Lauri Linask
Influences of the germanic and scandinavian mythology in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world depicted in his three major works "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion" could be called "new" because it is an imaginary one, it is not historical and neither is it of collective origin like the case is with the overwhelming majority of legends and myths all over the world. But, Tolkien's world is certainly not groundless. It is traditional, "borrowing from the power and import of his sources - the "middangeard" of "Beowulf", the grim and brutal cosmos of "The Volsunga Saga", the cold and bitter realm of the "Eddas", all of which left their traces and worked their sway over his own imagination" (Helms, R., 1974). With "The Hobbit" and his early lectures ("Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" in 1936 and "On Fairy-Stories" in 1938) he had rediscovered the value and relevance to our own time of mythic literature and set out to convince his audience of this value because people had in his view "lost the keys to mythic response" (Helms, R., 1974). And as his opinion was one of distress that the English had so few myths of their own and had to live on foreign borrowings, so "he thought he'd make one himself" (Cater,В., 1972).
As it was mentioned above, Tolkien has to a great extent borrowed from Icelandic sagas, Germanic mythology and the Anglo-Saxon epic "Beuwulf". The latter, belonging to the cultural heritage of the author's own nation, played a most significant role as Tolkien's interest in it later enabled him to develop his theory of fantasy, the practical application of which we can follow in his literary works. In his "Beowulf" lecture he undertook to argue with W.P. Ker whom he quotes as to have said: "The fault of "Beowulf" is that there is nothing much in the story. The hero is occupied in killing monsters... Beowulf has nothing else to do when he has killed Grendel and Grendel's mother in Denmark: he goes home to his own Gautland, until the rolling years bring the Fire-drake and his last adventure. It is too simple..." (An Anthology..., 1963) Tolkien's view was that the dragon, as the most serious issue of the whole epic, "is not an inexplicable blunder of taste: they (the monsters) are essential, fundamentally allied to the underlying ideas of the poem, which gave it its lofty tone and high seriousness." (Ibid.) "Beowulf", according to Tolkien, is concerned with a number of mythicized "events" in the past. The term "event" could not be attributed to either minor or major household problems or anything that came to pass in everyday routine of those times. That was the viewpoint shared by the authors of ancient Icelandic sagas and the same applies to Tolkien's work. The slaying of a monster is certainly an "event" which is worth recording, any major conflict between good and evil is an "event" both for ancient authors and Tolkien. Middle-Earth is also inhabited by dragons, orcs or goblins, werewolves and other strange creatures, and his trilogy is also an account of a series of "events" connected with the Quest that was undertaken by his protagonists. There are fights and ambushes, fierce battles and fell deeds, there is often witchcraft involved and in the end a price is exacted from both the good and the evil. Tolkien thinks very highly of the heroic narrativesin Norse, Icelandic or ancient English because their heroes and their embodiments of evil belong generically to the same class as those of Tolkien.
To fully assess the influence of Scandinavian and Germanic mythology on Tolkien's work a lengthier study is required. Suffice it here to bring a striking parallel with "The Elder Edda" to illustrate Tolkien's borrowing from early Icelandic records. There are thirteen dwarves in "The Hobbit" and their names are given as Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Thorin. Together with them Gandalf, a wizard, is introduced to the reader. Robert Foster informs us in "The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth" that Dwarves were "one of the speaking races of Middle-Earth, and one of the Free Peoples. Created by Aule, Smith of the Valar (Guardians of the World), ... the Seven Fathers of Dwarves slept after their making until the awakening of the Elves." (Foster, 1979) Of the above-mentioned Fathers only Durin is mentioned by name and Tolkien says next to nothing about the rest. During the Quest Gimli, a descendant of Durin, sings an ancient ballad of his folk:
Although Paul Kocher only hints at the possibility in his "Master of Middle-Earth" there is little room for doubt that Tolkien derived Durin's name and function from "The Elder Edda". The same can be said about the uniqueness of the Dwarves and their origin although in "The Voluspaa" a more detailed, and somewhat different, account is given of their creation: they were made from the dead body of the giant Ymir:
(The Elder Eddas and the Younger Eddas, trans. B. Thorpe and I.A. Blackwell, 1906, quoted by P. Kocher, 1975)
A list of Dwarves, who were then created "as Durin ordered", then follows and of the 13 Dwarves in "The Hobbit" the names of 9 are mentioned there: Dvalinn, Fili, Kili, Nori, Gloi, Bivorr, Bavorr, Bomburr and Thorinn. In "The Fjolsvidr Saga" we can find the names Ori and Dori and in "The Sigvordr Saga" Oinn occurs. One Dwarf in "The Voluspaa" Gandalfr seems to have given rise to Gandalf the Wizard and a place-name Gimli suggests connection with the trilogy's chief Dwarf protagonist Gimli. In on" of the. Appendices to "The Lord of the Rings" Tolkien provides the reader with the genealogical tree of Gimli and, again, most of his ancestors seem to have stepped out; of "The Elder Edda".
In "The Hobbit" the reader also finds Beorn, "Northen man, chief of the Beornings, a berserker." (Foster, 1979) Ability to turn into a bear and fight in that powerful and savage form is attributed to him. That characteristic feature is suggested already by his name which bears a strong resemblance to the Icelandic noun "bear".
Numerous parallels can also be drawn with "Beowulf". They are not so direct and self-explanatory as the above-mentioned ones but Tolkien has rather borrowed from the philosophy and general atmosphere prevalent in it. Some parallels can be followed in the author's peculiar laws for the fantasy world which will be given below.
J.R.R. Tolkien was well. aware of the inevitable precondition that the aesthetic, moral and philosophical principles governing a fantasy world are different both from the laws and decrees of our own world of common sense reality and from those prevalent in realistic literature. It is evident that fairy-tale morality, common sense and legitimacy could never change places with our everyday social principles, yet at the same time we can export our real i.e. "primary world" to the "secondary one" (as Tolkien called it) exactly to the extent we think necessary, provided its consistency is not violated. Realistic views are based on the ontology that grants reality only on a basis of cause-and-effect sequences but fantasy may be founded on a different theory of reality and its aesthetic, moral and philosophical principles must accord with the laws of the "secondary world". To maintain its credibility the author may never break his world's inner consistency. Tolkien himself has said that "what really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful "sub-creator". He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is "true" - it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside." (Tolkien, R., 1965) So there must be a "secondary belief" in the "secondary world.