Part III: Sirenading in the Rain – A Ban she Washed Away
The Many Faces of Mrs Bombadil
‘No … No … No!’ – I can imagine scholarly voices crying foul.
‘Those water-nymphs and Undine of Parts I & II – they’re not the best of fits. We have gaping holes. There’s many an instance where Goldberry bears no resemblance to such beings whatsoever.’
At first glance these types of complaints appear quite valid. Thus, I can sympathize with the leery among readers being unpersuaded. Furthermore, I can understand the argument:
‘But river-nymphs and cloud-nymphs are Greek in origin – whereas Tolkien focused on North European myth, so why would he have brought in a southern1 gal? And besides, Goldberry can’t have been an undine seeking a soul – because Tom wasn’t human. Only marriage to a mortal would have sufficed.’
Such points cannot be summarily dismissed. Oh most certainly Tolkien knew his mythology and was equally well-acquainted with fairy tales. A University of Oxford professor could not possibly have made such elementary mistakes.
Or could he?
One is certainly entitled to doubt the infallibility of an elite establishment’s don. Yet in this case I concur with naysayers. Yes, Tolkien could not possibly have depicted Goldberry erroneously. Unless he did so deliberately. Unless he had a purpose in mind.
But why?
Then to add to such a puzzle – what possibly could have led to the poetry echoing a Germanic Nixie2 when Goldberry tugged at Bombadil’s dangling beard in pulling him into her watery abode?
“… Goldberry, the River-woman’s daughter;
pulled Tom’s hanging hair. In he went a-wallowing …”.
– The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1934 (& 1962) poem
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‘The Nixy’, Andrew Lang’s The Yellow Fairy Book, illustration by Henry Justice Ford, 1894
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Or why a shimmering dress complete with fish mail-like footwear which has resonances to a mermaids’ scales and forked nether fins?
“… Goldberry; … the hobbits saw that she was clothed all in silver … and her shoes were like fishes’ mail.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil
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‘A Mermaid’, John William Waterhouse, 1901
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On top of river-nymphs, cloud-nymphs and undines of Parts I and II, why even more faces? Why a mishmash? Why no singularly coherent archetype?
To understand Tolkien’s reasoning, loose threads will need to be drawn together and then tied with a knot of logic. In this currently unraveled state one needs to ‘think outside the box’. So instead of producing a Gordian Knot – the aim will be for a neat little bow. A bow ready to be gift-wrapped around a believable answer which not only provides a plausible explanation – but one that links into his documented thoughts. Such an encompassing solution would be especially powerful if those ideas coincided with Goldberry’s chronological development in The Fellowship of the Ring. But before evidence and a new proposal are supplied – some discussion on other antecedents will emphasize the many guises of Goldberry.
It is time a concerted effort is made to answer the question Tolkien refused to. For to our knowledge, barring the obvious, a reply was never given to Terence Tiller of the BBC:
“… Goldberry … ‘But who is she?’ ”.
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, 12 December 1955, C. Scull & W. Hammond (italicized emphasis on ‘is’)
Tolkien intuitively, I suspect, knew Tiller desired something else. His question was one whose sense often overlaps with another. Tiller really wanted to know ‘What is she?’.
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Yet Two More Faces
Now much excellent effort has already been spent excavating literature from which Goldberry might have been sourced. Taryne Jade Taylor3 and others have performed admirable work in looking at the Proserpina/Persephone link. Likewise, John Bower4 has associated aspects of her to The Maid of the Moor – a medieval poem of unknown authorship which Tolkien could have been aware of.
More convincing likenesses have been made to Celtic folklore figures. One of these is the goddess Etain of Irish myth which Leslie Jones in Myth & Middle-earth has uncovered. But I will focus on Melissa Hatcher’s5 mystical maiden: the Celtic ‘Washerwoman at the Ford’ – another character from Irish myth, and one which is reputedly the source of the legendary ‘Banshee’.
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‘The Washerwoman’, Artist Unknown
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Both the ‘Washerwoman’ and ‘Banshee’ are near-mythical creatures linked to Faërie. That hidden land of folklore, in turn, is closely associated to tumuli and mounds found in many regions across the British Isles. To the best of our knowledge, the stories of Faërie migrated across to the mainland from Ireland – below, which was said, lay a magical realm inhabited by fairy-folk: the ‘Sidhe’.
The bean sídhe from Irish folklore and the bean sìth from Scottish Gaelic folklore both mean ‘woman of the sídhe’. Both are pronounced ‘Ban-she’; both also translate across as ‘fairy woman’. The fabled Washerwoman was another variant of the Celtic fairy woman. She was elevated to the rank of pseudo-goddess in Ireland, while in Scotland her specific title was the bean nighe. Though often described as young and fair, modern day depictions of her (and the Banshee) can take either hideous or beautiful forms. Her doom was to wash bloodstained grave linen ominously portending the death of the one she lamented.
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‘La Belle Dame sans Merci6: The Banshee’, Henry Rheam, 1897
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‘Legends of the Banshee’, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, Thomas Croker, 1825
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For The Lord of the Rings, the location of Tom’s house in proximity to the tumuli of the Barrow-downs as well as the Withywindle River, ideally positions Goldberry to covertly play the character of both the Washerwoman and Banshee. A comparative review exposes Celtic lore likenesses in several instances and matters. Individually they might not mean much, but collectively their significance should not be underplayed.
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(I) In Irish lore the otherworldly Washerwoman appears in several tales. The god Dagda meets her at a ford of the River Unshin where she foretells defeat for the Formorians. And in Cuchulain of Muirthemne7 we have the Irish hero Cuchulain journeying to his last battle:
“And presently they came to a ford, and there they saw a young girl, thin and white-skinned and having yellow hair, washing and ever washing, and wringing out clothing that was stained crimson red, and she crying and keening all the time. ‘Little Hound,’ said Cathbad, ‘do you see what it is that young girl is doing? It is your red clothes she is washing, and crying as she washes, because she knows you are going to your death against Maeve’s great army. …’ ”.
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In terms of looks: Goldberry being “young” and “slender” while having “yellow hair” and “white arms” matches.
In terms of function: Goldberry’s “washing day” ritual technically makes her a ‘washerwoman’.
(II) In Breton Gaelic tales, per Folk-lore de France8:
“She appears on the banks of streams, and calls to passers-by to aid her to wash the linen of the dead. If any refuse, he is dragged into the water and has his arms broken.”
Reynolds’s Miscellany of 1849 under Superstition of Brittany, pg. 639 notes the legend of:
“A Mary-morgan, or syren, is supposed to inhabit the lake of the Duke, near Vannes. She comes out, say they, sometimes to comb and braid her yellow hair in the sun. A soldier once surprised her … but the Mary-Morgan entwined him in her arms and dragged him to the bottom of the Lake.”
