The Standing Stone

[Priya]

What was the significance/purpose of the ‘stone’ at the center of the hollow in the Barrow-downs adventure?

“… they … went down into the hollow circle. In the midst of it stood a single stone, standing tall under the sun above, and at this hour casting no shadow. It was shapeless and yet significant: like a landmark or a guarding finger, or more like a warning.”
- Fog on the Barrow-downs

I presume Tom referenced it when at his abode:

“Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone or cold Wights …”.
- In the House of Tom Bombadil

and in poetry:

“… The cold stone is fallen; …”
- Fog on the Barrow-downs

I have my own theory about it - but what do others think?

[Mithadan]

My view of how the Standing Stone fits in the story is based upon Tom's explicit warning to the Hobbits. He "advised them to pass barrows by on the west-side, if they chanced to stray near one." The Hobbits ignored or forgot this warning. "It was shapeless and yet significant: like a landmark, or a guiding finger, or more like a warning. But they were now hungry, and the sun was still at the fearless noon; so they set their backs against the east side of the stone" and fell asleep. When they woke, "The standing stone was cold , and it cast a long pale shadow that stretched eastward over them." Having failed to heed Tom's warning to pass such markers to the west, they became ensnared.

One could argue that the Standing Stone was not a "barrow," itself. Yet, Tolkien was very specific about the warning and how the Hobbits failed to pass the Stone on the West.

I suspect that Priya's question here does not relate to how the Standing Stone fit into the narrative, but rather focuses upon the mythological significance of the Stone. However, the inspiration for the Stone and the barrows would clearly be Stonehenge and similar ancient sites in England.

[Priya]

Hello Mithadan

Thank you for pointing out how an eastern shadow lay over the slumbering hobbits after they’d propped themselves against its east facing side. Yes, direction was of supreme importance to Tolkien: the blessedness of the west versus Sauron’s threat in the east.

Actually, it’s more the logic of the tale I am initially interested in discussing. But I acknowledge your thoughts on our world’s similarities with regards to ancient monoliths.

But back to the story for a while. It’s curious that Tolkien decided that Tom would refer to the stone in the singular while pluralizing Wights. So I think the standing stone the hobbits encountered was the very one Tom was referring to.

“Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone or cold Wights …”.

At first I thought it must have had an enchantment placed on it: a sort of early warning system alerting the nearby Wight that ‘prey’ was approaching.

But I changed my mind!

There are whole a lot of strange things that happen in this chapter of the story. Nobody (at least to my research) seems able to provide ‘believable’ answers, which possess both consistency and give this part of the tale logical purpose. For instance:

Why a rounded hollowed-out hill with a rimmed mound?
Why was a single stone specifically placed at its center?
What was this fog that rolled in so suddenly after a blazing hot day and after the sun had just set?
What were the two stones that appeared like a headless door, yet had not been noticed earlier?
Why did darkness fall after Frodo went past them?
Why did Frodo’s pony bolt?
Why did the other hobbits not follow Frodo past the doorway?
Why was there no reply from them when Frodo called?
Why did their voices seem so far away after Frodo came back through the doorway?
What was the green light in the barrow that came up through the ground?
Why did Bombadil’s voice appear to come through the ground?
How did Bombadil appear so quickly in his rescue?
What happened to the stones making up the headless doorway?

And these are just some of the mysterious matters.
Was the story intentionally meant to have unexplainable facets, or was there more to it all that Tolkien never got round to telling us about?

Opinions and any enlightenment would be most welcome.

[Huinesoron]

Interesting. I'm not going to comment on the internal or metaphysical aspects, but the inspiration side is looking just as mysterious.

It is, I understand, established historical fact that the Great Barrow "is" Wayland's Smithy (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/waylands-smithy), about 30 miles from Stonehenge as the craban flies. I've driven there from the south, and you really do drive across the Barrow-Downs to get there. It's a fantastic monument on the landscape, but not associated with a hollow containing a single standing stone.

The obvious candidate in this part of the world would be a hill fort, and indeed, Uffington Castle (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/uffington-castle-white-horse-and-dragon-hill) is very close by. The famous chalk white horse doesn't directly appear in Middle-earth, though Rohan and the Prancing Pony both reflect it, and I understand Dragon Hill has been strongly linked to Weathertop. But... Uffington Castle is bigger and more complex than the "hollow circle" on the Downs, and doesn't have a standing stone.

Another key location nearby would be Lambourn Seven Barrows (https://www.bbowt.org.uk/nature-reserves/seven-barrows), within about 2 miles of Wayland's Smithy. These give a good picture of what a typical barrow on the Downs would look like, and I'm seeing descriptions of at least two of them as "shield" or "bowl" barrows - ie, you go up the mound and down into a hollow. There's no standing stones, though.

And neither of these options really makes me happy. You don't put a standing stone in the middle of a barrow, because that's where you put the dead people! And hill forts are normally much bigger than Tolkien's description sounds - you can fit a village inside them, so a single stone wouldn't really stand out, and you don't feel like you're in a hollow.

What we really want is a henge. Not a stone henge (Stonehenge itself is way off), but a henge in the original sense: a circular earth enclosure, smaller than a hill fort but larger than a bowl barrow - and, for our purposes, with a single standing stone in the centre. Something like Mayburgh Henge (http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/mayburgh.htm) is a very good match, except for the minor fact that it's over 200 miles north of Wayland's Smithy and the real Barrow-Downs. I can't find anything close by.

So... slightly to my disappointment, despite "we fell asleep by the stone and then the kids got lost in the barrow" sounding exactly like the sort of family story Tolkien would have put in the book (see: every part of The Hobbit in the vicinity of the Misty Mountains), it looks like he might actually have made this one up. ^_^

(Though there is a survey marker on the east bank of Uffington Castle. It's not a traditional standing stone, but it's an impressive concrete monolith nonetheless... here's how it looks (https://maps.app.goo.gl/KgfkCbrVMnPbdoy18) from inside the hill fort. Not perfect, but very close, and in exactly the right place; maybe my first idea was right all along.)

hS

[Priya]

Hello Huinesoron

Those links were very much appreciated. The one of Mayburgh Henge is, as you say, a great match - and I quite agree.

By the way, is there a ‘real’ English region (with a capital D) called the Barrow-Downs?




So with that - switching the conversation from the storyline back to a real world fit - I want to throw out to readers of this thread, an idea.

All the real-world examples (or more accurately - the vast majority) folk cite for the standing stone and stone rings in the Barrow-downs chapter tend to focus on English parallels. But although Tolkien might well have used his visits to Wayland’s Smithy and Lambourn Downs to include similar designs into the tale, perhaps his actual siting of them for the story was considered to be outside of ‘home’ territory?

One reason is that the barrows, stone rings and standing stone in the novel are, quite obviously, located outside of the Shire.

Tolkien said the following:

“ ‘The Shire’ is based on rural England and not any other country in the world …”, 

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #190 – 3 July 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)

“Buckland … occupied a position with regard to the Shire such as Wales does to England; …”. 

– The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Appendix on Languages – pg. 50

I’m rather reminded here of one of Tom Shippey’s chapter titles in The Road to Middle-earth where he uses the term ‘A Cartographic Plot’.

Of course Tolkien equated some geography of Middle-earth with our world (e.g. Florence, ancient Troy & Oxford per Letter #294). So would it be beyond the realms of possibility that the Barrow-downs of our tale, lay in Tolkien’s mind, outside of mainland British borders (at least England & Wales) in the agglomerate land mass of Middle-earth?

The obvious candidates where monoliths are found in abundance close by to Britain are: France (particularly Brittany) and Ireland. Could Tolkien have based the Barrow-downs locale on a region within one of these countries?

Please throw stones or even rocks if such an idea seems outrageous. But there again, if you’re going to do so - please provide some reasonable logic along with scholastically based criticism!

[Priya]

Well no pebbles thrown so far - let alone standing stones!

So below is what I think Tolkien may have modeled the shallow hill with its standing stones upon. It’s Ireland over France that I’ve selected.





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/tara.png

The Historic Hill of Tara, County Meath, Ireland





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/tara-mounds.png

Two rimmed mounds at the top of the Hill of Tara and a Barrow
 (Mound on right with round saucer-like inner bowl,
 Mound on left with the ‘Stone of Destiny’, Barrow – upper right corner)





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/stone-of-destiny.png

Lia Fáil: The ‘Stone of Destiny’ – atop Hill of Tara




So I think the hill of the novel was not meant to be an identical copy – but one whose resemblance was unmistakably akin to the knowledgeable. The shallow Irish hill in County Meath, I have a feeling, was ‘slightly’ modified in terms of architectural features for the tale. Instead of two distinct mounds at the top, Tolkien merged them together to make one:

“… shallow saucer with a green mounded rim.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The ditches and outer humps were discarded while the hollow turfed circle at the hill’s summit was kept. In the middle of the hollow Tolkien might well have placed the equivalent of Tara’s ‘Stone of Destiny’.

