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Tolkien in the Land of Arthur: the Old Forest Episode from The Lord of the Rings

2006; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0146-9339

Corinne Zemmour,

Comics and Graphic Narratives

For all its earlier medieval origins, serving--particularly in France--the needs of an essentially courtly and aristocratic society, Arthurian literature has far outlived that society. The old Matter of Britain has been incorporated into other texts, addressing other, newer readers. Just as its own themes were developed from far older myths, so its cultural legacy and the formalized nature of its textuality have been handed down to modern 'fantasy literature,' ever open to all forms of legends and beliefs. Much of our understanding of its survival into the present day, and much of our appreciation of its literary effect, depend upon a close analysis of the ways in which the Arthurian spirit is still capable of moving, and in turn of moving us. I have chosen to trace this persistent Arthurian influence in a single early episode in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: the Forest chapter in the first book of the The Fellowship of the Ring, the opening volume of the six-book Cycle. (1) Although much of the inspiration for the work comes from Tolkien's Old English scholarship and from his fascination with Celtic, Germanic and Finnish myths, (2) we must remember that he was also an authoritative editor of the classic Middle English Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Arthurian Literature, Fantasy Literature: Finding the Way In this short chapter, in which events finally force Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin to flee their home and set out on their hazardous journey, the four Hobbits (accompanied part-way by Fatty Bolger) find themselves in the most striking of landscapes, where two worlds collide. We are at a geographical frontier, where a great tall Hedge 'looms suddenly ahead' (144), as a clear demarcation. On the nearer side is the Shire, the companions' familiar homeland; but the Hedge takes on an added shape, when one thinks of what lies on the other side: we are now at an ideological frontier. At this point, in fact, the Hedge--unclimbed and unclimbable, netted over with silver cobwebs (144)--symbolizes the demarcation between a given society and a universe so alien that it is quite simply an unreal (160). It is indicative that, in her authoritative monograph on the Arthurian knight errant, Marie-Luce Chenerie points out that: Au-dela du monde profane, loin de la societe courtoise, l'espace des errances et des aventures baigne dans un decor naturel auquel le roman arthurien prete souvent un caractere 'sacre', c'est-a-dire, dans ce cas au mois, surhumain, donc redoutable et fascinant ... (emphasis added, Chenerie 143) ['Beyond the everyday world, far away from courtly society, the country of adventure, of the Quest, may take on a natural aspect, but it is one which Arthurian Romance often invests with a 'sacred' quality--in this case, at least, a supernatural quality, at once frightening and fascinating'.] In the light of this comment, we may see that the Hedge forms a strikingly similar dividing line, all the more so because several indications, both in the prologue to the Cycle and seeded throughout the first volume, invite us to see in the Hobbit community something approaching an echo of the old courtly society. (3) Despite everything that happens to them, the Hobbits cultivate a civilized style, even if it is not that of the big folk (as they call us), whose love of technical progress they do not share. Their fields, proof of their mastery of rebellious nature, and close to their houses (144), here come to resemble those meadows of Arthurian literature which soothe the knights as they return to their own world, after all their trials. Hobbit homes have a similar significance. While the start of the episode sees our heroes leaving theirs behind, at the end they are welcomed into Tom Bombadil's home, where, as in the castles of medieval romance, splendor and lavish hospitality represent a perfect example of noble mores. …