Might and Magic in Songs
“Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.”
I have many thoughts about this line spoken by Fëanor in response to the Doom of Mandos. It's so fascinating that this is the part that Fëanor focuses on, and it's very much in line with everything else that Tolkien wrote about Middle-earth. I love it.
At the moment (and this might change the longer I think about it) I believe the main aspects connected to this statement are memory & history, and art and its relation to magic, subcreation and power in general.
My ramblings about this got a bit too long, so more under the cut…
Memory and history
This is probably the easier one to explain: throughout Tolkien's stories in Middle-earth and Aman, songs play a major part in remembering history. All cultures have various songs, sometimes shared ones even, and they use them to remember and also learn from the past. It keeps the past alive, it keeps past deeds relevant, it connects what people do in the future with what people have done in the past. Sam said about this:
“But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.”
Both Sam and Frodo draw courage from stories like this, it helps them understand why they are doing what they are doing. These songs are therefore a great inspiration.
Remembering stories from the past is relevant to all cultures in Middle-earth, but it's especially important to the Elves, even in the First Age. Finrod in his conversation with Andreth says that memory is the “great talent” of the Elves, and that it is both a heavy burden and a great wealth. He also states that “the life and love of the Eldar dwells much in memory”.
So it's no surprise that Fëanor puts such a high value on being remembered in song. If they wouldn't continue with their quest, from his perspective, how would the song go, how would the world remember this part of history? The Silmarils, Fëanor's most precious creations – stolen by Morgoth and never retrieved? Finwë, the King of the Noldor and Fëanor's father whom he loved even more than the Silmarils – killed, his death never avenged, and his murderer never brought to justice? For someone like Fëanor that's hardly an acceptable memory to create for eternity.
Magic: art and subcreation
What interests me even more is the connection of art, subcreation and magic in Tolkien's work, and all the implications for Fëanor's statement. Tolkien has described art as a form of subcreation several times, and within his works the most prominent example is the Ainur singing the world into being (with Eru's guidance and power of course).
Art is of course a way to create things, even in our own world, but in Middle-earth they can have a stronger impact on the world. Simple words can hold great power, even when spoken by people who don't have magical abilities by themselves. Aragorn for example uses songs when healing the wounded. Frodo was able to call Tom Bombadil for help through words alone – so a large part of the power for this call must come from the words and the song itself, because Frodo doesn't usually have that kind of magic. Both Frodo and Sam use the name of Elbereth several times to great effect, against the Nazgûl or Shelob.
But my favourite examples when it comes to the power of songs are Tom Bombadil's songs against the Barrow-wights, and Finrod's song contest with Sauron.
Tom Bombadil against the Barrow-wight is a fascinating part in The Lord of the Rings. The Barrow-wight has captured the hobbits, and when it sings its song Frodo at first “felt as if he had indeed been turned into stone by the incantation”. The words used in the incantation are “grim, hard, cold words, heartless and miserable”. They are about cold hands and hearts, the failing of sun and moon and the death of the stars, dead sea and withered land, and the dark lord.
When Frodo calls Tom for help, he uses a very different image: in his song he calls Tom by water, wood, hill, reed, willow, fire, sun and moon – many things that Tom seems to value or that could be connected to him.
Tom himself constantly uses songs, by himself, together with his wife, just to pass time or to tell stories. In many of these songs he sings about himself, and I keep wondering if this is in part why his songs are so powerful: in his songs Tom is constantly building a picture of himself, he is defining himself as he wants to. When he comes to the Barrow-downs, he describes himself once more before asserting that his songs are stonger:
“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.”
The contest of Finrod and Sauron in song is the other famous example of such extraordinary magic. Like Tom and the Barrow-wight, both evoke powerful images with their words. Of Finrod it says in the song:
“Backwards and forwards swayed their song. Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong Thû's¹ chanting swelled, Felagund fought, and all the magic and might he brought of Elfinesse into his words.”
And for a while this works. But eventually, the history and memory of the Noldor is also Finrod's weakness: the Elvenland is not completely free of stain – it is marred by the First Kinslaying at Aqualonde.
“Then the gloom gathered: darkness growing in Valinor, the red blood flowing beside the sea, where the Gnomes² slew the Foamriders, and stealing drew their white ships with their white sails from lamplit havens. The wind wails. The wolf howls. The ravens flee. The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea. The captives sad in Angband mourn. Thunder rumbles, the fires burn, a vast smoke gushes out, a roar - and Felagund swoons upon the floor.”
This is the part where the song fails in power and where Sauron gains the upper hand, leading to Finrod collapsing before Sauron's throne.
A matter of song
I am sure that Fëanor wasn't necessarily thinking of someone like Finrod to begin with when he talked about being remembered in song, but the bitter irony is that his and his people's deeds in Alqualonde were remembered in song, and it strenghtened the enemy and weakened the Noldo that was fighting them. But who knows, given Celegorm's and Curufin's attitude towards Finrod's quest, it might be that this is even a desired outcome for them?
No matter the outcome – is this what Fëanor had in mind? That whatever he and his people would do, it would be such a powerful memory that naming it in song would have such an impact on the effectivess of the song?
Tom Bombadil can evoke is own name, Frodo and Sam call to Elbereth, Aragorn draws his sword with the name Elendil on his lips – but who would call Fëanor's name? This really made me think if anyone of his sons or his people did so…
Footnotes
¹ Sauron ² Noldor