J. R. R. Tolkien and William Blake.

[Elanor]

True [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[Bêthberry]

Blake created a mythology of new perspective that cut away from traditional orthodox Christianity and which was Romantic in origin. (Yet today, at St. Paul's cathedral, he is named 'visionary' rather than poet.) Tolkien created a mythology out of philology, the study of the origins, derivations, and development of languages. Previous mythologies play a part in Tolkien's vision, although his use of them is unique. Philology is an academic discipline which looks back and posits origins.

[Zigûr]

Evening all,

Could I briefly revive this 11-year-dormant thread to post something? I was reading some Blake today and I observed an interesting item in the Poetical Sketches:

TO WINTER.


O WINTER! bar thine adamantine doors:
The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark
Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs
Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

He hears me not, but o'er the yawning deep
Rides heavy; his storms are unchain'd, sheathed
In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;
For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings
To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:
He withers all in silence, and in his hand
Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner
Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal'st
With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster
Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.

I'm not trying to draw too strong a link, but are there not a few minor similarities between the figure of Winter here and that of Melkor, especially as he occurs in very early texts such as The Book of Lost Tales? Again, I must stress that I am not perceiving strong links here by any means.

I believe the figure of Winter in this poem may have connections to Blake's later mythological figure of Urizen, who has some comparability with certain conceptions of a Gnostic deimurge, but I'm not up to that yet. I'm interested in exploring this further as I continue to read Blake's works.

Just to be absolutely clear, I am not trying to draw strong links here ("Tolkien was clearly inspired by Blake!"), just making an observation.

[Belegorn]

Not sure. I only think of the ice pillars Melkor duped the Valar into building. Haha, damned obstructionist.

[Zigûr]

The "Deep-founded habitation" evoked Utumno to my mind for some reason.

"I dare not lift mine eyes;
For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world."
He would have liked to have done that. Extreme colds were also in his domain.

It's a nice piece of imagery but I daresay any similarities are coincidental or derive from common sources.

[Pitchwife]

I was reminded of Utumno as well reading the first stanza, and Angband too; also of the 'bitter cold immoderate' wherewith Melkor made war on Ulmo's province in the Ainulindalë (but couldn't destroy its beauty).

If I remember my Blake well, Urizen is a spirit of measuring, limiting, constraining (which is why his name is reminiscent of horizon as well as the more obvious Your Reason, and he is iconically portrayed with a pair of callipers), which fits the immobilizing cold of winter described in the poem but makes him kind of an antipode to Melkor, the spirit of rebellion and extremes. Both are tyrants, but Urizen's tyranny is one of scientific positivism, political absolutism and religious orthodoxy - in short, he's the patron saint of all Blake's pet peeves.

All this has to do with the difference in Tolkien's and Blake's religious views. Eru Ilúvatar is, shall we say modelled? on the God of Christianity in whom Tolkien believed himself - a benevolent creator, rebellion against whom could ultimately only end in self-destruction; whereas in Blake's eyes the God worshipped by his Christian contemporaries was Satan the Accuser and rebellion against him absolutely necessary. Pullman's war against the Authority in His Dark Materials is pure Blake.

Since the thread starter mentioned Orc - yes, he is the spirit of 'rebellion, war, ferocity and slaughter', but this is only his fallen form, taken in reaction to Urizen's tyranny, and in his unfallen form he is Luvah (think of English lover with a northern accent!) - something like Eros or libidinous energy. In any case he's the most dynamic and kinetic of the Four Zoahs. There is nothing quite like him among Tolkien's Valar, except maybe - Tulkas?