Ring Legends of Tolkien

by David Day

  Gandalf the Grey topples into the abyss of Moria, only to arise again with greater power as Mithrandir, the White Wizard

  Shadowfax on the Plains of Rohan

  In many of his powers, however, Gandalf is far more like the Nordic Odin than the Celtic Merlin. To begin with, his name comes from the Prose Edda, and literally means “sorcerer-elf”. In his use of runes, incantations and even his Wizard powers, Gandalf is more comparable to Odin. Even Gandalf’s horse comes directly from Norse traditions: Shadowfax means “silver-grey” and closely resembles Grani, “the Grey”, the steed of Sigurd. Grani, who understood human speech, was the silver-grey offspring of Odin’s supernatural eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. Shadowfax, who also understands the language of Men, is one of the Mearas, a race of horses descended from Nahar, the supernatural horse of the Vala Oromë the Hunter.

  Once their work as mentors and advisers to the heroes is done, all three wizards – Odin, Merlin and Gandalf – mysteriously depart. They all pass out of mortal realms rather than die. Odin, after advising his heroes, wanders out of the mortal world, and (after a pilgrimage to Hel) finally ascends the Rainbow Bridge to the immortal kingdom of the gods in Asgard. Merlin wanders away on a solitary pilgrimage, never to return, for he is caught up in an enchantment and lives in a dreaming trance in – according to varying traditions – a tomb, a tree or a tower on an island in the Western Sea.

  Tolkien’s Gandalf takes elements from both Odin’s and Merlin’s tales by having a double fate. As Gandalf the Grey, after his battle with the Balrog of Moria, he falls into the bowels of the earth where he remains in a deathlike, yet dreaming, state. When he is resurrected as Gandalf the White, he meets his second end on Middle-earth, when he sails on an Elven ship to the immortal kingdom of the Valar in Aman over the Western Sea.

  THE PASSING OF HEROES

  The end of Gandalf on Middle-earth with the departure of the Ringbearers in the white Elven ship from the Grey Havens is also the end of Tolkien’s epic novel. In looking for Arthurian elements in The Lord of the Rings, there can be no doubt that the novel’s bittersweet ending is consciously modelled on the tales of Arthur’s death. It is an ending that is derived from the Celtic side of Arthurian tradition, rather than its Teutonic one. After his final battle, the mortally wounded Arthur is taken on a mysterious barge by a beautiful faerie queen. The barge carries the wounded king westward across the water to the faerie land of Avalon, where Arthur will be healed and given immortal life.

  This end to Arthur’s mortal life is very like the end of The Lord of the Rings. However, it is important to point out that this is not Aragorn’s end. Aragorn remains to die within the mortal world. The supreme reward of this voyage into the land of immortals is reserved for another. The “wounded king” who sails on the Elf queen Galadriel’s ship across the Western Sea, past the Elven towers of Avallónë, is not Aragorn. It is Frodo the Hobbit Ring-bearer, who is rightly the real hero of The Lord of the Rings.

  Curiously, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit move away from the idea of the explicitly mighty and powerful heroes presented in other legends. Although they appear to be a comic foil to the larger heroic personalities of the Men and Elves, nearly all the greatest deeds are achieved, or are caused to be achieved, by the Hobbits. For example, Bilbo’s adventures result in the death of Smaug the Dragon and he also finds the One Ring. Samwise mortally wounds the giant Shelob the Spider, and, most important of all, Frodo (with Gollum) destroys Sauron and the One Ring in Mordor.

  March of the Ents on Isengard

  PART

  SIX

  CAROLINGIAN LEGENDS

  Aragorn and Éomer Ride to the Lands of the East

  In mainland Europe the historical figure of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne grew into one of the great figures of romance. As with Arthur’s knights, Charlemagne’s legends included the many tales of his paladins. The adventures of these Christian knights allied to Charlemagne were told in the famous chansons de geste (“songs of heroic deeds”).

  RECREATING AN EMPIRE

  Tolkien himself often pointed out how many readers saw the connection between Aragorn and King Arthur, but he found that they usually missed the connection between Aragorn and Charlemagne. Certainly, it seemed to him, Aragorn’s great task of forging the Reunited Kingdom of Amor and Gondor from the ruins of the ancient Dúnedain Empire, after more than a millennium of barbarian chaos, was historically parallel to Charlemagne’s task of creating the Holy Roman Empire from the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire.

