidden reference to

the dragon lore that has them live in caves. In Smaug's case, his living arrangement was

quite a bit nicer than the average dragon cave as he took the vast kingdom under the

mountain, Erebor, from the dwarf king Thror.

Smaug is a mixture of characteristics from both Fafnir and the Beowulf dragon.

The lengthy conversations the dragon has with the hobbit Bilbo, reveal the ability for

cognition and speech found in the Fafnir model. Smaug proves that he is not simply a

base creature living on animalistic instinct alone. Smaug differentiates himself from

Fafnir and aligns himself with the Beowulf dragon in one major regard: they are both

members of the race of ''ji·ecne fYr-draca," (Heaney, Old English, line 2689) the "fire-

breathing dragon" (Heaney, Modern English Translation, line 2688).

Furthermore, Smaug is clearly obsessed with riches. He even lies on his hoard

like Fafnir but such that the treasure is imbedded in his scales, as the dragon points out to

Bilbo: "I am armoured above and below with iron scales and hard gems. No blade can

pierce me" (sic, Hobbit 226). It is important that Tolkien has Smaug say this because

both Fafnir and the Beowulf dragon, and Glaurung for that matter, all died at the tip of a

17

sword. Smaug' s end comes at the tip of a black arrow passed down from generation to

generation. This is possible because Smaug has "a large patch in the hollow of his left

breast as bare as a snail out of its shell" which permits the well-aimed anow to end the

dragon's work of razing the countryside and neighboring town.

Smaug is one of the last known dragons in Middle-eatth. The manner of his death

allows him to share the same racial weakness as the very first dragon created while being

separated in the historical record by not having fallen victim to the same weapon as his

grand-sire. His statement to Bilbo allows Tolkien to give a nod to the antecedent dragons

of medieval literature without which Glaurung, Smaug and all of Tolkien's dragons could

exist. But Smaug's end allows Tolkien to use a modified version of the draconic

characteristic of a vulnerable underbelly without constantly repeating the same scene.

One mythic dragon had no vulnerability due to its immeasurable size. In his

studies, Tolkien overlooked a dragon who was not interested in the wealth and riches of

man and who was even greater in size than the Midgard Serpent. This creature from

Norse Mythology is known as Nithhogg.4 There are no apparent physical descriptions of

Nithhogg, such as what color it is or whether it is capable of flying; however, within The

Poetic Edda there are two descriptions about what it is or does. In the Voluspa, "The

Prophesy of the Seeress," the first poem in The Poetic Edda, Nithhogg lives among the

roots of the World Tree, the sacred Ash tree, Yggdrasill, gnawing on the roots of the tree

(Hollander 1). In order to understand the immensity of this, the reader must remember

that according to Norse Mythology the entirety of creation is upon the World Tree

separated into nine different worlds. According to Nordic cosmology, the nine worlds of

18 Yggdrasill in descending order are: Asgard, Vanaheim, Ljossalfheim, Niflheim, Midgard,

Muspellheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, and He!. All the worlds and all of creation are

connected on and through Yggdrasill, and this monster is so huge that it gnaws upon the

roots of the great cosmic ash itself. In the other description, found in the Eddie

Grimnismal, meaning "The Lay of Grimnir" (Hollander 53), Nithhogg spends its time

drinking the blood of the dead and eating corpses.

The fact that Tolkien overlooked Nithhogg is understandable since very little

about it is ever mentioned in the mythologies; the two points made above are the end of

the story for the creature until Ragnarok, the "final destiny of the Gods" (Simek 259,

"Ragnarok" def.). This is the Norse version of what might more commonly be known in

this day and age as the Apocalypse. After the gods die, Nithhogg will be more active. In

addition, it should be noted that Nithhogg is more of a background character in the myths

since no primary characters, gods or heroes, ever have any interaction with it. The only

interaction that Nithhogg has, according to the Eddas, is with two other creatures on the

World Tree itself. Those two creatures are a squirrel named Ratatosk and an eagle that

lives at the top of Yggdrasill.5 The creatures are not friendly, however, as Ratatosk

spends his time running up and down the World Tree telling the eagle things that

Nithhogg supposedly said and vise versa, but all the reported statements are lies to annoy

the two cosmic polarities. These creatures are, then, cosmic powers because they are not

a part of Midgard or any of the nine realms but rather move between them, separate yet

connected to the universe because of their relation to Yggdrasill, and Nithhogg is at the

base of it trying to destabilize it all.

19 Tolkien did not always stick to the dreadful dragon motif of medieval literature.

For his children, and later for readers, he softened the creature's persona. In the short

story "Farmer Giles of Ham," Tolkien adapts the talking dragon motif of Fafnir and the

fire-dragon of Beowulf for children's stories. In this text, there is a short conversation

among some dragons, and the reader is introduced to "one dragon who was deeply

moved. Chrysophylax Dives was his name, for he was of ancient and imperial lineage,

and very rich. He was cunning, inquisitive, greedy, well-aimoured, but not over bold"

(sic, Smith 89). His story is quite different from the medieval dragons in that the hero of

the story does not slay him. Instead, Chrysophylax is compelled by force and the threat

of a sword, "Caudimordax, the fainous sword that in popular romances is more vulgarly

called Tailbiter" (99). This sword is especially dangerous to dragons and as such is

known by them. Fem·of the ancient weapon caused Chrysophylax to give up his treasure

and protect both the treasure and the sword wielding hero from the tyranny of the king.

In a stroke of irony, the tyrannical king was the one who gave the hero the sword in the

first place. Essentially, within this text, the dragon was turned into little more than a very

well armored, fire-breathing guard dog.

Tolkien carries his love of dragons into another children's book, Roverandom.

Here the dragons rely not on the Scandinavian dragons as sources, but rather draw upon

the red and white dragons of Arthurian legend. It is of some interest to note that Tolkien

gives no origin story for the red dragon. However, he does state that "All the white

dragons originally come from the moon" (Rover. 33). There is also a brief point at the

core of the "Farmer Giles of Ham" storyline that states, "some time after King Arthur's

20 disappearance, at a time when dragon's tails were esteemed a great delicacy by the Saxon

Kings" (33). This point continues to bring in other medieval literature giving "Farmer

Giles of Ham" a false sense of historical accuracy. Tolkien says little more about

dragons in Roverandom as they are only meant to be a brief encounter in the adventures

of a toy dog who takes a trip to the moon.

In summation, Tolkien's use of Fafnir and the Beowulf dragon are both so much a

part of Midgard that they live within it, thereby being to some degree subtetTanean

creatures living in caves and having infrequent interactions with human kind. Both also

have a breath weapon of either poison or fire. The Midgard Serpent and Nithhogg, on the

other hand, are both celestial cosmic beings, which are bigger than the realm of man, and

both bent on the total destruction of either Midgard or Yggdrasill itself. While they

probably do not need the additional power of a breath weapon, due to their vast size and

strength, neither is equipped with one like their smaller but more popular wyrm brethren.

None of Tolkien's dragons can measure up to the colossal size of Nithhogg but there

would be no place in the plot if they had. While JRRT adapted ancient mythology for the

purposes of his epic story, avoidance of creatures following the model of the Midgard

Serpent and Nithhogg works because they are simply too great in size and destructive

capability to play any role in the Middle-earth saga without ending the tale in a different

way. Tolkien's dragons instead have a propensity to focus on the mental and physical

attributes of Fafnir and the Beowu/ f dragon with only the shear ferocity of the Midgard

Serpent mixed in.

21 Tolkien did quite a bit to recreate creatures from myth and legend to suit his

literary ends. In some cases, he did more for the creature's lore than any other author in

history did. Some could argue that Chrysophylax Dives was a desecration of the mythic

dragon, whereas Tolkien's Smaug upheld the glory of the mythic standard of Fafnir or

the Beowu?f dragon. Such a statement is dogmatic and does not allow for the evolution of

the dragon mythos in modem literature. Tolkien's modification of the dragon mythos is

evident throughout. There is even evidence in The Lost Road and Other Writings that he

had considered a multitude of other forms of dragon that never made it into his literature.6

The lore of dragons was so powerful to Tolkien that he not only wanted to include the

prior lore into his literature but also wanted to further expand the lore. Had he lived

longer, there is the possibility he would have been able to give literary life to more of his

draconic variations. In either case, Tolkien's new dragons, birthed from his love of the

medieval models of the Midgard Serpent, Fafnir, and Beowulf s foe, became an influence

to all literary dragons thereafter.

