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Elves

The Elves, who called themselves the Quendi, and who in lore are commonly referred to as the Eldar (adj. Eldarin), were the first and eldest of the Children of Ilúvatar, and are considered to be the fairest and wisest of any race of Arda given sapience.

Some, known afterwards as the Calaquendi (Elves of the Light), were brought by the Valar from Middle-earth to Valinor across the Sea, where they were taught by the Ainur. But after the Silmarils were stolen by Melkor, some of the Elves returned to Middle-earth, where they remained until the end of the Third Age.

Elves were not subject to age, and were immune to illness. They could be killed only in violence or by extreme despair.

History

Creation and Awakening

The Firstborn, the Elder Children of Ilúvatar, were conceived by Eru alone in the third theme of Ainulindalë. They are the eldest and noblest of the speaking races of Middle-earth. They awoke at Cuiviénen, the Water of Awakening, in the far east of Middle-earth, in the starlight of the Sleep of Yavanna, as the Sun and Moon had yet to be created. The first Elves to awake were three pairs: Imin ("First") and his wife Iminyë, Tata ("Second") and Tatië, and Enel ("Third") and Enelyë.

According to legend, Imin, Tata, and Enel, and their wives joined up and walked through the forests. They came across six, nine, and twelve pairs of elves, and each "patriarch" claimed the pairs as his folk in order. The now sixty elves dwell by the rivers, and they invented poetry and music in Middle-earth. Journeying further, they came across a band of Elves watching the stars, which Tata claims as his. These were tall and dark-haired, the fathers of most of the Ñoldor. The ninety-six elves now invented many new words. Continuing their journey, they found twenty-four pairs of elves, singing without language, and Enel added them to his people. These were the ancestors of most of the Lindar or "singers", later called Teleri. They found no more Elves; Imin's people, the smallest group, were the ancestors of the Vanyar. All in all they numbered 144. Because all elves had been found in groups of twelve, twelve becomes their base number and 144 their highest number (for a long time). None of the later Elvish languages had a common name for a greater number.

At first the elves sang with grace and merriment without speech but soon they developed speech and spoke with words, so their first name for themselves was Quendi (The Ones Who Speak With Voices).

Discovery and Sundering

The Elves were content and dwelt long under the stars of the forest near Cuiviénen. However, Melkor, the Dark Lord, became aware of them and their location before the Valar, and during this time he sent evil spirits to spy on them and do them harm. Many of the spirits that harassed the Elves came in the form of great horsemen for the purpose of causing the Elves to fear the Vala Oromë, whom Melkor knew would likely be the first Vala to discover the Elves. And so it was that, on one of his many journeys in the wilds of Middle-earth, Oromë came upon the Elves. Due to Melkor's foresight and malice, some elves were afraid. Hiding and fleeing, some of these early elves were taken by Melkor or his agents. These elves were never seen again and were taken to Utumno, and were believed to be twisted and mutilated into the first Orcs. However, the Elves who stayed quickly learned that Oromë was far different from the evils that had been pursuing them. Oromë quickly came to love the Elves, and them and gave them the name Eldar (People of the Stars).

Oromë spent some time with them and then returned to Valinor to tell Manwë of his discovery. He then returned to live with elves for a time, learning about them. Not long after, the Valar decided that, for the good of the Elves, that Melkor needed to be overthrown. The Valar made war upon Melkor and set a guard on Cuiviénen. The elves knew nothing of the war save that the earth shook and thunderous lightning was seen in the north. After a long, grievous war, the Valar were triumphant, and Melkor was imprisoned. Oromë then returned to the Elves with a summons of the Valar to Aman. However, many of the Elves were afraid, as they felt and seen rumor of the terrible power of the Valar as they made war against Melkor. As such, the it was decided by the Elves to choose ambassadors one from each kindred to go to Valinor and report back to their kindred what they saw. The names of these representatives were Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë.

When the three returned, they spoke to their people of the beauty and bliss of what they had seen and urged them to travel to Valinor and abide there. Thus began the Great Journey, also known as the Sundering of the Elves. All of the elves agreed, save for the Avari, who chose to remain in Middle-earth. Led by Oromë, the elven kindreds marched out of Cuiviénen but as they moved out of the forest area and saw the black clouds surrounding the north where Melkor had once lived, some grew afraid and turned back to Cuiviénen. The rest continued, albeit slowly, often stopping until Oromë returned, but were curious about what they saw.

The Vanyar and the Ñoldor, who were most eager to reach Valinor pressed on with the greatest speed and were the first to reach the coasts and to be taken to Valinor on an island that the Vala Ulmo guided across the Belegaer. The Teleri were the slowest of the groups as they were drawn to what they had seen and encountered in the western and southern parts of Middle-earth. This caused them to separate into several different groups, such as the Nandor who became Wood-elves of the Wilderland and later the Beleriand. Some of the Teleri who did not like the seas and, partly due to the disappearance of Elwë in Nan Elmoth for a time, drew back and settled in the wooded areas of Region and Neldoreth that later became Doriath. The Teleri that were drawn to the sea settled along the western shores later becoming the Falathrim ruled by Círdan, who founded the coastal cities of Eglarest and Brithombar. Eventually, most of the Teleri went into the west.

Life in Aman

The elves that came to Aman were enriched by the knowledge of the Valar and the bliss of their lands, and the three Elven clans developed their own cultures. The former ambassadors Ingwë of the Vanyar and Finwë of the Ñoldor became kings of their people and, as Elwë never returned to Valinor, his brother Olwë became Lord of the Teleri. The Vanyar were drawn to the Valar and the full light of the Two Trees of Valinor and settled at the foot of Taniquetil with their king Ingwë, who became High King of the Elves revered by all Elves living in the mountain below Manwë. The Ñoldor, beloved by Aulë the Smith for their love of arts and crafts, built the great city of Tirion on Túna where Finwë, the High King of the Ñoldor, lived. The Teleri were drawn to sea and some never left the island ferry of Tol Eressëa until Olwë their lord later built Alqualondë, with the help of the Ñoldor.