……
In terms of actions: Goldberry pulling Tom into the water in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil matches, while the combing of yellow hair also matches.
(III) In Welsh tales (Mabinogion9 Triad 70) Urien fathers a child from an otherworldly washerwoman he finds at a mysterious ford in Denbighshire. The woman reveals herself as the daughter of the King of Annwn (the mythic Welsh Otherworld).
……
In terms of function: Again, a further account of a fairy washerwoman, this time geographically closer to Oxfordshire and Berkshire.
(IV) In Scottish tales from Popular Tales of the West Highlands10, Orally Collected, Volume 2 – pg. 191, 1860 by J.F. Campbell, Loch Nigdal is inhabited by a Banshee:
“… which the miller’s wife saw about three years ago. She was sitting on a stone, quiet, and beautifully dressed in a green silk dress, … Her long hair was yellow like ripe corn; …”.
Publications of the Folk-lore Society, Volume 2, The Picktree Brag – pg. 270, 1879 repeats the legend:
“The Banshee of Loch Nigdal … arrayed in a silk dress, green in color.”
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In terms of looks: A yellow-haired Goldberry wearing green matches.
(V) Per the Irish House of the O’Brien Clan (Banshees & the O’Briens11), when the Banshee decides to appear, she may take the form of:
“A beautiful woman with silver-white hair wearing a long shimmering silver dress.”
……
In terms of dress: Goldberry’s depiction matches.
(VI) Tolkien’s lecturer Professor John Rhys relates in Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx, Volume 1, The Fairies’ Revenge – pg. 133 the legend of the Welsh washerwoman of Ỻyn Cwm Ffynnon Las – also known as ‘the Lake of the Dingle of the Green Well’:
“A young woman has been seen to come out of this lake to wash clothes, and when she had done she folded the clothes, and taking them under her arm went back into the lake.”
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In terms of function: Yet another example of a mainland fairy washerwoman. However, it is the way Tolkien defined ‘dingle’ in the Preface to The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962 that resonates with the Welsh lake description. Tolkien stated that the Dingle was “the wooded valley of the Withywindle” while Goldberry “lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle ran from a grassy well down into the dingle” (my emphasis). Thus indeed Goldberry’s “shady pool” might stretch to be a ‘Lake of the Dingle of the Green Well’.
(VII) By the late 19th century, the possession and use of a comb had become firmly rooted to the Banshee. It possibly originated from its employment by the Irish goddess Etain or got mixed-up with classic legends of basking sirens and mermaids who similarly have been portrayed straightening or disentangling their hair. In any case, female merfolk have been depicted since at least medieval times with combs.
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Medieval detail of a mermaid with a comb, British Library, MS 42130, f. 70v
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‘Fair Ligea’, Illustration for John Milton’s: Comus12, Arthur Rackham, 1921
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‘The Mermaid and the Dolphin’, Illustration for William Shakespeare’s: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arthur Rackham, 1908
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Interestingly the mermaid ‘set piece’ pose is observable in Bombadil poetry:
“… while fair Goldberry combed her tresses yellow.”
– The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1934 (& 1962) poem
Though the Banshee’s comb is always a silver one, in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil poetry, there was no revelation of material or color.
……
In terms of implements: Goldberry’s ‘comb’ matches.
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Hence, given these seven observations, we can rationally conclude there are some definite similarities to Goldberry in folkloric ‘local’ stories of the ‘Washerwoman’ and the ‘Banshee’. Which all the more perplexingly leaves us two more faces to add to the list. But why such a list in the first place?
Hmm … to answer that question requires us to ponder on ‘roots’. And ponder we must – for it is entirely possible the many semblances of Goldberry have confused us. We have almost certainly failed to grasp her essence as the Master intended!
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The Reason behind the Many Semblances of Goldberry?
To make headway what’s needed now is to switch attention to story germination and to recognize the phenomenon of oral drift. Then to reinforce the Washerwoman/Banshee connection, as no others have done, contemplate imagery of Goldberry outdoors on her washing day. Once brooded over, the Professor’s footsteps will likely have been traced which should be helpful – if not enlightening!
To understand Tolkien’s thinking on how legends and myths historically arose and how orally they had migrated and diffused across Europe, we should particularly heed remarks in his On Fairy-stories paper. By stripping away the complex arguments surrounding competing ‘origin’ theories, we gain a valuable glimpse of how the Professor’s mind whirred. Meticulously charted was his train of thought when it came to the Norse god: Thórr.
Proffered up was how the legend of Thórr might have arisen based on:
“… stories about an irascible, not very clever, redbeard farmer, of a strength beyond common measure, a person (in all but mere stature) very like the Northern farmers, the bœndr by whom Thórr was chiefly beloved?”
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 124, HarperCollins, 1983
In broad summary, Tolkien asks how might the husbandman have been viewed by a passer-by when out in the fields at a time lightning flashed and thunder sounded? Could it be:
“… that the farmer popped up in the very moment when Thunder got a voice and face; …”?
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 124, HarperCollins, 1983
Or perhaps the tale had simply become embellished when:
“… there was a distant growl of thunder in the hills every time a story-teller heard a farmer in a rage.”
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 124, HarperCollins, 1983
Of course the take-away from this conjecture, are scenarios that show us a possible ‘root’ to a myth. Most reasonably, he argued, Thórr simply stemmed from extreme weather phenomena occurring in the presence of an extraordinarily strong and vocal farmer with the scene glimpsed or heard by outsiders. Such accounts, one can imagine, spread across the population from mouth-to-mouth becoming exaggerated along the way.
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‘Thor’, The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie, 1910 – illustrated by Arthur Rackham
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Tolkien’s logic trail is highly revealing. And we can use it to think along the same lines for Goldberry. Because we need to put ourselves in the Professors’ shoes as best as we can; it’s our best chance for success. Besides the comparison is good – because both ‘Fairy Stories’ lecture material and Goldberry’s ontological evolution in The Lord of the Rings were being sorted out at much the same time13. Of course, once again, to maximize benefits – we will need to attune into imagery and Nature. Maybe not featuring Asgardian “thunder in the hills” – but instead much mellower ‘singing in the hills’!
How might a stray traveler from Bree-lands or Buckland viewed a yellow-haired maiden washing (presumably clothes) beside a stream in the middle of a natural downpour? Because without doubt Goldberry was out in the elements. After Tom told the hobbits:
“ ‘This is Goldberry’s washing day,’ … ‘… Too wet for hobbit-folk …’ ”,
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil
our dutiful hostess eventually came in from outside after singing from:
“… up above them.”
