The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology

by Tom Shippey

  7 Two of these have been discussed above; for ‘fallow’ see Memoriam Essays, pp. 299–300; ‘Quickbeam’ is a dictionary joke. Cwicbéam, ‘live-tree’, is glossed in Anglo-Saxon dictionaries as ‘poplar’ or ‘aspen’, a decision Tolkien knew was wrong (a) because poplars were imports, like rabbits, (b) because in England ‘quicken’ or ‘wicken’ is still the common word for ‘mountain-ash’. Quickbeam accordingly is a rowan-Ent (LOTR, p. 471); but he has become a ‘quick-tree’ in the modern sense, not the old one.

  8 I.J. L. Lowes, The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination (London: Constable, 1927), p. 44.

  APPENDIX C

  1 This Appendix is based on my article ‘Another Road to Middle-earth: Jackson’s Movie Trilogy’, in Neil D. Isaacs and Rose Zimbardo, eds., Understanding the Lord of the Rings (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2004), pp. 233–54. I am grateful to the editors for allowing me to repeat sections of it.

  2 Some figures for video/DVD sales are given by Kristin Thompson in her article ‘Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood’, in The Velvet Light Trap 32 (Fall 2003), 45–63. Though such figures are always out-of-date, it is clear that the Tolkien films have unusually high cassette/DVD sales, especially of DVDs, though relatively low rentals (people want to keep them). Even in 2003 the return on such sales was approaching the figure for box office takings.

  3 Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are credited with the screenplay, along with Jackson himself.

  4 Possibly Frodo says the words four times. Only three are sub-titled, but Frodo appears to say ‘I will take the Ring’ completely inaudibly, as if to himself, before trying to say it out loud.

  5 Arwen says to Elrond, her father, ‘There is still hope’ in JTT 38, ‘Arwen’s Fate’, and this conversation is what brings the Elvish army to the rescue at Helm’s Deep. There is a kind of symmetry, then, in three or four scenes: Arwen persuading her father in JTT 38, Aragorn encouraging Théoden in JTT 43 and Haleth in JTT 48, Sam re-motivating Frodo and at the same time convincing Faramir in JTT 60.

  6 For the importance of the play to Tolkien, see above. There is an old theatrical tradition that the ‘glass’ which Macbeth sees in Act IV, Scene 1, line 118 ff. was, in the original first production, a mirror angled towards King James I in the audience so that the latter could see himself, as one of Banquo’s descendants.

  7 To quote Hamlet’s famous ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, from Act III, scene 1: ‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action.’ For the importance of Macbeth to Tolkien, see the note above; Michael M.C. Drout points out clear debts to King Lear in his ‘Tolkien’s Prose Style and its Literary and Rhetorical Effects’, Tolkien Studies 1 (2004), 137–62.

  8 Jackson’s own version of ‘interlace’ obviously deserves extended treatment of its own. Kristin Thompson’s article mentioned in note 2 above discusses his debt to cinematic tradition.

  9 Against the 62 chapters of The Lord of the Rings (some ten of which are largely or completely cut out of the film versions), the extended version of JFR has 46 scenes, not counting credits, of JTT 66. No count is available as yet for the extended version of the third film, but the total number of scenes will probably be 170–180: three or four scenes, then, for every one of Tolkien’s chapters actually used.

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Individual works by Tolkien, by other frequently mentioned authors, and from frequently mentioned compilations such as the Bible, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, and the Poetic Edda will be found indexed under Tolkien, Shakespeare, Bible, Poetic Edda, etc.

  ‘abide’, 134–5

  Acemannesceaster, 37

  Acton, Lord, 155–6

  Adam (and Eve), 122, 159, 268, 273, 274. See also Creation

  ‘addictive’, 157–8, 167, 263, 324

  ægishjâlmr, 302–3

  Ælfwine (in Battle of Maldon), 138

  Ælfwine (as name, also Alboin, Alwin), 337–9

  Ælfwine (Wídlást), 340–2, 347–50

  Æsc, Askr, 347–8

  Aeneid, The, see Virgil

  Aerin, 301

  ‘Agnes and the Merman’, 399

  Ainur, 267, 272

  Aire, River, 74n

  Akeman Street, 37, 38, 41

  Alaric, 170

  Alcuin, 225, 232, 233

  Alfred, King, 33–4, 160, 172, 338, 376

  Allan, Jim, 275n

  allegories, 6, 45, 49–50, 53, 55, 87, 104, 113, 153, 190–7, 201, 217, 226, 229, 230, 275, 309, 311, 333, 393

  alliteration, 23, 121, 143, 207, 218–19, 222, 245, 251, 254, 362

  Alpharts Tod (Middle High German poem), 19

  Alvíssmál, see Poetic Edda

  Aman, 263, 283, 326, 327

  American reactions to philology 10, 26; reactions to Tolkien, 1–3; traditions, 393–4, 398; words, 78–9

