Ancient British cultures reflected in ME

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I haven't a great deal to add to that very able assessment, other than a few oddments of Tolkien trivia. Many of the Dwarvish names in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings came from the Icelandic Elder Edda. The section Dvergatál (List of the Dwarfs) contains such big names as Durin, Dáin, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur (the last three actually in that order) and Gandalf (the translation of which is 'staff-elf'). Since they come from Norse saga it seems hardly surprising that the Dwarves should remind us of the ancient Northmen. The Jewish connection can be overplayed, though: Tolkien had great respect for the Jews, and he did liken the Dwarves to them, but only to say:

I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the language of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue.
Letter #175

To put this into perspective, he twice draws comparisons between the Jews and the Númenóreans (whom he does also compare with the Egyptians on the grounds that Rumil has cited). In letters #156 and #211 he compares their 'theology' and religious practice with those of Judaism.

As for the names of the Rohirrim, the Gothic flavour of their earlier nomenclature, and distinctly Old-English feel of the later is entirely deliberate. In Appendix F to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes:

Having gone so far in my attempt to modernize and make familiar the language and names of Hobbits, I found myself involved in a further process. The Mannish languages that were related to the Westron should, it seemed to me, be turned into forms related to English. The language of Rohan I have accordingly made to resemble ancient English, since it was related both (more distantly) to the Common Speech, and (very closely) to the former tongue of the northern Hobbits, and was in comparison with the Westron archaic.

His use of Gothic in the formation of earlier Rohirric names is again presented as a translator's device, used to portray the relationship between the earlier language and the later one that we encounter in the Red Book. Old Gothic and Old English are both members of the Germanic group of languages, and share a common root.

On the subject of Tolkien's original motivation for formulating myths, he did indeed intend them to replace to some extent the lost legends of his own people. Tolkien's people were, of course, the English. He never tried to compose a mythology for Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland being well stocked with myth and legend already. Also, this ambition to write an English mythology was only the starting point. Tolkien once wrote:

Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend ... which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country.
Letter #131, to Milton Waldman

Gradually the legends became more and more detached from England as they grew, but England was indeed the original intended beneficiary of Tolkien's legendarium.

It seems to me hardly surprising that much of the inspiration behind Tolkien's writing should come from the Dark Ages, or as he put it himself 'the ancient North'. His professional and personal interests lay in that area and he drew from the history, languages and legends of that period and region, just as the poets of the time had done. He also followed more recent medieval works, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which we encounter the saw "Þrid tyme Þrowe best" ("third time pays for all"); and from Shakespeare, from a dissatisfaction with whom arose the march of the Ents.

To my mind, this wealth of sources sets Tolkien's work apart from most other writers in the fantastic style. His choice of the ancient heroic romance (he described The Lord of the Rings as such) and his use of many ancient sources gives his work gravity, and makes us attend to huge vistas of history, language and literature that are often forgotten nowadays. Ironically, it is the use of ancient and unfamiliar material that often makes his work seem different and fresh, although it is rooted in the morkinskinna of northern Europe.

[ September 17, 2003: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]