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil
Because the song was “the tale of a river” – one could conclude that Tolkien placed Goldberry a short distance upstream and adjacent to the Withywindle flow to do her chore. It was nearby as Pippin noted from a westward facing window:
“The stream ran down the hill on the left …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil
Further downstream the waters had earlier been reported to be brown. Would newly washed away silt off the hilltop have made a muddy-bottomed rivulet seem reddish14 from afar? Perhaps sunlight shining through some lingering clouds described to be:
“… like lines of soiled wool stained red at the edges, …”,
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil (my emphasis)
tinged the waters to the same hue?
To a wayward local – perhaps a Buckland or Bree hobbit passing by, the sight of Goldberry engaged in washing would surely have seemed bizarre. Washing clothes in near blood-colored waters might have been imagined as the case. Even stranger would have been the singing. So to the ear would that have come across as pleasingly sweet from a distance? Or would the pitter-patter of rain and an added wind have muffled and distorted Goldberry’s melodious tones?
We were made aware how even the hobbits:
“… could hear few words, …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil
Thus from afar, without coherency, the song might have sounded more akin to Banshee-like wailing or even Washerwoman mourning than one of gladness. What would a terrified wayfarer have reported to family and friends?
Just as one can imagine a washerwoman at work, one can also visualize the stream setting as rocky and boulder-strewn to beat and lay clothes upon. There is every reason to believe that Goldberry went out in her silver dress and scaly shoes to perform the laundering. The Fellowship of the Ring text gives no indication that a change in attire occurred after entering back into the house and before the hobbits reported on her striking outfit. Again, how to an off course traveler would Goldberry have appeared – sitting on a rock in a silvery gown blending into similar hued footwear? Is it purely coincidental how the girdle was chosen to be white, matching skin complexion, and conveniently providing separation of the upper torso to her lower body? Indeed – in bending over to do her washing, with her hair falling in front, would the upper half to the dress even been visible? Then from a distance, what might she have resembled?
Yes, you already know where I’m heading. Coupling such lustrous garb with her singing, surely the imagery resounds with what we, in this day and age, would term a ‘mermaid’!
Hmm … from gleaning beyond Tolkien’s bare depiction, one can easily imagine how elements of the ‘Washerwoman at the Ford’, the ‘Banshee’ and ‘Mermaid’ legends could have arose. Just like Thórr, one might opine that these creatures were creations of partial nature-allegory and oral drift. Goldberry was at the heart of it all; while hobbit-chatter had been the initial means of dispersion!
Though I have discussed the ‘Washerwoman’, ‘Banshee’, ‘Water-nymph’ and ‘Undine’ while touching on the ‘Nixie’ and ‘Mermaid’, there definitely are other creatures which loosely relate. Forming part of a broad spectrum of our worlds’ mythical female water-beings, we have Sirens15 and Lorelei16 as well as England’s own water goddess: Sabrina of the Severn, and hags: Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth.
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‘The Siren’, Edward Armitage, 1888
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‘Loreley’, Ludwig Thiersch, c. 1860
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‘Jenny Greenteeth’, Wilhelm Kotarbinski (1849-1921)
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Perhaps most intriguing of all British water-maidens are ‘The Lady of the Lake’ and Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend.
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‘The Taking of Excalibur’, John Duncan, c. 1897
(Morgan le Fay holds Excalibur aloft)
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‘The Lady of the Lake’, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur
Illuminated by Alberto Sangorski, 1912
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I will have much to say about these two on another occasion. But for now, it is obvious such beings also have traces of Goldberry in their legendary makeup or demeanor. Given a wide-ranging collection of European female water-entities, we are now at the appropriate point to acknowledge that many ingredients were likely thrown into the pot to make the delicious soup of our world’s water-maiden mythologies. Yet even more importantly we mustn’t forget to consider how they have happened to be ladled out of the “Cauldron of Story”17. Nor fail to reflect upon whether Tolkien, in a moment of inventive inspiration, seized the ladle and filled the soup bowl set before him!
Tolkien lucidly declared that at the center of a fairy tale was an inventor. How the invention migrated across different lands and times was through processes termed: ‘diffusion’ and ‘inheritance’. But the important point to note is that there must have been a source:
“At the centre of the … diffusion there is a place where once an inventor lived. Similarly with inheritance (borrowing in time): in this way we arrive at last only at an ancestral inventor.”
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
And so ancient fairy tales as we know them today were all a result of:
“… three things: independent invention, inheritance, and diffusion, …”.
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
All three:
“… evidently played their part in producing the intricate web of Story.”
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
Unfortunately, because distortion, exaggeration and misrepresentation naturally occurred through:
“… diffusion at various times from one or more centres.”,
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
obtaining a true source was virtually impossible, as the “web of Story” had become exceedingly complex and:
“… beyond all skill … to unravel …”.
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
Tolkien conveyed that of the three processes:
“… invention is the most important and fundamental, and so (not surprisingly) also the most mysterious. To an inventor, that is to a storymaker, the other two must in the end lead back.”
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 121, HarperCollins, 1983
In creating the mysterious ‘invention’, Tom:
“… he is just an invention …”,
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #144 – 25 April 1954, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981
and likewise Goldberry, it is theorized that Tolkien exercised immense creativity and knowledge to formulate two special ‘ancestral’ beings. These entities, placed within a mini fairy tale of the greater fairy tale, would be the imagined latent progenitors from which many different folktales and legends of early Europe were derived. The Professor, no doubt, desired a fair amount of enigmatic originality. No single real-world archetype would be able to fit to a tee, because that was not his aim. Indeed, quite the opposite. Tom18 and Goldberry, I believe, were meant to be the historical source material for a multiplicity of our ancient legends and myths, not the other way round.
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The Diffusion of Goldberry19,20
A – Ireland: The Washerwoman at the Ford, The Banshee, Etain, The Morrigan21
B – Scotland: The Washerwoman (Bean Niche)
C – France: The Washerwoman, Pressina22, Melusine22, Mary-Morgan, Korrigans23
D – Denmark: The Little Mermaid24,25
E – Germany: Nixies, Undine, Lorelei
F – Greece: Persephone, Water-nymphs: Oceanids, Nereids, Naiads, Sirens
G – Wales: The Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fay26
H – Italy: Water-nymphs27
I – Slavic Countries (not shown): Rusalki28
O – England: Peg Powler, Jenny Greenteeth, Sabrina29, Coventina30
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Inevitably in inventing sources, Tolkien had been left with just one logical choice. Only certain characteristics and literary snippets pertinent to the merry couple would end up diffusing across to select creatures of our world’s mythologies. This idea can be gathered from:
“These tales are ‘new’, they are not directly derived from other myths and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of ancient wide-spread motives or elements.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #131 – late 1951, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)
With those:
“… mythological stories, legends, tales, Romances that come to us from many sources, from Hellas by many channels, from the Celtic peoples Irish and British, and from the Teutonic …”,
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Reader’s Guide, Reading – pg. 1053, Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford
being directly responsible for Goldberry’s fragmentary makeup.