22 CHAPTER 3

DARK AND LIGHT ALFAR

J. R. R. Tolkien used the a/far races in the majority of his fiction. As such, no

discussion of mythic and fantasy literature, especially Tolkien's work, would be complete

without including the dark and light a/far. They permeate the mythology and folklore of

Europe and to some degree share a kinship with one another. Yet, the relationship

between them is more linguistic than familial. However, there is some distant relation

where the points blur together and alfar are simply alfar. The names dwarf and elf as

well as the modern images depicting these creatures are simplifications of creatures that

are multifaceted. The mythology surrounding them is often disjointed due to regional

interpretation coloring the understanding of what the creature is or does towards one local

fancy, fear, or explanation of an occurrence.

The linguistic relationship between dwarfs and elves stmis with the word a/far. In

Old Norse there m·e three primary types of alfar, lj6salfar 'light-elves,' dokkalfar 'dark

elves,' and svartalfar 'black elves':

Tolkien's light elves had seen the light of the two sacred trees. His dark

elves lived in woodlands, loving stars and twilight. His dwarfs were

Snoff i's dwarfs, dwelling in the earth or in halls of stone and crafting

fabulous weapons and ships and jewelry. The black elves became

23 Tolkien's ores and goblins, who battled against the dwarves for control of

their great underground halls. (Brown 201)

While this is a good overview of Tolkien's use of the various alfar, Nancy Brown over-

simplifies her point on Tolkien's black elves. Tolkien's elves are not black for the same

reason, initially, that the mythological black elves were black. Tolkien's ores and goblins

were elves made black by Morgoth's evil experimentation that c01Tupted their minds,

bodies, and spirits.

In the study of the mythic alfar, there is a great deal of confusion about their

physical nature, especially in regards to the dark and black elves, which are often grouped

together as one race. They then become the dwarves fantasy readers have come to know.

Jacob Grimm's physical descriptions of mythic elves and dwarves in Teutonic

Mythology, Volume 2 is one of the very best, as seen below. It allows for the separation

of the light and dark, elf and dwarf, while at the same time showing their connections:

The leading features of elvish nature seem to be the following:-

Man's body holds a medium between those of the giant and the elf; an elf

comes as much sh01i of human size as a giant towers above it. All elves

are imagined as small and tiny, but the light ones as well-formed and

symmetrical, the black as ugly and misshapen. The former are radiant

with exquisite beauty, and wear shining garments [...] The dwarf add to his

repulsive hue an ill-shaped body, a humped back, and coarse clothing;

when elves and dwarfs came to be mixed up together, the graceful figure

24

of the one was transferred to the other, yet sometimes the dwarfs expressly

retain the black or grey complexion. (449)

Tolkien made great use of the thrilling mythic a/far races. He broke from the

antecedent mythology and in doing so bu ilt creatures that are now the standard for the

entire fantasy fiction genre. J RRT used traits found in Norse mythology and employed

them while not restricting himself to the mythic model. His use of mythic traits allowed

Tolkien to continue his practice of paying tribute to the earlier forms while advancing the

literature for the modern reader.

Dwarves

The mythic dwarf is not a very well define creature. This is where the name of the

creature, being changed and generally accepted in the fantasy genre after Tolkien as the

'dwarf' is important. While Tolkien undoubtedly did not knowthat he would change the face

of an entire genre of literature, whether he meant to or not, he changed the face of a

literary race withi n the genre. The creature of legend that readers and moviegoers now

know as a dwarf comes from a very disjointed set of myths and folklore. This is in part due

to the rarity of dwarves in 0Id Norse literature, and "references to dwarfs in Old English are

rare: in fact, other than glosses, only the magico-medical treatises allude to them at all"

(Battles 33). Tol kien took the disjointed myth and from that fashioned a creature that has

origins in myth but does not necessarily resemble the original race.

What happens if an author erases a trait exemplifying a monstrous quality from one

race and attaches it to another race? Does this negate the monstrous nature of the

25 first racial group, or does it mean that the trait and not the race was innately evil?

Tolkien illustrates this point with his use of the mythological monstrous trait of being

unable to go into the sun without turning into stone. This is, of course, far different than

the Beowulf dragon not wanting to go into the sun. There is no evidence to show that

doing so would have done the dragon any physical harm. For the Teutonic dwarf,

though, going into sunlight meant immediate death. In Tolkien's mythology, dwarves

and trolls are connected because he superimposes the above-mentioned trait from the

mythic dwarf onto his new form of troll. 7 However, trolls, like dwarves, are an ill-

defined creature in mythic texts.

The word trolls "though often used of giants, is yet a more comprehensive term,

including other spirits and beings possessed of magic power, and equivalent to our

monster, specter, unearthly being" ( TM2 526). These creatures, then, in no way resemble

the trolls found in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Those creatures are large lumbering

brutes of lower intelligence used as labor workers or shock troops in melee combat by

other races. When alone or with their own kind, they are found bickering about base

desires.

In The Hobbit, dwarves and their travelling companion Bilbo Baggins are taken

captive by trolls who are distracted by Bilbo in such a way that the first light of sun

appears and turns them to stone. This is very similar to Alvissmal in The Poetic Edda

where Thor, "on his return from the giant world, meets the dwarf Alvis [ ...] he delays

Alvis until daylight surprises the dwarf and transforms him into stone" (Hollander 110).

Indeed this trait of Tolkien's trolls is in fact a mythological trait of the dwarf race, one so

26 deeply instilled in this mythological subterranean race that the sun itself is called by

them, "Dvalin's Doom" (113). Therefore, one can see how Tolkien has used a plot-point

from mythology to progress his story of dwarfish adventure with a case of detail

displacement. In doing so, JRRT has made a creature of darkness a creature of light

thereby entering them into the roster of good races who fight the elements, ideologies,

and creatures of evil.

In The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlason, unless you are reading

them in his original Old Icelandic, you will see the translated word dwarf in place of the

various forms of alfar. Again, you have pe1iaining to the dwarf, dokkrilfar 'dark elves'

and svartalfar 'black elves,' the primary distinction between the two being the lightness

or darkness of their skin. The black elf variety of dwarf has skin that is actually black;

this comment of color is then not in essence a statement of their ethical persuasion or a

criticism about their demeanor. Dvergar is another word used in reference to the dwarf

but leaning more towards the svartalfar variety, as seen in this statement from Grimm:

"all or most of the dvergar in the Edda are cunning smiths [...] This seems the simplest

explanation of their black sooty appearances" (TM2 447).

Tolkien simplified the dwarf and took the issue of skin color out of the equation

by making the dwarves that you see in his books as having a ruddy complexion similar to

that of some human Caucasians. For some, this point brings fmih the question of

whether doing so is a racially motivated issue for Tolkien. Because of this, the idea of

skin color and the good and evil dilemma is discussed at length later in this thesis. The

dark elf variety of dwarf is dark of skin in comparison but not near black skinned. They

27 are often referred to as being grayish in color, and this leads to the misunderstanding of

their nature. In fact, Grimm himself makes the error of connecting the dark elf with the

undead: "[t]he dusky elves are the souls of dead men" (446). Paul Battles dismisses this

e1rnr with the logic that they are pale and sickly because they live underground and never

have sunlight to darken their skin (38). This, however, does then beg the question of how

the svartalfar get their black skin. If it is a matter of soot or dirt from the forges and

tunnels of the dwarf, then they too may be, in reality, grayish in skin color and not

actually black.

Skin color aside, Tolkien did include a great deal of the lore surrounding the

dwarf in his characters. The most notable is Tolkien's use of names from "The Catalogue

of Dwarfs (Dvergatal) from 'Voluspa,' Stanzas 9-16" (sic, Hollander 322). Over half of

the dwarven hosts present throughout the literature of Tolkien were named from the

Eddie list. The boTI"owing of names went beyond just the dwarf characters. The wizard

Gandalf, a character central to The Hobbit and LOTR trilogy, is one named from the

Dvergatal. The name Gandalf means "wand-elf," gandr= wand, alfar=el f. '"Gandalf is

in fact from the beginning not a name but a description, as with Beorn, Gollum, the

Ne[c]romancer, and other people and places and things in The Hobbit" (Road 88). As

one can see, the elfish connection still exists in the dwarven names found in The Poetic

Edda, which Tolkien then pulls into his storyline of the elf-friend wizard.