“It was shapeless and yet significant: like a landmark, or a guarding finger, …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The Tara stone does have a finger-like shape. Though I’m perplexed as to how anything finger-like could be termed ‘shapeless’.


Any massive objections so far?

[Priya]

It is interesting to note that the Barrow-downs was a place of evil repute in hobbit lore:

“… the Barrow-downs had as sinister a reputation in hobbit-legend as the Forest itself.” 

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest

If Tolkien had modeled the location of the Barrow-downs crisis on Tara in Ireland, then it would tie-in a remarkably frank and puzzling statement:

“In a 1979 transcription of a discussion on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, George Sayer tells a remarkable story about Tolkien describing Ireland as ‘naturally evil.’ He could ‘feel,’ Sayer relates, ‘evil coming up from the earth, from the peat bogs, from the clumps of trees, even from the cliffs, and this evil was only held in check by the great devotion of the southern Irish to their religion.’ ”. 

– Perilous Realms, Two North’s and Their English Blend – pg. 19, M. Burns, 2005

One might wonder whether fellow Inkling’s member, Warren Lewis, expressed such a feeling about Ireland at a club meeting, and Tolkien took note:

“There is something wrong with this country – some sullen brooding presence over it, a vague sense of something mean and cruel and sinister: …”. 

– Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, Diary entry: 9 August 1933 – pg. 111, Editors C. Kilby & M.L. Mead, 1982

Ireland too has its fair share of ancient stone rings - reputedly over 300. An example is shown below.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/img_0156.jpeg


‘Drombeg Circle’ – County Cork, Ireland



Notably, the 5,000 year old neolithic barrow at Tara, nearby its famous standing stone, is also reminiscent of the Wight’s dwelling. Not just because it is known as ‘The Mound of the Hostages’ - which is curious enough; but because its entrance faces ‘east’. And by invoking the Sun’s energy at dawn as it rose in the east – the Wight was evicted from the Barrow:

“… Vanish in the sunlight!”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mound-of-hostages.png


‘The Mound of the Hostages’, Tara



Now I don’t know why it’s known as the ‘Mound of the Hostages’. I haven’t dug deep enough - but readily available information on the Internet appears scant. From what I can tell, its naming dates back to medieval times. In any case, the idea is worth considering that Tolkien made use of the title to make it meaningful for his own tale - don’t you think?

[Priya]

Now it’s not just the hill of Tara, which I think Tolkien modeled the Barrow-downs midday halt location upon. I have a strong suspicion that Tolkien also represented from Arthurian lore - Sir Gawain’s quest destination: the ‘Green Chapel’.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – the Green Chapel in Tolkien’s (& Gordon’s) own words was:

“… nothing else than a fairy mound; …”. 

– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Note to Line 151, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925

“… a hollow green mound.”
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Introduction – pg. ix, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/green-knight.png


Illustration from ‘MS Cotton Nero A.x’




It was barely more than a hillock of grass featuring a depression. As such, the eerie location resonates with the shallow hill which the hobbits encountered soon after leaving Tom and Goldberry. Once again, I repeat from the chapter:

“About mid-day they came to a hill whose top was wide and flattened, like a shallow saucer …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The slope being mild enough to ride their ponies up meant that it was just a gentle tumulus. After riding across they decided to turn and descend:

“… into the hollow circle.” 

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

So, subtly placed in the Barrow-downs adventure are indications of a similar sacred feature (to Tara and the Green Chapel) in the landscape. Yet not sacred to pagans (or obviously Christians) – but, with its standing stone, perhaps instead to fairy-folk? So what I’m advocating is that Tolkien pictured for his tale another ‘fairy mound’. And it was to both Celtic/Arthurian legends and perhaps we can say: fairy tale, that he turned to for the halt in the journey.

But what exactly is a fairy mound? And why a standing stone in its midst?

To the former - I tried looking up dictionary definitions. The New English Dictionary, which Tolkien worked on before his 1925 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight work, is of little help. So I turned to Google AI instead:

AI Overview

A faerie mound, also known as a fairy hill or fairy fort, is a folklore term, particularly prevalent in Irish and Scottish Gaelic traditions. These mounds are often associated with ancient earthworks like ringforts, hillforts, or burial mounds, and are believed to be homes or portals to the Otherworld, inhabited by fairies, or aos sí. Many believe that disturbing these mounds can bring bad luck or even curses.

[Huinesoron]

Hello Huinesoron

Those links were very much appreciated. The one of Mayburgh Henge is, as you say, a great match - and I quite agree.

By the way, is there a ‘real’ English region (with a capital D) called the Barrow-Downs?

There is not, but it's definitely there anyway. :D I have previously described (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=19367) driving and walking across the Berkshire/North Wessex Downs, which are exactly the countryside Tolkien described. It's positively eerie how horizonless they are; the land is just this smooth rolling surface in all directions. And it is absolutely studded with barrows; every hilltop seems to have either a barrow or two, or a line of trees. I'm utterly convinced this is what Tolkien was describing when he talked about the Barrow-Downs.

(From Oxford, he would cross them going south, for instance if travelling to Stonehenge. In that thread I compare the northern edge of the Berkshire Downs to the exit from the Barrow-Downs; nothing is perfect.)

The Historic Hill of Tara, County Meath, Ireland [/center]

[...]

The Tara stone does have a finger-like shape. Though I’m perplexed as to how anything finger-like could be termed ‘shapeless’.

Okay, Tara is a strong find. It's one of very few Irish locations I could name, and the only one I know is associated with a battle, so it has the cultural presence to show up in Tolkien's works. The fact that merging the two perfectly creates the hollow-and-stone is very nice. And the stone is both finger-like and shapeless - or rather unshaped, as in not carved or worked. It may not be right, but it's a good possibility.


But what exactly is a fairy mound? And why a standing stone in its midst?


And fairy-mounds are, folklorically, based (at least partly) on barrows. It's far from the only entry into the hollow hills in Tolkien: Menegroth, Nargothrond, and Mirkwood are all classic "the Elves live underground, and mortals who enter emerge changed and enchanted" fairy-mounds, and it's hard not to see the same DNA in Amon Rûdh, Henneth Annûn, or even Bag-End. (I have to exclude the various dwarf-mines and burrows and fortresses of evil... the Paths of the Dead, the gates of Gondolin, the Glittering Caves... wow, Tolkien really put a lot of stuff underground!) The Great Barrow isn't even the only one that puts the characters to sleep, either - Bilbo's fall does the same, leading to his encounter with Gollum, and there's magical sleep associated with both Mirkwood (the river) and Menegroth (Beren).

But as far as I know, there's no particular association of fairy-mounds with standing stones on them... probably because that isn't a thing in England, as I discovered last post (to my surprise!).

hS

[Priya]

Hello Huinesoron

I quite understand how your personal experience of the Downs in actual English counties left a deep impact. Deep enough that it ought to have had a memorable effect on Tolkien too. So, I agree, it would not be at all surprising if his personal vision for the novel’s localized countryside followed suit. Nevertheless, now that we have an inkling that one particular hill of our tale has a decent connection to Ireland’s Tara - it’s worthwhile contemplating whether other links can be uncovered.

But firstly, from my previous post - I much prefer to explore links to ‘fairies’ of the ‘fairy mound’. One idea I get from TLotR text is an underlying picture of little legendary creatures beneath a mushroom:

“The fog rolled up to the walls and rose above them, and as it mounted it bent over their heads until it became a roof: they were shut in a hall of mist whose central pillar was the standing stone.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/img_0158.jpeg

The Intruder, John Anster Fitzgerald, 1860




Do any other readers get the same kind of notion come to their minds? And then does Tom and Goldberry’s cavorting around the dining table leave an impression of fairies dancing in a circular fashion?

“… in some fashion they seemed to weave a single dance, neither hindering the other, in and out of the room, and round about the table; …”.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

In combination, is that the sort of impression Tolkien wanted to leave?
Was his tale meant to be the origin of our world’s superstitions about ‘fairy rings’ and connected folklore to mushrooms?




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/img_0157-e1756408786410.jpeg

A Mushroom Ring - A Natural Phenomenon




Pondering deeper on fairy connections, we also have the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tale - where Lord Bertilak (and presumably his wife) are:

“… fay-magic folk …”,

– ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, W.P. Ker Lecture Paper

Central to that fairy-story is the hollow hill of the Green Chapel and the lady’s ownership of a ‘green girdle’. It is a magical item which will protect its possessor from any deadly or injurious blow:

“For whoever goes girdled with this green riband, while he keeps it well clasped closely about him, there is none so hardy under heaven that to hew him were able; for he could not be killed by any cunning of hand.”
– ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, W.P. Ker Lecture Paper, 1953

Beyond coincidence is Tom’s remarkable possession of one too!

