“I came across this interesting bit about an ogre figure in South African mythology called the Hai-uri” (- Undergroundo)
Intriguing; seems to me a case similar to Gondar or nasc, on which the Prof commented he found interesting “the nature of the process of 'linguistic invention' (including nomenclature) in general, and in The Lord of the Rings in particular. It would take too long to discuss this – it needs a long essay which I have often in mind but shall probably never write.”
“Nonetheless one's mind is, of course, stored with a 'leaf-mould' of memories (submerged) of names, and these rise up to the surface at times, and may provide with modification the bases of 'invented' names.”
Reminds me of mountains like Ulugh Muz Tagh, Qungur Tagh or Muztagata, which are not in Mordor, but China (no hidden joke intented).
To get back on topic (maybe the side note is worth a thread of its own), the transformative processes in the earth are there to a degree. And if you want a good literary example, I may point to Süskind’s Perfume and Grenouille’s mortification there.
Still, I find such comparisons and applications of other works unto the books unnecessary where the point in question can be explained within the mythology.
If anything has to be questioned, then why dwarves play such a big role in the Hobbit and LR. Their going underground is inborne in their very race, cf. their creation and ‘lying asleep’, for convenience’s sake from 77 QS: “he made first the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves in a hall under the mountains in Middle-earth.” “They shall sleep now in the darkness under stone” (Iluvatar, ibid.). “Aforetime it was held among the Elves in Middle-earth that dying the Dwarves returned to the earth and the stone of which they were made”.
“Other ways through and around mountains, or no mountains, were always options.” (- MotW) Well, not really, for any subterranean journey -- Moria was the choice when the Gap and Caradhras no longer were (and the High Pass north of Rivendell was too far away); the Paths of the Dead were a part of the legitimation process of Elessar, and the Dead Men were needed to turn the tide on the Pelennor.
As for the traveller being notably changed on the journey underground, change, or rather development of the characters and growing experience, is apparent in all of the many stages of the journeys. One must not fail to see woods as considerably more ‘transformative’ here, by the way.
Gollum himself explains well the one in fact really obvious meaning of caverns: “‘But as he lowered his eyes, he saw far above the tops of the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he thought suddenly: “It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The Sun could not watch me there. The roots of those mountains must be roots indeed; there must be great secrets buried there which have not been discovered since the beginning” (Gandalf in Shadow of the Past).
Consequently, the development in Bilbo’s finding the Ring etc. is coincidental.
Thranduil’s caverns hardly proved a place of development for the dwarves, if you put aside growing anger at Elves that would not need a reason anyway.
Thorin’s greed was due to the dragon’s hoard and mainly the Arkenstone, not a power of the mountain.
Gandalf does not transform in the Mines of Moria. Gandalf falls, exhausted, on the very top of the Zirak-Zigil, and I for one could not think of a place less underground. Aragorn needs time to realize his new position outside of Moria. Leading the company to Lórien was not the feat of a great leader yet. So, Lórien is again important.
Apart from these direct points, if underground journeys have to be made in the mythopoeia -- and as I hope to have proven, they are necessary in Hobbit and LR – it is only logical that they hold more potential than a hobbit walking party. And where there is a trial, a development of character is the next consequence. Hence this is not a special quality of the genius loci.
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