In addition to the actual names, Tolkien used the rhyming style of the Dvergatal

to introduce the dwarves, even though they did not all come in the same order of

appearance. Kili and Fili are named, but out of the Eddie order given. Bifur, Bofur and

28 Bombur all arrived to the pmt in the proper literary order. Even "Thorin, an enormously

impottant dwarf 'was named along with Thrain, and Thror, these names used for

Thorin's father and grandfather (Hobbit I 0). The later three dwarves being the

succession of dwarves that Tolkien lists as the kings and proper heirs to the kingdom

under the mountain, which was taken by the dragon Smaug.

In mythology, as well as in Tolkien's literature, dwarves are a rather elusive race:

"Generally dwarfs are content to remain in their remote realms. When they do seek out

human company, it is often because of their desire for women of other races" (Battles

79). This trait is seen in Tolkien's dwarf Gimli, who looks upon the elvish Lady

Galadriel and says that she "is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!"

(Fellowship 400) Ifthe reader takes into account the dwarven love for gems, Gimli's

statement about Lady Galadriel speaks volumes about her beauty. This mythic trait

reference could be another account of Tolkien's writing style and desire to bring his own

story full circle to the hidden linguistic connection between the alfar mythology.

Among men, dwm"Ves act differently than they do among women. As Jacob

Grimm reveals, "dwarfs do at times have dealings with mankind, yet on the whole they

seem to shrink from man" ( TM2 459). The dwarf is an uncommon sight to come across,

but men know when they are in close proximity because they are heard mocking people

in what we know as echoes. When men do come across the creature, "dwarfs appear

singly among men, they are sage counsellors and helpful, but also apt to fire up and take

offence" (471). Tolkien used this in his dwarfs too, as the dwarfs in The Hobbit and

LOTR will talk amongst themselves but have very little dialogue with other races. The

29 reader can also see the dwarf ability to take offence quickly in The Hobbit, Thorin

frequently gets upset with Bilbo Baggins.

Another trait given by Grimm to the dwarf is "the irresistible fondness for music

and dancing" (TM 1: 469, DM 1: 389 qtd. in Battles 80). Tolkien uses this trait in his

book The Hobbit when the band of dwarves sing while cleaning up after a meal, much to

the dismay of the character Bilbo Baggins. When one considers even one stanza of the

dwarven lyrics, Bilbo's consternation is understandable:

Chip the glasses and crack the plates!

Blunt the knives and bend the forks!

That's what Bilbo Baggins hates-

Smash the bottles and burn the corks! (Hobbit 12)

The lyrics are, of course, simply the dwarves having fun at the Hobbit's expense, and

none of the things said in the song were done, leaving all of his property intact, although

his pantry stock is left quite depleted.

One final characteristic that Tolkien employed in his version of the dwarf is that

"they pursue their occupations, collecting treasures, forging weapons curiously; wrought

their kings fashion for themselves magnificent chambers underground" ( TM2 455). This

is seen to great degree in the Middle-earth saga with the dwarven armor of Bilbo and

Frodo on to the halls of Erebor, the Mines of Moria, and "the Glittering Caves of

Aglarond" ( Towers 167).

Tolkien incorporated a great deal of the medieval dwarf into his literary creation.

He took the monstrous characteristic of turning into stone in sunlight and gave it to a

30

different creature, thereby making the dwarf a creature that then aligned with the world of

light and the fight for good. In med ieval literature, dwarves are a disagreeable sort, and

Tolkien took the creature, polished the rough edges, and made it l ikable while keeping

many of the mythic characteristics of the race.

Elves

Unlike with his use of dwarves, Tol kien did not change the depiction of the

physical attributes of mythic light alfar to create his literary vision of the elf. While he

does allow for differences between one Elven group and another in his various books, he

stays quite close to the mythic standard. As with his use of dwarves, J.R.R. Tol kien

made sure to give to his elves traits that are steeped in the lore of the Medieval Age.

The major d ifference in Tolkien's elves is from one time to another in Middle-

earth saga and not in the conversion from antecedent myth to his personally created set of

legends. The demeanor and outlook of Tol kien's elves in The Hobbit and Lord of the

Rings changed much as the series itself evolved. In The Hobbit, the elves are childish

whimsical characters. Tolkien also used this version of elves in Smith of Wootton Majar,

I n LOTR the elves are more focused on the mortality of the world and the newfound

mortality of their race. When he wrote this storyline, it was much more adu lt, and the

world of Middle-eaith had a much darker vision of the future. There was a change in the

world that meant that the Age of Elves was soon to end. This bleak outlook transferred to

the elves in a way that they became very austere. No longer were these creatures seen

31

playing, and engaging in frivolity. The reader sees the change from children's literature

to a developed adult trilogy as well as the development of the characters themselves.

Tolkien wrote into his mythology that the race of elves had an innate sense of

longevity far beyond that of most other races in Middle-earth. The oldest of the elves are

virtually imm01ial so long as they do not suffer some catastrophic injury. Even then,

there seems to be evidence in some of Tolkien's letters that their deaths may not be

permanent. The elves had a land to which they could retire where they would never

know death:

In that guarded land the Valar gathered great store of light and all the

fairest things that were saved from the ruin; and many others yet fairer

they made anew, and Valinor became more beautiful even than Middle-

eaiih in the Spring of Arda; and it was blessed, for the Deathless dwelt

there, and there naught faded nor withered, neither was there any stain

upon flower or leaf in the land, nor any c01Tuption or sickness in anything

that lived; for the very stones and waters were hallowed. (Silm. 30)

Valinor was much like an island heaven in Middle-earth but separated from the rest of the

world by water and magic. In order to reach this sacred land, one must cross a vast body

of water. Upon reaching the shore, only those of special distinction would be allowed to

enter this place. The land was reserved for the Valar and elves, but later the bearers of

the rings of power, those not con-upted and destroyed by their evil, were also allowed to

enter Valinor. 8 There was a time when boats set sail for Valinor, and because they were

not permitted in that land, the magic protecting that land destroyed all that dared to

32 trespass on the sacred soil. Their entire nation was destroyed and the calamity was so

great that it changed the face of Middle-earth. 9 Tolkien never states outright that the

elves that die are resunected or reborn in Valinor but those that retire to the sacred land

never know death themselves.

When one examines JRRT's literature and considers the beauty of the elf, one

sees that all of the races of good moral standing find themselves quite taken-in by the

elf s beauty. Most humans have not seen one by the Third Age because the elves made

themselves scarcer. However, when humans find themselves in the presence of an elf,

they find themselves in awe. The question then must be, as Rearick puts it, "Why should

dark-skinned and short dwarves and hobbits, who seem especially agog in the presence of

elves, find tall fair individuals attractive unless there is an organic sense of their

superiority" (869)? According to Jacob Grimm, "the mere look of an elf has magic

power" ( TM2 462). The answer cannot simply be that the race is light of skin and tall.

There has to be something more to it and perhaps there is.

Tolkien said, "Beauty is itself dangerous" (Road 54). He also refe1Ted to the elves

as "perilously fair" ( Towers 288). Again, it comes down to the issue of whether this is

because of the beauty of the physical features of the elf or something in Tolkien's

Legendarium, since the elves are the first race born in Middle-earth. That being the case,

they are the first beings that the divine powers put their energy into, and they walked with

those divine beings. They were in the presence of divinity and hallowed by that

presence.

