J.R.R. TOLKIEN
Fate and Free Will
Edited by Carl F. Hostetter
So writed Carl F. Hostetter comments
Sometime after January 1968, Tolkien turned again to considerations of two Quenya words encountered and glossed in The Lord of the Rings, ambar ‘world’ and umbar ‘fate,’ and of their precise meanings and etymological and semantic relationship. [1] Amidst a linguistic discussion of certain points of Elvish phonology, Tolkien cited the Eldarin base MBAR underlying both these Quenya words, as well as the related Sindarin forms amar ‘world’ and amarth ‘fate’ :
MBAR: basically “settle, establish” but with a considerable semantic development, being especially applied to ‘settlement’, sc. the settling of a place, occupation (permanently) and ordering of a region as a ‘home’ (of a family or people) > to erect (permanent) buildings, dwellings? [2]
Tolkien goes on to cite various derivatives of this base, including:
Q[uenya] and T[elerin] ambar, S[indarin] amar ‘world,’ ‘the great habitation.’
Beneath these glosses he added a note of clarification:
The full implications of this word cannot be understood without reference to Eldarin views and ideas concerning ‘fate’ and ‘free will.’ (See note on these points.) The sense ‘world’—applied usually to this Earth—is mainly derived from sense ‘settlement’: ‘the great habitation’
as ‘home of speaking creatures’ esp. Elves and Men. (ambar ‘world’ differed from Arda in reference. Arda meant ‘realm’ & was this earth as the realm ruled by Manwe (the Elder King) vice-regent of Eru, for benefit of the Children of Eru.) But though mbar- was naturally mostly used of the activities and purposes of rational creatures, it was not limited to these. It thus could refer to the conditions and established (physical) processes of the Earth (as established at its Creation directly or mediately by Eru), which was part of Eä, the Universe. And so approached in some uses the sense ‘Fate’, according to Eldarin thought on the subject. Thus Q. ambarmenie “the way of the world” (“world” by the way never meant “people”), the fixed, and by ‘creatures’ unalterable, conditions in which they lived.
Then, a little further on in this discussion of derivatives of MBAR, Tolkien cites:
S[indarin] amarth, ‘Fate.’ This sense is an application of the basic sense, augmented by its formation, of mbar: ‘permanent establishment/order’; ‘Fate’ especially (when applied to the future): sc. the order and conditions of the physical world (or of Eä in general) as far as established and preordained at Creation, and that part of this ordained order which affected an individual with a will, as being immutable by his personal will.
The “note on these points” that Tolkien refers to here in connection with fate and free will arose in an earlier version of this same discussion of certain strictly linguistic points, beginning on a sheet which Tolkien subsequently titled “Fate” (after bracketing the discussion of MBAR and striking out the more strictly linguistic discussion that preceded it), and continuing on for four more pages, the first of which Tolkien titled “Fate and Free Will.” Part of the note exists in two versions, sc. those paragraphs numbered here as §4 through §6. I give here the reading of the second version, which for the most part follows the first version very closely, but interpolate into the body of the text one significant paragraph (here numbered §7 and set in brackets) of the first version that is lacking in the second version. As is typical of Tolkien, he begins in a careful hand, but soon lapses into an increasingly hasty scrawl, with the result that some words, and particularly the final paragraphs, are very difficult to interpret. I give all uncertain readings insquare brackets with a query mark. I have editorially omitted a few brief technical passages of strictly phonological discussion (indicated by ellipses), silently incorporated all insertions, provided some necessary punctuation, altered some of Tolkien’s square brackets (of no apparent special significance) to parentheses, expanded some abbreviations, repositioned some notes to stand nearer to their antecedent text, and numbered each paragraph. All other editorial alterations and indications are set in square brackets.