“green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;”.

– The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962 release

Hmm … was Tom practically invincible in battle? Is that why he came across as so cock-sure? So then, was Tom the original owner of the green girdle and thus conceived as a ‘fay’ creature? Is that a reasonable possibility? Back in 1934 at his first public release in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, he certainly exhibited powers beyond that of mortals or elven-kind!

I really do not want this thread to descend into a discussion about Bombadil, but a ‘supernatural’ Tom certainly has knowledge about the standing stone and its perilous nature:

“ ‘Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone …’ “.
-The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Nevertheless, in the next couple of posts, I will try to outline additional evidence pointing to Tom being of the fay race himself. I will try to be as succinct as possible. However I think a little discussion of such sorts is needed, if readers are to align themselves with perhaps a new/different line of thinking. For beneficially to us - there exist several clues that Tom is connected to Tara of legend. This may help us in the road to understanding why Tolkien included the standing stone. Because, it seems to me that textually much unrealized substructure exists behind this segment of the tale - knowledge of which will help fill a void, and make the Barrow-downs episode all the more satisfying.

[Priya]

As I intimated in my previous post, in order to reconcile Tolkien’s hollowed-out and mounded hill with our world’s fairy-lore we need a bit more evidence. Tom Bombadil is obviously intricately involved. Or at least - knowledgeable.

But was Tom conceived as a creature of Faërie as I have suggested? To examine that angle, in depth, would take many lengthy posts - and I would love to chat more about that. Unfortunately such side-tracking isn’t desirable for this particular thread. So instead, I’m just going to summarize some of what I’ve gathered over the years in studying Tolkien’s marvelous creation.

Don’t fall over - but one prognosis is that Tolkien employed his ‘usual’ trick of making his tale a ‘source’, and gave Tom a purpose through making him the origin of many characters of our world’s fairy-stories, myths and legends. But to do so - he had to do it in a fragmentary way. Only bits and pieces of his tale could be tied up with our world’s accounts. At least - that is what I believe was his plan.

However, I caution - I’m just grazing the surface here. Tom is an extremely complex character; indeed an extraordinary piece of subcreation. By no means is this all there is to him, or the final say. And you are all welcome to discuss and argue with me - but please, if you don’t mind, in a different thread.



Fairytale

Tom appears in the role of the old ‘fairy-man’ in:

(a) Jack and the Beanstalk

Who was that odd-looking old man whom Jack had traded with?

“He hadn't gone far when he met a funny-looking old man, who said to him: 'Good morning, Jack.' ”

- English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 60, J. Jacobs, 1890

Surely only a fairy being would have been in possession of magic beans?




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/jack-3.png

The Queer Old Man, 'Jack and the Beanstalk', English Fairy Tales, F. Steel, 1890 (Illustration by Arthur Rackham)




One of the earliest printed illustrations of the famous tale records a bearded short man with a conspicuous hat and a blue jacket. Might he have been Tom?



https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/mothertwaddle.jpg

Illustrations from 'The History of Mother Twaddle and the Marvellous Achievements of Her Son Jack', Benjamin Tabart, 1807




Then after the swap what happened to Jack's cow: 'Milky-White'?

Hmm ... for our tale clearly Tom had access to a providing farm animal. After all, the extent of dairy produce on the dinner table was substantial:

“... yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread and butter; milk, cheese, ...”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

So we can see that there was no shortage of food during the hobbits' respite. With much of it being milk based, we might ascertain Tom's cow was a prodigious producer. Resonating with:

“... Milky-white, the best milker in the parish, ...”.

- English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 61, J. Jacobs, 1890

And one can readily imagine that legends of Milky-white and her ample output originated in hobbit folklore to be passed along through the ages to our own world's myth through blended and corrupted tales of Tom's residence being awash in 'white milk':

“Frodo … watched the white chalky path turn into a little river of milk and go bubbling away down into the valley.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil (my underlined emphasis)

And then on another matter, to the hobbits - who exactly were these black men, so much larger than them (and thus in comparison – of ogreish size), who had invaded a thoroughly English Shire with such animosity for its inhabitants? Many of the rustic little people had never encountered the Big Folk; from their viewpoint they must have looked gigantic:

“Sam ... was finding his first sight of Men ... quite enough, ...”.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

Apart from the 'ogre' fueled chase echoing Jack's experience, what about that heightened sense of smell? What was all the sniffing about?

“... inside the hood came a noise as of someone sniffing ...”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Three is Company

Presumably it was connected to Aragorn's revelation:

“... at all times they smell the blood of living things, desiring and hating it.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, A Knife in the Dark

Hmm ... the smelling of blood combined with raw hatred! Now where have we seen that theme before? Yes, we must hark back once again to Jack and the Beanstalk and that most famous of English rhymes:

“ '... Fee-fi-fo-fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he alive, or be he dead

I’ll have his bones to grind my bread.' ”

– English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk - pg. 63, J. Jacobs, 1890

Aren't the similarities becoming obvious now? Isn't it obvious how The Lord of the Rings mirrors Jack and the Beanstalk in that both heroes look out from a window on to beanstalks first thing in the morning!

“Frodo ran to the eastern window, and found himself looking into … a tall line of beans on poles; ...”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

“So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think he saw? why, the beans ... had sprung up into a big beanstalk ...”.

-English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk pg.63, J. Jacobs, 1890

… and there is quite a bit more …



(b) The Little Folk’s Presents - In Grimm’s Fairy Tales

In being extremely succinct, the most interesting part for us is the implied ‘fairy pact’ between two mortals and a little old fairy-man. In order to seal the agreement:

“… the old man clapped them both on the shoulder, in a friendly manner …”.

– The Little Folks’ Presents – Tale 182, Grimm’s Household Tales, J. & W. Grimm, Translated by M. Hunt, 1884 (my underlined emphasis)

Such an act is also present in The Fellowship of the Ring where Tom, as an old man, taught the hobbits a summoning verse. Then via a specific motion:

“… he clapped them each on the shoulder with a laugh, …”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil (my underlined emphasis)

and thereby his side of the ‘fairy pact’ was sealed in agreeing to answer a distress call.

(c) Other fairytales in which we encounter resonances to Tom

The Blue Mountains in Andrew Lang’s Yellow Fairy Book
The Bell Deep by Hans Andersen
Tom Thumb as set down by Richard Johnson
The Legend of Bottle Hill as set down by T. Keightly

& no doubt there are several more!



………..




But I want to put fairytales aside and instead turn to ‘Legends’. Because it’s Tom’s hidden likenesses to the god Lugh, and thus a connection to Tara - that I really want to get to!

[Priya]

Legends



It’s curious that below Tara - within hollow hills, as legend has it, dwelt the race of the Fairies. Here in Irish myth lay the entrance to the underground land of the Celtic daoine sithe (Tuatha Dé Dannan). A spiritual place whose famed hill, is under the guardianship of the greatest of Celtic gods: Lugh (also known as Lug and Lugus). And it’s this deity’s historically recorded mythical attributes that I want to bring out to the forefront. Because I see some of them reflected in our Tom Bombadil’s persona. As such, this lends to the idea that Tolkien made Tom an ultimate source.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/lugh.png

Lugh, shown triple-faced, Reims region, France




From what we can tell from surviving statues, Lugh was crowned with leaves just like Tom’s:

“… thick brown hair was crowned with autumn leaves.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

One of Lugh’s major characteristics is his ‘sun god’ depiction:

“… Lug … as a sun-god occupies a distinguished place in Irish legend.”

– Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, The Zeus of the Insular Celts – pg. 210, J. Rhys, 1888

And indeed, it is not hard to see shades of the hypothetical origin of this ‘red-cheeked’ Celtic solar deity in The Lord of the Rings. For powerfully depicted, there was a ‘red-faced’ Tom at the barrow:

“… framed against the light of the sun rising red behind him.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Adding to a solar deity manifestation was Lugh’s other role as a Storm god – echoed in the following semblance:

“ ‘… I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. …’ ”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest

Interestingly the Celtic god was titled Lugh Lámfada meaning ‘Lugh of the Long Arm’. Once again this, I believe, was cleverly characterized in The Lord of the Rings. This time through Master Bombadil immobilizing the hobbits beyond normal arm’s length:

“…holding up one hand, and they stopped short, as if they had been struck stiff.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest (my underlined emphasis)

Lugh was also described to be a ‘master of all trades’ which is perhaps reflected by Tolkien’s assignation of a ‘master’ title to Bombadil. Connected to the underworld by his mother’s marriage to the Formorian god Balor, Lugh shares a similarity of below earth mastery with Tom. Because Bombadil’s voice was heard:

“… as if it was coming down through the ground …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Hopping and chanting before going into battle, Lugh’s unorthodox behavior was also mimicked in the skirmish involving Old Man Willow:

“… a deep glad voice was singing carelessly and … singing nonsense … hopping … along the path, … there came into view a man, or so it seemed.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, The Old Forest

Lugh was ultimately more powerful than the Formorian leader, and arch enemy of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, the baleful ‘one-eyed’ Balor. Exhibiting supremacy over the ‘eye’, the ‘trickster’ Lugh defeated Balor of the ‘Evil Eye’ just as Tom defeated Sauron’s magic:

“Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little finger … There was no sign of Tom disappearing!”,

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

“Tom … spun the Ring in the air – and it vanished with a flash.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Lugh also had a legal side. It seems that in emulating this god of ‘oaths and sworn contracts’, Tom consummated an implied promise:

“… he taught them a rhyme to sing, if they should … fall into any danger …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Belted for battle with an enchanted green girdle – Tom would fulfill the compact and save them from disaster. In the nick of time he would arrive, but less like a mortal knight and more like a divine fairy. For the legend of Conn at Tara tells us that a horsed “fairy prince” emerging from the fog:

“… disclosed the future history of his country …” and “… is stated to have been called Lug, …”.

– Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, The Zeus of the Insular Celts – pg. 210, J. Rhys, 1888 (my underlined emphasis)

Because the disclosure was about future Irish monarchs we have a situation paralleled in The Lord of the Rings. Another fairy-like being similarly transmitted to the hobbits a faërian projection of lordly men and a Gondorian king from the past with a premonition of perhaps one to come. When Bombadil:

“… spoke they had a vision as it were of a great expanse of years behind them, like a vast shadowy plain over which there strode shapes of Men, tall and grim with bright swords, and last came one with a star on his brow.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

As myth handed down from time immemorial perhaps the Barrow-downs scene became distorted. Perhaps the fairy prince that rode out from the fog was really Tom on Fatty Lumpkin! And just maybe the legend morphed even more from a fairy rescue to one made by a Tolkienian deity!

Last, but not least, when it comes to Tara, Bombadil and Celtic fairy tales, it is really not that surprising that Tolkien strengthened the trio’s relationship by deliberately including an archaeological artifact of relevance: a brooch. One rooted on the famous ‘Brooch of Tara’.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/19cd2a16-25c7-4f92-bed5-e7a3f978ff8e-e1757135389785.jpeg

The Celtic Brooch of Tara




Being arguably the most treasured of all Ireland’s ancient jewelry it is the only significant piece associated to the Hill of Tara. Again in a remarkable parallel, the most precious item of jewelry from the barrow-hoard was a brooch:

“He chose for himself from the pile a brooch …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs


……


Now we should not expect everything known about Lugh to match up with our Tom. Legends, of course, usually only contain small amounts of truth. But what we see is perhaps a better match than expected, don’t you think?

Anyway, it’s to the standing stone that I want to return; with particular focus on its possible connection to an ‘otherworld’.

[Priya]

Described as a “warning finger” and possibly imbued with enchanted powers the standing stone was characterized, as I have already surmised, to resemble Tara’s. Furthermore, it shared commonality with the one the Irish hero Cuchulainn* (recorded as a reincarnation of Lugh - see my previous post) fell asleep against:

“Cuchulainn went away to a menhir where he sat down and fell asleep.”
– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Chapter VI – The Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn – pg. 345, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911. (my underlined emphasis)

Ring any bells?

Anyhow, although men were the presumed shapers and erectors of menhirs, no absolute proof exists. The Celts of Brittany, where menhirs are closely clustered (more so than anywhere else in Europe), spoke of legends telling of fairies carrying enormous stones:

“The fairy builders, says tradition, went about their work in no haphazard manner. Those among them who possessed a talent for design drew the plans of the proposed structure, the less gifted acting as carriers, labourers, and masons. Apron-carrying was not their only method of porterage, for some bore the stones on their heads, or one under each arm, …”.

– Legends & Romances of Brittany, Chapter II, L. Spence, 1917





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0160.png

Megaliths in Brittany at Carnac




So if fashioned and positioned by fairies, it’s not hard to infer that some of these stones were likely spell-bound. But were they somehow linked to an otherworld?

“What otherworld?” - you are perfectly entitled to question.

“Faërie”, is my answer.

The Faërie Tolkien spoke of in his On Fairy-stories lecture paper. The Faërie depicted in Smith of Wootton Major.

No - not the ‘imitation otherworlds’ founded by the elves, and depicted as realms governed by Galadriel and Elrond, and whose decay was stemmed through the power of the elven-rings. Nor the one across the sea - sundered from the Primary World by the One. But instead, what I coin as ‘Middle-earth Faërie’; a parallel secondary world created by Eru and existing side-by-side to ours.

So it is to ‘Middle-earth Faërie’, and clues to its existence in TLotR that I want to turn to next. For I think it’s the ‘missing link’ in our understanding of what really happened in the Barrow-downs adventure, and to boot - explanations of the many oddities In the House of Tom Bombadil chapter.

Any objections?




* Tolkien was certainly aware of Cuchulainn – see Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – Note to Line 2452, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925. It seems probable that a connection to Lugh was also known:

“Lugh appears to Dechtire, the mother of Cúchulainn, and tells her that he himself is her little child, i.e. that the child is a reincarnation of himself; and Cúchulainn, when inquired of as to his birth, points proudly to his descent from Lugh.”

– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Reincarnation of the Tuatha De Danann, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911

[Priya]

Now we must not forget how one of Tolkien’s early memories was a recollection of one of only two surviving words spoken by pre-Celtic aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles:

“… nothing of the languages of primitive peoples (before the Celts or Germanic invaders) is now known, except perhaps ond = ‘stone’ (+ one other now forgotten).”

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #324 – 4-5 June 1971, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

For us it is not just the word ‘ond’ which is of significance, but the fact that it meant ‘stone’. Yes, necessarily a core theme would be the inclusion of ‘old stone’ for his story. But did the novel’s ancient standing stone, of the Downs, somehow connect to Faërie? That’s an idea I haven’t seen bandied about before.

Well … if so, how? That’s what we must determine!

At this stage, some members/readers might already have joined some imaginary dots. Just like I did, you might be pondering on the very same thoughts that arose in my mind - such as:

(a) Did Frodo very briefly enter Middle-earth Faërie after passing between the two standing stones?
(b) Did these two ‘magically appearing’ standing stones form a gateway to another world?





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0161-e1757607389387.webp

On the fringes of the Hill of Tara beside a Church are two standing stones*




(c) Was Frodo allowed through because he held a necessary visa (the ‘magic’ Ring)?
(d) Was it dark because it was nighttime in Faërie?
(e) Did his pony bolt and head back because the beast, being a mortal of the Primary World, did not belong in the Perilous Realm?
(f) Did his companions not follow because they lacked a ‘visa’?
(g) Did the other hobbits not hear Frodo’s calls because his voice hadn’t the power to transcend across a different plane of existence?
(h) Upon reentering the Primary World did the other hobbit voices seem so far away because time in the Primary World had elapsed at a different rate to that in Faërie which operates under a different clock cycle?
(I) Was the light in the barrow coming through the ground from Faërie?
(j) Was this region of the Barrow-downs the place where two different planes of existence touched?
(k) Was the light growing because dawn was breaking in Faërie?
(l) Was the light green because Faërie had a green sun? (or perhaps an atmospheric condition in that realm led to green sunlight)?





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/rising-green-sun.png

A Rising Green Sun (or thereabouts!)




Hmm … the existence of another world would certainly help to logically explain several loose ends - don’t you think?

Yet first, I think it’s worthwhile taking a step back and convincing ourselves that there is a real chance another Faërie was subtly included. And to do that we have to recall that fundamentally Tolkien’s opus:

“… is a ‘fairy-story’, but one written … for adults.”

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #181 – January or February 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)

“… this is an ‘imaginary’ world …”, 

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #190 – 3 July 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)

created to possess:

“… coherent structure which it took me years to work out.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #190 – 3 July 1956, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

And I think Tolkien achieved coherency by blending in some of the most ancient folklore and legends of the European continent. His famous denial of C.S. Lewis’s:

“… myths are lies, even though lies breathed through silver.”,

- Tolkien A biography, Jack – pg. 147, H. Carpenter, 1977

left him to search deeply for those elusive and hidden grains of ‘truth’.

Absolutely necessary then, would be the presence of historical connections to our own world. After all, if there was little to nothing ancestral in common – we might as well be reading a story set on an entirely make-believe planet. Yes, maybe one similar to Earth, but certainly not authentic, nor one we could happily relate to or empathize with:

“I have … constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in ‘space’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #211 – 14 October 1958, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

Then it was those historic links which were so essential. And this aim could best be achieved by entangling some of our world’s records deeply into his own storyline. To be maintained was:

“… the literary pretence of historicity and dependence on record …”.
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #129 – 10 September 1950, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (my underlined emphasis)

But though modern-day archaeologists, historians and folklorists have speculated a great deal, there are no ancient surviving records on the function of single (or isolated) standing stones.