To Tolkien, at the very least:
“… there was always a kernel of fact behind a legend …”.
– Lecture of 14 February 1938, Report in Amon Hen 28, August 1977
And sometimes just a kernel. For it would be an exceptional matter for age-old stories to have been handed-down through history while matching all the original facts without any distortion. And that, I surmise, is precisely why no existing archetype or entity in our primary world matches Goldberry exactly. Deducing what we can from On Fairy-stories, and taking a small leap of faith – ‘out of box’ thinking gives us a remarkably sensible, logical and bow-wrapped answer that just about fits all the known facts.
Can I be absolutely sure? Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, only the Professor would have been able to provide a rubber-stamping. Nonetheless, I believe he left us more than enough clues. Particularly compelling are his ideas in On Fairy-stories which, as he stated, were put to practical use. The:
“… ‘Andrew Lang’ lecture at St Andrews on Fairy-stories; … was entirely beneficial to The Lord of the Rings, which was a practical demonstration of the views that I expressed.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #234 – 22 November 1961, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (my emphasis)
Without specifying the merry couple – he came as close as possible to admitting his plan when insisting the basis of The Lord of the Rings was:
“… mythical-historical …” using “… deeply rooted ‘archetypal’ motifs …” which he put “… into an entirely new setting, …”.
– Tolkien letter to B.A. Baeyens, 16 December 1963 (Tolkien’s emphasis)
Then surely Goldberry was integral to the exercise? On our part wouldn’t it be irrational to deny that possibility? So it’s at this point we need to revisit the discussion in Parts I & II while bearing the theme of “deeply rooted ‘archetypal’ motifs” in mind.
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Another Face: Melusine
When it came to Goldberry one can sensibly conclude that her strongest ‘archetypal’ roots included not only the classical Greek nymph (Part I), but also the Teutonic undine (Part II). But what was their mythical-historical relationship to each other? Beyond the obvious young/female/water-entity, that is. And then would Tolkien have been interested in unraveling commonality and tracing roots?
This last question is easy to answer. For fairy-stories, inbuilt was a strong:
“… desire to unravel the intricately knotted and ramified history of the branches on the Tree of Tales …”.
– The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, On Fairy-stories – pg. 120, HarperCollins, 1983
Thus, we are on firm ground as we ourselves seek a path that Tolkien might well have followed!
Now in the waters of the Mummelsee, a large lake in the heart of Germany’s Black Forest:
“Here, according to ancient tradition, dwell beautiful Undines, who are formed as if of snowy lilies, …”.
– Knowledge Volume XI – pg. 107, 1st March 1888
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‘The Mummelsee’, from Legends of the Black Forest (1890) by A. Württemberger, Artist J. Gotzenberger
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Clearly the connecting ‘motif’ of Germanic undines to Greek nymphs entailed ‘metamorphosis’ and the ‘water-lily’. Not just the white type, but also its less glamorous sister, the ‘yellow water-lily’. For it is by no accident that the lake was so named:
“Mummel: The yellow pond lily (Nuphar lutea)”,
– German-English Dictionary, dict.cc
Or that a shape-changing process was involved:
“During the daytime these maidens, in the form of water lilies, rock gently upon the smooth waters, … the flower-like form … serves to delude mortals and conceals their true nature.”
– Legends of the Rhine, Mümmelsee: The Water Sprites – pg. 292, H.A. Guerber, 1895
Underlying the physical metamorphosis motif was the spiritual one of ‘gaining a human soul’. One that Paracelsus claimed was not only a desired trait of undines, but also belonged to an earlier myth – that of the half water-nymph ‘Melusine’31:
“… she ‘was possessed by the evil spirit, of which she would have freed herself if she had stayed with her husband to the end’ … Paracelsus characterizes Melusine as a nymph, associates her with other water figures like the siren, singles her out for her similarity to humans and her desire to acquire a human soul, …”.
– Melusine’s Footprint: Tracing the Legacy of a Medieval Myth, The Alchemical Transformation of Melusine – pgs. 98-99, M.R. Elmes, 2017
Unlike other creatures, and despite the Fall of Man, humanity still had a chance at redress and being restored to God. Melusine, though granted a far longer lifespan than Homo sapiens, ultimately sought to attain salvation by living and dying as a normal, mortal woman. For in Tolkien’s words, according to the thoughts of Paracelsus – she knew that to the human race:
“… certainly Death is not an Enemy!”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #208 – 10 April 1958, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981
Likewise – on our part it would be a huge mistake to confuse:
“… true ‘immortality’ with … serial longevity.”
– The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter #208 – 10 April 1958, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981 (Tolkien’s emphasis)
Fouqué’s 1811 soul-searching Undine story is thus traceable beyond a Paracelsian water-elemental to the chronologically earlier fairy tale of Melusine written by Jean d’Arras c. 1392-1394. The eminent folklorist Sabine Baring-Gould certainly agreed:
“The beautiful legend of Undine is but another version of the same story.”
– Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, Volume 2, Melusina – pgs. 220-221, S. Baring-Gould, 1868
As did Charlotte Yonge whose commentary expanded beyond Melusine:
“ ‘Undine’ is a story of much lighter fancy, … No doubt it was founded on the universal idea in folk-lore of the nixies or water-spirits, one of whom, in Norwegian legend, was seen weeping bitterly because of the want of a soul. Sometimes the nymph is a wicked siren like the Lorelei; but in many of these tales she weds an earthly lover, and deserts him after a time, sometimes on finding her diving cap, or her seal-skin garment, which restores her to her ocean kindred, sometimes on his intruding on her while she is under a periodical transformation, as with the fairy Melusine, more rarely if he becomes unfaithful.”
– Undine, F. de La Motte Fouqué, Project Gutenberg E-book, Introduction by C. Yonge
Knitted into the tangle is the motif of ‘chastity’ – a subject hardly approachable in folklore and fairy tales, though more visibly projected in the ancient legends of Rome and Greece. From virginal nymphs being pursued by lustful Greco-Roman gods, to Sabrina from Comus32 ever swift to aid virgins with her love for maidenhood, to marriage being a necessity for an unsullied Undine – love had a carnal side. Indeed, for all ‘humanity’ clothed in the raiment of flesh, fulfillment could only be achieved (at least classically) through a physical union of male and female. But to be ‘pure’ love, the female had to be ‘unspoilt’. And that representation since biblical times had most strongly been symbolized by the Madonna – and ‘white lilies’.