§1. MBAR ‘settle, establish’ (hence also, settle a place, settle in a place, establish one’s home) also to erect (permanent buildings, dwellings, etc.); extended form
with greater intensity . . . > Common Eldarin
‘permanent establishment’ > fate of the world in general as, or as far as, established and pre-ordained from creation; and that part of this‘fate’ which affected an individual person, and not open to modification by his free will.*
§2. *E.g. one of the Eldar would have said that for all Elves and Men the shape, condition, and therefore the past and future physical development and destiny of this ‘earth’ was determined and beyond their power to change, indeed beyond the power even of the Valar to alter in any large and permanent way. ([Marginal note:] They distinguished between “change” and redirection. Thus any ‘rational [?will-user]’ could in a small way move, re-direct, stop, or destroy objects in the world; but he could not “change” into something else. [3] They did not confuse analysis with change, e.g. water / steam, oxygen hydrogen.) The Downfall of Númenor was ‘a miracle’ as we might say, or as they a direct action of Eru within time that altered the previous scheme for all remaining time. They would probably also have said that Bilbo was ‘fated’ to find the Ring, but not necessarily to surrender it; and then if Bilbo surrendered it Frodo was fated to go on his mission, but not necessarily to destroy the Ring—which in fact he did not do. They wouldhave added that if the downfall of Sauron and the destruction of the Ring was part of Fate (or Eru’s Plan) then if Bilbo had retained the Ring and refused to surrender it, some other means would have arisen by which Sauron was frustrated. Just as when Frodo’s will proved in the end inadequate, a means for the Ring’s destruction immediately appeared—being kept in reserve by Eru as it were.
§3. In Q.
> umbart > umbar (genitive umbarto) ‘Fate’. . . in S. amarth. . . . The word from the simple stem mbar- . . . was ambara ‘establishment’, Q. ambar ‘the world’, T. ambar, S. *amar (not found). This was to [the] Eldar more obviously related to
than we might feel it to be, since ‘fate’ so far [as] they recognized it was conceived as a much more physical obstacle to will.
§4. They would not have denied that (say) a man was (may have been) “fated” to meet an enemy of his at a certain time and place, but they would have denied that he was “fated” then to speak to him in terms of hatred, or to slay him. “Will” at a certain grade must enter into many of the complex motions leading to a meeting of persons; but the Eldar held that only those efforts of “will” were “free” which were directed to a fully aware purpose. On a journey a man may turn aside, choosing this or that way—e.g. to avoid a marsh, or a steep hill—but this decision is mostly intuitive or half-conscious (as that of an irrational animal) and has only an immediate object of easing his journey. His setting-out may have been a free decision, to achieve some object,* but his actual course was largely under physical direction—and it might have led to/or missed a meeting of importance. It was this aspect of “chance” that was included in umbar. See L.R. III p. 360: “a chance-meeting as we say in Middle-earth.” That was said by Gandalf of his meeting with Thorin in Bree, which led to the visit to Bilbo. For this “chance,” not purposed or even thought of by either Thorin or Gandalf, made contact with Gandalf’s “will,” and his fixed purpose and designs for the protection of the NW frontiers against the power of Sauron. If Gandalf had been different in character, or if he had not seized the opportunity, the “chance” would, as it were, have failed to “go off ” (misfired). Gandalf was not “fated” to act as he did then. (Indeed his actions were most odd, idiosyncratic, and unexpectable: Gandalf was a powerful “free will” let loose, as it were, among the physical “chances” of the world). [4]
[1] These notes date to no earlier than 1968, since they were written on discarded Allen & Unwin publishing notices dated January 1968. Tolkien had already written extensively on the same topic in notes dating to the mid-1960s: see Tolkien’s “Words, Phrases & Passages in
[2] The query mark is Tolkien’s own. The symbol “>” is commonly used in linguistics to mean “yielded”, either in form (by phonological development) or meaning (by semantic variation). Here the meaning is that from the basic sense ‘settle, establish’ arose the sense “to erect permanent buildings or dwellings.”
[3] In keeping with the sense of the rest of this marginal note, Tolkien’s intent here may have been to write “he could not change them into
[4] Cf. also Gandalf ’s statement, “I did no more than follow the lead of ‘chance’” in “The Quest of Erebor” (