  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, see Shakespeare

  Amon Hen, 162, 183, 184

  anachronisms, 74–80, 81, 154

  Anatomy of Criticism (Frye), 238–40

  Ancrene Wisse (Riwle), 7, 8, 30, 44, 45, 47–8, 50, 83n, 93, 334, 394

  Andersen, Hans Christian, 270, 389

  Andersson, Theodore, 354

  Anduin, 114

  Andúril, 241

  Andvari, 70

  Angband, 265

  angels, 171, 216, 271–2

  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The, 141

  Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, The (Bosworth and Toller), 51–2, 122, 193

  Anglo-Saxon(s); concepts used by Tolkien 48, 66, 73, 78, 274, 302n; continuity to modern times, 16, 98–9, 155–6, 194–5, 206, 238, 380, 386–7; in history, 36–40, 116–17; later responses to 131, 251–2, 350; relation to Riders of Rohan, 132, 139–45, 148–9, 228–9; see also 133, 142, 143–4, 148, 149, 195, 236–7, 338, 398

  Angrod, 284

  Animal Farm (Orwell), 375

  ann-thennat, 220–1

  Annunciation, 227

  Anórien, 192, 242

  Apollinaris, Sidonius, 21

  ‘applicability’, 192, 195, 196, 274, 376

  Aquae Sulis, 36–7

  Aragorn, 73, 114, 119, 125–8, 410, 424; actions in film versions, 418, 419, 427; and the Riders, 142–4; as hero, 138, 239–41, 362; as king 206, 227; death of, 229, 372; decisions of 183–9, 198; his journey 414; name of, 331; songs of, 142, 202, 220–1; et passim

  Arda (Journal of the Swedish Tolkien Society), 390

  Aredhel, 283, 286, 287, 306

  Ariosto, 182

  Aristotle, 250

  Arkenstone, 96, 100

  Art, 57, 122; Primary Art, 58, 106; Secondary Art, 63, 106

  artefact, fascination with, 273–4; creation of, 382

  Arthur, King, 25, 28, 41, 44, 69n, 149, 182, 202

  Arwen, 229, 276, 372, appearances in film version, 410, 412–13, 418

  Asbjörnsen, P. C, and Moe, J. I., 86, 329, 392; ‘The Master Thief’, 85

  Asgarthr, 348

  ‘asterisk’ form, 169

  ‘asterisk-poems’, 42, 354, 399–408

  ‘asterisk-reality’, 22–6, 29, 80

  ‘asterisk words’, 23, 76, 79, 102, 149

  athelas, 150, 206

  Atlantis, 325

  atomic bomb, 192, 196

  Attila the Hun, 18–19, 170, 228

  Auden, W. H, 32–3, 197, 390

  Audoin (as name, also Éadwine, Edwin), 336–7

  Aulë, 266, 273–4

  Author of the Century (Shippey), 380

  Avallónë, 327

  Axel’s Castle (Wilson), 2, 384

  Azanulbizar, Battle of, 137

  Azog, 110

  Babbitt (Sincla
ir Lewis), 76

  Babel, 11, 52, 122, 268

  Bag End, 81, 82, 118, 211, 212, 213, 264

  ‘bagging’, 82, 105n

  Balin, 88, 104, 109, 166

  balrogs, 49, 56, 125, 151, 245

  Barad-dûr, 226, 266, 383

  Barahir, 295

  Bard the Bowman, 94–7, 100, 352

  Barrow-wights, 119, 120, 122, 264

  Bath, 36–7

  Bath and West Evening Chronicle, 153

  The Battle of Maldon (Old English poem), 94, 138, 140, 178, 236, 389

  ‘The Battle of the Goths and Huns’, see Poetic Edda, 391

  Baynes, Pauline, 114

  Beare, Rhona, 401

  Bede, 49, 342, 375–6

  Bede’s Death-Song (Old English poem), 49

  Beleg, 300

  Beleriand, 255, 268, 283, 349

  ‘bent’, 344

  Bentham, Jeremy, 195

  Bëor, 300

  Beorhtwold, 178, 179

  Beorn, 77, 91, 92, 95, 97, 105, 110, 147

  Beowulf, 3–4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 15, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 38, 47, 51, 52, 53, 61, 66, 80, 81, 86, 89, 91, 92, 99, 102, 104, 141, 142, 143, 167, 171, 174, 182, 192, 193, 202, 205, 217, 225, 228, 233–4, 236, 237, 239, 251, 259, 265, 270, 282, 312, 351, 389–90

  Beowulf: An Introduction (Chambers), 389

  Beregond, 180

  Beren, 126, 128, 220, 254, 269, 277, 287, 289, 290, 292–7, 299, 305, 306,

  358–9, 360, 372; see also ‘Legend of Beren and Luthien’