33 In The Hobbit, Smith of Wootton Major and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien uses

the mythic characteristic in which "All elves have an in-esistible fondness for music and

dancing. By night you see them tread their round on the moonlit meadows, and at dawn

perceive their track in the dew" (TM2, 469-470). This is apparently a deeply rooted alfar

trait as the mythic dwarf also possesses it. In The Hobbit and Smith of Wootton Major the

Elvish songs are light and cheerful with a great sense of playfulness to them. The elves

still have their childlike sense of lightheaitedness. In LOTR the mood of the elves is

more somber, and the songs and poems have taken a solemn tone to match. They

continue their love of music throughout the series and use music as a way of mourning

the perceived loss of the wizard Gandalf. Even the rightful King of Gondor, Aragorn,

whose life has been heavily influenced by the elves, sings a song and recites somber

poetry in Elvish.

Another example of a mythic trait of elves being used by Tolkien in The Hobbit is

the power "of vanishing or making themselves invisible. No sooner do they appear, than

they are snatched away from our eyes" (462). This occurs when the dwarves and Bilbo

Baggins stumble upon a gathering of elves on a couple different occasions in Mirkwood

Forest. Each time the party tries to communicate with the elves or announce themselves,

the Elvish host snuffs the light in the naturally dark forest, and they disappear without a

trace. This power of elusiveness is used later by the same elves to capture Bilbo and the

contingent of dwarves.

34 The questions to be asked are why did Tolkien include elves in his stories and do

they signify anything in particular. To the first question, the answer is simple, because

elves are mythic and wonderful creatures. The second question is trickier to answer.

Although elves are long-lived and beautiful, the age old trait of virtual

immortality is disappearing in the growing darkness of evil sweeping the land. The elves

themselves are not becoming evil, but the evil encroaching on the borders of their forests

is draining the light out of them. This same light is that divine light that blessed them as

a race when they were first born to Middle-earth. With the light and longevity go the

happiness and mirth once present in the race. Their beauty remains, but it too will fade in

time as they begin to age without the Divine light to keep them ageless. Without the

light, they lose hope for the future of their race and Middle-earth.

This is the key: hope. Tolkien's actual world was darkened by two World Wars.

Industry had taken over his country, and the wild green places of his childhood had been

desecrated by war and machinery. The elves of JRRT's Middle-eaiih are representative

of the loss of innocence and hope found in our early childhood and the loss that Europe

experienced because of war. The elves removal from the world of man to Valinor

signifies the maturing of humanity to the sober existence of adulthood. In a sense, the

elves signify a coming of age story with the humans leaving behind the whimsy and

wonderment of childhood, evolving into responsible and self-reliant adults.

Tolkien's elves protected the world for thousands of years. In their transition to

Valinor, that torch is passed to the humans. Like in the real world, when a child

transitions to adulthood, there is the process of figuring out what practices and traditions

35 to keep alive from previous generations and what new practices to start. Middle-eaiih's

loss of the elves and Tolkien's realization of the changes in Europe after the devastation

of two World Wars comes down to man's ability to find a way to continue the trek

forward and the finding of hope in the future of changed worlds.

36 CHAPTER 4

SHAPE-SHIFTERS

The concept of the monstrous shape-shifter is quite old, and Tolkien takes part in

the literary chain, which has pulled the shape-shifter along into modern thought.

Variations have existed in medieval sagas, in the Beowu( f' poem, and in the historical

record of Europe up to the modern monster lore permeating books, television, and

movies. As was his way, Tolkien played some linguistic games and changed points of

lore to fit his plot, but he made sure that this group of creatures found their way into his

writings.

Two forms of shape-shifter are pertinent to this study. The first has the ability to

change its physical form entirely from one creature to another. The second does not

change its physical form but alters its personality, demeanor, and other psychological

characteristics to match that of a creature of another species.

Of the physical shape altering type of shape-shifter, the two most popular

creatures are arguably the werewolf and the vampire. In modern monster lore, the

werewolf is generally a human who has contracted a curse and uncontrollably turns into a

large, man-eating wolf during full moons. Since the release of Bram Stoker's Dracula,

vampires have had the distinction of being able to shift their physical form into bats,

wolves, or even fog. These creatures, while iconic in monster lore, vastly differ from

Tolkien's shape-shifters in their abilities.

37 Tolkien's werewolves are creations. They are brought about by tampering with

the sacred template of wolves and man originated by the supreme god of the pantheon in

Tolkien's Middle-earth, "Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Iluvatar"

(Silm.l 5). The great werewolf Draugluin "a dread beast, old in evil, lord and sire of the

werewolves of Angband," created by Melkor, does not flow well with the modern

werewolf lore (206). Generally, in modern lore, werewolves are cursed creatures who

have survived, being attacked by a person/werewolf who was himself cursed in a prior

attack. Draugluin and his progeny were werewolves made to be large wolf-like monsters,

a sort of shock troop for the army of evil. Because Tolkien's werewolves are created it

can be assumed that it is not something that Tolkien wanted to be transmittable in his

world since they cannot pass on the taint of evil that made them werewolves.

Furthermore, these versions of iconic monsters do not shape-shift as the modern

reader understands them to. In Tolkien's literature, they are not described as shape-

shifting, and it is possible that their shape-shifting is innate in the concept of the

werewolf creature, thus implying that it is capable of changing its physical shape as well

as passing on the werewolf curse. While Tolkien possibly saw no reason to point out the

obvious here, he was very good at describing the characteristics that he wanted the

creatures to embody. Otherwise, they are werewolves in that they are bigger, stronger,

and more intelligent that other creatures of wolf-kind. They can also speak in their wolf

form. This is a trait that the beast does not have in most literature. Ultimately, JRRT's

werewolves have few characteristics that identify them with the commonly known

literary werewolf.

38 Tolkien's use of vampires is similar to that of the werewolf. There does not seem

to be any evidence that vampires had the ability to transmit their creature type to another

being any more than a dwarf could make an elf a dwarf. JRRT's vampires are created to

be vampires and are not something that can pass the monster type to another race of

creature. This too could be a misread implication. Since they are vampires, or in the

previous argument werewolves, they may be able to pass on their curse, and it is simply

implied in that they are vampires. In Tolkien's Silmarillion, he refers to vampires as

vampires and that is it. They are not described in any way other than by name as if

Tolkien presupposes that the reader knows what a vampire is. He also does not employ

any of the shape-shifter abilities in his vampires from antecedent vampire literature such

as Dracula. In essence, they may have been stripped of their ability to shift their physical

form or, again, the implication is that they are able to do so because that is what vampires

do. This does become a problematic implication because of the regional difference in

vampire lore. Tolkien's use of the vampire is simply to expand the roll call of the evil

army. They do not get the distinction of having a large descriptive part in the plot, and

their cursory inclusion in the story seems to rely simply on the weight of being known as

vampires.

While it is a bit of literary irony that the creatures that should shift their physical

forms cannot do so because they are stripped of the ability, Tolkien does not remove

physical shape shifting from his books. In fact, JRRT borrows from the medieval story

line of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the design of a character using magic spells to

change physical appearance. 10 Sauron, the "greatest of the servants of Melkor" (420) and

39 the great source of evil in the LOTR trilogy, "took upon himself the form of a werewolf,

and made himself the mightiest that had yet walked the world" in an attempt to give

himself the advantage in battle (206). He still found himself on the losing end, so

"Sauron shifted shape, from wolf to serpent, and from monster to his own accustomed

form" (206) again trying to gain advantage. Finally, "he took the form of a vampire,

great as a dark cloud across the moon, and he fled" (207). Through this point in the

story, the reader can see that Tolkien does employ the use of physical shape changing

while not sticking to the general lore of the shape-changing creatures at hand.

Historical evidence shows that many cases of werewolves in Europe are attributed

to the population of an area suffering ergot poisoning from tainted rye. This is easy

enough to explain and understand. The literary record of shape-shifters goes further back

than the records of ergot poisoning. Taking into account the historical and religious

records of the pre-Christian northern European people, within the Saga of the Volsungs, a

reader finds another example of shape-shifter lore, that of the skin-changer:

When Sigurd's father Sigmund is driven from society by his enemy the

king of Gautland (in southwestern Sweden), Sigmund finds a companion

in his son Sinfjotli. Away from other humans, the two live in an

underground dwelling, clothe themselves in wolfskins, and howl like

wolves. They roam the forest as beasts of prey, killing any men they come

upon. (Byock 5)

Whether these actions are a means of surviving the inhospitable wilderness or a fonn of

archaic magic not fully explained through the ages is up for debate. However it is

40 examined and explained, this change of lifestyle and mannerism is a precursor to the

historical warriors known as berserkers.

