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Priya · 09-24-2025, 11:14 AM

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.

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?

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.

09-24-2025, 11:14 AM	#18
Priya Animated Skeleton Join Date: Sep 2023 Posts: 32	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. 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? 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.