Not to be missed then was Tom’s action of plucking water-lilies from Goldberry’s Withywindle pool. Symbolic ‘deflowering’ one might presume. With utmost subtlety had Tolkien conveyed that Tom was not only Goldberry’s husband, but also her ‘first’ physical lover?
Then were all these motifs, legends and fairy tales known to Tolkien? C.S. Lewis, who knew him better than any of us, effectively proclaimed the Professor to be:
“… a specialist in fairy-stories.”
– Review of The Hobbit for the Times Literary Supplement, 2 Oct 1937
I wouldn’t dare to disagree. Yet in this instance the evidence is scant.
It is possible that Tolkien first ran across Melusine as an undergraduate. Forming part of the reading syllabus – a compulsory examination question was set on the novels of Sir Walter Scott:
“Tolkien sits Paper A5: History of English Literature. There are twelve questions, with no limit as to the number to be answered: one each on Old English poetry; … Sir Walter Scott as a novelist; …”.
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, 12 June 1915, C. Scull & W. Hammond
And in Scott’s Quentin Durward33 we have a brief synopsis of Melusine’s story. Moreover, an acknowledgement was made concerning linkage to other mythical water-entities whom I have already focused upon:
“… The fairy Melusina: a water fay who married a mortal on condition that she should be allowed to spend her Saturdays in deep seclusion. … Her history is closely interwoven with the legends of the Banshee and Mermaid. …”.
– Quentin Durward, Chapter VII, Sir W. Scott, 1823
Fortuitously we know for certain that Tolkien was acquainted with Melusine before The Lord of the Rings. And there does exist a telling suggestion that for her case, Tolkien had a grasp of how both diffusion and inheritance occurred:
“It is indeed easier to unravel a single thread in the web – that is a detail, or motive or incident – than to trace the history of the picture defined by many threads.”
– Tolkien On Fairy-stories, Manuscript A – pg. 181, V. Flieger & D. Anderson, 2014
Clearly the “detail” and single “thread” he had in mind we’re related to his jotting of the previous sentence, namely the:
“Story of Raimondin and Melusine.”
– Tolkien On Fairy-stories, Manuscript A – pg. 180, V. Flieger & D. Anderson, 2014
Had the Professor tracked forward in time to see key features of that tale progressively evolve in Fouqué’s Undine, Andersen’s The Little Mermaid34 and then Heyse’s Die Nixe35? Then backwards, were those components present in the makeup of Melusine’s predecessors: Arthurian nymphs36 and those trailing all the way to Greek legend?
To the above – possibly so; given the clues – even probably so. For in updated thoughts he heavily implied her case was unique. To unravel a thread was humanly impossible:
“Except in particularly fortunate cases, or in a few details.”
– Tolkien On Fairy-stories, Manuscript B MS. 4 F 73-120 – pg. 221, V. Flieger & D. Anderson, 2014
Which allows us to attain a more thorough answer in that – surely those “few details” are ones already put forward; namely motifs of water-lilies, metamorphosis, chastity and attaining true immortality.
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Melusine – Original Starbuck’s Logo
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So if by good fortune some underlying details in a thread associated to Melusine were indeed historically traceable both forwards and backwards through specific motifs – one can easily fathom the last step. For us, a most important one. Because it was one designed to send us even further back. To successfully subcreate the Professor willfully imagined his way back into the depths of time. Yes, as Randel Helms has noted (among other scholars) this is likely another case where Tolkien employed:
“… one of his favorite literary tricks, the creation of the ‘real’ source or origin of a famous tale.”
– Tolkien and the Silmarils, Akallabêth – pg. 64, Randel Helms, 1981
Expanding on my earlier conclusion, I believe that the intricate oral and literature-based ‘Web of Story’, historically stemming from various cultures and tribes across Europe, had a few threads imaginatively unraveled by Tolkien himself. Supposedly for this unique case – myth, legend, fairy tale and folklore were all linked. In a place geographically close to Oxford, in a bygone mythical era, lay the center of diffusion for a particularly ingenious invention. Yes, the source behind the stories of many mystical female water-entities of our world37 was ultimately Goldberry herself. On the Professor’s part, how neat a “practical demonstration” was that!
For the next article in the series click below.
Part IV
Footnotes:
1 No disparagement is intended. Certainly some of the scholarly community are cognizant that:
“There is a great deal of Greek mythology assimilated and transformed within the legendarium, albeit unacknowledged.”,
– Tolkien Studies 2, Parallel Lives: The Sons of Denethor and the Sons of Telamon – pg. 15, M. Librán-Moreno, 2005
and know Tolkien himself acknowledged inclusion of Hellenic elements:
“That’s what I always wanted to do – mythological things like Greek or Norse myths; I tried to improve on them and modernize them – to modernize them is to make them credible.”
– Niekas 18, Interview with Tolkien, late spring 1967 (my emphasis)
2 For example, in Grimms’ fairy tale The Nix of the Mill-Pond:
“ ‘Beware, … if thou dost but touch the water, a hand will rise, seize thee, and draw thee down.’ ”.
– Household Tales by Brothers Grimm, Translated by M. Hunt, Vol II, Tale 181 – pg. 293, J. & W. Grimm, 1884
Ruth Noel in The Mythology of Middle-earth has already put forward Goldberry’s nixie resemblance based on their ‘out of water’ possession of ‘wet skirts and aprons’ per traditional Teutonic myth (see Teutonic Mythology, Volume II – pgs. 491 & 492, 1883 by Jacob Grimm, translated by James S. Stallybrass).
3 Investigating the Role and Origin of Goldberry in Tolkien’s Mythology, Mythlore Vol. 27 No. 1, 15 October 2008.
4 Tolkien’s Goldberry and The Maid of the Moor, Tolkien Studies VIII, 2011.
5 Finding Woman’s Role in The Lord of the Rings, Mythlore Vol. 25 No. 3, 15 April 2007.
6 This was also the title of a poem by John Keats whose works Tolkien was familiar with (See Christina Scull & Wayne Hammond’s The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2006 Edition, Chronology, ?10 June 1915). Keats’ poem is reproduced in Fairy Gold: A Book of Old English Fairy Tales, 1922 by Ernest Rhys – a publication Tolkien is known to have consulted (see Bibliographies – Works cited or consulted by J.R.R. Tolkien) per Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson in Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014.
The fairy woman of La Belle Dame sans Merci was also painted by John William Waterhouse.