They developed writing and the arts of building, metallurgy, arts and crafts, and shipbuilding. Things like high culture, poetry, and many of the more subtle things were valued as well. For three ages, the Elves lived in total peace and bliss wandering the lands and beautifying its glory. Unfortunately, after three ages of imprisonment, Melkor completed his sentence. He feigned rehabilitation, and convinced Manwë that he was no longer a threat. However, his stay in prison had only increased his malice, and remembering that it was for the sake of the Elves that he had been overthrown, he sought to poison the peace of Valinor and bring ruin to the Elves. Adopting a fair and wise form, he began to cultivate the trust of those living in Valinor. Of the three Elven clans, Melkor saw the Teleri as being rather useless to him, and the Vanyar would have nothing to do with him, being content in their development. But the Ñoldor, desiring more knowledge, were willing to listen to him, and Melkor saw that, due to their creative skill, they were more potentially useful than the Teleri. And so Melkor began to teach them, and for a long while none of his evil was made manifest, for any who sought his aid and counsel benefited greatly from it. But with his genuine teachings came half-truths and disguised lies regarding the intentions of the Valar. Most harmful among these was the knowledge that Men, the Second Children of Illuvatar, would one day appear in Middle-earth. The Valar had not revealed this to the Elves, and after a time, rumors began to circulate amongst the Ñoldor that the Valar had brought them to Aman so that Men might inherit Middle-earth and usurp the glory that might have belonged to the Elves. Chief amongst these discontented Elves was Fëanor, the firstborn son of Finwë, King of the Ñoldor. Fëanor was gifted beyond virtually all of his peers in terms of beauty, skill, subtlety, and craftsmanship. It was he who had developed, amongst many other wonders, the system of letters used by the Ñoldor. But his greatest creation had been the Silmarils, three diamond-like gems in which the intermingled light of the Two Trees of Valinor had been captured.

However, despite Fëanor's capabilities (or perhaps because of them), he was exceedingly arrogant, and his actions were often rashly conducted. He hated and feared Melkor, but unwittingly provided his lies with their most prominent voice. Eventually, Melkor's lies and Fëanor's own vanity resulted in him drawing his sword against his half-brother Fingolfin. Erstwhile the Valar had been troubled by the unrest of the Ñoldor, but had simply watched and waited. Now however, with the peace of Valinor violated, they could no longer ignore the issue. Fëanor was brought to Máhanaxar and told to explain himself. With this, the lies of Melkor were at last laid bare, and he fled before the Valar could recapture him. However, for his actions, Fëanor was banished from Tirion for a time. Twelve years later, Manwë sought to heal the wounds between the Ñoldor at a festival held in Valmar, but Melkor and the Great Spider Ungoliant destroyed the Two Trees, darkening Valinor, killing Finwë, stealing the three Silmarils of Fëanor, and fleeing to Middle-earth.

Revolt of the Ñoldor

When the tragic death of his father became known, the wrath of Fëanor could no longer be contained. He gathered all the Ñoldor in Tirion and beneath the Tower of Mindon he urged the Ñoldor to return to Middle-earth in pursuit of Melkor and the Silmarils swearing an oath to war with Melkor, now known as Morgoth. After being banned by the Valar for the rebellion and the violent deeds of the House of Fëanor, the Ñoldor returned to Middle-earth as exiles to battle Morgoth, and to establish and rule realms of their own.

The War of the Jewels

The crimes of Melkor in Aman and the subsequent rebellion of the Ñoldor started a centuries-long war that would come to involve all the Elven kindreds of Middle-earth, as well as other races, directly or indirectly. During this time, five great battles were fought against Morgoth and although many were victorious for the elves and their allies, the ultimate result was disastrous. Additionally, the doom that followed the Ñoldor as a result of the Kinslaying of Alqualondë was discovered by Thingol, the King of Doriath and High King of the Sindar. This discovery all but destroyed the relationship between the Sindar and the Ñoldor. There were also other elves and races such as the Petty-dwarves that resented the exiled Ñoldor for usurping their rightful place in Middle-earth.

Though for hundreds of years, the Ñoldor elves fought and endured the forces of Morgoth with little military aid from the other Elven kindreds, a common fear and a common foe allowed for the Elves (especially the Ñoldor) to mingle with mortal Men, who had recently come into the Beleriand from the east. The first of these were the Three Houses of the Edain. They were followed by the Easterlings, some of whom served Morgoth. At first, only the Ñoldor had dealings with Men, as the other elves feared them, but over the generations, men served the Ñoldor and gained their respect. After the Quest for the Silmaril, the blood of the Eldar and the Edain mingled with each other, first through the marriage of Beren and Lúthien, and then through Tuor and Idril. This union would create a bond that would enrich and ennoble both kindreds from then to later ages.

The terrible Oath of Fëanor created strife between the Elven kindreds, as even those not bound were drawn into it over the Silmaril recovered by Beren and Lúthien. The two brothers Celegorm and Curufin attempted to usurp the throne of Nargothrond after the loss of Finrod in the Quest for the Silmaril, but were thwarted by the hound Huan and Orodreth and expelled. It was because of this deed that the Ñoldor of Nargothrond lent little aid to the Union of Maedhros during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Twice in the latter half of the First Age, the Sons tried to take the Silmaril from those who inherited it. These acts of cruelty and violence against their Elven kin caused great loss of life and resulted in the deaths of all of them except Maglor, who now wanders the coasts of Middle-earth singing about the suffering of the Ñoldor.

Later Days and Decline

After the destruction of Beleriand in the War of Wrath, the remaining Ñoldor repented of their rebellion and many returned to Eldamar along with some of the Sindar. The elves that chose to remain in Middle-earth founded peaceful realms. Most of the Ñoldor lived in Lindon with Gil-galad, the High King of the Ñoldor. Hundreds of years later Celebrimbor, the last of the House of Fëanor, founded a new Ñoldorin realm called Eregion. The Sindar joined also with Gil-galad in Lindon and few went beyond the Misty Mountains into Wilderland, becoming leaders of the Silvan Elves in places such as Lothlórien and Greenwood the Great.

The Elven realms flourished for over one thousand years until SA 1200 when Sauron, under the guise of a messenger from the Valar named Annatar, appeared out of the east to offer knowledge to the elves. Gil-galad mistrusted him and barred him from his kingdom. Sauron then approached Celebrimbor and the Elves of Eregion, and against Gil-galad's advice they accepted him and his knowledge. With Annatar's help, Celebrimbor forged the Rings of Power, but Three Rings alone were made in secret by Celebrimbor and were not directly touched by Sauron's power. Then, Sauron forged the One Ring in order to control the others. The elves discovered Sauron's plan and took off their rings. Celebrimbor sent the ring Nenya to Galadriel and sent Vilya and Narya to Gil-galad in Lindon.

