readinginithilien

[readinginithilien]

Saruman Ringmaker

In the Lord of the Rings, when we meet him first via Gandalf narrating in Rivendell, Saruman has a ring upon his finger and calls himself

"Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ringmaker, Saruman of Many Colours"

In a book centered around rings that has to be significant, yet I don't remember ever having heard of the ring Saruman made beforehand, and I don't understand what the purpose of it is either. It seems clear he wants to lift himself up above Sauron, the Lord of the Rings - and he says so directly not a page later. Yet he does intend to use the One Ring for that, I don't think being a Ringmaker himself comes actually into it in any way.

Also, it's not that hard to make a ring. If you're that proud of it I would assume it's a ring supposedly having special powers, or your distributing rings (and I'd love to know what Sauron thinks of that, if he learns of it.) I will definitely keep a lookout throughout the book on anyone else having rings, but I just can't imagine Saruman, even though he was a student of Aulë, actually having the ability to make Rings of Power.

So what is the purpose of Saruman making himself a Ringmaker and adding it to his own titles, other than shouting to absolutely everyone his intentions of becoming Lord of the Rings himself?

[readinginithilien]

Discovering new characters in the Lord of the Rings: the fox watching the hobbits leave

A fox passing through the woods on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.

"Hobbits!", he thought. "Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this." He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.

I have to say, the sudden short shift of PoV to a random passing fox took me quite by surprise. Nothing like this has happened since.

But it also a great example of animals (and trees) in middle-earth being generally more self-aware and sentient then usually in our world.

[readinginithilien]

Gandalf the unreliable narrator

I am re-reading the story Gandalf tells Frodo about Gollum's origins and it is hilarious. Gandalf clearly makes most of it up. After all, there are basically no eye-witnesses or records to any of this save Gollum who spent a thousand years alone under a mountain and only told that story to Gandalf under torture, as we later learn. So here is what Gandalf tells:

people akin to Hobbits lived at the shores of the Anduin - that is an educated guess. He knows that Hobbits, allthough their own history goes only to the beginning of the Shire, have moved their relatively recently and must have come from the east, some of them even lived in the north of Rohan for a while. He also knows that Gollum had more in common with hobbits than any other species, including a love for riddles and memories of a life that could be hobbit-like.

Gollum came from the wealthiest family there, which was led by a matriarch - nope, Gandalf us making that up. Even if Gollum still remembered both his family and their wealth, despite living a lonely, independent and completely posession-less (except for the ring) existence, what exactly is he supposed to have told Gandalf about that?

Gollums real name is Smeagol - I mean, could be. Only he would know, maybe he told Gandalf that. Maybe he made the name up, maybe it was someone else's, maybe it was actually his. No way to tell.

He had a friend like Deagol - honestly, that sounds to me like Gandalf wanted another character in the story and looked at Hobbit naming conventions (Frodo son if Drogo). Other people where probably involved in the story, might as well call one of them Deagol.

Smeagol liked roots and beginnings, caves and deep pools - Gandalf is obviously extrapolating from Gollum living in a cave. Why Gollum would tell something like that, even if it true, is beyond my imagination. And I cannot imagine that as the only explanation.

Gollum's people swam a lot and build reed boats - well, Gollum swims well and has a boat, and if he hasn't developed boat building on his own, he probably was already proficient in it. And we assume his people lived at the river at least. But might as well have been a fisher man or shipwright by profession.

One day, Deagol and Smeagol made a trip to where there were nice flowers by the river, where Deagol went fishing and Smeagol looked at roots - well, that sounds like setting the scene. And I still am convinced that the whole Deagol-found-the-ring-first story was Gandalf's way of impressing onto Frodo that the ring can lead you to murder.

Deagol fished and found the ring when being dragged into the water by a fish - not even Gollum would necessarily have seen that part. It's as likely an explanation as any. And we know the ring was last seen on Isildur swimming through the Anduin.

Seagol looked at Deagol looking at the ring from behind a tree - Gandalf is not a bad storyteller

Gandalf quotes the direct words Smeagol and Deagol exchange, something I doubt Gollum would remember

Smeagol kills Deagol and hides the body so noone ever found it - again, this sounds to me like a warning message to Frodo more than based on what Gollum told Gandalf

When Gollum found the ring made him invisible, he liked to go around and sneak up on people, but they kicked him and he liked to bite their feet - bite their feet? Really?