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‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’, John William Waterhouse, 1893
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It should be noted that Waterhouse (today termed a ‘modern’ Pre-Raphaelite) is far from an obscure artist. His work: The Lady of Shalott (also known as ‘the lily maid of Astolat’) regularly features (in art polls conducted this century) as among Britain’s favorite paintings. It was inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott, wherein exist verse lines which also resound thematically with Goldberry. Tennyson’s final 1842 rendering describes her as the “fairy lady of Shalott” while an earlier draft included “The yellow globe o’ the waterlily”.
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‘The Lady of Shalott’, John William Waterhouse, 1888
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Waterhouse’s topic tastes and attention to detail gives us every reason to believe his work was just as popular in Tolkien’s time. When it comes to art of a mythological background, he is generally regarded as being the top Pre-Raphaelite era artist.
Though none of Waterhouse’s works are currently on display at Birmingham’s Museum of Art, The Independent newspaper claims the following about Tolkien:
“He was strongly influenced, as a young man, by mythological scenes in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites that he saw in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.”
– A-Z of the Pre-Raphaelites, The Independent, J. Walsh, 7 December 2012
7 Cuchulain of Muirthemne, Death of Cuchulain – pg. 335, 1902 by Lady Augusta Gregory.
8 Le Folk-Lore de France, 1904 & 1905 by Paul Sébillot (see translation in The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain – pg. 86 by Lewis Spence, 1999 release). Tolkien was at least acquainted with this French fairy-story author’s name. He listed him in notes made from studying Andrew Lang’s The Green Fairy Book (see Bibliographies – Works cited or consulted by J.R.R. Tolkien) per Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson in Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014.
Dimitra Fimi in Tolkien Studies IV, Tolkien’s “‘Celtic’ type of legends”: Merging Traditions, 2007 notes on pg. 53 that Tolkien owned several books on Breton folklore, though explicit titles are not all disclosed.
9 Tolkien took possession of his copy on 1 May 1913 per The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology by Christina Scull & Wayne Hammond.
10 A three volume book Tolkien is known to have consulted. See Bibliographies – Works cited or consulted by J.R.R. Tolkien per Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson in Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014.
11 See http://houseofbrianboru.blogspot.com/
12 John Milton’s Comus formed part of Tolkien’s undergraduate course. A related question was set as part of examination finals – see Christina Scull & Wayne Hammond’s The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2006 Edition, Chronology, 12 June 1915. Tolkien also attended a lecture given by Charles Williams titled Comus in 1940 (The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2006 Edition, Chronology, 5 February 1940). Whether Tolkien had ever seen Arthur Rackham’s 1921 illustrated edition, is unknown.
13 According to Letter #33 (from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981), by the end of August 1938 Tolkien had finished drafting all three chapters involving Goldberry. By the beginning of December 1938 per Letter #35 (from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981) chapters were revised to the point (as Christopher Tolkien reports in The Return of the Shadow) that some of the story reached its final form. Yet it is clear that by the ‘third phase’ of writing (which appears to have been progressing in December 1938) our chapters of interest still differed considerably from the final text. In any case, The Lord of the Rings had to be shelved after Christmas 1938 for a while to focus on the ‘Andrew Lang Lecture’. It was delivered on 8 March 1939. We now know much preparation was also done in the year before its delivery. Tolkien had almost three months of 1938 available at the point of acceptance:
“Andrew Bennett, Secretary of the University Court at the University of St Andrews, writes to Tolkien, inviting him to deliver an Andrew Lang Lecture (i.e. On Fairy-Stories). … Tolkien will quickly send a positive reply.”
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2006 Edition, Chronology, 8 October 1938, C. Scull & W. Hammond, Addenda & Corrigenda
The overlap for developing the lecture paper’s content and the firming-up of Goldberry’s character for what became The Fellowship of the Ring is thus hardly deniable.
14 There exists some precedence that such an idea could have entered Tolkien’s mind given the following text in the original release of The Hobbit:
“I don’t know what river it was, a rushing red one, swollen with the rains of the last few days, that came down from the hills and mountains in front of them.”
– The Hobbit, Roast Mutton, 1937 Edition (my emphasis)
15 Tolkien in his youth actually wrote a poem titled The Sirens. Till date, it remains unpublished:
“He writes a poem, Wood-sunshine, … He will later date another poem, The Sirens, also to this month.”
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, July 1910, C. Scull & W. Hammond
Tolkien’s poem Glip of 1928, in siren fashion, has a ‘wicked mermaid’ who:
“… draws ships onto the rocks with her song, …”.
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Reader’s Guide, Glip, C. Scull & W. Hammond
16 Lorelei was a fabled Rhine-maiden who sat on a rocky tor overlooking the river while luring mariners to their deaths on treacherous rocks below. Her traceable origins are similar to Richard Wagner’s Rhine-maidens of the German epic poem: Nibelungenlied.
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‘The three Rhine-maidens’, Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1911
In 1911 on his journey to Switzerland, Tolkien voyaged on the Rhine passing Lorelei Rock en-route.
17 In an BBC interview in 1962 with John Bowen, Tolkien related “the cauldron of story” in On Fairy-stories as an author’s “private stock”.
18 I will have much more to say on Tom and his many guises in future articles.
19 The intent of the ‘Diffusion Map’ is to show that all roads eventually lead back to Goldberry. The directness of the paths should not be taken literally. Tolkien pointed out that it is quite possible to have different centers of diffusion. For example, though a legend might have migrated to Germany from England, its progression to Denmark might have resulted from Germany only. This would make Germany a subcenter for further diffusion.
20 The map is fittingly of today’s resultant European geography. It is intended for conceptual illustration only.
21 The Morrigan is an Irish Celtic goddess who has connections to both the Banshee, Mary-Morgan and Morgan le Fay. Tolkien was certainly aware of the Morrigan (see Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, J.R.R. Tolkien & E.V. Gordon, 1925 – Notes to line 2452).
22 Melusine – half serpent and half woman (see Tolkien’s reference in Manuscript A – pg. 180 of Tolkien On Fairy-stories, 2014 by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas Anderson). Pressina is Melusine’s mother and a true water-nymph. Characters are European but particularly associated to France and Luxembourg.
23 Breton water-sprites (as opposed to dwarfs). For example see Lord Nann and the Korrigan, poetry by Thomas Keightley in The Fairy Mythology, 1850. These creatures bear some similarity – but are not to be confused with Tolkien’s Corrigan per The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.
24 The Little Mermaid – fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.
25 Hmm … Goldberry the “merry” “maid”. And so one might wonder whether Tolkien amused himself by toying around with an idea of phonetic distortion. Perhaps in the English language a ‘wearing down’ of these words were responsible for the term: ‘mermaid’.
26 France (Brittany) is probably also an appropriate source.
27 For example – as present in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (which is widely acknowledged as his greatest work). See Tolkien’s oblique reference to Ovid in Letter #163 (from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981).