Or are there?




* Note how from this angle how they lean towards each other in the same manner as the text:

“… suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

[Priya]

Before, I comment on records in our world of single standing stones - I want to try to strengthen the idea about Frodo inadvertently entering Faërie. To do that I think we ought to think more about our world’s tales of faërie. Thus I’ve decided to dig out instances where the land of Faërie pops out to the forefront in our early literature.

So where exactly does a close-quarters faërie loom large?

Actually reports are reasonably numerous and there is sufficient evidence Tolkien knew all below and others too:

(a) Thomas the Rhymer being carried off into fairyland upon the Queen of Faërie’s milk-white steed.

(b) Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, entering Annwn while lost in a magical fog and spending a year in the Welsh otherworld per the Mabinogion.
(c) Sir Orfeo entering the realm of Faërie.

(d) King Arthur’s Avalon – described as both across the water in the west but also at Glastonbury Tor.

(e) The ‘Land below Woolpit’ where two legendary green children emerged according to Ralph of Coggeshall.

(f) The fabled realm below hilly mounds in the legends of the Celtic Tuatha-de-Dannan.





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/riders-of-the-sidhe.png

‘Riders of the Sidhe’, John Duncan, 1911




What we need to recognize is that access to a local land-situated kind of faërie has been extensively reported. And in times close to our own – far off from Tolkien’s mythic Ages. It is observable such reports were replete with creatures just like the Professor’s elves.

For Tolkien, faërie was primarily a place – the so-called ‘Perilous Realm’. Putting aside the question of whether such a land or fairies really exist outside of imagination, from what I can tell Tolkien believed that the concept and origin of faërie began with man as a sub-creator in triggering the ‘invention’ of a fairy tale. And that tale might have been born indirectly from hearsay or directly from personal experience; yet it would likely have possessed at least a nugget of truth. A genuine fairy tale always exhibits a magical face and is, more often than not, set in the land of Faërie. A place which is not only the natural habitation of fays (fairy folk to us) but, according to the Professor, also contains creatures such as:

“… elves and … dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 113, HarperCollins, 1983

Tolkien made plain that for humans with a natural bent towards make-believe:

“Fantasy, the making or glimpsing of Other-worlds, was the heart of the desire of Faërie.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 135, HarperCollins, 1983

Of great significance is his employment of the term: “Other-worlds”. Most notably it is delineated in plural form. And thus the case can be made that when engaged in creating his own fantasy, ‘Faërie’ was not in his mind limited to a singular ‘Other-world’. It’s quite possible he had in mind another faerie where all these fantastic creatures existed in some corner or at some time within its own chronological history. So for us, it is essential to grasp the concept of a multiplicity of otherworlds being present in Tolkien’s literature. These can simply be equated to secondary worlds, being distinct from our primary one.



… to be continued

[Priya]

The most definite and obvious otherworld of Tolkien’s sub-created mythology is voiced in Bilbo’s poetic recital at Rivendell:

“… from Otherworld beyond the Sea …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Many Meetings, Poem: Eärendil was a mariner

The fabled province of the ‘gods’, in which lay ‘Elvenhome’, and once part of the Primary World had, due to the transgressions of men, been sundered away into a separate otherworld. Initially termed as ‘Faëry’ in some of the earliest works of the mythology (see The Book of Lost Tales Vols. I & II – by the time of The Hobbit it had become titled:

“… Faërie in the West.”

– The Hobbit, Flies and Spiders



Naturally, as the publication of The Hobbit was swiftly followed by the inception of The Lord of the Rings which in turn, early on, was hindered by preparation for the Andrew Lang Lecture, one might wonder whether multiple worlds in the forefront of Tolkien’s mind actively led to another jump in a developing mythology. After all - as intimated in the Lecture, though witches, trolls, giants, dragons and other such fantastical beings ‘intrude’ into our Primary World – they really belong to Faërie;




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/doyle-in-fairyland.png

‘In Fairyland’, Andrew Lang, Originally illustrated 1870 (above 1979 reprint)




but for Tolkien, certainly not the ‘Faërie in the West’. Because the idyllic ‘Blessed Realm’ where:

“… naught faded nor withered, neither was there any stain upon flower or leaf in that land, nor any corruption or sickness in anything that lived; …”,

– The Silmarillion, Of the Beginning of Days

was wholly incompatible. I simply cannot emphasize that enough!

And so where exactly was the faërie of all those monsters and fay creatures? Was it just a place that resided in his mind, or the minds of other fairy tale inventors? Maybe – but maybe not. Tolkien might well have thought there was more to the matter. A shred of doubt would have been enough to build upon. As such, I believe that for The Lord of the Rings Tolkien subcreated a faërie adjoining Middle-earth. One consistent with existing real-world mythology associated to the soil of England and nearby lands. Intimately connected to ‘Middle-earth Faërie’ and central to the plan, was the standing stone set atop the dished and rounded hill.

Yet before returning to ponder the standing stone, readers of this thread might first ask:

‘Why bother? Was it absolutely necessary to create another faërie? And where is the proof?’


… to be continued

[Priya]

In repetition from my last post:

‘Where is the proof?’


Unfortunately - absolute proof is lacking. But I will say - no scholar has adequately tied in the faerie of Smith of Wootton Major or that delineated in OFS with both TLotR and the elf-related Silmarillion mythology. There is a disconnect here; yes a genuine knowledge gap. But to bridge it we must make a jump using logic. And if we do - much of the meaning behind the TLotR storyline unravels before us. So no proof - just some evidence and pointers.

To me, it’s obvious that Tolkien had a tricky problem - and it was bound to ‘his’ beloved Elves. Needed to be dealt with was the dilemma posed by those elves who chose to remain in Middle-earth after the Third Age. Those that had:

“… long before made their irrevocable choice, preferring Middle-earth to paradise …”.
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #154 – 25 September 1954, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

What happened to them? Where did these immortals go? Where are they now? Believable answers had to be provided. And believability is probably what spurred him to change their fate* for The Lord of the Rings and ensuing mythology. Though Tolkien never provided explicit and detailed explanations**, nevertheless he left sufficient clues.





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0167.jpeg

‘Meadow Elves’ by Nils Blommér, 1850





The spirit to body relationship for Elves was different than mankind’s. Repeatedly we were told that elven spirits slowly consumed their physical bodies from within. To mortal eyes – they faded.

But their bodies did not fade into nothingness. Instead, I contend, Tolkien eventually*** came up with the idea of them fading into another dimension: what I have termed Middle-earth Faërie. Such that in the Primary World they eventually became:

“The Lingerers whose bodily forms could no longer be seen by us mortals, or seen only dimly and fitfully.”
- Morgoth’s Ring, The Later Quenta Silmarillion 2 – pg. 224, 1993

And we know their disappearance occurred after:

“… the Third Age …” which was “… a Twilight Age, a Medium Aevum, the first of the broken and changed world; the last of the lingering dominion of visible fully incarnate Elves, …”.
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #131 – late 1951, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (my underlined emphasis)

Yes, Eru had to have provided a fitting habitation (after the Third Age) for his longeval and beloved First Born – enamored with Middle-earth and unwilling to forsake it:

“The ‘waning’ of the Elvish hroar must therefore be part of the History of Arda as envisaged by Eru, …”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth – pg. 342, 1993 (Tolkien’s emphasis)


… Well having provided, what I think are, some decent reasons behind Tolkien’s inclusion of another faerie (both historical evidence of a faerie directly connected to Europe, and Tolkien penned hints as to the fate of lingering elves), it’s a good time to return to the ‘standing stone’ …




* We can glean this from the chronological development of the ‘Doom of Mandos’.

Before The Lord of the Rings ~1937:

“Slain or fading their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos …”.

– The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta IV – pg. 100

“… slain or wasted with grief, they died not from the earth, and their spirits went back to the halls of Mandos, …”.
– The Lost Road and other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion – pg. 247

But by 1958, after the publication of The Lord of the Rings:

“ ‘… those that endure in Middle-earth … shall wane, and become as shadows of regret …’ ”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, The Annals of Aman – pg. 118, 1993


** It must be emphasized that the various manuscripts making up the ‘Histories of the Elves’ (and Tolkien’s notes pertaining to them) are of the ‘Elder Days’. At this stage the phenomenon of ‘fading’ was a far future event. It is hinted that even the Valar were not fully aware of Eru’s plan. After Tolkien had ‘completed’ The Lord of the Rings and set it aside, we have ~1951:

“And some have said that the Vision ceased ere … the fading of the Firstborn; …”.
- Morgoth’s Ring, Ainulindale Version D – pg. 31, 1993

So it was impossible for Tolkien, as a reporter of records written long ago, to have been too explicit on this matter. For even by the end of the Third Age, ‘fading’ had not occurred. But in later times, closer to our own, we can reconcile the elves in a local otherworld per Smith of Wootton Major and the elves in ‘Faërie’ per On Fairy-stories as those once of Middle-earth faded into another dimension. The existence of a second Faërie then neatly, and completely ties up all of Tolkien’s mythological writings as regards the fate of the remaining Middle-earth elves.


