White Deer

[Bill Ferny]

A white hart appears at the marriage of Arthur and Guenever and leads Sir Gawaine on a rather reckless adventure in which he inadvertently kills a maiden due to his refusal to give quarter to a vanquished knight.

Perhaps more pertinent, the color white was favored by the Celts to designate supernatural animals. According to Irish myth, Finn goes into the otherworld, a place ruled by the Tuatha de Danann, after chasing a white stag. The Tuatha de Danann and their Otherworld, sidhe, which according to most myths is hidden underground, could have been an inspiration for Tolkien’s wood elves and their underground home in Mirkwood. The white dear may be Tolkien recalling this Celtic myth by making a connection between the dwarves fruitlessly attempting to chase down a white deer and their coming adventure in the home of the wood elves.