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‘Cyane and the Rape of Proserpina’, Florence, 1832 (hand-colored engraving)
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28 Slavic countries where rusalki appear in legends include Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
29 Sabrina is the legendary water-nymph of the Severn river. Her literary origins lie in Geoffery of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae. Five centuries later she reappears in Milton’s 1634 Comus:
“There is a gentle Nymph not farr from hence,
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina is her name, a Virgin pure, …”,
and is associated with water-lilies thus:
“Song:
Sabrina fair
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of Lillies knitting …”.
Then in 1748 it appears Sabrina was made the subject of the poem: An Invocation to a Water-Nymph, by Thomas Warton (the Elder), Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. It is possible Tolkien encountered Sabrina and the aforementioned lines in his youth from reading Bertram Windle’s Life in Early Britain, The Bronze Period – pg. 114, 1897. Evidence of this is provided in Footnote 2 of The Road to Fairyland – Part II.
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‘Sabrina’, Water-nymph of the Severn, Henry Howard, 1821
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We know Ronald and Edith stayed in Clevedon on the Severn in 1916 for a week’s honeymoon (see Christina Scull & Wayne Hammond’s The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, 22 March 1916). Sabrina (Latin) and Severn (English) are etymologically related (see Tolkien Studies Volume XI, pg. 72) with the name Sabrina being recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus:
“SEVERN R. …C. 90 Tacitus Sabrina, …”.
– The Place-names of England and Wales, pg. 437, J.B. Johnston, 1915
Though Tolkien’s interest in etymology was aroused by his mother (see Letter #294 from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981), whether he became acquainted with the river’s legends and etymological sources at the time of his honeymoon, is unknown.
30 Coventina, a Roman deity, is the most ancient of water-nymphs historically associated to England. Her connection to Tolkien’s mythology is tenuous – as no direct* evidence exists that the Professor knew of her. Bas-reliefs found at Carrawburgh (near Hadrian’s wall) in 1876 depict her seated on a lily or in tripartite form with water-vessels as part of the scene (the plate below is from The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, 1893 by R.C. Hope, and courtesy of Wikimedia). Hence, we have a slight link (beyond the obvious nymph, lily and water theme) to Goldberry and her earthenware vessels housing those displaced water-lilies Tom fetched.
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Given that the names of many English towns and cities originate with the Romans, a likely etymological root of the English city of Coventry stems from Coventina. As Richard C. West points out:
“The beginnings of the city of Coventry date much earlier, from Roman times.”
– Tolkien Studies, Volume 2 – pg. 8, “And She Named Her Own Name”: Being True to One’s Word in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, R.C. West
Tolkien certainly investigated the source of ‘Coventry’ per Letter #97 (from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by H. Carpenter, 1981), dismissing any link to ‘convent’ and instead pointing to much earlier origination from Anglo-Saxon: Cofan-treo, meaning Cola’s tree (Catholic Herald, February 1945 – reprint 18th September 1981). However, his research does not appear to consider a potentially even earlier Roman naming origin.
* Indirect evidence exists (see Tudor, Elizabethan & Jacobean Connections – Part III) that Tolkien read Bertram Windle’s, Life in Early Britain, 1897 (because of childhood memories concerning the ancient meaning of ‘Ond’). Windle also published: A Collection of Archaeological Pamphlets on Roman Remains, 1878. Coventina is discussed within. However, though it is recorded Tolkien was interested in the early history of British lands, no record exists of Tolkien ever running across this publication. Also of interest, is that Bertram Windle was uncle to Michael Maxwell Windle – a fellow Exeter college student and friend of Tolkien’s.
31 The tale appears in Chronique de Melusine in Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan. It tells of a beautiful nymph-like fairy-woman who is cursed by her mother to change into serpent-tailed half-monster every Saturday. The metamorphosis is discovered by her husband, and Melusine is forced to flee in shame and return to the sea.
32 The motif of chastity was lectured on by Tolkien’s fellow Inkling:
“Tolkien probably attends Charles Williams’ second lecture, on Milton’s Comus which pays special attention to chastity.”
– The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Chronology, 5 February 1940, C. Scull & W. Hammond
33 It is admitted that there is no record of Tolkien having read this novel. However, one must acknowledge there exist reasonable odds that he did. C.S. Lewis, one might note, actually purchased Quentin Durward in 1926.
34 The connecting thread being again – one of metamorphosis (in this instance the transformation of a fish-tailed mermaid to a bipedal human), as well as winning a soul (through a human male’s returned love).
35 In 1908 Paul Heyse published Die Nixe which possessed a theme similar to Fouqué’s Undine:
“… mermaids and nixies had no soul and could only partake in such a one, if they loved a human being and one who also loved them reciprocally and made them a matrimonial bride.”
– Märchen und Spukgeschichten by P. Heyse of 1908, translated in ‘Metamorphosis’ – pg. 360, D. Gallagher, 2009
36 The origin of the Arthurian Morgan le Fay lies as a Breton water-nymph. Thus an implied transformation from a water-being to one completely at home on land exists. Her documented shape-shifting abilities add to a thread of metamorphosis being a common link to other mythical female water-maidens pertinent to this discussion.
A further link to Greek female water-deities is Morgan le Fay’s role as a ‘seductress’. She is also connected to Melusine via the legendary isle of Avalon.
37 The folklorist Wirt Sikes seems to have pondered on the origins of female water-entities. The tack put forward was that their roots ultimately lie in natural phenomena. However no further elaboration on how they might be historically linked was provided:
“The water-maidens of every land doubtless originally were the floating clouds of the sky, or the mists of the mountain. From this have come certain fair and fanciful creations with which Indo-European folk-lore teems, the most familiar of which are Undine, Melusina, Nausicaa, and the classic Muse.”
– British Goblins, Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions, Chapter III – pg. 47, W. Sikes, 1880
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Revisions:
Grammatical, spelling and minor error corrections are not recorded. Neither are minor changes to phrasing that have little bearing as to the thrust of the message being conveyed by the author.
All revisions prior to 2020 are archived. Please contact the author if records are required.
2/8/20 Added: “Then to add to this puzzle -”.
Added: “Whether threads spun in the … glimpsed the ‘bones of the ox’.”.
Was: “Not only could he enjoy the flavor of the soup – but identifiable were ‘dainty ingredients’ set in the bowl before him.”, Is: “For not only could he enjoy the soup’s flavor and aroma – but it was swimming with some very identifiable ‘fishy ingredients’!”.
Added new footnotes 25, 26, 27 and 28, reordered existing.
2/18/20 Added: “What’s need now is to switch attention to story germination and to recognize oral drift.”.