According to E. V. Gordon, "Berserks were probably named 'bear-shirts' from a

superstition that they were 'skin changers'. Gordon also says that a berserkr was 'a wild

warrior on whom a fighting-rage descended like madness' and that it was probably

believed that 'they got superhuman strength from their animal nature'" (qtd. in Gilliver

96). Tolkien uses this pseudo-shifting for a heroic character that was perhaps his most

beloved, Beren. 1 1 This character, like Sigmund and Sinfjotli, wears the skin of a creature,

in Beren's case the skin of Draugluin, to disguise himself as the great werewolf to enter

an otherwise impenetrable fortress.

The Nordic bear-walkers, or berserkers, are Tolkien's bridge between one final

character who is a fully physical shape-shifter and his beloved Beowulf. The heroic

character Beom in Tolkien's the book The Hobbit is "a skin-changer. He changes his

skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man

with huge arms and a great beard" (Hobbit 116). JRRT took this character's name from a

word, which in Old English means "a wan"ior, a hero, a man of valor" (Gilliver 95). It is

also quite similar to the Old Norse cognate Bjorn, meaning 'bear.' Both meanings are

applicable for the character: "In the last hour Beorn himself had appeared-no one knew

how or from where. He came alone, and in bear's shape; and he seemed to have grown

almost to giant-size in his wrath" (Hobbit 291). In effect, he is the physical equivalent to

the spiritual-mental shape shifting of berserkers or Sigmund and his son Sinfjotli.

41 Linguistically this bear-man is related to the epic hero Beowulf, as R. W. Chambers

observes:

[T]he obvious interpretation of the name Beowulf is 'wolf (or foe) of the

bee'. Many who accepted this interpretation nevertheless could not see a

reason for the hero to have this name, but Chambers asserts that 'bee-foe'

simply means 'bear' [....] The bear, in the legends of Scandinavian,

Finnish, Sarni (Lapp), and Slavonic peoples, is regarded with awe and

thought to have human understanding and enonnous strength; hence 'bear'

is an excellent name for an epic hero. (Gilliver 94-95)

Beowulf does not embrace the lifestyle of a bear in the manner that Sigmund and Sinfjotli

embrace that of the wolf. However, in a more civilized adaptation, Beowulf does

embody the Nordic bear-walker. Not only does his name lend something to his natural

essence, but he, in physicality and ferocity, embodies the power of the bear. Invoking his

bearlike strength and fighting ability, he braggingly refuses to take up arms against the

monster Grendel, as seen in this excerpt from Tolkien's translation:

No whit do I account myself in my warlike stature a man more despicable

in deeds of battle than Grendel doth himself. Therefore I will not with

sword give him the sleep of death, although I well could. Nought doth he

know of gentle arms that he should wield weapon against me or hew my

shield, fierce though he be in savage deeds. Nay, we two shall this night

reject the blade, if he dare have recourse to warfare without weapons, and

42 then let the foreseeing God, the Holy Lord, adjudge the glory to whichever

side him seemeth meet. (Tolkien, Bea. lines 551-560)

The fighting prowess of Beowulf and the Nordic berserkers is legendary and it is

understandable why Tolkien would find a way to tie them into his work.

Tolkien gets great use out of the various types of shape-shifter. He includes the

use of the mega-monsters the werewolf and vampire, but does so in a way that leaves

them powerful to the storyline and yet seemingly lacking at the same time. He uses

magic to shift the shapes of characters as well as innate abilities while possibly stripping

the morphing ability from others. Furthermore, Tolkien is able to echo in the use of

shape-shifters from the style found in Norse sagas. Finally, he brings to life a shape-

shifter who blends both the essence of the berserker with that of the physical shape

changing creature Beorn who linguistically ties to the epic character Beowulf. Tolkien

took the variety of shape-shifters and utilized them all in his literature both to expand his

storyline and to add to the legacy of shape-shifters, good and bad.

43

CHAPTER 5

HEROIC HUMANITY VS MONSTROSITY

Do not tempt me! For I do not wish lo Become like the Dark Lord himself Yet the way of the Ring lo my heart

is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempi me! I dare not take it, not even lo keep if safe, unused The wish to wield it would be

too great for my strength. .!. R. R. Tolkien

Conceivabl y, the question at hand should be whether evil is then in the action or

in the nature of the creature. This is acknowledged with the hope that this thesis does not

enter too far i nto the ages old philosoph ical argument about the nature of evil. In his

essay, "Why is the Only Good Ore a Dead Ore? The Dark Face of Racism Examined in

Tolkien's World," Rearick poi nts out that "it is undeniable that darkness and the color

black are continually associated throughout Tolkien's universe with unredeemable evil,

specifica lly Ores and the Dark Lord Sauron. So unredeemable is this evil, in fact, that

especially in encounters with the Ores duri ng the war's action, it is dealt with by

extermination" (862). Evil, then, should be stamped out in its enti rety. This thought is

not universal in Middle-earth.

Tolkien's dwarves lost their dark hue and the inability to go out into the sunlight,

characteristics of the mythological race. They thereby could enter into the ranks of the

good races and fight against evil. Elves are always portrayed as fair skinned and fair-

44 haired, while the host of abominations created from them through the evil machinations

of Morgoth, Sauron and Samman left the ores with not only blackened souls and

ideologies, but blackened skin as well. In Tolkien' s literature, evil is defined by light and

dark, but skin color is but a by-product of the essence of evil found in conupted

creatures.

The physical characteristic of light and dark skin pe1taining to good and evil in

Tolkien's fantasy world extends to humans, but not entirely. Instead, Tolkien allows for

an innate state of good in humans with the ever-present possibility of redemption. Ifone

considers the essence of evil in man, and what is or is not permissible in the Haradrim or

other evil humans of Tolkien's Middle-earth, then one should seriously question why the

mythic Sigurd is considered one of the greatest heroes in Norse Mythology. He is a

dragon slayer, and this feat in itself is no small task. Itputs him in a short lineup of

monster slayers. However, the point of being a hero is that they are supposed to be good

and do good. Perhaps this is not an absolute law of heroism but conceivably a good mle

of thumb upon which to base an argument.

Cannibalism and vampirism are both acts of evil. This does not include mock

acts of cannibalism and vampirism used in Christian ritual where the participant

symbolically eats flesh and drinks blood. This argument is applied to the actual act of

eating the corpse of another human or drinking the blood of another human.

Undoubtedly, no one will say that Jeffery Dahmer could ever be classified as a heroic

figure. Yet, Sigurd is a heroic figure, and he partakes in both cannibalism and

vampirism. After Sigurd killed Fafnir, he killed Fafnir's brother Regin and then ate

45 Fafnir's heart and drank the blood of both Fafnir and Regin. Arguably, since Fafnir was

originally a human who metamorphosed into a dragon because of the curse on the

treasure and the corruptness of his own heart, he was still on some level a human.

Therefore, the act of Sigurd eating Fafnir's heart was an act of cannibalism. However,

Sigurd's act drinking the blood of Regin is unquestionably vampirism. Because of this

act, the reader must question whether Sigurd is a hero, or even good for that matter.

Although, as we have seen, Tolkien draws upon such sources making his

monstrous creatures, there are no cases within the Tolkien Legendarium where humans

eat others of their own race or drink their blood. The Uruk-Hai, a genetically advanced

breed of ore, is!mown to do so, as are their lesser kin. They are also willing to eat elves,

which are a distant cousin to their engineered race. Humans align themselves with these

creatures and fight for the cause that would put humans on the menu. Does this make

these humans as evil as the ore-kin, or are they separated from that level because they

have not crossed that line? This begs the question, what was Tolkien's reasoning behind

giving humans above all other races forgiveness and allowing their freedom after having

turned to the side of evil? Let it not be forgotten that these races fought for Morgoth in

the earlier Ages of Middle-eaiih and for Sauron and Saruman in the Third Age: "Yet

neither by wolf, nor Balrog, nor by Dragon, would Morgoth have achieved his end, but

for the treachery of Men" (Silm. 229). While others of the good races are p01irayed doing

evil acts or perhaps falling victim to the lure of evil's call, none do so in JRRT's books

more than humans do.