*** The contention is that Tolkien abandoned the idea of elves (interchangeably termed fairies) becoming:

“… small and tenuous, filmy and transparent …”.

– The Book of Lost Tales 2, The History of Eriol or Aelfwine – pg. 326

Because the reason for such changes, namely the waxing of men, simply wasn’t credible.

[Priya]

So after exploring reasons as to why Tolkien included another faerie into his great story, I now want to get back to our ‘standing stone’; rather an equivalent one where, once again, mysterious happenings related to an ‘otherworld’ occur. This is the record I wanted to get to; it being an account of a parallel realm which is tied to the soil of our Primary World. And the record, perhaps not unsurprisingly, is a fairytale: a Welsh fairytale.

Moving chronologically back from the Fog on the Barrow-downs chapter to the new story’s beginning, of the many early problems Tolkien faced in constructing an elaborate tale – there were two that particularly concern us. The first was what was he going to do with a preexisting Tom Bombadil; meaning - how was he going to blend him into the storyline, and what role and function would he serve? The second was a major preoccupation in preparing an ‘Andrew Lang’ lecture paper. Refreshing his memory on Andrew Lang’s twelve fairy-story books (and many other fairy tales) must have had an impact in itself. Dealing academically with ‘faërie’ and ‘fairies’, over the course of five months*, might simultaneously have led to contemplating roles and firming up genera for our merry couple. Particularly as this time period overlapped with his formulation/revision of at least two of the early chapters involving Bombadil.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/langs-books.png

Andrew Lang’s Twelve Colored Fairy Books



In putting out a thesis about fairyland and fairies – was his new ‘fairy tale’ going to be devoid of such a place and creatures? Were the many historical accounts telling of fairy encounters on European soil just mumbo jumbo? Were the tales of how men and women had disappeared with the fairies, oblivious of a different pace of time in the mortal world, totally fictitious?

You can make your own mind up - but what we do know is that Tolkien did considerable research for the lecture by accessing many library-stored fairy-stories. No doubt he consulted a personal collection too. I can’t prove he read the ones cited below** - but here remarkably in one of them we have a record of a hill blanketed in fog which had a doorway leading to fairyland:

“The … tenant … of the farm of Auchriachan in Strathavon, while … on a hill … found himself suddenly enveloped in a dense fog. … Suddenly he beheld a light … and found that it proceeded from a strange-looking edifice. The door was open, and he … learned that this was an abode of the fairies …”.

– The Fairy Mythology, The Stolen Ox – pg. 390, T. Keightley, 1870 (my underlined emphasis)

Yet I think it was another Welsh tale which caught the Professor’s eye. For here, at last, we not only have fog, a ringed place and a hollow - but now we also have a single ‘standing stone’ linking to the fairy-realm:

“One day when it was cloudy and misty, a shepherd boy going to the mountains … came to a hollow place … where he saw a number of round rings. He recognized the place as one he had often heard of as dangerous … He tried to get away from there, but he could not. Then an old, merry, blue-eyed man appeared. The boy, … followed the old man, and the old man said to him, ‘Do not speak a word till I tell you.’ In a little while they came to a menhir (long stone). The old man tapped it three times, and then lifted it up. A narrow path with steps descending was revealed, … ‘Follow me,’ said the old man, ‘no harm will come to you.’ …”.

– The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Einion and Olwen – pg. 161, W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911 (my underlined emphasis)

Hmm … the old merry, blue-eyed man is a bit of a surprise. Yet even more astounding is that in an other version*** of the same story the boy met a “little fat old man with merry blue eyes” !

Anyhow, the blue-eyed old man descended with the boy into an otherworld. A merry old man endowed with the characteristics of a creature of faërie – and one, given my ‘source’ theory, Tolkien could reconcile as Bombadil perhaps?




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0170-e1758733529615.jpeg

Fairies about a Standing Stone, Artist unknown




Are all these connections merely coincidental? I would be totally floored if they were? But what about you? Are you flabbergasted?

I’ll leave you to chew upon that, but I have a feeling our Professor, learned in the matter of fairy-stories, guilefully used elements from such tales in a supremely subtle, yet cunning plan of his own. More of which will soon be revealed!




* The Andrew Lang Lecture award offer was officially sent to Tolkien on 8 October 1938. Lecture delivery date was 8 March 1939.

** It can be inferred that Tolkien knew a few Welsh fairy tales and the Irish ones about the Sidhe-fairies from his 1939 OFS lecture paper - but he was not specific:

“ … in special cases such as collections of Welsh or Gaelic tales. In these the stories about the ‘Fair Family’ or the Shee-folk are sometimes distinguished as ‘fairy-tales’ from ‘folk-tales’ …”.

*** See Welsh Folk-lore A Collection of the Folk-tales and Legends of North Wales, Men Captured by Fairies, 1887 by Elias Owen; also see Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx – Vol. I, The Fairies’ Revenge – pg. 112). Curiously the ‘little old man leading a mortal to an otherworld’ also arises in Owen Goes A-Wooing in The Welsh Fairy Book, 1908 by William Jenkyn Thomas.

[Priya]

I am shortly going to return to fairy tales because, per the example provided in my previous post, the standing stone of Einion and Olwen guards the entrance to fairyland; thus it is key. And to recognize that is vital in this quest to understand what Tolkien did.

But before I discuss how the stone of the Barrow-downs may have been used in a similar way to gain entry into Middle-earth Faërie, I would like to highlight some of what Tolkien said about ‘time’ and its relationship to faerie. Also, I would like to chat a little about a ‘green sun’. Tolkien made some candid remarks about these two phenomena. Perhaps his comments will help dispel hesitancy and doubts among readers of this thread as to the existence of a Middle-earth Faërie in The Lord of the Rings.

Now, using faerie of fairy tale lore, Tolkien employed not only ‘Other Place’ but had the hobbits unknowingly:

“… open a door on Other Time, …”.

– Tolkien On Fairy-stories, Manuscript B MS. 4 F73-120 – pg. 228, V. Flieger & D. Anderson, 2014

Upon emergence back through the doorway created by the two standing stones, Frodo’s friends were long gone. His all too brief venture into the otherworld of Middle-earth Faërie reflected our world’s reports:

“There are, for instance, many stories telling how men and women have disappeared and spent years among the fairies, without noticing the passage of time, or appearing to grow older.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – Note F, HarperCollins, 1983




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0172.jpeg

A Doorway in Fairyland, L. Housman, 1923




Our Primary world and Tolkien’s Faërie touched, but both occupied a different space in the Universe, and both operated under different clock cycles:

“There must be some way or ways of access from and to Faery … but it is also necessary that Faery and the world [of Men], though in contact, should occupy a different time and space, or occupy them in different modes …”.

– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

“If Faery Time is at points contiguous with ours, the contiguity will occur in related points in space.”

– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

So by inadvertently entering Middle-earth Faërie, Frodo avoided initial capture by the Wight and thus escaped from the deep ‘sleep’ spell and ceremonial dressing imposed upon the other three hobbits. It allowed him to call for aid. But what I want to emphasize is how Tolkien voiced there was more than one method of gaining entry:

“There must be some way or ways of access from and to Faery …”.
– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

Hmm … yes I know there is a lot to ponder upon; yet a mixture of fairy tales and Celtic legends allows us to solve and finally fully comprehend another mysterious happening in the fog-laden chapter. We should acknowledge that there is still much to uncover, and remind ourselves only Tolkien knew it all. Even the most renowned of scholars has noted there are things in the novel that appear inexplicable:

“The scene with the wight is especially mysterious …”.

– J.R.R. Tolkien Author of the Century, Chapter II – pg. 67, T. Shippey, 2014

What exactly was the green light in the Wight’s barrow that seemed to emanate from the ground about Frodo and then slowly intensify?

“… a pale greenish light was growing round him. … the light seemed to be coming out of himself, and from the floor beside him, …”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

The scholar John Garth has put forward a theory* that the scene may have been linked to Tolkien’s World War I trench warfare experiences and the combative deployment of poisonous gases. But this idea appears tenuous. Especially because Tolkien refers to the aura as ‘light’. A far better and more believable explanation is that here we have simply a continuation of a faerie theme. In tandem with my fairy tale approach advocated all along, very succinctly – the green light was part of Tolkien’s vision of Middle-earth Faërie. Here by the tumuli of the barrows, where two different worlds came closest to touching, the veil was thinnest. It was here why we can truly understand why:

“… green was a fairy colour, …”.

– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Note to Line 151, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925

And that was because Tolkien added to its folklore importance by giving his Faërie a ‘green sun’! A sun which was beginning its ascent** in fairyland below!




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/img_0171-e1759103520689.webp

Aurora Borealis: Perhaps the nearest we can get to imagining a ‘Green Sun’




Quite astoundingly it is all codified in On Fairy-stories. In perhaps his most interesting paper, advice from a personal perspective on secondary world-building faithfully flowed down into his own novel. For an inexperienced novelist trying to invent a fantasy world, Tolkien lectured:

“Anyone … can say the green sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

Surely Tolkien took the words of St. Augustine who mused upon the creativity of man. Emphasizing that though he had never seen a ‘green sun’ nevertheless it was within his:

“… power to conceive of it as square, …” or “… what color I please, …”.

– The Doctrinal Treatises of St Augustine of Hippo, Book XI Chapter 8 – pg. 156, translated by J. Verlag/J. Beck, 2012

Picking up from where St. Augustine left off, Tolkien warned intense effort would be necessary:

“To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible***, commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, …”.

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

Otherwise, it would not possess “an inner consistency of reality”. The reader would disengage and be thrust back into the Primary World. However if sufficient credible ‘realism’ was input, at the end of the exercise would be success:

“Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed narrative art, storymaking in its primary and most potent mode.”

– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 140, HarperCollins, 1983

A virtual confession was thus voiced in his paper On Fairy-stories. Tolkien in no roundabout way told us his intentions for The Lord of the Rings. How could he not practice what he preached? Especially as to all intents and purposes confirmation was later openly aired. The Lord of the Rings:

“… was a practical demonstration of the views … expressed.”,

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #234 – 22 November 1961, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

in that ever so revealing On Fairy-stories paper. A ‘green sun’ for Middle-earth Faërie was, I must conclude, Tolkien’s creative artistry at its very best!



… to be continued




* Frodo and the Great War, in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder, ed. Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2006).

** Rational reasons (other than the theory cited) for a slowly growing green light coming from under the earth are hard to arrive at. In any case, one might conclude that after Frodo’s sword-stroke the Wight ‘shrieked’ a counter-spell in retaliation. This instantaneously sealed off the barrow from Middle-earth Faërie (and thus the green sun’s light) in a presumed attempt to cut off external aid.

*** The idea seems to have intrigued Tolkien at least since 1931:

“You may say green sun or dead life and set the imagination leaping.”
– The Monsters and the Critics: And Other Essays, A Secret Vice – pg. 219, HarperCollins, 1983.

Also see Editor’s Commentary by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson – Tolkien On Fairy-stories, pg. 111, 2014.

[Priya]

… continued from my previous post


Having discussed Tolkien’s documented thoughts about a ‘green sun’ and other ‘time’, I think that it’s worth delving a little more into fairy lore, and so I want to briefly talk about ‘hills’ and ‘mist’.

Now Fairyland as a locally accessible otherworld in historical literature has always had a strong connection to ‘green hills’ in our world. The fairy tale accounts are numerous – and as examples I have listed an assortment below from both Britain and Ireland.


Celtic Tales:

“ ‘I come from the Plains of the Ever Living,’ she said, ‘there where there is neither death nor sin. … And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round green hills , men call us the Hill Folk.’ ”,

– Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden – pg. 1, J. Jacobs, 1892 (my underlined emphasis)

“The Queen o Fairies she caught me, 
In yon green hill to dwell.”,

– The English and Scottish Popular Ballads – Part II, Tam Lin – pg. 342, F.J. Child, 1898 (my underlined emphasis)

“On a certain night the old man told him the green round hill, where the fairies kept the boy, would be open.”

– Popular Tales of the West Highlands Vol. II, The Smith and the Fairies – pg. 29, J.F. Campbell, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)


English Tales:

“Away rode the prince and Kate through the greenwood, … They rode on and on till they came to a green hill. The prince here drew bridle and spoke, ‘Open, open, green hill, and let the young prince in …’ ”,

– English Fairy Tales, Kate Crackernuts – pg. 200, J. Jacobs, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)

“ ‘Go on a little further,’ said the henwife, ‘till you come to a round green hill, surrounded with terrace-rings, from the bottom to the top; go round it three times, widershins, and each time say: Open, door! Open, door! And let me come in. …’ ”,

– English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland – pg. 120, J. Jacobs, 1890 (my underlined emphasis)

“Once upon a time … there was wont to walk many harmless spirits called fairies, dancing in brave order in fairy rings on green hills with sweet music.”

– Fairy Gold: A Book of Old English Fairy Tales, Robin Goodfellow – pg. 129, E. Rhys, 1906 (my underlined emphasis)



Not only ‘hills’, but a connection of ‘mist’ with fairies has also been extensively reported. The Tuatha Dé Danann concealed themselves at times with the féth fíada or fairy mist (also known as the: ceo Sídhe). The Welsh fairies, the Tylwyth Teg, according to Sir John Rhys’ investigations* frequented mountainsides covered with mist. And we’ve already seen two other fairy tales (per my post of 9/24/25) where mist/fog is somehow involved whenever entry is granted into fairyland.

So what we might surmise is that as well as a standing stone and foggy conditions, it was particularly important that a ‘hill’ was present. For from a fairy tale standpoint, time and again, this would be the place where magical happenings first sprung.

So getting back to Fog on the Barrow-downs, our mysterious hill with its ominously erect stone was possibly the key to opening a portal linking two different planes of reality. A dangerous place it was for common folk, amid equally dangerous barrows close by. But no matter what the peril – aid would be there for those who asked. For, I believe, the hobbits had a mighty fay being on their side. An angelic knight would emerge from between two magical menhirs – perhaps modeled on those real ones adjacent to Tara. And a green girdle may not have been Tom’s only magical garb. An ability to travel speedily may have been fairy tale linked to those standout big yellow boots.

It would not be at all surprising if Tolkien had endowed Tom with a pair of legendary ‘seven-league boots’**. These automatically adjust to the wearer, allowing him, when needed, to traverse seven leagues for every stride taken. Was myth and fairy tale behind why:

“… his feet are faster.” ?

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Is that how he appeared so quickly at the barrow?





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/tom-thumb-stealing-boots.png

Tom Thumb*** stealing a pair of seven-league boots, 1865




But back to the hill. What exactly happened? Why did a way into Middle-earth Faërie suddenly appear?

Perhaps there was a covert way into a seemingly underground faërie; perhaps it involved a hill, a hollow place, the color green, mist, a solitary menhir and the number three. Those appear to be most of the common factors extractable from our world’s fairy lore, don’t you think?

Then did Frodo and his companions somehow inadvertently and unknowingly open a doorway into Faërie?

But how? What was the trigger?

… to be continued




* See multiple instances documented in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, Vol. I, The Fairies’ Revenge & Fairy Ways and Words, 1901 by John Rhys – one of Tolkien’s lecturers at the University of Oxford.

The Welsh Fairy Book, 1908 by William Jenkyn Thomas also documents the Tylwyth Teg located on a foggy mountainside in the tale of The Forbidden Mountain.

** These boots crop up in a plethora of European fairy tales. The most notable English one is Jack the Giant Killer. Tolkien’s awareness of them is not in doubt as he makes specific mention of this classic fairy tale motif when discussing Andrew Lang’s Prince Prigio (see Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014 by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson, Manuscript B, pg. 250).

*** It’s quite possible that Tolkien’s thoughts went along the line that in the great ‘Cauldron of Story’ Tom Bombadil had got mixed up with Tom Thumb. Yes, that legendary diminutive English hero also owned ‘shoes of swiftness’! Who knows if Tolkien made such a connection? But remarkably in England’s earliest prose version, the ‘Queen of Fayres’ gifted the tiny man not only magical footwear but also:

“… an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility and a shape-changing girdle …”.

– The History of Tom Thumbe, R. Johnson, 1621 per Wikipedia article: Tom Thumb (my underlined emphasis)




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/history-of-tom-thumb.png

Booklet front cover, ‘The History of Tom Thumbe’, Richard Johnson, 1621

[Priya]

One of the things I want to bring out in the open is Tolkien’s confession of an attraction towards stories of strange lands below the earth:

“I am extremely fond of the genre, even having read Land under England with some pleasure …”.

– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #26 – 4 March 1938, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981

And we should take notice because the statement was made in that crucial creationary period at the beginning of the new ‘hobbit story’ which was to become The Lord of the Rings.