Added: “A further link to Greek … legendary isle of Avalon.”.
4/11/20 Added: “It is time a concerted … 12 December 1955”.
Was: “He is certainly regarded as being among the top three Pre-Raphaelite”, Is: “When it comes to art of a mythological background, he is generally regarded as being the top Pre-Raphaelite”.
Added new footnote 8, reordered existing.
5/11/20 Added: “With those: … being directly responsible for Goldberry’s fragmented makeup.”.
Was: “Comus was known to Tolkien. See lecture given by Charles Williams”, Is: “John Milton’s Comus … titled Comus in 1940.”.
5/19/20 Added: “Of course to maximize benefits – we will need to once again attune into imagery.”.
5/31/20 Added: “Yes as Randel Helms … Akallabêth, Randel Helms, 1981”.
6/6/20 Added: “Then, as no others have done, … if not enlightening!”.
Added quote: “… stories about an irascible, not very clever, redbeard farmer, … Thórr was chiefly beloved?”.
Added: “Could it be:”.
Added quote: “… that the farmer popped up in the very moment when Thunder got a voice and face; …”.
Added quote: “… there was a distant growl of thunder in the hills every time a storyteller heard a farmer in a rage.”.
Removed: “Perhaps a fearful outsider might have thought that a wrathful demigod had come down from upon high to remind mortals homage was due?”.
Added: “Most reasonably, he argued, Thórr … spread from mouth-to-mouth.”.
Added: “Maybe not featuring Asgardian “thunder in the hills” – but instead much mellower ‘singing in the hills’!”.
Was: “pseudo water-nymph”, Is: “dutiful hostess”.
Added: “Just like Thórr, were … at the heart of it all?”.
Added: “though granted a far longer life-span than Homo sapiens,”.
Added: “For she knew that to the human race … serial longevity.”.
Added: “Bears some similarity – but”.
6/23/20 Added: “while hobbit-chatter had been the initial means of oral dispersion?”.
7/12/20 Was: “Thórr simply stemmed from nature allegories combined with eyewitness accounts spread from mouth-to-mouth.”, Is: “Thórr simply stemmed from extreme … exaggerated along the way.”.
Added: “Yet it is clear that by the ‘third phase’ … for a while to focus on the”.
7/29/20 Added: “We know Ronald and Edith … river’s legends, is unknown.”.
9/22/20 Added: “Tolkien intuitively, I suspect, knew Tiller … ‘What is she?’”.
Added new footnote 13, reordered existing.
10/7/20 Added: “To successfully subcreate the Professor willfully imagined his way back into the depths of time.”.
10/22/20 Added: “Indeed – in bending over … dress even been visible?”.
Added: “Tolkien’s poem Glip of 1928, in siren fashion, has a ‘wicked mermaid’ who:”.
Added quote from The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide 2017 Edition, Reader’s Guide pertaining to Glip.
10/31/20 Added: “Knitted into the tangle … the Madonna – and ‘white lilies’.”.
Added new footnote 28, reordered existing.
11/05/20 Added painting of The Mummelsee.
11/28/20 Added: “It is possible that Tolkien first ran across Melusine … acquainted with Melusine before The Lord of the Rings.”.
12/3/20 Added: “Given that the names of many English towns … earlier Roman naming origin.”.
12/6/20 Added: “Not to be missed then … husband and physical lover.”.
Added new footnote 18, reordered existing.
12/12/20 Added: “Dimitra Fimi in Tolkien Studies IV, … explicit titles are not fully related.”.
Was: “because in early October of 1938”, Is: “Tolkien had almost three months of 1938 available at the point of acceptance”.
1/15/21 Added: “We were made aware how even the hobbits: … afar, without coherency,”.
Added new footnote 1, reordered existing.
Was: “Whether he became acquainted with the river’s legends, is unknown”, Is: “Sabrina (Latin) and Severn (English) … sources at the time of his honeymoon, is unknown.”.
1/28/21 Added: “Perhaps some lingering: … tinged the waters to the same hue?”.
1/31/21 Added: “As did Charlotte Yonge whose commentary … Commentator: C.M. Yonge, 1896”.
3/10/21 Was: “- then flowing no doubt into her lake-like “shady pool”.”, Is: “Thus indeed Goldberry’s “shady pool” might stretch to be a ‘Lake of the Dingle of the Green Well’.”.
Added: “Yes, you already know where I’m heading.”.
Was: “Hmm … from Tolkien’s depiction”, Is: “Hmm … from reading beyond Tolkien’s bare depiction”.
5/22/21 Removed: “In any case, whether threads spun in the ‘Web of Story’, branches growing from the ‘Tree of Tales’ or soup from the ‘Cauldron of Story’ – Tolkien’s analogies are much the same. To use favored terminology: In the ‘Pot of Soup’ ladled from an ever-bubbling cauldron was a choice selection. Set before him, while stirring, I think the Professor had glimpsed the so-called ‘bones of the ox’. For not only could he enjoy the soup’s flavor and aroma – but it was swimming with some very identifiable ‘fishy ingredients’!”.
9/14/21 Added new footnote 14, reordered existing.
11/5/21 Added: “It is possible Tolkien encountered Sabrina … in Footnote 2 of The Road to Fairyland – Part II.”.
12/10/21 Was: “we are now at the appropriate point to consider how they have happened to be ladled out of the “Cauldron of Story”. Even more importantly – what ingredients were thrown into the pot in the first place to make the delicious soup of our world’s water-maiden mythologies?”, Is: “we are now at the appropriate point to acknowledge that many ingredients were likely thrown into the pot to make the delicious soup of our world’s water-maiden mythologies. Yet even more importantly we mustn’t forget to consider how they have happened to be ladled out of the “Cauldron of Story”. Nor fail to reflect upon whether Tolkien, in a moment of inventive inspiration, seized the ladle himself!”.
1/25/22 Added: “Hmm … Goldberry the “merry” “maid”. And … responsible for the term: mermaid’ ”.
2/17/22 Added: “And then would Tolkien have been … may well have followed!”.
Added: “in Tolkien’s words, according to the thoughts of Paracelsus -”.
Added new footnote 17, reordered existing.
2/18/22 Added new footnote 33, reordered existing.
5/28/22 Added: “In 1911 on his journey to Switzerland, Tolkien voyaged on the Rhine passing Lorelei Rock en-route.”.
6/3/22 Added: “C.S. Lewis, one might note, actually purchased Quentin Durward in 1926.”.
8/14/22 Removed all section breaks: “*****”. Added sub-section titles, 4 places.
7/7/23 Added: “* Indirect evidence exists … college student and friend of Tolkien’s.”.
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