#tolkien letters

[celebrimborium]

the rings of power + tolkien’s descriptions of canon characters

[kisses-in-the-void]

"Shelob (English representing C.S 'she-lob' = female spider) is a translation of Elvish Ungol 'spider'. She is represented in vol. II p. 332 as descendant of the giant spiders of the glens of Nandungorthin, which come into the legends of the First Age, especially into the chief of them, the tale of Beren and Lúthien. This is constantly referred to, since as Sam points out (vol. II p. 321)4 this history is in a sense only a further continuation of it. Both Elrond (and his daughter Arwen Undómiel, who resembles Lúthien closely in looks and fate) are descendants of Beren and Lúthien; and so at very many more removes is Aragorn. The giant spiders were themselves only the offspring of Ungoliante the primeval devourer of light, that in spider-form assisted the Dark Power, but ultimately quarrelled with him. There is thus no alliance between Shelob and Sauron, the Dark Power's deputy; only a common hatred." JRRT, Letter 144 To Naomi Mitchison

Interesting how the feud between Melkor and Ungoliant seems to carry over to their respective heirs: Sauron and Shelob. It’s not surprising, but it does contrast with the popular fanon (though mostly humorous) where Melkor is the one who hates spiders, while Sauron is pretty chill about them and has no problem with Shelob 😁

[fortepianoma]

was reading correspondence bw tolkien and auden today and encountered this in one of tolkien’s letters

[readinginithilien]

From A letter by J.R.R.Tolkien to Milton Waldman, 1951 (from the Silmarillion):

In the first we see a sort of second fall or at least 'error' of the Elves. There was nothing wrong essentially in their lingering against counsel, still sadly with*(Some words of the original manuscript were omitted by the typist in this sentence) the mortal lands of their old heroic deeds. But they wanted to have their cake without eating it. They wanted the peace and bliss and perfect memory of 'The West', and yet to remain on the ordinary earth where their prestige as the highest people, above wild Elves, dwarves, and Men, was greater than at the bottom of the hierarchy of Valinor. They thus became obsessed with 'fading', the mode in which the changes of time (the law of the world under the sun) was perceived by them. They became sad, and their art (shall we say) antiquarian, and their efforts all really a kind of embalming - even though they also retained the old motive of their kind, the adornment of earth, and the healing of its hurts.

There is so much interesting in this part of the letter alone (and I am tempted, though I do not have the time, to type basically every single sentence from this letter to tumblr and share my thoughts on them...)

So, first of all, that is an interesting definition of fading that I have to think about more. I always thought fading was more not being able to cope with the world anymore, being to hurt or to sad. This just seems to be ignoring the world more and more, and does not need to be in any connection with personal trauma. It's just that they are not willing to perceive that the world changes around them, so they ignore it until they are not living in this reality anymore.

Then there is the fact that Tolkien gives the Elves much less noble motives. It's not that they love middle earth, or want to help, or are not ready; they are simply arrogant and want to stay where they are perceived as noble and high.

I do wonder what it says about Valinor, of course, that Elves there do feel undervalued, low in the hierarchy. Isn't this supposed to be paradise? I feel like that might be a christian influence, paradise being a place where everyone is lowly worshipping the gods, but I don't know for sure. Additionally, we just learned that the exiles will not be permitted to even reside in Valinor proper permanently, but will be force to live on Tol Eressea - this might be nice and more interesting, but the fact remains that they do not get a choice. They are treated as Elves of lower standing because they did not always live worshipping the Valar.

Next, there is the part about them making only antiquarian and embalming art. I am going to make another post about all the information on the rings of Power (and the definition of Power) in this letter, but at this point I'd like to mention that that is exactly what lets the Elves fall to Sauron - they want to embalm and preserve, without accepting change.

I am going to ignore the part where Tolkien calls some Elves "wild Elves" and what exactly he means by that. For someone who seems to understand that these people would rather not be treated as people of second, or lower, class, he keeps reminding us that their is social hierarchies of birth.