Furious that the elves had foiled his plans for domination, Sauron demanded the return of the rings and when they refused he prepared for war. For eight years, Sauron laid waste to Middle-earth in his war against the Elves, destroying Eregion and killing Celebrimbor. Eventually, with help of the Númenóreans, Gil-galad was able to lead the elves to victory. Gil-galad then decided to abandon Eregion in favor of the new refuge of Rivendell formed at the foothills of the Misty Mountains and he made his herald, Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell and his representative in Eriador. Lindon survived still as the greatest kingdom of elves in Middle-earth. The rest of the elves of Middle-earth who survived either moved to Lindon, sailed for the West, or continued to live in their lands under caution due to the continued threat from Sauron.

By the latter half of the Second Age, Men continued to spread and grow in Middle-earth. The Faithful from the Downfall of Númenór founded the great mannish kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Though Men were set to supplant them in Middle-earth, the Elves were powerful and numerous enough to join with Men one last time to defeat Sauron. Gil-galad led the second greatest host of elves ever seen in Arda and formed the Last Alliance with Elendil, High King of all Dúnedain, and vanquished Sauron in SA 3441.

With the dominion of Men at hand, the Elves became less numerous and more secluded with many becoming wearier of the now mortal lands. Only the realms of Lindon, Lothlórien, and Rivendell survived as havens of Elven bliss. High Elves continued to live in Lindon but most sailed into the West after their king's death. The last of the High Elves left Middle-earth after the final defeat of Sauron in the War of the Ring.

Elves living in Aman, including those who returned from Middle-earth in the Third and Fourth Ages, lived in a state of blissful happiness as they did before the Revolt of the Ñoldor. Elves that never chose to sail into the Utter West, instead choosing to remain in Middle-earth in places such as the Woodland Realm in the former Mirkwood, would probably become more and more secretive, less numerous, and hidden. Eventually, these Lingerers would fade away entirely as their bodies were consumed by the power of their spirits.

Sunderings

When the elves were first summoned to Aman by the Valar, they became divided into two groups - the Eldar (Quenya Tengwar: full spelling `VmE6 or vowel-abbreviated spelling `Vm6; IPA: [ˈeldar]; singular Elda; `VmE; adjectival Eldarin; `VmE7T5 or `Vm7T5; [ˈeldarin]), who accepted the summons of the Valar and undertook the Great Journey, and the Avari, who refused the summons and became the lesser elves. The elves flourished in the First Age, but the Eldarin realms of Beleriand were destroyed by Morgoth, and in later ages their power waned. In the Second and Third Ages some Elves still lived in Wandering Companies, traveling through the broad lands they loved, but many were gathered in Elven-realms and refuges such as Lindon, Rivendell, the Woodland Realm, and Lorien, where Sindar and Ñoldor lords ruled over Silvan populations. By the end of the Third Age the Dominion of Men was at hand, and the elves who remained in Middle-earth dwindled and became a secret people. Yet in Eldamar the Eldar live nigh to the Valar until the End of the World.

Characteristics

Elves, like Men, are Children of Eru Ilúvatar and thus are very similar to Men. Unlike Men, however, they are immortal, in that their bodies do not age once they have reached maturity, so that they do not seem to become elderly or die of old age. They can be killed by physical injury however, or they may come to death from wasting away if after long eons of life they lose the will to live. Some Elves in the First Age living near Angband died from a wasting disease, which was presumably issuing from Thangorodrim, Morgoth's fortress. The Elves came into existence before Men, and when Elves die they pass to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor. After a long period of waiting, the Elf (unless unwilling to return to life or judged a perpetrator of unforgivable crimes) will be reincarnated.

For Elves, sex and marriage are one and the same, and it is that bodily union that achieves marriage. Elves lose interest in sex after they've had children. They do not consider the day a child was born as the moment they came into existence. Instead, they celebrate the day the child's parents begat them. Elves come of age at around fifty years old, and generally marry around this age. Elves who marry late or never are said to have strange fates. Elves can tell in the eyes and voice of another Elf whether they are married, and it is against an Elf's nature to take another by force; one so forced would reject bodily life and die. Because of the union of souls that occurs when Elves marry, and because of the eternal nature of Elven souls, they do not divorce or have multiple marriages. Elves have a taboo against incest, but marriage among second cousins is seen as acceptable. Whether this results in degradation from strong bloodlines is unknown.

Elves are (generally) unusually beautiful in face and body. There is little physical difference between males and females except that which is required for reproduction. They have far better vision and hearing than Men. They also have skills and abilities beyond what is possible for Men, and many can craft seemingly magical objects. In The Silmarillion, it is mentioned that the Elves are indeed closest in kin to the Ainur, given that Elves possess ethereal grace and various powers. Elves are light of foot, can travel long distances without leaving tracks, and often can walk lightly across snow where the boots of Men would sink. They do not require sleep, but are able to enter a waking meditative state to regain their strength which means they can be exhausted and tire. Although the Elves are more resistant to adverse environments and lack of food than Men, they can succumb to them thus Elves do require sustenance.

Source

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Elves

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aspenbloomfieldyr2fmp · 4 years

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The History Of Lord Of The Rings For Casual Fans, So You Don't Have To Read 10,000 Pages

Tolkien's Middle Earth is one of the richest fantasy worlds ever conceived; so rich that few are familiar with the entire mythos. The Silmarillion describes the history before The Lord of the Rings, and acts as an encyclopedic record of how the world of Arda came to be.

As it turns out, there are a lot of things that happened before The Hobbit. Tolkien's most well-known tales — those that have been brought to the screen — stick to covering events from the Third Age, and only allude to the millennia of lore that lead up to the destruction of the One Ring.

Some of the greatest characters Tolkien created aren't that well known. The general lack of knowledge regarding the extended LoTR universe has spawned some incorrect fan theories, and has left a lot of room for confusion among casual fans, even those who have read The Lord of the Rings.

Here are the most important things to know to understand The Lord of the Rings, the creation of the world known as Arda, and all the magical creatures that inhabit it.

The World Is Known As Arda

Though it's tempting to call the world of LoTR Middle Earth, that name only refers to the continent where the events of the books take place. The world as a whole is called Arda, and consists of two main continents, Middle Earth and Aman.

Then there are the seas: Ekkaia, or the Encircling Sea, is the "mighty ocean" that surrounds the continents; Belegaer, the Great Sea, separates the two continents from one another, with Aman in the west and Middle Earth in the east. This world exists in the universe known as Eä, created by Eru Ilúvatar.

The First Being, Eru Ilúvatar, Created The Ainur

Eru Ilúvatar is Arda's equivalent to God. He was the first being to exist in an infinite sea of nothingness, and so he made the universe, Eä, and other beings to be his companions. He created the Ainur, which are essentially angels, and those are divided into two groups: the Valar, and their servants, the Maiar (the singular of which is Maia).