  Beruthiel, 126

  ‘bewilderment’, 98–106, 185, 186, 188, 194, 313, 385, 397, 423, 427

  Biarkamál (Old Norse poem), 22

  Bible, the, 14, 227–8, 249, 267–70, 369; Old Testament, 268, 339; Genesis, 267, 273; Psalms 227; Matthew, 249; see also Christianity

  Bilbo Baggins, 73, 77, 78, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 95–101, 102, 103, 104, 105–6, 108, 109, 110, 115, 127–8, 138, 157, 161, 165, 209, 210, 211–12, 213, 217–18, 240, 245, 259, 280, 305, 373, 393; Baggins, as name and word, 81–2; style associated with, 81, 132, 264, 352; Bilbo, as name, 83n, 232

  Billy Bunter, 200, 240

  Biography (of Tolkien, see ‘Abbreviations’), 13, 36, 63, 75, 81, 175, 182, 259, 278, 292, 399

  birch (as symbol), 310n, 316–17

  ‘birch’ poems, 399, 400–3

  Birkenhead disaster, 93

  Black Book of Carmarthen, 25

  Black Speech, 131

  Bloomfield, Leonard, 10, 15

  ‘blunderbuss’, 112

  Boethius, 38, 159, 160, 161, 170, 172, 243

  Boiardo, 182

  Bolger, Fredegar, 118

  Bombadil, Tom, 118, 119–20, 121–3, 125, 127, 139, 150, 162, 172, 196, 222, 230, 321–2, 368; absence from film version, 417

  Book of St Albans, 30

  Bopp, Franz, 12

  Boromir, 68, 147, 170, 175, 181, 183, 185, 237, 244, 245, 363; latent vices of, 138, 157, 161–2; opinions of, 147, 237; Valar’s message to, 173; virtue of, 244

  Bosworth, J., and Toller, T.N., see Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

  Böthvarr Bjarki, 91

  ‘bounder’, 116n

  ‘bourgeois’, 82, 104, 264

  ‘Boy’s Own’, 200, 240

  Brandybuck, Meriadoc, see Merry

  ‘The Brave Little Tailor’, see Grimms’ Fairy Tales

  Bree, Bree-hill, Brill, 108, 119, 121; as names 124, 130, 132, 385

  Brendan, St, 326–7

  Breton lays, 277 293, 318

  ‘Brewer’s Biblical’, 200

  Brook, G. L., 394

  Brooke-Rose, Christine, 364–7, 410

  Brugmann, K., 23

  Brut, see Lazamon

  Brynhild(r), 354–7, 360

  Buchan, John, 200

  Bugge, Sophus, 60

  Burgess, Anthony, 6

  ‘burglar’, 83–4, 89, 99, 104, 264–5, 374

  Bury, J. B., 20

  Busbecq, Ogier van, 17

  Butterbur, 119, 334

  ‘butterflies’, 39, 56

  Cabell, James Branch, 146

  Cædmon, 375–6

  Cafall, 295

  Cain (and Abel), 66, 68, 274

  ‘calque/calquing’, 115–16, 142, 144, 149, 179, 216, 267, 268, 269, 339

  Campbell, J. F., 392; ‘The Woman of Peace and the Bible Reader’, 270

  Caradhras, 245

  Caranthir, 283

  Carcharoth, 289, 293–4

  Carmarthen, Black Book of, 25

  Carn Dûm, 125

  Carpathians, 60

  Carpenter, Humphrey, 75, 258, 278, 399; (see also Biography, Inklings, Letters)

  ‘Carrock, The’, 115, 124

  Carter, Lin, 29

  Cary, Joyce, 370

  Catalaunian Plains, Battle of the, 18

  Catholicism, 64, 150, 159, 230, 250, 313. See also Christianity

  Caudimordax, 112–13

  Celebdil, 151

  Celeborn, 114, 117, 201, 221

  Celebrant, 247

  Celebrimbor, 260

  Celegorm, 293

  Celtic, language, 11–12, 28; linguistic or cultural style 124, 130, 300, 350

  Cerdic, King, 206

  Cerin Amroth, 247

  Chamberlain, Neville, 192, 416

  Chambers, R. W, 14, 21, 30, 389, 396

  ‘chance’, 11, 170–4, 186–7, 198, 207, 288, 298

  ‘changeling’ belief, 69n

  Chaucer, Geoffrey, 5, 23, 30, 33, 67, 69n, 349

  ‘cheer, cheerful’, 175–81

  Cherwell, River, 123

  Chetwode, -wood, 124, 130, 385

  Child, F. J., 60, 316, 392, 394, see also English and Scottish Popular Ballads

  Child(e) Ro(w)land, 208, 216, 392

  A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (Hamer), 389

  Christ, 159, 225, 227–8, 231–2, 236, 243, 259–50, 279–80

  Christ I (Old English poem), 278

  Christianity, 40, 54, 66, 113, 159, 160, 166, 177–8, 198, 223, 224–5, 227–8, 229–30, 243, 244, 250, 268, 271, 273, 280, 290, 318; see also Bible; Catholicism

