Seasonal Symbolism

[Bêthberry]

Estelyn, Gandalf the Grey, and All,

My earlier post was abrupt. Perhaps here I can elaborate on the ideas there, and add a new point.

First, Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday falls on September 22; this year, 2002, the fall equinox fell on September 23.

The hobbits spend the night of September 26 and 27 with Tom and Goldberry, their stay extended by Goldberry's "washing day." Here are some lines from D.H. Lawrence's poem "Bavarian Gentian" which might help bring out that significance. (I am not suggesting any direct influence between DHL and JRRT, of course, just the similarity of ideas):

even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September
to the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon the dark
and Persephone herself is but a voice
or a darkness invisible enfolded in the deeper dark
of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom,
among the splendour of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the lost bride and her groom.

Thinking of the Persephone/ Demeter myth and Goldberry might also lead to seeing the Barrow Downs as part of this seasonal link, with Tom rescuing the hobbits from entombment just as Persephone was.

To me, there are two prominent literary allusions to spring quests. The first is found in Chaucer's "General Prologue" to the Cantebury Tales.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote
...
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
...
And especialy, from every shires ende,
Of Engelond,to Caunberbur they wende.

The other is from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire.

Sam 'disappears' on September 22, too.

"Grey Havens Day", the day the Ringbearers departed, is September 29, also the Feast of St. Michael. (This is not a moveable feast, like Easter.) I don't know the cultural history of this feast day, but there could well be specifically seasonal issues with it. Michael is the archangel who leads the battle against the power of Satan, if I am not mistaken.

Another point which might be recalled is that, for Tolkien, the fall or Michaelmas term usually coincided with the start of a new year in terms of his teaching career.

Other seasonally significant dates, unrelated to the importance of fall, is May 1, the date of Sam and Rosie's marriage. Rosie dies on Mid-year's day, which was also the day of Elessar and Arwen's wedding.

Just some musings,
Bethberry