There were 15 Valar in total, but four are especially important for the purposes of understanding the events in The Hobbit and LoTR. These four are Manwë, Aulë, Yavanna, and Melkor, who in turn fashioned their own servants, the Maiar. The Valar assisted Eru in creating the world Arda, literally singing it into life, but one sang a discordant harmony.

Manwë Made The Great Eagles

Manwë was the king of the Valar, sometimes called the Wind King, as he lived atop the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Taniquetil in Valinor (the realm of the Valar on Aman).

He was the first Ainur, and is considered to be the brother of the evil Melkor. Manwë was appointed ruler of Arda when it was formed, earning him his most frequently used title, the Elder King.

To do his part in thwarting his evil brother, Manwë created the Great Eagles, led by their king, Thorondor. The Great Eagles were integral to the fight against evil, and became the greatest foes of Melkor (or Morgoth) and his lieutenant, Sauron.

Yavanna Made All Of The Animals And Plants In The World

Yavanna was the Queen of the Earth, Giver of Fruits, and wife of Aulë. She brought forth life on Arda in a place known as the Spring of Arda, but the life she created was soon blighted when Melkor released his poisons into the world.

Melkor had also destroyed the Two Lamps, the world's only sources of light, so Yavanna sang into existence the Two Trees: Laurelin (the Gold Tree) and Telperion (the Silver Tree). The trees gave light to Aman, but Middle Earth remained in darkness.

In response to the darkening of Middle Earth, Yavanna put all the living things of that continent into a great sleep, and they would not be awoken until the forging of the sun and moon. Fearing the material greed of other beings, namely the dwarves, she begged Eru to help create guardians to defend her plant life, and so the Ents (those giant tree people) were created.

Aulë Made The Dwarves

Aulë was the father of invention and materials, the smith of the Valar, and husband of Yavanna. He fashioned the substances that comprised the world, along with the sun and moon. Of all the Valar, he was most similar to Melkor, as he appreciated creation. However, unlike his evil brother, he did not revel in destruction, and only advocated for the creation of things that are inherently good.

The Ñoldor, the second clan of elves, became his students when they came to Valinor before the First Age. Prior to the coming of the elves, Aulë was impatient to have his own "children," so he created the dwarves. As he did not have the power to instill them with autonomy, Eru Ilúvatar adopted them as his own, in a sense, giving the dwarves independent life.

One particular elf named Fëanor later wrought the Silmarils.

Melkor Of The Valar Created All The Suffering And Evil In The World

Melkor, also known as Morgoth, was smarter and more powerful than his fellow Valar, and was not satisfied with singing the same tune the others used to create the world. Melkor sang his own melody that rang discordantly against the others, and so disorder manifested in the world, bringing many forms of suffering and evil to Arda.

Among these evils were creatures such as dragons, trolls, and orcs. What's more, Melkor's song attracted some of the Maiar who had previously served other Valar, corrupting them. He and his new servants began to wage war on the other Valar, and eventually on Arda as a whole. That war spiraled out into other conflicts that lasted through all three ages.

The Maiar Are The Powerful Servants Of The Valar

The Maiar (or "Maia" if the subject is singular) are a subset of the Valar, by whom they were essentially created. The Maiar were actually primordial spirits sent into the world alongside the Valar, but it was these greater beings who helped shape them. The Maiar, then, are "low-level angels," if you will, being subservient to the first angels (the Valar).

The Maiar are composed of some of the most important players in Middle Earth, including the dwarves, Great Eagles, Ents, and the Istari, among others.

Wizards Are Called The Istari And Are Not Human

Wizards are not simply humans who learned to wield magic. Instead, they are of the Maiar, and there are only five: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, and the two Blue Wizards. Wizards were created specifically for the purpose of opposing evil in the world. Of course, that didn't go totally according to plan.

Saruman was initially one of Aulë's Maiar, and was meant to be the leader of the Istari. Despite this, he was eventually corrupted by Sauron, which explains why he is one of the main antagonists in the films. Radagast was Yavanna's Maia, but he became completely distracted by her natural creations, and was rendered somewhat useless.

The two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, were actually the Maiar of a lesser Vala named Oromë. Not much is known about them other than that they were sent to the East. It's hinted, however, that they created cults of magic there.

Last but not least is Gandalf the Grey, Maia of Manwë. Of course, he becomes Gandalf the White after his fatal battle with the Balrog (another Maia). Interestingly, it was Manwë himself who sent Gandalf back with new power to complete his mission after the wizard "dies" in the first film.

Source

https://www.ranker.com/list/everything-to-know-to-understand-lord-of-the-rings/zack-howe

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aspenbloomfieldyr2fmp · 4 years

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Orcs

Orcs were the primary foot soldiers of the Dark Lords' armies and sometimes the weakest (but most numerous) of their servants. They were created by the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, before the First Age and served him and later his successor in their quest to dominate Middle-earth. Before Oromë first found the Elves at Cuiviénen, Melkor kidnapped some of them and cruelly tortured them, twisting them into the first Orcs.

Many Orcs (along with fallen Maiar and other evil servants of Melkor) survived in the deep caves, pits, chambers, and tunnels of Melkor's great underground fortresses of Utumno and Angband. They multiplied and later spread through northern Middle-earth. They were first seen by the Dwarves who reported them to King Thingol, the High King of the Sindar, causing the latter to seek weapons of war for the first time. For over a millennium, the orcs were only a minor problem, but when Melkor (Morgoth) returned with the Silmarils he took full charge of them and soon unleashed them on Beleriand. The newly organised orcs killed Denethor, the King of the lightly armed Laiquendi, but were eventually defeated by Thingol and his allies. They besieged the Havens of the Falas under Círdan, and the siege wasn't broken until the arrival of the Ñoldor. The heavy losses that the Sindar suffered at the hands of the Orcs frightened them to the point that Melian, Queen of Doriath raised a great enchantment to protect their kingdom. The Laiquendi, who suffered the most in the battle, hid themselves in the Ossiriand under the cloak of secrecy, or took refuge in Doriath.

"They were Elves once. Taken by the Dark Powers...tortured and mutilated...a ruined and terrible form of life..."

"For all that race were bred by Melko of the subterranean heats and slime. Their hearts were of granite and their bodies deformed; foul their faces which smiled not, but their laugh that of the clash of metal, and to nothing were they more fain than to aid in the basest of the purposes of Melko."

Source

https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Orcs

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aspenbloomfieldyr2fmp · 4 years

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How is Gandalf described in Lord of the Rings

"Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire."