In the end, Gollum was kicked out - well, I can see the resentment of that lingering, Gollum might have told that

He traveled up the Anduin and ended under the misty mountains after the sun became to strong to him - he must have somehow gotten from the Anduin to his cave, and he does not seem to have missed the sun. The rest I'd call speculation

While all of this is a very good story, we know Gandalf has very few sources:

his limited knowledge of Hobbit history

what Bilbo told him

what he found in the archives of Gondor

what Gollum told him under torture

I see very little of the story coming from any of these sources. So in conclusion, Gandalf made most of that up, partly to have a nice story, and partly to teach Frodo some lessons.

[readinginithilien]

Sauron's dependence on the One Ring

Gandalf tells Frodo in the Fellowship of the Ring,:

[Sauron] believed that the One had perished; that the Elves had destroyed it, as should have been done. But he knows now that it has not perished, that it has been found.

I find it interesting both that Sauron thought the ring had been destroyed. It means that he believed himself to be able to survive the destruction of the ring - allthough he might have been surprised after the fact that he survived when the Elves had a chance of destroying the ring. It also means that he has absolutely no idea what is happening to the ring, even when it's put on - even when Gollum wore it, he still thought it destroyed.

On the other hand, this is Gandalf talking, of course, and re-reading especially this chapter - The shadow of the past - I'm starting to very much see him as an unreliable narrator. Much of the story he tells Frodo has no surviving narrators and such must be speculation, and he openly admits to torturing Gollum (for information that is not at all necessary to their goal), and that makes everything he relays from Gollum unreliable.

Still, I find Sauron's relationship to and knowledge about his One Ring a very interesting topic.

[readinginithilien]

The lesser Elven-rings

In the beginning of the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf tells Frodo:

In Eregion long ago many Elven-Rings were made, magics rings as you call them, and they were, of course, of various kinds; some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the Elven-smiths they were but trifles - yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals. But the Great Rings, the Rings of Power, they were perilious.

I find myself thinking about these lesser rings. They were not the nine, or the seven, or the three, and they don't count to elves, as they were apparently not powerful or perfect enough. But there might have been quite a lot of them - practice makes perfect - and they probably all posed some danger and had some power. I can also imagine that Sauron wasn't very interested in them, and the elves definitely weren't - so they might have led to quite some adventures and interesting stories. I would love to hear more about them, or to read a story about one of these lesser rings. Maybe there were even one or two that made invisible, but did nothing else, giving Gandalf hope about Frodos ring!

(Though I definitely believe that some of them ended up in the mathom house in the shire and were pretty much forgotten.)

[readinginithilien]

On the migration of Hobbits

I've been re-reading the Lord of the rings and just noticed that Tolkien specified that Hobbits lived by the shores of the Anduin - which we know from Gollum's tale that they did sometime after the beginning of the third age - until the shadow rose in Mirkwood. For some reason this surprised me. I somehow always had the impression, that that had just happened in The Hobbit, as this is when Gandalf checks out Dol Guldur. But that is because I have trouble comprehending the massiveness of the time scales in middle earth, and just how old the kingdoms of men and elves are - and how young the Shire, even if it is old by our standards.

The shadow falling over Greenwald, the Mirkwood, , happened in the year 1050. This is also the first mention of Hobbits, with the Harfoots arriving in Eriador. The Stoors and Fallohides follow about 100 years later, with the Stoors first settling at the borders of Dunland for a while - which is where the stories of the Rohirrim come from, presumably. Hobbits started settling around Bree around 1300. In 1600 they were granted the land west of the Baranduin/Brandywine river and settled there, beginning the shire reckoning. The Stoors followed within thirty years.

This starts Hobbit history to their memory, already 1600 years into the third age, with a total of six hundred years of migration. It sounds so late, and short - but that still means the Shire is 1400 years old by the time of the third age, which is a pretty convincing time span - 1400 years ago our nations were very different from today's.

The migration periods are also pretty sensible, comparatively to European history - the mass migrations following the fall of the west roman empire took about 500 years and endet about 1200 years ago. So these time spans do make sense.