46 Ultimately, Middle-earth is comprised of those that are good, the beings that have

the divine spark of good in them, and those c01Tupted by evil so much that the spark is

snuffed out, and their soul is as dark as a shadow in a cave on a new moon night. The

reader of the LOTR trilogy will see that all humans seem to be good so long as they

choose to be so. Tolkien's humans have the divine spark of the god Iluvatar, so no matter

the decisions made by them, they are still redeemable as innately good creatures.

Saruman's acolyte Wormtongue gets the choice of freedom and the opportunity to change

his ways, but he makes the personal choice to go back to his master. The heroic Boromir,

a member of the fellowship that was sent foiih to destroy the Ring of Power, was

temporarily taken over by the call of the One Ring. He attempted to take the One Ring

from Frodo, while at the last minute came through the veil of evil that had blinded him,

and died trying to save two other hobbits. 12 Boromir is still considered a hero because of

his final act of sacrifice.

This idea of men being capable of salvation or redemption would appear to be a

bit of JRRT's Catholic doctrine flowing into the text. There is also the chance that it is

an underlying sense of human-centric bias. Whether it is in Norse Mythology, Christian

Mythology, or Tolkien's literature, humans want the humans to prevail over evil. In

Norse Mythology, the Gods die, the Einherjar fail to win the day, and the old world is

lost forever. In Christianity, the host of heaven wins their battle and good wins out. In

Tolkien's literature, the old world fights to survive and only does so because good wins

the day and man is able to ca1Ty old traditions forward despite the vast change in the

world. Salvation is a pillar of Christianity, and Tolkien's faith shines through Aragorn,

47 who is proof that strength lies in the hearts of men no matter how many humans, like his

predecessor Isildur, have failed to stand against evil.

48 CHAPTER 6

THE GREAT WARS AND TOLKIEN'S WAR OF THE RING

It shall all go up in a great fire, and all shall be ended Ash! Ash and smoke

blown away on the wind! J R.R. Tolkien

It is apparent that many people believe the argument that The Lord of the Rings is

written as an allegory about World War II and Tolkien's experiences in World War I.

This is not the case. In fact, the author addressed this in the forward of the second edition

and all subsequent editions of The Lord of the Rings. In Fellowship of the Ring, the first

book of the series, Tolkien's forward states the following:

As for any inner meaning or 'message,' it has in the intention of the author

none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down

roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches; but its main

theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as

the link between it and The Hobbit. The crucial chapter, 'The Shadow of

the Past,' is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before

the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and

from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same

lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before

in mind, or in some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was

49 modified by the war that began in 1939 or its sequels [...] I cordially

dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I

grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. (Fellowship x)

While the wartime machinations of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are not an allegory

with aone toone coCT"espondence forTolkien's personal wartime experiences, this does

not mean that there is not an influence in thought.

In J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, T. A. Shippey goes into great detail to

help dismiss the idea that The Lord of the Rings is an allegory. He begins with the

statements above, made by Tolkien. He then breaks down reasons why it is not and how

parts thought to correspond to events of the WWII simply do not add up to properly

convey the would be allegory. Shippey points out that the trilogy is based upon "the

destruction of the Ring and the refusal to use it" and the idea of what it means to make

the decision to use or not use the ring (Author 163).

A simple point to illustrate this is that nothing in either of the Great Wars can be

made into an equivalent to the One Ring of Mordor. Even if one tries to argue that the

use of the Atomic bomb is the equivalent, it would not cause the physical and mental and

emotional deterioration to the man who pressed the button that the ring caused to the

character Smeagol/ Gollum. At least it should be said that for argument's sake, the

historical record shows no sign that bombing Japan did any such damage to the American

President, although it would make for an interesting press conference if the president

were to keep stroking a briefcase calling it his precious.

50 In examining alleged allegories, there are a few col1'elations that Shippey did not

make. The first is that the Winged Beasts that serve as the mounts of the Nazgul could

easily play the part in Tolkien's War of the Ring that bombers and fighter planes took in

the historical Great Wars. In Return of the King, the NazgUI do not make physical attacks

from their Winged Beasts as they do in the movie adaptations of Peter Jackson. Their

attacks are more insidious:

dread and despair [...] Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever

present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they

became, not less, at each new cry. At length even the stout-hearted would

fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or

they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while

into their minds a blaclmess came, and they thought no more of war; but

only of hiding and of crawling, and of death. (Tolkien, Return 92-93)

While the Nazi use of the Luftwaffe and aerial warfare were impressive and devastating,

they had no aerial weapon that could take the will of the fighting man like airborne

Nazgul.

Another comparable usage of monstrosity to the Nazi war machine in WWII

Germany could very well be the Mumakil, elephant-like creatures that the hobbit

Samwise Gamgee would call "oliphaunts," used by the humans, known as Haradrim, and

being the equivalent to the Panzers or other tanks ( Towers 283). Undoubtedly, the beasts

were meant to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible, and to the fictional

soldiers facing them, a great deal of fear.

51 Historically, this brings to mind the first time Nazi tanks were used against the

Polish armies. The Polish had never seen the like and possessed no siege weapomy that

could stand against the armored foe. However, they proudly rode their cavalry horses to

charge the line of tanks and their own destruction. Again, this would be reaching. Just

because an elephant of some similar creature is used, it does not make it a tank. One

needs to remember that Hannibal used elephants with devastating effectiveness in 217

B.C.E. when he crossed the Alps and began laying waste to the Roman countryside. So

regardless how the milmakil stood against the men of Gondor, or how the Gondorians

fared against the mumakil, or even when this story was written, this little attempt to make

historical fact out of fiction is moot.

A final possible correlation is between Tolkien's armies of Mordor and Orthanc,

and the Nazi soldiers themselves. 13 In the past few hundred years, no army has embodied

the concept of evil like the military of the Nazi Party of Germany during the first half of

the twentieth century. This is of course subjective to a person's region and perspective.

There is no doubt that throughout 2014-2016 the great military fear in the Middle East is

that of the organization called Islamic State oflraq and Syria (ISIS). Also bent on

genocide and a misguided religious ideology, like the Nazis, they are a poor mimic of the

Third Reich since they are not the militmy arm of a nation but a rebel organization

attempting to carve out a part of the world for their ideology to exist.

The point of this is that perspective or personal beliefs aside, one cannot forget

the visions caught in films of the tight line formations of the Nazi soldiers marching in

procession through city streets in their parade dress uniform giving the Roman solute to

52 their Fuhrer. Perhaps this image fueled Peter Jackson's vision of the Uruk-Hai in their

formation outside of the tower Otthanc saluting the traitorous Saruman. Due to this

vision trapped in the minds of Tolkien movie fans, it is understandable why someone

might put the two together even if the image of properly ordered military battalion

formations are never given to the reader by the author himself. While the visual of

marching Nazis and Orcish monsters standing in ranks might mirror one another to some

degree, the actions of the two armies are quite different. The armies of Mordor and

Orthanc took prisoners only two times and against a total of three hobbit enemies.

Furthermore, the directive of all ore kind seemed to be the outright call for death to all

enemies. They did not keep slaves or prisoners of war. Nor did Sauron or Saruman

employ the use of death camps or concentration camps like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.

In reality, readers can come up with a laundry list of correspondences to prove

that some literary plot point is the equivalent of some historical event put into literature to

mirror the reality of the time, but that does not make it so. Tolkien did in fact serve in the

British military and was on the front line as a radio operator during World War I at the

Battle of the Somme. This is often thought of as the most brutal and bloody standoff in

the history of human warfare. Both sides were dug in so well that the Allied officers had

the German line bombarded with bombs and mortars for so long that they were sure that

it had to have broken the line. When the officers told the British soldiers to charge the

enemy line, the Germans were sitting there waiting and cut down the allied soldiers by

the hundreds. The bloodshed was so bad that the German soldiers were yelling at the

53 British soldiers and telling them to go back. This was one of Tolkien's experiences, but

neither it nor anything like it was incorporated into LOTR.

Tolkien's war-time experiences did influence his writings in other ways, however.