The other two refer to Elrond (who is a half-elf and is lord if Rivendell), and Glorfindel (who is Noldo and is the Lord of the House of the Golden Flower).

Gandalf was one of the five Istari sent to Middle-earth by the Valar in the Third Age. In Valinor he was known as Olórin. Gandalf was instrumental in bringing about the demise of Sauron in T.A. 3019, chiefly by encouraging others and dispensing his wisdom at pivotal times. Gandalf was originally robed in grey, and second to Saruman in the Order of wizards. After his fall in Moria, Gandalf returned to Middle-earth as head of the Order, robed in white. Gandalf was noteworthy for his keen interest in Hobbits.

Gandalf also has many other names The Grey, The White, Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, The White Rider, Greyhame, Stormcrow, Old Grey Beard, Big Grey Beard, The White Pilgrim and Láthspell.

Source

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gandalf

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Elrond

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Glorfindel

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aspenbloomfieldyr2fmp · 4 years

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How is good and evil shown in Lord of the Rings

Examining the Battle of Good vs. Evil in Tolkien’s Middle-earth

Tolkien was clear in the stories of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings that the struggle between good and evil is never-ending. No sooner did the Valar vanquish Melkor than Sauron emerged in Middle-earth and forged the Rings of Power to bring it all under his control. If history in the first Three Ages are any indication, one can assume that no sooner do the heroes of The Lord of the Rings vanquish Sauron at the end of the Third Age than a new, perhaps worse promoter of evil will arise in the Fourth Age (though Tolkien gives no indication of this in his brief chronology of the Fourth Age).

Not only do the seeds of evil continue to sprout and grow in Middle-earth, but the dark conditions in which they flourish continue to spread. As the sources of light diminish over the different Ages of Middle-earth, it becomes easier to deny the power of light and tout that of darkness. This expansion has fostered a loss of hope and a lack of faith that helped defeat the various Elven kingdoms in Beleriand, and later Númenor. After that, it sapped the strength from the exiled kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor.

In our world, a feeling of growing darkness can give rise to ennui and defeatism. Inherent in this defeatism is the sense that evil is stronger and somehow more real than goodness. This is, of course, the precise opposite of the truth as many, including Tolkien, see it: Evil cannot prevail over goodness because evil is just a denial of the only true and fundamental wisdom: God, in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic vocabulary; Enlightenment in the Buddhist.

In other words, the light may be hidden or blocked, thereby allowing darkness to grow, but it cannot be destroyed. All you have to do to regain the light is remove whatever obscures it, be it Melkor’s or Sauron’s evil. The great thing is that the moment you remove whatever blocks the light, it immediately flows again, illuminating the world as brightly as before.

Of course, as The Lord of the Rings so aptly points out, removing the obstacles to the light is often very difficult and comes at a very high price. More importantly, even though the light returns as strong as before once the obstacles are removed, the damage caused by their evil lingers, sometimes long after.

Shadows of evil

Tolkien often used the word shadow in relation to evil and evil characters, even going so far as to refer to Sauron as the Shadow. As the darkness created by an object blocking out light, a shadow lacks substance. Shadow can also mean a faint representation, in the sense of “he is only a shadow of his former self.” And shadow can refer to darkness and gloom, as when Aragorn tells Celeborn and Galadriel that Gandalf has fallen “into shadow” in Moria.

Tolkien’s calling Sauron the Shadow is an effective way of getting across his dark, evil aspect while reinforcing the insubstantiality of his evil. Same goes for Sauron’s good buddies, the Ringwraiths, or Nazgûl. The Ringwraiths, too, are just dark shapes that instill great fear, even though they seem to lack any substance. Consider that when Merry stabs the Lord of the Nazgûl, his hauberk (coat of mail) gives the only indication of where to try to wound him.

The threat of becoming a shadow like one of the Ringwraiths or Sauron himself is one that particularly menaces Frodo as the bearer of the One Ring. After the Lord of the Nazgûl wounds Frodo with the Morgul-knife, Gandalf notices that Frodo is becoming slightly transparent. As the Ring’s evil power becomes stronger as Frodo nears Mordor, this process of turning into a wraith becomes more pronounced — Frodo is literally becoming a shadow.

In Frodo’s struggle against turning into a wraith, Tolkien illustrates one process of becoming evil (metaphorically descending into shadow). It is not a process that happens all at once — it progresses gradually over time, like Frodo’s very gradual fading. Some critics suggest that Frodo’s initial disgust toward Gollum — his criticism of Bilbo’s pity towards him, and his revulsion at the idea that Gollum is at heart a hobbit — are due to Frodo’s fear of what he could become. In this view, the evil that Frodo carries can separate him from his own self and all he holds dear. In the end, the power of Ring, especially given Frodo’s continued use of it, corrupts him and convinces him that he can stand against Sauron and be the new Lord of the Ring.

Tolkien’s notion of “wraithing,” that is, gradually giving yourself over to a controlling power until you’re just a shadow of your former self, helpless before the evil influence, is very compelling and particularly applicable to modern life. Note that the power causing the “wraithing” doesn’t have to be as symbolic as the Ring: it can be any of the thousand-and-one addicting influences that rob people of their humanity. The key idea here seems to be that this process of becoming evil renders all of its “wraiths” into indistinguishable shadows, robbing them of individuality and personality.

Tolkien and the last battle against evil

In the Norse mythology that so influenced Tolkien’s writings, the final battle that ends the world is called Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods (or Twilight of the Gods). This great conflagration not only destroys the Norse gods of the higher realm of Asgard, such as Odin and Thor, but also ends up destroying all of Midgard (our world of “Middle-earth”) as well. But from the ashes of this final battle, a new, more beautiful world eventually rises.

Ragnarok is quite unlike the Christian notion of Armageddon in the Book of Revelation. There, the angels of God overwhelm and cast down the Devil and his beasts just before God creates a new heaven and earth — it’s not even a fair fight. In Ragnarok, the gods face giants and other fell beasts knowing they will be killed in the process. In other words, the Norse gods face the Last Battle as any Viking hero would: ready and happy to die if necessary. In this Norse version of the end of the world, both good (the forces of world order) and evil (the forces of chaos) annihilate each other. The few survivors establish the new world.

Despite Tolkien’s firm personal belief in a Day of Judgment, though, his fantasy works show no such certainty, only hinting at the possibility of a Last Battle and a new world to follow. His clearest reference is in the Dwarves’ belief that at death they will wait in the Halls of Mandos until the Last Battle, at which time they will come out and help their father Aulë fashion a new world. Other than that suggestion, Tolkien gives only vague references to a day when the world is changed or made anew.