  Chrysophylax, 111n, 173

  Churchill, Winston, his ‘finest hour’ speech, 419

  Cleasby, R., and Gudbrand Vigfusson, see Icelandic Dictionary

  Cleopatra, 215

  ‘cobweb’, 74, 287

  cockcrow, 216, 243–4, 321

  Coel, King, see Old King Cole

  ‘coincidence’, 243, 299

  Coleridge, S. T., 57, 387

  Collings, John Churton, 10

  Common Speech, 132, 140, 220, 221, 228, 240

  Comus, see Milton, John

  ‘coney-rabbits’, 39, 77, 79

  Connolly, Cyril, 383

  Conrad, Joseph, 179, 305

  ‘consistency’, 69

  Cook, A. S., 279–80

  Cooper, Fenimore, 393

  Cordelia, 41

  Coriolanus, 239

  Corpus Poeticum Boreale (Vigfusson and Powell), 22, 390

  Council of Elrond, 119, 134–8, 146, 183, 415, 419

  ‘courtesy’, 147

  Cracks of Doom, The, 165, 197

  Crankshaw, Edward, 255, 350

  Creation, 122, 227. See also Adam and Eve

  Crickhollow, 115, 118–19

  critics, criticism, antipathy between philologists and, 1–6, 26–31, 52–6, 153–4, 379–82; narrowness of, 364–5; Tolkien’s images of, 30–1, 113, 310–12

  Crucifixion, 227, 279

  cul-de-sac, see ‘dead-end’

  ‘culture’, 134

  Curufin, 286, 287, 293

  ‘The Daemon Lover’, 399

  Dáin, King (Ironfoot), 72, 95, 96, 97, 100, 137–8, 175, 362, 412

  Dáinsleif, 71–2, 73

  Danish ballads, 60, 69, 152, 392; language, 130; relationships with early English literature, 30, 170–1, 233–5, 347–8, 407

  Danmarks gamie Folkeviser (Grundtvig), 392

  Dante, 198

  Dark Elf, Elves, 70, 283–4, 286<
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  Dark Tower, 174, 184, 189, 198, 208, 215, 236, 392

  Dasent, Sir George, 329, 331, 347, 392

  Davenport, Guy, 393

  Davidson, Hilda Ellis, 396

  ‘dead-end’, 76, 82

  Dead Marshes, 163, 185, 248, 395

  Déagol, 126

  death, 243, 245, 248, 343, 371

  Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon), 19–20, 396

  De Consolatione Philosophiae, see Boethius

  ‘defeatism’, 175, 370

  Denethor, 135, 146, 148, 156, 170, 175, 179, 187, 193, 195–6, 206, 229, 363, 368, 420–1, 424–5

  The Denham Tracts (Hardy), 77

  Déor (Old English poem), 19, 373

  ‘depth’, 134, 260, 261, 266, 307, 319, 351–61, 365

  Dernhelm, 205

  de Saussure, Ferdinand, 14, 23, 367, 385

  Deutsche Grammatik (Grimm), 12

  Deutsches Wörterbuch (Grimm), 9, 24, 61

  Dickens, Charles, 331, 366, 372; David Copperfield 331, 373; Great Expectations, 366

  Dictionary of British Surnames (Reaney), 117

  Dietrichs Flucht (Middle High German poem), 19

  Dimrill Stair, 126

  ‘discipline’, 93–4, 258, 316

  ‘disenchantment’, 322

  ‘disillusionment’, 67

  Dr Faustus (Marlowe), 231

  ‘doggedness’, 145

  ‘doom’, 288–90, 291, 296, 303–4, 385

  Doomsday, 71, 230, 271, 288

  Doriath, 283, 286, 287, 289, 296, 298

  Dorwinion, 109

  Doughan, David, 309

  Douglas, Gavin, 168

  draconitas, 362

  Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, 302, 362

  ‘dragon-mask’, 302

  dragons, 92, 259, 270, 302–3, 302n, 311; as concept, 54–6; dealing with, 98–103, 362; modern contempt for, 3, 30; ‘dragon-sickness’, 101, 104; ‘dragon-spell’, 104, 125

  Draugluin, 293

  Dronke, Ursula, 390

  Drout, Michael, 398

  Drúedain, see ‘woses’

  Duggan, Alfred, 193, 197, 383, 409

  duhitar, 13, 16, 18

  Dunharrow, 117, 228

  Dunlendings, 144