It is not Tolkien's way, in his writing, to indulge in unnecessary violence and carnage in

his battle scenes. He did not do this in his Lord of the Rings series or in the lesser-known

children's stories. This undoubtedly stems from his history in the trenches of WWI. It is

common among writers who have seen the true horrors of war, not to want to relive them

through their fictional writing, especially when it is unnecessary to the progression or

overall mood of the story. While readers can attempt to employ connections between

JRRT's life and his literature, the fact is that he said that there are not direct correlations.

As such, fans of the literature should simply accept that instead of disputing what Tolkien

thought, against his own denial of allegory.

54 CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

Master linguist and author J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien spent his adult life

examining medieval languages and their literature. The love of this material was so deep

that as a university professor teaching Old English, Tolkien fought to be able to teach Old

Norse as well, even though it was not popular among academics. Tolkien wanted nothing

more than to present these languages and literature to new generations.

Tlu·oughout Tolkien's life, he worked on creating a fantasy world complete with a

genesis story, thousands of years of history, as well as multiple races and languages. His

obsession with philology led him to include elements of medieval mythology and

language lore within his stories in the plots, landscapes, and creatures. Tolkien used

traits from a variety of creatures to fill his storyline while significantly altering the face of

the fantasy fiction geme and bringing the depth of medieval language and literature to

modern literature.

Among the creatures found in medieval literature included in Tolkien's literature

are dragons. He did not take the dragons directly, or their models, from mythology and

displace them into his version of Middle-earth. Miogarosormr, Fafnir, and the Beowulf

dragon never directly enter into his world, but they are heavily influential in the creation

of draconic creatures such as Glaurung, Ancalagon the Black, and Smaug. Tolkien never

acknowledges the Norse dragon Nithhogg, but the immense size of the creature would

55

leave no place in his storyline for such a massive beast. Tolkien's melding of the

aforementioned dragons fashioned a new variety of creature that has since changed the

way that people perceive dragons in modern literature, movies, and visual ati.

Another creature that Tolkien took from Norse mythology is the alfar. In the

medieval languages of Europe, this word included the varied races that Tolkien would

turn into the dwarf and the elf known by fantasy fiction fans today. He took mythic traits

from a/jar lore and included it in the chmacter races within his literature modifying them

just enough to make them his own.

Tolkien did not simply borrow and meld traits to create the creatures he wanted in

his stories; he also moved and modified character racial traits as needed. He also

changed the races through his literature by taking the trait of mythological dwai·ves,

found in the Nordic myth the Alvfssmal, whereby they could not go into the sunlight

without turning into stone, and put it into his new modified race of trolls. JRRT also

allowed for growth within his creatures by changing the elves over time and letting the

race mature in a manner from childish to somber and serious.

Another variety of creature employed by Tolkien are physical and psychological

shape-shifters. Tolkien included vampires and werewolves in his Legendarium but

changed them from their commonly known creature lore by not allowing their respective

curses to be passed on from one being to the next. In addition, he did not state directly

that they ever change shapes, as they do in other literature. Tolkien did include physical

shape shifting by the necromancer Sauron as well as by the being known as Beorn.

Beorn brings into Tolkien's world another facet of his beloved medieval lore, in that the

56 character's name is connected linguistically to Beowul f'and both the characters Beowulf

and Beorn are tied to the mytho-historical berserkers.

Another aspect to Tolkien's literary works of fiction is the philosophical idea of

redemption in men and the belief that men are innately good, even if they commit

heinous acts. An example of this from mythology is the fact that the Norse hero, Sigurd,

is considered a hero even after committing acts of cannibalism and vampirism. In

Tolkien's saga, humans are ultimately redeemable for evil actions so long as they choose,

thereafter, to be good. There is evidence of this in LOTR within the character Boromir

and in the humans called the Haradrim. This is plainly a case of Tolkien's Roman

Catholic faith shining through his literature.

Over the years, there has been much discussion that Tolkien's literature is an

allegory of the Great World Wars of the early twentieth century. While it is possible to

entertain the idea that there are one-to-one correlations between Tolkien's wartime

experiences as a soldier in WWI, or as a civilian during and after WWII, and his Middle-

earth saga, this is simply not the case. Tolkien himself discounts this theory, as does the

famed academic T. A. Shippey. There are always going to be parallels between a

fictional story about war and actual war. The fact that JRRT personally experienced the

atrocities of war does not mean that he wrote about those events in his fictional literature.

In summary, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's fictional literature is the creation of a

brilliant mind. He was capable of hiding a variety of points from medieval language and

literature within his books and in doing so found a way to share it with new generations

in a playful manner. His use of myth and legend changed the way readers think of a

57 variety of races found in fantasy fiction, leading to Tolkien unintentionally changing the

face of an entire genre of literature.

ENDNOTES

59

ENDNOTES

1 First printed in 1937 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd (Hobbit vi).

2 Wergild is an Anglo-Saxon word for a monetary payment by a person for having

killed someone else's relative "compensation, value of a man's life" (Hall 405, "Wergild''

def.).

3 "The Hobbit: Part 2: The Desolation of Smaug."

4 The Old Norse name Niohoggr means "The Dastardly Striking" (Hollander 7),

or "the one striking full of hatred" (Simek 231, "Niohoggr" def.).

5 'Ratatoskr ' Old Norse for "drill tooth", (Simek 261, "Ratatoskr" def.).

6 Volume 5 of the Histories of Middle-earth series by J. R. R. Tolkien and edited

by Christopher Tolkien.

7 There is a linguistic argument set within the plural form of the word dwarf.

Tolkien addresses this stating that "Grammar prescribes dwarfs; philology suggests that

dwarrows would be the historical form. The real answer is that I knew no better. But

dwarves goes better with elves" (Letters 31). Depending on the literature that one reads,

one could perhaps find the usage of the word "dwarfs" as opposed to Tolkien's word

"dwarves". While the word "dwarfs" is used in academic literature in reference to the

creature due to proper grammar, here Tolkien's version will be used except for when

quoting someone else who does not follow Tolkien's lead in this matter. It should be

noted that this word choice born out of apparent literary whimsy is now the generally

accepted plural form of the word dwarf in the modern fantasy genre.

60 8 The Valar are a race of being that are divine in nature, similar to the angels of

the Abrahamic religions. They are called the "Those with Power" and at the beginning of

time "assumed the function of guarding and governing" world (Silm. 427). Because of

their divine nature, the Valar are incapable of dying.

9 To see the details about the end of the nation of Numenor, see The Silmarillion

pages 333-335.

10 Tolkien and E. V. Gordon worked together on a translation of Sir Gawain and

the Green Knight, which was originally published in 1925 (Sir Gawain 16).

11 The story behind the love affair between Beren and Li'.1thien was so dear to his

heart that when his wife, Edith, passed away in 1971 he had the name 'Luthien' inscribed

on her tombstone (Letters 420). In turn, when he passed away in 1973, the name 'Beren'

was inscribed underneath his name.

12 The following poem, written by Tolkien, is included below because it tells

about the many rings of power subservient to the One Ring of Sauron. These rings were

given to the leaders of the various races for the purpose of subjugating the leaders and

their good races under the rule of evil.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Moral Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them,

61

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. (Fellowship vii)

13 Mordor is the fictional land ruled by "The Black One", Sauron and Orthanc is

the name of the tower of the wizard Saruman ( Towers 280). It is of interest to note that

both Mordor and Orthanc are words of Old English or Anglo-Saxon origin. According to

A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionmy by J. R. Clark Hall, the word "Moroor" means, "deed

of violence, 'murder' homicide, manslaughter. ..mortal sin, crime,: injury, punishment,

torment, misery" ("Moroor," def.). Perhaps this is a fitting choice since it is the name of

the land of all evil. In addition, the meaning of the word "Oroanc" is, "intelligence,

understanding, mind: cleverness, skill: skillful work, mechanical work" ("Oroanc,"def.

1). This word is more than an archaic sounding word meant to give a pseudo-historical

feel to the text but it also gives meaning since Saruman is a clever wizard who turned his

mind to the pursuit of industrial works under servitude to Sauron.

WORKS CITED

63 WORKS CITED

Battles, Paul. "Dwarfs in Getmanic Literature: Deutsch Mythologie or Grimm's Myths?"

