Subject:
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Re: LoTR # 1 on IMDB, Beowulf on NYTimes bestseller list
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Thu, 27 Dec 2001 02:12:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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694 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Erik Olson writes:
> Well, I did not go to school for that sort of thing. It would be sufficient
> to have a few names or titles that come to your mind as primary sources.
Well, it wasn't the significant focus of my schoolwork, but I have read
mythology almost all my life. The reason I am disadvantaged in giving a
truly well-rounded answer to your question is that I haven't "read" Tolkien,
but only saw this LOTR movie based on his work. But I will try to answer
your question even so, based on what I saw. Forgive me if I cannot remember
the precise names of characters.
Anyway, the first thing is that the many races presented in LOTR are almost
duplicated from Norse and Celtic mythology: trolls or dwarfish creatures,
beautiful fairy folk, evil Giant races, etc. Gandolf in the film looks
almost exactly as one might picture the Norse god Odin when he spent time
wandering on midgard (Earth) -- he was said to have a sky or midnight blue
cloak, a pointed hat, and carry a staff. The Norse gods are almost always
pictured as bearded and long-haired, BTW. There is a sequence in the film
when the Fellowship enters a fairy realm where people seem to be living
along the heights of a giant tree that stretches seemingly up into infinity
-- this is probably based on the Norse tree Yggdrasil (called the world
tree). Normally imagined as an enormous Ash tree, Yggdrasil is configured
differently depending on the source but tends to comprise the known
universe: Asgard, the home of the gods; Midgard, the home of mankind; at
roots may be found Hel, the shadowy realm of the afterlife; Muspellheim, the
land of Fire Giants; Niflheim World of Ice; Jotunheim Home of Giants, and
the list goes on. At it's base, or sometimes near the tree's middle is a
well, Immyr's Well, in which one may see the future and gain knowledge (as
did Frodo from a mirror bowl sitting on a tree stump in the fairy realm). In
a famous Norse myth, Odin sacrifices one of his eyes and hangs on Yggdrasil
for nine days to gain the wisdom of the well and knowledge about the end of
the universe. Of course the LOTR ring itself is based very pointedly on the
myths surrounding the Rhinegold and the family of the Volsungs. The
essential myth goes something like this:
Three gods, Loki, Odin, and Honir, are in a bind over the accidental killing
of Otter, brother of the giants Fafnir (later, also a dragon) and Regin. The
three gods are trapped by the brothers, and held for ransom over Otter's
death. To be freed, Odin makes an offer to repay the family for Otter's
death. The ransom price set by the family is a horde of red gold, sufficient
to entirely cover the body of Otter. To effect the bargain, Odin's son, the
evil and mischievious Loki leaves while Odin and Honir remain. Loki borrows
a net from another god, and proceeds to capture the dwarf Andvari from the
bottom of a pool inside a cavern. Loki demands that Andvari give him his
horde of gold that he controls within the pool. Andvari reluctantly agrees,
and gives Loki the gold. Afterwards, Loki notices a ring on Andvari's
finger, and demands it as well. A conflict emerges from this demand, but
eventually Loki gets the ring -- along with Andvari's curse upon it and the
gold. Loki returns with the cursed horde, and the three gods are granted
freedom in exchange for the gold. As they leave, Loki tells the family of
the curse of Andvari.
Basically, this is a trickster myth in that the three *good* gods get away
with their freedom, in exchange for now worthless, cursed gold. A great
telling of these myths occurs in Richard Wagner's very famous series of
operas "Der Ring des Nibelungen" which comprises four works: "Das
Rheingold," "Die Walküre," "Siegfried," and "Götterdämmerung." Beyond
Wagner, the more important and more primary sources are the epic Eddas: the
Elder Edda is a poetic collection, whereas the Younger Edda is a prose work.
Online versions undoubtedly exist of both. Another work I would recommend
is a short piece called "The Wanderer" which is not really about mythology
but contains the spirit of the Norse peoples -- it is contemplative, deeply
intelligent, and despairing. A later work that mixes paganism and
christianity is a piece called "The Dream of the Rood."
If you start researching the above, I think you will find you could the
spend the rest of your life reading about this stuff. And as you have
already read Tolkien, why not try some of this stuff for a change? The
source materials are amazing...sadly, I have to read them in translation.
-- Hop-Frog
Links:
http://www.squirrel.com/asatru/ (main page)
http://www.squirrel.com/squirrel/asatru/free.html
http://www.uvsc.edu/courseinfo/engl/mcdonari/wanderweb/
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/oe/rood-trans.html
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