  Geographically, as well, Tolkien saw that the extent of the Reunited Kingdom of his epic far more closely paralleled the expanse of Charlemagne’s realm. The action of The Lord of the Rings takes place in the northwest of Middle-earth, in a region roughly equivalent to the European landmass. Hobbiton and Rivendell, as Tolkien often acknowledged, were roughly intended to be on the latitude of Oxford. By his own estimations, this put Gondor and Minas Tirith some six hundred miles to the south, in a location that might be equivalent to Florence.

  Certainly, the scale of Charlemagne’s undertaking to create a Holy Roman Empire was more like the challenge that faced Aragorn on Middle-earth than that of King Arthur. The parallel is fairly obvious. In The Lord of the Rings, we learn that the once united Númenórean Kingdom is split into the two weakened and deteriorating realms of the north and south, Amor and Gondor. This is comparable to the historical Roman Empire which was split into two weakened and deteriorating realms of the east and the west, Rome and Byzantium. It is certain that Tolkien himself considered such a parallel, writing that he saw Gondor at the time of the War of the Ring as “a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium”.

  PARALLEL LIVES

  Naturally, there are many other ways in which Aragorn and Charlemagne are comparable. Both carry magical, ancestral swords, both have the power to cure with magical herbs, both have wise old mentors, and both marry elf queens.

  Aragorn’s sword, Andúril – which was forged by Telchar the Smith – is matched by Charlemagne’s sword, Joyeuse – which was said to have been forged by Wayland the Smith. However, it does seem curious that the Christian destroyer of the pagan religions should be armed with a sword that was forged by the same smith who made Gram, the weapon of that supreme warrior of Odin, Sigurd the Dragonslayer.

  In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn uses the herb Athelas to cure those who are fatally struck down by the Black Breath of the Nazgûl. In the Carolingian legends, Charlemagne was reputed to have been able to cure those struck down by the plague, or “Black Death”, by using the herb called sowthistle. In both cases, these herbs worked their magical cures only if administered by the healing hands of kings – as is acknowledged in the folklore of Middle-earth, where the common name for Athelas is kingsfoil.

  Andúril

  The key figure of Gandalf the Wizard in The Lord of the Rings, as Aragorn’s mentor and spiritual guide, cannot properly be transferred into Charlemagne’s world. The Church would not allow a wizard as a mentor and spiritual guide to the Holy Roman Emperor. This is especially true as most wizards are to a great extent thinly veiled, earthbound versions of the pagan magician-god Odin/Woden, the Church’s greatest enemy.

  Enchanted Serpent Ring of Queen Frastrada

  Consequently, in Charlemagne’s Christianized tales, the Gandalf/Merlin/Odin figure is replaced by a wise and elderly churchman. The historical figure of Bishop Turpin supplants the Wizard, and becomes a Christianized version of the same character: the white-bearded, wise old mentor with a bishop’s crook instead of a Wizard’s staff.

  In their choice of queens, Aragorn and Charlemagne are also well matched. Aragorn’s betrothal to the Elf princess Arwen is comparable to Charlemagne’s engagement, in legend, to the Eastern Elf princess Frastrada.

  “THE SERPENT’S RING”

  The most compelling of all the Carolingian ring legends is the tale that concerns Charlemagne’s marriage to Frastrada. Curiously, this story of Charlemagne
and “The Serpent’s Ring” is the Carolingian tale that most resembles The Lord of the Rings in those elements that relate to the enslaving power of a ring. “The Serpent’s Ring” is also the only ring legend that even comes close to Tolkien’s moral stance in the rejection of the ring’s power. It is also a tale that demonstrates how a pagan ring still retained sufficient power in the Christian era to overcome even that most devout hero, the Holy Roman Emperor.

  The tale of “The Serpent’s Ring” begins on Charlemagne’s and Frastrada’s royal wedding day. Vassals and peers from all over the world come to the court of Charlemagne with wedding gifts. Among them is a great serpent with a gold ring in its mouth. The serpent enters the banquet and creeps onto the royal table. There he raises himself up and drops the gold ring from his mouth into a goblet, then turns and slithers out of the banquet hall.