The Shadow Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous. Ed. Tom

Shippey. Tempe: ACMRS, 2005. 29-82. Print.

Brown, Nancy Marie. Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths. New

York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012. Print.

Byock, Jesse L. Trans. The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse of the Dragon Slayer.

London: Penguin. 1990. Print.

"Einherjar." Def. The Dictionary a/ Northern Mythology. 2007. Print.

Gilliver, Peter, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner. The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. Trans. James Stephen Stallybrass. 4th ed. Vol. 2.

1883. Charleston: Filiquarian, 2013. Print.

Hall, J. R. Clark. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed. 1960. Toronto: U of

Toronto P, 2008. Print. Medieval Acad. Reprints for Teaching 14.

Heaney, Seamus. Trans. Beowulf. Bilingual Edition. New York: Farrar, 2000. Print.

Hollander, Lee M. Trans. The Poetic Edda. 2nd ed., Rev. Austin: U of Texas P, 2004.

Print.

"Miogarosormr." Def. The Dictionary a/ Northern Mythology. 2007. Print.

"Moroor." Def. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed. 2008. Print.

"Niohoggr." Def. The Dictionary a/ Northern Mythology. 2007. Print.

64 "Oroanc." Def. 1. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed. 2008. Print.

"Ragnarok." Def. The Dictionary of Northern Mythology. 2007. Print.

"Ratatoskr." Def. The Dictionary of Northern Mythology. 2007. Print.

Rearick, Anderson., III. "Why is the Only Good Ore a Dead Ore? The Dark Face of

Racism Examined in Tolkien's World." Modern Fiction Studies 50. 4 (2004):

861-874. Print.

Shippey, Tom A. J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Boston: Houghton, 2000. Print.

---. The Road to Middle Earth. 1982. London: Grafton-Harper, 1992. Print.

---.The Shadow Walker: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous. Tempe: ACMRS,

2005. Print. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol. 291.

Simek, Rudolf. The Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Woodbridge:

D. S. Brewer. 2007. Print.

Tolkien, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel]. Beowulf A Translation and Commentary Together

with Sellic Spell. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton, 2014. Print.

---. Beowulf and the Critics. Ed. Michael C. Drout. Tempe: ACMRS, 2002. Print.

---. The Fellowship of the Ring. 1954. New York Ballantine, 1994. Print. The Lord of the

Rings 1.

---. The Hobbit or There and Back Again. 1937. Rev. ed. New York: Del Rey-Ballantine,

1994. Print.

---. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien.

Boston: Houghton, 2000. Print.

65 ---. The Return of the King.1955. New York: Ballantine, 1994. Print. The Lord of the

Rings 3.

---. Roverandom. Ed. Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond Boston: Houghton, 1998.

Print.

---. The Silmarillion. 2nd. ed. Ed. Christopher Tolkien 1977. Boston: Del Rey-Ballantine,

2002. Print.

---. Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham. 1969. New York: Del Rey-

Ballantine, 1995. Print.

---. The Two Towers. 1954. New York: Ballantine, 1994. Print. The Lord of the Rings 2.

---, Trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo. New York: Del Rey-

Ballantine, 1980. Print.

"Wergild." Def. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed. 2008. Print.

WORKS CONSULTED

67 WORKS CONSULTED

Abram, Christopher. "New Light on the Illumination of Grendel's Mere." JEGP 109.2

(2010): 198-216. Project Muse. Web. 29 Jan. 2013.

Alexander, Michael. Trans. Beowulf. Baltimore: Penguin, 1973. Print.

Donaldson, E. Talbot. Trans. Beowulf.· The Norton Anthology: World Masterpieces. 4th

Ed. Vol. 1: New York: Nmton 1979. 24-83. Print.

Bjork, Robert E, and John D. Niles, eds. A Beowulf Handbook. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P,

1998. Print.

Bloom, Harold, Ed. Modern Critical Interpretations: Beowulf. New York: Chelsea, 1987.

Print.

Boenig, Robert. "Scyld's Burial Mound." English Language Notes 40. 1 (2002). 1-13.

Print.

Breizmann, Natalia. "Beowulf as Romance: Literary Interpretation as Quest." MLN, 113.5

(1998): 1022-1035. JSTOR. Web. 25 Jan, 2006.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. New York: Meridian, 1960. Print.

---. The Masks of God: Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology. New York: Penguin-Compass,

1991. Print.

Carpenter, Humphrey. J R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. Boston: Houghton, 2000. Print.

Day, David. Tolkien: A Dictionary. San Diego: Thunder Bay-Baker, 2013. Print.

---. The World of Tolkien: Mythological Sources of The Lord of the Rings. New York:

Chartwell, 2013. Print.

68 Dragland, S.L. "Monster-Man in Beowulf "Neophilologus 61 (1977): 606-618. Print.

Earl, James W. "The Forbidden Beowulf: Haunted by Incest." PMLA 125.2 (2010): 289-

305. Print.

Falk, Oren. "BeowulfsLongest Day: TheAmphibious Hero inHis Element ("Beowulf ',

II. 1495b-96)." JEGP, 106.1 (2007): 1-21. JSTOR. Web. 29 June 2012.

Garth, John. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle Earth. Boston:

Houghton, 2003. Print.

Grigsby, John. Beowulf and Grendel: The Truth Behind England 's Oldest Legend.

London: Watkins. 2006. Print.

Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English

Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.

Grammaticus, Saxo. The Danish Histmy. Trans. Oliver Elton. Ed. Douglas B. Killings.

N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Hennequin, M. Wendy. "We've Created a Monster: The Strange Case of Grendel's

Mother." English Studies 89: 5 (2008). 503-523. JSTOR. Web. 29 Jan. 2013.

Hiley, Margaret. "Stolen Language, Cosmic Models: Myth and Mythology in Tolkien."

Modern Fiction Studies 50. 4 (2004): 838-60. Print.

Hunter, John C. "The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Critical Mythology and The Lord of

the Rings." Journal of Modern Literature 29.2 (2006): 129-47. Print.

Kim, Sue. "Beyond Black and White: Race and Postmodernism in 'The Lord of the

Rings' Films." Modern Fiction Studies 50.4 (2004): 875-907. Print.

69 Kocher, Paul H. Master of Middle-Earth: The Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston:

Houghton, 2000. Print.

Nibelungenlied. Trans. A. T. Hatto. Baltimore: Penguin, 1964. Print.

Orchard, Andy. A Critical Companion to Beowulf. Cambridge: Brewer, 2007. Print.

---. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript. Toronto: U

of Toronto P, 2003. Print.

---, trans and ed. The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Print.

Ready, William. The Tolkien Relation: A Personal Inquiry. Vancouver: Copp, 1968.

Print.

Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Trans. Anthony Faulkes. Vermont: Everyman-Tuttle, 1995.

Print.

---. Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings. Trans. A. H. Smith. Ed. Erling

Monsen. New York: Dover, 1990. Print.

Tolkien, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel]. The Book of Lost Tales I . Ed. Christopher Tolkien.

New York: Del Rey-Ballantine, 1992. Print. The Histories of Middle Earth. Vol I .

---. The Book of Lost Tales 2. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Del Rey-Ballantine,

1992. Print. The Histories of Middle Earth. Vol 2.

---. The Children of Hurin. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Del Rey-Ballantine,

2007. Print.

---. The Lays of Beleriand. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Del Rey-Ballantine,

1994. Print. The Histories of Middle Earth. Vol. 3.

70 ---. The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton, 2009.

Print.

---. The Lost Road and Other Writings. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Del Rey-

Ballantine. 1996. Print. The Histories of Middle Earth. Vol. 5.

---. The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London:

Harper, 2006. Print.

---. The Shaping of Middle-Earth. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. New York: Del Rey-

Ballantine, 1995. Print. The Histories of Middle Earth. Vol. 4.

---. The Tolkien Reader. New York: Del Rey-Ballantine, 1966. Print.

Wilson, Edmund. "Oo, Those Awful Ores." Nation, 182.15 (1956). JSTOR. Web. 20 Dec.

2011.

Wright, David, Trans. Beowulf. New York: Penguin, 1988. Print.