It still puts things in perspective. Because the humans during these time spans are much more stable, at least in Gondor. The elves are always around. And Hobbits are pretty new to them.

[readinginithilien]

On Bilbo, the Dwarves and Silver Spoons

The Quest Of Erebor in the Unfinished Tales is quite the gold mine for all its additional details on the quest of Erebor, Gandalfs knowledge and all that. How many mistakes Gandalf made, how often he chose to outright lie to manipulate the dwarves and Bilbo to do what he wanted (but mainly to cover up his mistakes), and how the dwarves really thought of both Bilbo and Gandalf, as well as Hobbits in general. It really makes the Hobbit appear to be the one-sided account from the point of view of a character who missed quite a lot.

However, forever the funniest thing will be to me that Gandalf - in order to get the dwarves to take on Bilbo as a Burglar - told them that Bilbo had stolen his silver spoons.

"A thief?" I said, laughing. "Why yes, a professional thief, of course. How else would a Hobbit come by a silver spoon? I will put the thief's mark on his door, and then you will find it."

Just imagine what the dwarves must have thought when Bilbo complained about the Sackville-Bagginses stealing his silver spoons!

[readinginithilien]

Of the history of Galadriel and her relationship with Celeborn

I love Galadriel and Celeborn and their relationship, and especially what little can be gleaned from Galadriels history. I recently read that Tolkien later in his life wanted to change Galadriels past and intended to have her sail to Middle-earth independently from the hosts of the Noldor. I don't like that at all. It deprives her of the wonderful character arc we get glimpses at in the Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings.

In the age of the trees, Galadriel was proud and head-strong, independent, in manners like a man, intelligent, far-sighted and ambitious. After Alqualondë she is driven by her desire for revenge and to rule.

Then she enters Doriath. And instead of taking the chance to rule somewhere like all her cousins, she stays there quite a while. When she emerges again in the second age (allthough she left earlier, only that's when we learn from her next), she is changed. She is still proud, intelligent, far-sighted and head-strong (look at her behaviour in LotR), independent (she spent quite some time separated from her husband in the second age) and ambitious. However, she is not driven by a desire for revenge (don't talk to me about that series) or to rule anymore. She doesn't take any of the chances to rule in the chaotic beginnings of the second age, and when she becomes the Lady of Lothlorien, she doesn't rule, just lead. She doesn't take the title of a queen. In fact she tells us that the ring tempted her, that it would have made her a queen - but she resisted. She has overcome that desire. Similarly there is no sign of her still looking for revenge, just to defend her people and free middle-earth. She has become wiser, more powerful, and she has overcome the negative motivations while still maintaining the important traits of her personality. She has gone through quite the character development.

And all this has happened in Doriath, coinciding with her meeting Celeborn. That could be coincidental, but I like to believe that he helped quite a lot. He helped her realise that she didn't need to rule, that she could lead and help without that power, and that thirst for revenge was unhealthy. But he also supported her wisdom, search for power and independence (there is no sign their relationship suffered under the long spells of separation in the second age).

She found a husband who helped her do some character development, but who still supported her dreams, personality and strength. She found a husband and did not become a meek little housewife. She did not become co-dependent, or submissive, or even saw the need to stay with him all the time. He supported her and helped her get over the negative traits while getting stronger. And I think that is beautiful.

As an aside, this gives me a lot of hope for Tolkiens idea of what became of Eowyn after she marries Faramir.

As a second aside, we don't know what Celeborn was like before he met her, but LotR gave me the feeling that he could definitely still do some character development. Galadriel has to tell him to cool down with regards to dwarves when thousands of years have passed since they did his people (not unprovoked) wrong, and he probably ate dwarves in his past,the hypocrite. It makes me wonder what would have happened to him if he'd had a little more time with Galadriel and Gimli and maybe some more dwarves in the fourth age. Maybe he would have had some character development, too. Maybe it would have even been enough to close the chapter of middle earth and sail. Maybe that will still happen. Who knows

[readinginithilien]

Crack theory: What if Gollum is really Isildur?