But you can imagine that if pushed to depict the Last Battle in Middle-earth, he would fashion something closer to Ragnarok than Armageddon. This assumption is based on the way in which Gandalf and Aragorn face the Battle of Morannon (“Black Gate”) near the end of The Lord of the Rings. Here, they decide to face the Enemy and his great forces right outside the Black Gate of Mordor — not from any naive notions of victory but to buy necessary time for Frodo to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

They know full well that the chances of Frodo succeeding are remote, and that even if he does they may not live long enough to see it. Nevertheless, like the Norse gods at Ragnarok, they’re ready to battle the enemy in the face of almost certain defeat. The biggest difference between the heroes of the Battle of Morannon and those of Ragnarok is that Aragorn and the others show none of the good old Norse Gods’ relish for the fight and little of the Rohirrim’s delight in a warrior’s death.

Rather, the warriors of the Battle of Morannon seem quite resigned to their fate. They face this tremendous challenge with all the fear and trepidation of modern, non-professional soldiers. In fact, Tolkien’s attitude in The Lord of the Rings towards war and battling evil is very contemporary. In most of the battles, good guys are far outnumbered by bad guys, and their chances of victory are usually slim to none. Ignoring for the moment the adolescent battle banter between Gimli and Legolas, Tolkien’s warriors are serious about their jobs, especially Gandalf and Aragorn. The only exceptions seem to be the Théoden and the Rohirrim.

Tolkien’s attitudes toward warfare in The Lord of the Rings closely resembles the outlook prevailing since World War I: War is hell, the world is a dangerous place, and the forces of evil are everywhere and numerous. Just as fewer of us are certain that good always triumphs over evil, heroes such as Gandalf and Aragorn are far from certain about the success of their desperate venture to prevent Sauron’s total domination of Middle-earth.

Tolkien’s heroes fight with little assurance of victory in their particular struggle, to say nothing of a final triumph of good over evil in a much later Last Battle. They fight knowing that they must resist evil to preserve the islands of light in Middle-earth and to arrest the spread of darkness, even with no guarantee of success. In them, you can see a blend of Viking courage with a lot of 20th-century ambiguity over the final outcome of the good/evil question.

Source

https://www.dummies.com/education/literature/examining-the-battle-of-good-vs-evil-in-tolkiens-middle-earth/

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Tolkien

Who Was Tolkien?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of our world which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth. This was peopled by Men (and women), Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs (or Goblins) and of course Hobbits. He has regularly been condemned by the Eng. Lit. establishment, with honourable exceptions, but loved by literally millions of readers worldwide.

Childhood and Youth

The name “Tolkien” was believed by the family to be of German origin; Toll-kühn: foolishly brave, or stupidly clever—hence the pseudonym “Oxymore” which he occasionally used; however, this quite probably was a German rationalisation of an originally Baltic Tolkyn, or Tolkīn. In any case, his great-great grandfather John (Johann) Benjamin Tolkien came to Britain with his brother Daniel from Gdańsk in about 1772 and rapidly became thoroughly Anglicised. Certainly his father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien, considered himself nothing if not English. Arthur was a bank clerk, and went to South Africa in the 1890s for better prospects of promotion. There he was joined by his bride, Mabel Suffield, whose family were not only English through and through, but West Midlands since time immemorial. So John Ronald (“Ronald” to family and early friends) was born in Bloemfontein, S.A., on 3 January 1892. His memories of Africa were slight but vivid, including a scary encounter with a large hairy spider, and influenced his later writing to some extent; slight, because on 15 February 1896 his father died, and he, his mother and his younger brother Hilary returned to England—or more particularly, the West Midlands.

The West Midlands in Tolkien’s childhood were a complex mixture of the grimly industrial Birmingham conurbation, and the quintessentially rural stereotype of England, Worcestershire and surrounding areas: Severn country, the land of the composers Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Gurney, and more distantly the poet A. E. Housman (it is also just across the border from Wales). Tolkien’s life was split between these two: the then very rural hamlet of Sarehole, with its mill, just south of Birmingham; and darkly urban Birmingham itself, where he was eventually sent to King Edward’s School. By then the family had moved to King’s Heath, where the house backed onto a railway line—young Ronald’s developing linguistic imagination was engaged by the sight of coal trucks going to and from South Wales bearing destinations like” Nantyglo”,” Penrhiwceiber” and “Senghenydd”.

Then they moved to the somewhat more pleasant Birmingham suburb of Edgbaston. However, in the meantime, something of profound significance had occurred, which estranged Mabel and her children from both sides of the family: in 1900, together with her sister May, she was received into the Roman Catholic Church. From then on, both Ronald and Hilary were brought up in the faith of Pio Nono, and remained devout Catholics throughout their lives. The parish priest who visited the family regularly was the half-Spanish half-Welsh Father Francis Morgan.

Tolkien family life was generally lived on the genteel side of poverty. However, the situation worsened in 1904, when Mabel Tolkien was diagnosed as having diabetes, usually fatal in those pre-insulin days. She died on 14 November of that year leaving the two orphaned boys effectively destitute. At this point Father Francis took over, and made sure of the boys’ material as well as spiritual welfare, although in the short term they were boarded with an unsympathetic aunt-by-marriage, Beatrice Suffield, and then with a Mrs Faulkner.

By this time Ronald was already showing remarkable linguistic gifts. He had mastered the Latin and Greek which was the staple fare of an arts education at that time, and was becoming more than competent in a number of other languages, both modern and ancient, notably Gothic, and later Finnish. He was already busy making up his own languages, purely for fun. He had also made a number of close friends at King Edward’s; in his later years at school they met regularly after hours as the “T. C. B. S.” (Tea Club, Barrovian Society, named after their meeting place at the Barrow Stores) and they continued to correspond closely and exchange and criticise each other’s literary work until 1916.

However, another complication had arisen. Amongst the lodgers at Mrs Faulkner’s boarding house was a young woman called Edith Bratt. When Ronald was 16, and she 19, they struck up a friendship, which gradually deepened. Eventually Father Francis took a hand, and forbade Ronald to see or even correspond with Edith for three years, until he was 21. Ronald stoically obeyed this injunction to the letter. In the summer of 1911, he was invited to join a party on a walking holiday in Switzerland, which may have inspired his descriptions of the Misty Mountains, and of Rivendell. In the autumn of that year he went up to Exeter College, Oxford where he stayed, immersing himself in the Classics, Old English, the Germanic languages (especially Gothic), Welsh and Finnish, until 1913, when he swiftly though not without difficulty picked up the threads of his relationship with Edith. He then obtained a disappointing second class degree in Honour Moderations, the “midway” stage of a 4-year Oxford “Greats” (i.e. Classics) course, although with an “alpha plus” in philology. As a result of this he changed his school from Classics to the more congenial English Language and Literature. One of the poems he discovered in the course of his Old English studies was the Crist of Cynewulf—he was amazed especially by the cryptic couplet:

Eálá Earendel engla beorhtast

Ofer middangeard monnum sended

Which translates as:

Hail Earendel brightest of angels,

over Middle Earth sent to men.