Inevitably and inexorably – one can understand why fabrication of a Middle-earth Faërie was mulled upon, and then decided to be included into the storyline. But it is possibly a direct account of a folkloric otherworld below the very soil of England spurred Tolkien down such a path. The extraordinary account of the famed Woolpit children emerging from underground in Suffolk in the twelfth century is an intriguing tale evoking debate even to this day. The tale of The Green Children was published in Edwin Hartland’s English Fairy and Other Folk Tales, 1890. We know per ‘Bibliographies’ in Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014 by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson, Tolkien consulted this book for his On Fairy-stories paper. Given his liking of tales ‘below the earth’ one can understand how Tolkien might well have been drawn to this piece of folklore, though unfortunately I have no absolute proof.

Anyhow, it was Ralph of Coggeshall and William of Newburgh who both recorded how two strange green-skinned children were found by locals, lost and unable to communicate in English. Practically starving, all the boy and girl would eat were ‘green beans’ which they devoured readily. Later after learning the language – the girl claimed they had emerged from another land and had gotten lost after stumbling out of a cavern. They had then become disoriented by the bright Sun; a Sun which didn’t exist in their world. Astoundingly she recounted all the folk in their land were green tinged too.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/7f34f-scan0053-e1759851028588.jpeg

Woolpit Village sign honoring The Green Children




Tolkien might well have been fascinated. Hmm … ‘beans’ – a legendary item in English fairy tales*! Were green beans solely responsible for their pallor? Were beans regular fairy-food, and is that why the Green Knight (in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) portrayed a similarly hue? Then were the children from faërie? Perhaps the account was inaccurately documented. Perhaps there really was a green sun** in an otherworld below England, and it was the cause of such skin shading. Perhaps it remained slightly below the horizon – leaving the general aura of light described by the children as true, It is these sorts of ideas and thoughts that may well have whirred about in the Professor’s mind.

Getting back to the tale of Einion and Olwen, the one where he have a standing stone lifted up by a blue-eyed little old fat man, what this Welsh Celtic tale resembled in part was The Adventures of Covan the Brown-haired*** – a Scottish Celtic fairy tale. Here was a story which equally may have resonated with the Professor. Because therein was another old man, the ‘Spirit of old Age’, who was linked to a youthful golden-haired damsel depicted as combing her hair. The story itself centered on three sons who sought their sister after a mysterious disappearance. It was the youngest who in the end succeeded and saved not only his sister, but restored his brothers who had been turned to stone.




https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/covan.png

‘Covan the Brown-haired’, The Orange Fairy Book, Andrew Lang, 1906




Tolkien probably felt much had got mixed up in the ‘pot of soup’. Yet his sympathies appear to have belonged to the English and their fairy tales (as opposed to Celtic ones), believing they reflected a truer account of fairies:

“… the English) have the true tradition of the fairies, of whom the Íras and the Wéalas (the Irish and Welsh) tell garbled things.”

– The Book of Lost Tales, Volume II, The History of Eriol or Ælfwine – pg. 290, 1984

His former tutor Sir John Rhys (Professor of Celtic Studies at Oxford) had deduced that much cross-fertilization had taken place between English and Celtic tales. Tolkien might have found it hard to disagree with one particular case. Because The Adventures of Covan the Brown-haired and Einion and Olwen**** certainly resonate with that great English fairy tale: Childe Rowland.

And it is the English fairytale Childe Rowland that I believe is key to understanding how in ‘meddling’ with the standing stone, the hobbits on the Barrow-downs accidentally opened up a gateway to Middle-earth Faërie.


… to be continued




* Jack and the Beanstalk immediately comes to mind.

** It is possible Tolkien envisaged that an atmospheric condition in Middle-earth Faërie led to its sun appearing green. Tolkien did give the impression, in his On Fairy-stories paper, that the sun of our Primary World and that of the Secondary World of Faërie – were one and the same.

*** The tale was published in Andrew Lang’s: The Orange Fairy Book, 1906.

**** The tale was repeated by Professor John Rhys in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx – Volume I, The Fairies’ Revenge and appears in The Welsh Fairy Book, 1908 by William Jenkyn Thomas under Einion and the Fair Family.

[Priya]

The Way into Middle-earth Faërie

Now Wilfred Rowland Childe, a poet and critic, was a family friend of the Tolkiens – and indeed Christopher’s godfather. However, as far as I can tell, he had nothing to do with our story of interest: Childe Rowland. Regarded by the great folklorist Joseph Jacobs as his favorite tale, its salubrious historical significance was not passed over but instead emphasized:

“ … ‘Childe Rowland,’ is mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear*, and is probably, as I have shown, the source of Milton’s Comus. … Certainly no other folk-tale in the world can claim so distinguished an offspring.”

– English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland, Preface (pg. x) & Notes and References (pg. 239), J. Jacobs, 1890

The story centers around a quest by the youngest son (Childe Rowland) of a widow to bring back his missing sister, Burd Ellen**, to the mortal world. Two of his brothers failed and during the process of trying had been captured by an Elf king in Elfland (also called the ‘Land of Faery’***). Merlin, the famous wizard in Arthurian lore, features prominently in relating the cause behind the mysterious disappearance of the young girl; furthermore, advice is provided to all three brothers on how to win her back. In the end it is Childe Rowland who rescues his sister and saves his other siblings too.

There are a number of points in the tale which directly interest us when it comes to The Lord of the Rings. These include a mention of ‘Middle-earth’, a ‘Dark Tower’, the hero being a ‘widows’ son’, a variant of the famous giant refrain: ‘fe-fi-fo-fum’****, as well as a ‘restoration of souls’. However, I will not dwell on these further – except to reiterate (what scholars have already noted) that here we see yet more examples of links to Tolkien’s novel involving classic fairy tale. Instead, what I want to focus on is the way Burd Ellen inadvertently entered Elfland and then relate that back to The Lord of the Rings.

There are several recorded ways for mortals to stumble into the fabled realm of the fairies, and Tolkien mulled upon them - in all probability long before writing Smith of Wootton Major:

“There must be some way or ways of access from and to Faery …”.
– Smith of Wootton Major: Extended Edition, Tolkien Essay, Edited by V. Flieger, 2005

Tolkien’s mention of ‘Child Rowland’ in his 1955 essay English and Welsh - means one can reasonably assume that he knew of this fairytale. I have a feeling Tolkien was intrigued by Burd Ellen’s accidental entry method in chasing a ball around a sacred site. Childe Rowland seeking an explanation is informed by the ‘Warlock Merlin’ that she:

“… ‘must have been carried off by the fairies, because she went round the church ‘wider-shins’ – the opposite way to the sun. …’ ”.

– English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland – pg. 118, J. Jacobs, 1890

Jacobs explains:

“ ‘Widershins’ is probably … analogous to the German ‘wider Schein,’ against the appearance of the sun, ‘counterclockwise’ as the mathematicians say—i.e., W., S., E., N., instead of with the sun and the hands of a clock; …”.

– English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland Notes and References – pg. 245, J. Jacobs, 1890

Apparently as ancient pagan tradition has it, to travel contrary to the Sun’s course is considered unlucky as ones’ shadow is always left behind. Even some Christians believed, to go widershins – meaning to travel around an object counterclockwise – was an act hostile to the Creator’s design. Burd Ellen ran against the light, so that her shadow was not visible to her – and this left her vulnerable.





https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/burd-ellen.png

‘Burd Ellen’, English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, Illustration by John Batten, 1890




Childe Rowland is not the only example of a British fairy tale where the term ‘widershins’ is employed.*The prose version of the Tam Lin ballad also uses it:

“ ‘But how did you get there, Tamlane?’ said Burd Janet. 
‘I was a-hunting one day, and as I rode widershins round yon hill, a deep drowsiness fell upon me, and when I awoke, behold! I was in Elfland. …’ ”.

– More English Fairy Tales, Tamlane – pgs. 159-160, J. Jacobs, 1894

Yet it seems too easy for an individual mortal to attain a passport to enter faërie simply by completing one widershins circuit around a hill or a place of worship. If my intuition is correct, Tolkien thought along the same lines.


… to be continued



* The line is ‘Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came’ (King Lear Act 3, Scene 4 – spoken by Edgar).

The same line is also the title of a Robert Browning poem which may have been subject to discussion at a lecture Tolkien attended (though no proof exists):

“King Edward’s School student R.B. Naish reads a paper on Robert Browning at a meeting of the Literary Society.”

– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, 18 February 1910, C. Scull & W. Hammond (misprinted as 1909)

** In Flora Annie Steel’s, English Fairytales, Childe Rowland, 1918 – the sister is called ‘Burd Helen’.

*** See Flora Annie Steel’s, English Fairytales, Childe Rowland, 1918.

**** In A Tolkienian Mathomium, Mark Hooker has analyzed the Buckland alarm "Fear! Fire! Foes!" connecting it to the folklore motif of "Fee fi fo fum" from tales of giants.