And lastly, I wonder if Tolkien means this to be something prevalent, or something all the remaining Elves thought, or just something that some of them thought. If he thought they were consious of this reason. He continues talking about the reals of Gilgalad, Elrond and Eregion, and at least Elrond is an important figure in the future (and his mentions in this letter also deserve their own post), but the Elves of Eregion specifically fall under Sauron's thrall because they want to have their paradise on Middle Earth, and both Elrond and Gilgalad later wear one of the rings that were created for this purpose.

So many things to think about! Tolkien's compact summaries of the history in this letter are so fascinating...

[janefrigginausten]

Excerpt from J. R. R. Tolkien’s letter to Eileen Elgar, September 1963:

[hobbitinnumenor]

Thoughts from J.R.R. Tolkien on creativity and artmaking via his “Letter to Milton Waldman (1951)” 💌

This letter is a big one, very well-known and studied in Tolkien circles. It’s a great window into the formulation of his mythological universe. While reading, it hit me that he also shares some thoughts on creativity and artmaking more generally: cogent, self-deprecating, funny. Here we go! (Page numbers from my edition of “The Silmarillion”, it might be different if you're reading the letter elsewhere!) 💌🙏🏻🧝🏻‍♂️🧝🏻‍♀️🐴🌿⚔️✨️🤓📖📚✨️✨️

"The egoist and the artist at once desires to say how the stuff has grown, what it is like, and what (he thinks) he means or is trying to represent by it all." (xvi) ~~ We as artists love to share our thing and our thoughts on it, don’t we 😅 ….keep sharing, I say! 👏🏻

"Not all will feel this is as important as I do, since I am cursed by acute sensibility in such matters." (xvi) ~~ …and we have a sensitivity and ferocity to our beliefs about it, don't we 🫣 I also say keep that, so long as we put it forth with kindness and adaptability…it can fuel what we can continue to make and the rigor with which we do so! 💪🏻

"Of course, such an overweening purpose did not develop all at once: the stories were the thing." (xviii) ~~ Sometimes it can start with a simple idea, and the larger body of the work ~ over time ~ can grow from there. Let it grow and see where it leads you! 🙏🏻👏🏻

"They arose in my mind as 'given' things...always I had the sense of recording what was already 'there', somewhere: not of 'inventing'." (xviii) ~~ Similarly, it can feel like we're discovering something that's already there: the life already within the clay that we release, as Michelangelo would have put it ✨️👏🏻

"The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding to paint and music and drama." (xviii) ~~ Sometimes that larger body of work can inspire work from others, in one's own or other media. I believe that is a *beautiful* thing, creativity catalyzing further creativity. (Contd in comments, this one got looong, folks 🫣🤓😅)

"There cannot be any 'story' without a fall...at least not for human minds as we know them and have them." (xxi) ~~ What is a story without conflict, somewhere in there? The depiction of human fallibility and how we deal with that? And to me, story is the fundamental grounding principle of art (in abstract art, the story might be the idea the artist uses to create and/or express in a more abstruse way) 👏🏻💪🏻

I'd love to hear your thoughts, peeps! 👇🏻

Thank you for reading if you have! 🫶🏻✨️

[trahald-the-burrower]

Mentions of Gollum/Sméagol in JRR Tolkien's Letters (Part 1):

(in order of when they were written.) (And also occassionally split up by my own writings ((written in RED)), and important or interesting facts) (I highlighted the Gollum bits, though sometimes the entire passage is worth reading as it may still relate to the character in a subtle way)

(Ariel and Caliban are characters from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".)

(JRR Tolkien seems to have drawn inspiration from Shakespeare, indeed -- particularly this play. Caliban is alike to Gollum in more ways than just one. He may have been named after the word "cannibal", which Gollum technically is.)