(“Middangeard” was an ancient expression for the everyday world between Heaven above and Hell below.)

This inspired some of his very early and incohate attempts at realising a world of ancient beauty in his versifying.

In the summer of 1913 he took a job as tutor and escort to two Mexican boys in Dinard, France, a job which ended in tragedy. Though no fault of Ronald’s, it did nothing to counter his apparent predisposition against France and things French.

Meanwhile the relationship with Edith was going more smoothly. She converted to Catholicism and moved to Warwick, which with its spectacular castle and beautiful surrounding countryside made a great impression on Ronald. However, as the pair were becoming ever closer, the nations were striving ever more furiously together, and war eventually broke out in August 1914.

War, Lost Tales and Academia

Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Tolkien did not rush to join up immediately on the outbreak of war, but returned to Oxford, where he worked hard and finally achieved a first-class degree in June 1915. At this time he was also working on various poetic attempts, and on his invented languages, especially one that he came to call Qenya [sic], which was heavily influenced by Finnish—but he still felt the lack of a connecting thread to bring his vivid but disparate imaginings together. Tolkien finally enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers whilst working on ideas of Earendel [sic] the Mariner, who became a star, and his journeyings. For many months Tolkien was kept in boring suspense in England, mainly in Staffordshire. Finally it appeared that he must soon embark for France, and he and Edith married in Warwick on 22 March 1916.

Eventually he was indeed sent to active duty on the Western Front, just in time for the Somme offensive. After four months in and out of the trenches, he succumbed to “trench fever”, a form of typhus-like infection common in the insanitary conditions, and in early November was sent back to England, where he spent the next month in hospital in Birmingham. By Christmas he had recovered sufficiently to stay with Edith at Great Haywood in Staffordshire.

During these last few months, all but one of his close friends of the “T. C. B. S.” had been killed in action. Partly as an act of piety to their memory, but also stirred by reaction against his war experiences, he had already begun to put his stories into shape, “… in huts full of blasphemy and smut, or by candle light in bell-tents, even some down in dugouts under shell fire” [Letters 66]. This ordering of his imagination developed into the Book of Lost Tales (not published in his lifetime), in which most of the major stories of the Silmarillion appear in their first form: tales of the Elves and the “Gnomes”, (i. e. Deep Elves, the later Noldor), with their languages Qenya and Goldogrin. Here are found the first recorded versions of the wars against Morgoth, the siege and fall of Gondolin and Nargothrond, and the tales of Túrin and of Beren and Lúthien.

Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, although periods of remission enabled him to do home service at various camps sufficiently well to be promoted to lieutenant. It was when he was stationed in the Hull area that he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby Roos, and there in a grove thick with hemlock Edith danced for him. This was the inspiration for the tale of Beren and Lúthien, a recurrent theme in his “Legendarium”. He came to think of Edith as “Lúthien” and himself as “Beren”. Their first son, John Francis Reuel (later Father John Tolkien) had already been born on 16 November 1917.

When the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Tolkien had already been putting out feelers to obtain academic employment, and by the time he was demobilised he had been appointed Assistant Lexicographer on the New English Dictionary (the “Oxford English Dictionary”), then in preparation. While doing the serious philological work involved in this, he also gave one of his Lost Tales its first public airing—he read The Fall of Gondolin to the Exeter College Essay Club, where it was well received by an audience which included Neville Coghill and Hugo Dyson, two future “Inklings”. However, Tolkien did not stay in this job for long. In the summer of 1920 he applied for the quite senior post of Reader (approximately, Associate Professor) in English Language at the University of Leeds, and to his surprise was appointed.

At Leeds as well as teaching he collaborated with E. V. Gordon on the famous edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and continued writing and refining The Book of Lost Tales and his invented “Elvish” languages. In addition, he and Gordon founded a “Viking Club” for undergraduates devoted mainly to reading Old Norse sagas and drinking beer. It was for this club that he and Gordon originally wrote their Songs for the Philologists, a mixture of traditional songs and original verses translated into Old English, Old Norse and Gothic to fit traditional English tunes. Leeds also saw the birth of two more sons: Michael Hilary Reuel in October 1920, and Christopher Reuel in 1924. Then in 1925 the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford fell vacant; Tolkien successfully applied for the post.

Professor Tolkien, The Inklings and Hobbits

In a sense, in returning to Oxford as a Professor, Tolkien had come home. Although he had few illusions about the academic life as a haven of unworldly scholarship (see for example Letters 250), he was nevertheless by temperament a don’s don, and fitted extremely well into the largely male world of teaching, research, the comradely exchange of ideas and occasional publication. In fact, his academic publication record is very sparse, something that would have been frowned upon in these days of quantitative personnel evaluation.

However, his rare scholarly publications were often extremely influential, most notably his lecture “Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics”. His seemingly almost throwaway comments have sometimes helped to transform the understanding of a particular field—for example, in his essay on “English and Welsh”, with its explanation of the origins of the term “Welsh” and its references to phonaesthetics (both these pieces are collected in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, currently in print). His academic life was otherwise largely unremarkable. In 1945 he changed his chair to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature, which he retained until his retirement in 1959. Apart from all the above, he taught undergraduates, and played an important but unexceptional part in academic politics and administration.

His family life was equally straightforward. Edith bore their last child and only daughter, Priscilla, in 1929. Tolkien got into the habit of writing the children annual illustrated letters as if from Santa Claus, and a selection of these was published in 1976 as The Father Christmas Letters. He also told them numerous bedtime stories, of which more anon. In adulthood John entered the priesthood, Michael and Christopher both saw war service in the Royal Air Force. Afterwards Michael became a schoolmaster and Christopher a university lecturer, and Priscilla became a social worker. They lived quietly in North Oxford, and later Ronald and Edith lived in the suburb of Headington.

