Northern Air

[drigel]

I enjoyed your thread MathewM. Spot on

A most excellent song Gotta love Led Zep.

..the leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way....

Another way the northern air influences the feeling is in the dead of winter. The sense of striving for survival my bones feel as I hike the snow trodden plain, that evokes a fleeting sense of a primeval struggle that my ancient forefathers must have lived in every day.

[Lalwendë]

It's interesting that we never really see many places in Tolkien's world which are hot and 'southern' too - we see the permanent temperate woodland of Lothlorien, and the gentle old gardens of Ithilien, but never any baking hot places - except Mordor!

And there's something else - in the Norse and Icelandic myths, and in Anglo-saxon poetry, we don't see the 'interior monologues' of most modern fiction, we must judge character only on action - and that's what Tolkien does. How often do you hear the cry that he doesn't develop his characters enough? Well that's because he does it in an archaic way, through showing their words and actions.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

This isn't really answering the question, as I feel that air prevades quite a few of the tales told. It is sort of a cool detactment, as if we are as ancient as the land observing the impassioned turmoil and misteps of living things in those more sparely populated expanses. Isolation is a reoccuring theme with the isolation of the Shire, Morgoth, and of the Men of Dor-lomin to name a few.

As for burning one's stolen boats rather than bridges.... It inspired me to think of painting the scene rather than emulate it. Feanor's pride and passion struck me a foolishly dramatic. It may have served to keep his people focused on the forward march, rather than be tempted to turn back, but it also unmistakably alerted the orcs to their presence.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

This isn't really answering the question, as I feel that air prevades quite a few of the tales told. It is sort of a cool detactment, as if we are as ancient as the land observing the impassioned turmoil and misteps of living things in those more sparely populated expanses. Isolation is a reoccuring theme with the isolation of the Shire, Morgoth, and of the Men of Dor-lomin to name a few.

As for burning one's stolen boats rather than bridges.... It inspired me to think of painting the scene rather than emulate it. Feanor's pride and passion struck me a foolishly dramatic. It may have served to keep his people focused on the forward march, rather than be tempted to turn back, but it also unmistakably alerted the orcs to their presence.

Isolation is there alright - if you think about it, even within the Fellowship there are some incredibly isolated characters. Gandalf for one has always been a lone wanderer (Tolkien's Odinic Wanderer) and now Frodo is another. He might have Sam with him, but the relationship strikes me as a strange one in that Frodo does not necessarily get all the comfort he needs (due to the Ring no doubt), and Sam gives but does not 'get'. Then of course you also have Gollum's loneliness.

Heh, don't seriously think I am going to burn any boats But boat burning is a strong Viking image and that's what strikes me as soon as I read about those events. In the case of Vikings, a burning would be more 'sacrificial' than anything. Who knows, maybe it formed that kind of symbol to Feanor in his heat and rage and lust to deal with Melkor. Maybe he felt he had got his use at the Kinslaying out of those kin he had to all intents and purposes left behind to perish, so he was symbolically sacrificing them in the name of his mission?

Or was it symbolic that Feanor maybe did not see any return to Valinor and so he felt he may as well burn his means of return? It would certainly send out the signal to his people that there was no return, maybe only through death in battle.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by drigel

I enjoyed your thread MathewM. Spot on

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

And there's something else - in the Norse and Icelandic myths, and in Anglo-saxon poetry, we don't see the 'interior monologues' of most modern fiction, we must judge character only on action - and that's what Tolkien does. How often do you hear the cry that he doesn't develop his characters enough? Well that's because he does it in an archaic way, through showing their words and actions.

Thanks for pointing this out, it is pretty much true. I love how Tolkien does this. For what should people be judged on if not their words and actions? Being a Catholic, I must bring up that Jesus said it is by your words that you will be judged. Interesting, perhaps another unseen Christian influence that slipped into Tolkien's work.

[Lalwendë]

I completely understood exactly what Tolkien meant by a Northern Air last week. I was sat by the side of Whitby harbour in the late afternoon, at the back of our cottage reading an Icelandic Saga. A sea fret was rolling in with the tide (a weird kind of mist you only get on the Yorkshire coast - I got sunburn during the fog...) and as the quayside disappeared and reappeared in and out of the murk, and the fog signal sounded, all you could hear all of a sudden was waves slapping slowly on the sand, and muffled noises of voices. I was expecting a Viking ship to appear at any moment, stealing in under the fret.

The language in the Icelandic sagas mirrors the strange way Tolkien writes, exploring characters not through 'interior monologue' but through their actions and speech. They also give characters evocative names which describe what they are like - as does Tolkien - much of his 'meaning; can be found in tracing what those names and words mean. Compare this with other fantasy, even with Lewis, where we get these insights into what the character is supposed to be thinking - it's often quite boring and we just want to get back to the action. Which is what Icelandic sagas do - you are guaranteed action in every paragraph.

Maybe those were perfect conditions for reading such work, but I felt myself going right back in time, being transported to a period in time where the danger of having your head chopped off by a marauder sneaking out of the mist was ever present; and that's one of the places where Tolkien finds the 'peril' he writes about.