"One of the most prominent suggestions concerns Caliban being an anagram of the Spanish word caníbal (Carib people), the source of cannibal in English."

(He is also disproportionate in shape -- Creature-like.)

(He becomes a servant for Stephano, at a point, and this relationship is also quite similar to the relationship between Sméagol and Frodo, with Trinculo as Sam.)

(Here is a version of the play.)

(Now we continue with Tolkien's Letters.)

(This is the drawing Horus Engels did of Gollum:)

(Above: Tolkien talking about needing to make changes to THE HOBBIT, specifically Gollum offering to give the Ring away.)

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("I do a very pretty Gollum" -- that he does! Here are a couple of his recordings:)

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(Above: "Being stung by a tarantula when a small child." I love that he believed tarantulas stung. That's why Shelob stung?! He thought that was a thing! I love it. It works in his magical world.)

(Below: What he has to say about Sméagollum in the following letter is very important:)

("Dawning love of Frodo was too easily withered by the jealousy of Sam." I took this as meaning "Sméagol couldn't handle being antagonized by jealous-Sam", but I've seen others taking it as meaning "Sméagol was unable to repent because he was jealous of Sam". I didn't get that impression when reading that particular scene in the book, but it's also not entirely out-of-character. Sam definitely antagonizes Sméagol due to his jealousy, it's made clear more than once, but Sméagol, too, is obviously an envious and possessive person -- not just towards the Ring, but towards Frodo. It's much more obvious with Sam, but, Gollum, when at the Forbidden Pool, is upset with Frodo "not nice Master!" because he believes that he "left poor Sméagol" and "went with new friends". He's actually incredibly agitated by this, to the point that he's reluctant to do as Frodo says, despite his being Master. But… that being said, on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, when Sméagol found the hobbits sleeping together, he didn't express jealousy -- he actually softened and felt love for Frodo. I think if jealousy were the cause, in that moment, that he'd not have softened once finding them sleeping together, that he wouldn't have had a momentary change of heart at all. And Gollum reacting to Sam's accusations, that was more defensive than it was jealous. Sam, on the other hand, has always antagonized Sméagol out of jealousy, and that fits very well with the Stairs scene. "The jealousy of Sam" also matches well with "the clumsiness in fidelity of Sam", so I do believe Tolkien was referring to Sam's jealousy rather than Gollum's. That's not to say Gollum wasn't somewhat envious, but, rather, that wasn't the main reason he was unable to repent -- I think it was simply that Sam's antagonistic behavior triggered his Gollum side.)

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(The following letter has a lot of important information about young Sméagol! This entire thing should be read, honestly.)

("Déagol, evidently a relative (as no doubt all the members of the small community were)". "I imagine that he [Sméagol] was an orphan." I love that his gift to his grandmother, a fish, was given "grudgingly". I can't say that I blame him, considering Stoors were known to be rather merciless. "As a rule, they were a rough, blunt, and hearty people, whose values were territorial and emphasized the importance of loyalty, nationality, and provincialism. They did not take kindly to mischief, even of the most innocent and harmless kind, and they were generally rougher and harsher on their children than most Hobbits". "It was with the Stoors that the practice of "canning" ((that is, beating a delinquent individual with a walking-stick)) originated and was propagated for the most part." On Farmer Maggot: "he even cruelly and brutally abused Frodo Baggins in his youth by beating. Nonetheless, such behavior was common to Stoors."

(And here we find out that it's the reason they went fishing. In the book, Déagol's in the boat while Sméagol noses about the banks. So Sméagol was planning on gifting his grandmother with the fish Déagol caught hahaha, and this implies Déagol was willing to go along with that.)

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Mentions of Gollum/Sméagol in JRR Tolkien's Letters (Part 2):

(in order of when they were written.) (And also occassionally split up by my own writings ((written in RED)), and important or interesting f

[i-want-to-see-mountains-again]

Omg Tolkien means “mad”! The Professor was the real life Mad Baggins! 🤯🥰