However, Tolkien’s social life was far from unremarkable. He soon became one of the founder members of a loose grouping of Oxford friends (by no means all at the University) with similar interests, known as “The Inklings”. The origins of the name were purely facetious—it had to do with writing, and sounded mildly Anglo-Saxon; there was no evidence that members of the group claimed to have an “inkling” of the Divine Nature, as is sometimes suggested. Other prominent members included the above—mentioned Messrs Coghill and Dyson, as well as Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, and above all C. S. Lewis, who became one of Tolkien’s closest friends, and for whose return to Christianity Tolkien was at least partly responsible. The Inklings regularly met for conversation, drink, and frequent reading from their work-in-progress.

The Storyteller

Meanwhile Tolkien continued developing his mythology and languages. As mentioned above, he told his children stories, some of which he developed into those published posthumously as Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, etc. However, according to his own account, one day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit“.

In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc. From this investigation grew a tale that he told to his younger children, and even passed round. In 1936 an incomplete typescript of it came into the hands of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin (merged in 1990 with HarperCollins).

She asked Tolkien to finish it, and presented the complete story to Stanley Unwin, the then Chairman of the firm. He tried it out on his 10-year old son Rayner, who wrote an approving report, and it was published as The Hobbit in 1937. It immediately scored a success, and has not been out of children’s recommended reading lists ever since. It was so successful that Stanley Unwin asked if he had any more similar material available for publication.

By this time Tolkien had begun to make his Legendarium into what he believed to be a more presentable state, and as he later noted, hints of it had already made their way into The Hobbit. He was now calling the full account Quenta Silmarillion, or Silmarillion for short. He presented some of his “completed” tales to Unwin, who sent them to his reader. The reader’s reaction was mixed: dislike of the poetry and praise for the prose (the material was the story of Beren and Lúthien) but the overall decision at the time was that these were not commercially publishable. Unwin tactfully relayed this message to Tolkien, but asked him again if he was willing to write a sequel to The Hobbit. Tolkien was disappointed at the apparent failure of The Silmarillion, but agreed to take up the challenge of “The New Hobbit”.

This soon developed into something much more than a children’s story; for the highly complex 16-year history of what became The Lord of the Rings consult the works listed below. Suffice it to say that the now adult Rayner Unwin was deeply involved in the later stages of this opus, dealing magnificently with a dilatory and temperamental author who, at one stage, was offering the whole work to a commercial rival (which rapidly backed off when the scale and nature of the package became apparent). It is thanks to Rayner Unwin’s advocacy that we owe the fact that this book was published at all – Andave laituvalmes! His father’s firm decided to incur the probable loss of £1,000 for the succès d’estime, and publish it under the title of The Lord of the Rings in three parts during 1954 and 1955, with USA rights going to Houghton Mifflin. It soon became apparent that both author and publishers had greatly underestimated the work’s public appeal.

The “Cult”

The Lord of the Rings rapidly came to public notice. It had mixed reviews, ranging from the ecstatic (W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis) to the damning (E. Wilson, E. Muir, P. Toynbee) and just about everything in between. The BBC put on a drastically condensed radio adaptation in 12 episodes on the Third Programme. In 1956 radio was still a dominant medium in Britain, and the Third Programme was the “intellectual” channel. So far from losing money, sales so exceeded the break-even point as to make Tolkien regret that he had not taken early retirement. However, this was still based only upon hardback sales.

The really amazing moment was when The Lord of the Rings went into a pirated paperback version in 1965. Firstly, this put the book into the impulse-buying category; and secondly, the publicity generated by the copyright dispute alerted millions of American readers to the existence of something outside their previous experience, but which appeared to speak to their condition. By 1968 The Lord of the Rings had almost become the Bible of the “Alternative Society”.

This development produced mixed feelings in the author. On the one hand, he was extremely flattered, and to his amazement, became rather rich. On the other, he could only deplore those whose idea of a great trip was to ingest The Lord of the Rings and LSD simultaneously. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick had similar experiences with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fans were causing increasing problems; both those who came to gawp at his house and those, especially from California who telephoned at 7 p.m. (their time—3 a.m. his), to demand to know whether Frodo had succeeded or failed in the Quest, what was the preterite of Quenyan lanta-, or whether or not Balrogs had wings. So he changed addresses, his telephone number went ex-directory, and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth, a pleasant but uninspiring South Coast resort (Hardy’s “Sandbourne”), noted for the number of its elderly well-to-do residents.

Meanwhile the cult, not just of Tolkien, but of the fantasy literature that he had revived, if not actually inspired (to his dismay), was really taking off—but that is another story, to be told in another place.

Other Writings

Despite all the fuss over The Lord of the Rings, between 1925 and his death Tolkien did write and publish a number of other articles, including a range of scholarly essays, many reprinted in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (see above); one Middle-earth related work, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil; editions and translations of Middle English works such as the Ancrene Wisse, Sir Gawain, Sir Orfeo and The Pearl, and some stories independent of the Legendarium, such as the Imram, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun—and, especially, Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle, and Smith of Wootton Major.

The flow of publications was only temporarily slowed by Tolkien’s death. The long-awaited Silmarillion, edited by Christopher Tolkien, appeared in 1977. In 1980 Christopher also published a selection of his father’s incomplete writings from his later years under the title of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. In the introduction to this work Christopher Tolkien referred in passing to The Book of Lost Tales, “itself a very substantial work, of the utmost interest to one concerned with the origins of Middle-earth, but requiring to be presented in a lengthy and complex study, if at all” (Unfinished Tales, p. 6, paragraph 1).

The sales of The Silmarillion had rather taken George Allen & Unwin by surprise, and those of Unfinished Tales even more so. Obviously, there was a market even for this relatively abstruse material and they decided to risk embarking on this “lengthy and complex study”. Even more lengthy and complex than expected, the resulting 12 volumes of the History of Middle-earth, under Christopher’s editorship, proved to be a successful enterprise. (Tolkien’s publishers had changed hands, and names, several times between the start of the enterprise in 1983 and the appearance of the paperback edition of Volume 12, The Peoples of Middle-earth, in 1997.) Over time, other posthumous publications emerged including Roverandom (1998), The Children of Húrin (2007), Beowulf (2014), Beren and Lúthien (2017), and most recently The Fall of Gondolin (2018).

Finis

After his retirement in 1959 Edith and Ronald moved to Bournemouth. On 29 November 1971 Edith died, and Ronald soon returned to Oxford, to rooms provided by Merton College. Ronald died on 2 September 1973. He and Edith are buried together in a single grave in the Catholic section of Wolvercote cemetery in the northern suburbs of Oxford. (The grave is well signposted from the entrance.) The legend on the headstone reads:

Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889–1971

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892–1973

Source

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/author/biography/

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