Hear me out: what do we know of Isildur's end? From the Unfinished Tales we know he disappeared with the Elendilmir and the One Ring from an orc attack somewhere on the east side of the Anduin, his armour was found on the east shore and the Elendilmir in Isengard in a locked room. Aragorn deduces that he got rid of the armour to swim through the river, lost the ring, was - now visible - shot by orcs and his corps was then found and discarded of by Saruman. That's obviously speculation on Aragorn's part and I find it not very convincing. What do we know for certain of Gollum's origin? Absolutely nothing. The only thing we learn is what Gandalf tells us he deduced from what he tortured out of Gollum. The whole thing about Smeagol and Deagol, the birthday, and the matriach leading that group of pre-hobbits seem strange details for Gollum to share, or even remember, and I would rather be convinced that Gandalf made it all up for the fun of it, or Gollum made it all up in loneliness. Why did Gandalf even torture Gollum for this information? Other than Smeagol's name, nothing was ever relevant to the story, and none of this was information Gandalf needed to know. Why did he see himself forced to resort to torture? I'd rather believe that he wanted relevant information, basically got none, and then extrapolated a lot from whatever nonsense Gollum sprouted.

So my theory: Isildur escaped, took off his armour to swim through the river, on the other shore got rid of the Elendilmir because it was visible even through the ring, and vanished into the Misty Mountains.

[readinginithilien]

On the relationship of Galadriel and Celeborn

When I first read the lord of the rings, one thing stood out to me, and that was the relationship between Galadriel and Celeborn. Not as an important plot point or anything, but as something I had not seen before, in media or in real life (luckily, the latter has changed by now): a happy relationship where the woman is more powerful than the man.

It doesn't seem to be socially accepted. In real life, women generally (on average) earn less, have less successful careers, are more dependent, do less the "important" (i.e. prestigious) stuff - that's our society, and even where things are changing, it's still the norm. My own grandfather claimed that a couple in our extended family would never work because she earned more than him. And in media, when there's strong women, they are a) alone and independent, b) have an even stronger husband or c) it's played for laughs. And in fanfiction I soon encountered the fics where Galadriel had to put on a show for Celeborn to save her, else their marriage would end. Or their relationship was a farce anyway. It seemed that none of the authors in my vicinity were able to imagine that the two of them might actually be able to function without Celeborn proving his masculinity by saving Galadriel or at least believing she needed him to be strong.

I hated these fanfictions, because that had been what had impressed me most in the lord of the rings. The stable, happy relationship between a powerful woman and a still powerful, but less than her man. This is why I will always love Galadriel and Celeborn. At least Tolkien knew it could work.

It's not an exception either, look at Beren and Luthien - a bumbling idiot and a warrior-princess half-angel who fights first satan, then death himself for him. And still they were happy. Eowyn and Faramir - it's not as explicit, but I get the feeling Eowyn is the stronger fighter. I definitely don't think Tolkien intended for her to become a demure, submissive wife after marrying. There's not a lot of women in main roles in the book (Arwen doesn't count. She has maybe three lines and when Aragorn married her on my first read-through I was completely confused and had no idea who she was. We don't know anything about her personality from the book). But in those that are there, Tolkien gives the impression that he doesn't think a relationship can only work if the man is the main player. And that is still very rare in media.

[readinginithilien]

After a discussion about the fertility of elven women, I found in The Nature Of Middle-Earth the following:

Elves lived in life-cyles? sc. birth, childhood to bodily and mental maturity (as swift as that of men) and then a period of parenthood (marriage etc.) which could be delayed for a long time after maturity

This "cycle" proceeded until all children of the "first period of parenthood" were grown up. Then there was a youth-renewing.

Though it is later said that with their "fading" in middle-earth the cycles worked less and less. This has several interesting implications:

elves age! but then they apparently get younger again from time to time

elves can have children again after their first sets of children are grown up. I've never seen examples of that, and it doesn't really fit with the few children they usually have

elves apparently mature as swift as men. This, as far as I remember, directly contradicts what is written in the Silmarillion about Nellas and Turin

elves can get younger again?

fertility seems to be tied to several factors. It seems to happen not necessarily once, but elves are still not always fertile. Marriage, previous children and age/fading/exhaustion play an important role

elven fertility is or becomes less in middle-earth; it sounds as if the elves there at least after the first age didn't renew

My original question - do elven women menstruate - was unfortunately not answered, but there's definitely a few hints to build a theory, and things to think about.