  Taking this as a good omen on his wedding day, Charlemagne takes up the ring and places it on the hand of his new queen, Frastrada. However, this serpent ring has a power that Charlemagne has not guessed at, and, once on Frastrada’s hand, that power begins to work.

  The Serpent’s Ring is a ring of enchantment. Charlemagne’s love for Frastrada immediately doubles and redoubles. It becomes a compulsive, almost unbearable thing. By its power Charlemagne is irrevocably bound to love and cherish whoever wears the ring. Never can he bear to be parted from the one who has it upon his or her hand.

  For a time, all is well, for Frastrada returns Charlemagne’s love and the two are happy and the affairs of the kingdom go well. But, after a few years, Frastrada catches a deadly illness, and Charlemagne, even with his healing hands, can do nothing to save her.

  Yet when she dies, the spell of the ring does not abate. She is to be buried in a tomb in the cathedral of Mayence, but Charlemagne refuses to be parted from Frastrada and has her laid out in a chamber, where he sits to watch over her body day and night. The power of the ring compels him to see her as beautiful as she was in life. So he remains there day after day, week after week, wasting away and neglecting his empire.

  Finally, Bishop Turpin comes to the chamber while Charlemagne lies in a fitful sleep. Like the wise Gandalf who first recognizes the power of the One Ring, it is the old sage Turpin who recognizes the power of the Serpent’s Ring. Wishing to release his emperor from the ring’s spell, Turpin removes it from the queen’s hand and flees from the chamber.

  When the emperor awakens, he finds that, although still saddened by Frastrada’s death, the savage grief that enslaved him is magically gone. He no longer feels compelled to remain by her side and permits her body to be entombed. However, Charlemagne gradually realizes that he must urgently seek the advice and company of Bishop Turpin. He feels that he had never before realized how important this elderly adviser was to him. It seems to him now that only through his friendship with Bishop Turpin can his life have meaning and purpose.

  The emperor immediately rushes to Turpin and declares the bishop the wisest of men and the best of friends. Thereafter, he proclaims, the emperor will never be parted from him, and, in all affairs of state, Turpin’s word will hold sway.

  Rather daunted by the realization that the power of the ring can arouse such love in Charlemagne for a man as well as for a woman, Turpin nonetheless takes advantage of its powers so that he can get Charlemagne to restore his own health, and then encourages him to attend to the pressing affairs of his realm.

  Tolkien’s warlike Southrons of Harad, modelled on Charlemagne’s legendary Saracen foes

  This Turpin manages to achieve, but finally the bishop decides he must reject the power of the ring. Like the Hobbit Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, Turpin discovers that the burden of the ring soon becomes too much. However, the old bishop mistrusts its sorcerous power and is fearful lest the ring fall into evil hands. He knows that the emperor will become enslaved and enchanted by anyone who places it on his hand. So, like Frodo, he secretly creeps away into the wilderness and looks for a way of disposing of the ring.

  Frodo takes the One Ring to the volcanic fires of Mount Doom in an attempt to neutralize its power. Bishop Turpin finds a remote lake in a forest and throws the ring into its water in his attempt to neutralize its power.

  When the bishop returns to Charlemagne the next morning, he finds to his great relief that the emperor’s infatuation for him has diminished to the simple comradeship of old. However, that is not an end to the matter. For the Serpent’s Ring was not destroyed by being thrown in the lake any more than the One Ring is destroyed when it is lost in the Anduin River. And, as the power of the One Ring called out to Sauron, so the power of the serpent’s ring calls out to Charlemagne.

  In ways he cannot understand, the ring haunts Charlemagne. His days are restless and his moods will not allow him to concentrate on affairs of state. Full of distraction, he feels compelled to travel and roam distant woodlands. He often calls his huntsmen and wanders the forests of his realm, hoping the chase will dispel his restlessness.

  One day Charlemagne enters a particular forest, and feels compelled to go deeper and deeper into its heart, until at last he comes to an open glade, wherein he finds that same lake where Turpin had thrown the ring.

  Roland, the bravest and most steadfast of Charlemagne’s paladins

  Great joy fills Charlemagne at the sight of the crystal pool. He becomes inexplicably enraptured with the lake in the glade. As he looks on it, his love for this place increases and increases again. He desires nothing so much as to remain in this place all his life.

