#actually found this in ''Treason of Isengard''

[imakemywings]

You are the father of our Folk, and we have bled for you, and will again. But we will not enter Khazad-dûm. You will not enter Khazad-dûm. Only I have looked through the shadow of the Gate. Beyond the shadow it waits for you still: Durin's Bane. The world must change and some other power than ours must come before Durin's Folk will walk again in Moria.

--Dain addresses Thráin after the Battle of Azanulbizar (Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (III))

[silentdeor]

The Riddle of Strider: a (hyper)close reading 3/4

With this key we can read every other line similarly universally, as a repetition of two thoughts. Lines 1-4 say that you should not judge by appearances. From the fifth line the message shifts: the idea of a change is presented. In every following line it is a change from negative to positive. We can observe a complex structure connected with the semantics.

Words of positive and negative connotations are positioned in such a way that the enumeration starts with a word of negative connotations, ‘ashes’, and finishes with a positively connotated ‘king’. Each verse presents the same scheme: starting with bad, ending with good. Still, within the lines of optimistic meaning you can read another ‘proverbial wisdom’: the course may vary. Two of the verses have a negatively connotated word at their ends. So, if you only look at the order of the most crucial words in this part, you may think that even though the ultimate ending is a happy one, the process itself might have had unhappy episodes. That is generally the case with the plot of The Lord of the Rings. Combining the two main thoughts of the text gives the most universal message ever:  if the situation is bad, it can only seem bad and be good in fact or if it actually is bad, it may still change for good.

You cannot have a less detailed proverbial (motivational) wisdom. Read on such a high level of generality, the poem seems to be the comment on several, at least, events from The Lord of the Rings. For instance, the journey to Mordor did not seem fit for the capabilities of Frodo and Sam, but they proved themselves to be able to accomplish it. Nobody expected Eowyn to kill the Witch-king of Angmar. Nobody expected that Pippin’s looking into the Palantir might turn out positively: but this saved Gandalf from making the same mistake. This attitude - that everything eventually finishes well - seems to offer a kind of consolation, almost like an elegy. The Riddle of Strider might be connected with this genre through the proverbial quality. But I think it would be to go too far to call this text an elegy, because - even though it dwells on the subject of change of fate and it does offer consolation - it does not speak of the past.

It speaks of the future. It can be inscribed to the rules of gnomic verses, but there is yet another possibility. The Riddle of Strider might be read as a prophecy: the prediction of what is to come. In this case, a reading on the very high level of abstraction is not satisfying: the characters of The Lord of the Rings might have wanted from it something more specific than a proverbial wisdom, even such a positive one. Fortunately, this text provides the exact references to the presented world and straightforwardly states what events will take place. Treating this text as a prophecy is also justified by the fact that the characters seem to understand it as an answer for doubts. Now the poem answers the question “what will happen”. However, both the reader of The Lord of the Rings and the characters that appear in this novel, know very well that the genesis of this text is not exactly one of a prophecy.

It is not of divine origin, it was written by a hobbit - for a friend - and is used as an argument. It does not fulfill the two formal requirements of the genre: it does not come from the outside of the world of earthly receivers and also does not perform the social role of a prophecy. The only thing that comes to mind as a link between the Riddle of Strider and a prophecy as a genre is that the future described in a prophecy is not fully certain and as a riddle can have a double solving, a prophecy can have double interpretation. In fact, even the verses dealing with the particular, the one about reforging of the sword and the regaining of the crown, can refer to more than one person who just meets the demands.

The Riddle of Strider definitely has some qualities of a prophecy, but there is yet one thing that makes it a riddle more than a prophecy. It is connected with the process of creation. There are two versions of this poem. The one that you already know can be found in The Lord of the Rings and the other one, that is claimed to be the first draft, can be found in The Treason of Isengard. 3/4

part one

part two

part four