  So it happens that upon this very spot the emperor commands that a great palace and his new court be built. This was how Aix-la-Chapelle (the modern Aachen) became the capital of Charlemagne’s realm, for this was where that glade and pool were found, and there the emperor spent most of his days.

  It is rather startling to find at the symbolic centre of the realm of the premier Christian monarch a magical pagan ring, jealously guarded by an emperor armed with a magical pagan sword.

  This seems a mirror opposite to the original Norse tale of Andvari’s Ring, where the greedy dwarf guards a gold ring hidden in a deep pool to keep it from questing heroes. In the Carolingian legend, we have a virtuous emperor guarding a gold ring hidden in a deep pool to keep it from evil pagan powers who come to dethrone him and destroy his empire.

  It is also the opposite of the corrupt Gollum in his dark subterranean pool guarding his ring, and of an evil “emperor” like Sauron guarding a gold ring hidden in the Dark Tower to keep it from the good Elvish powers who come to dethrone him and destroy his empire.

  ROLAND AND OGIER

  Like King Arthur and his Round Table of knights, Emperor Charlemagne was the focal point of a multitude of chansons de geste which concern his loyal paladins. Some aspects of these adventures and their heroes appear to find their way into Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

  One of the most famous of Charlemagne’s paladins was the hero Roland. Celebrated in that masterpiece of medieval French literature the Song of Roland, this loyal paladin is best known for his famous last stand in the Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees against the Saracens. Ambushed and vastly outnumbered, Roland fights valiantly on until his sword breaks. Finally he is overwhelmed by the infidel hordes. As he dies, Roland blows his horn to warn Charlemagne of the attack.

  In The Lord of the Rings, this event is comparable to the last stand of Boromir, heir to the Ruling Steward of Gondor, in his battle with the Orcs on Amon Hen above the Falls of Rauros. Ambushed by Orcs below the Hill of the Eye, Boromir blows his horn. Though he slaughters a score of Orcs in defence of the Hobbits, he is overwhelmed. His sword is broken and his great horn smashed. Aragorn, like Charlemagne, rushes to the sound of the horn but, like Charlemagne, he reaches his valiant friend too late. Boromir speaks only a few words before he dies.

  Another of Charlemagne’s great paladins was the hero whom the Danes praise above all other Christian knights. This was Ogier the Dane. The son of King Geoffrey of Denmark, Ogier and his deeds
were celebrated in chansons de geste and many other legend cycles. In the 19th century, William Morris wrote of Ogier the Dane in his epic poem The Earthly Paradise. As Holger Danske, Ogier is today still the national hero of Denmark.

  Boromir, Faramir and Denethor the Ruling Steward of Gondor

  Ogier the Dane was numbered among the greatest knights of the world. He knew the courts of Charlemagne, of Arthur, of the Langobards, the Huns and Saracens, and embarked on adventures that took him to Jerusalem and Babylon. In his hundredth year, Ogier embarked on one last quest on his return from Jerusalem. He travelled to an isle where a great castle was made of lodestone that tore all iron from ships attempting to sail near its shores. Ogier’s ship was wrecked, but he made his way to land. The castle was illuminated by a magical light, and Ogier entered it. There he discovered a great serpent in its central court, who guarded a tree in the garden. Ogier drew his sword Courtain and slew the creature. Beneath the tree was the most beautiful woman Ogier had ever seen, and on her hand was a gold ring.

  The maid was none other than the immortal Morgan le Fay, the faerie sister of King Arthur. When Morgan placed the golden ring on the old warrior’s hand, Ogier’s youth was instantly restored. By its power, Ogier was granted eternal youth and immortal life. Young and golden-haired once more, Ogier went with Morgan on a final voyage across the sea to the distant faerie realm of Avalon.

  In this Carolingian ring legend, we find many elements comparable to Tolkien’s tales. We have a hero on a ring quest who slays a dragon with an ancestral sword. With the ring he wins his elf princess and immortal life as they sail in a faerie ship to a blessed isle of immortals across the sea. Most importantly, however, in Ogier and Morgan, we have the pattern of Aragorn and Arwen: the marriage of the mortal prince and the immortal princess, who make a choice between mortal and immortal worlds. Ogier and Morgan choose the immortal world, while Aragorn and Arwen choose the mortal one.