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Maldon and Moria: On Byrhtnoth, Gandalf, and Heroism in the Lord of the Rings (1)

2007; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0146-9339

Alexander M. Bruce,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

You cannot pass! [Gandalf] said. With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed. cannot stand alone! cried Aragorn suddenly and ran back along the bridge. Elendil! he shouted. I am with you, Gandalf! Gondor! cried Boromir and leaped after him. At that moment Gandalf lifted his staff, and crying aloud he smote the bridge before him. staff broke asunder and fell from his hand. A blinding sheet of white flame sprang up. bridge cracked. Right at the Balrog's feet it broke, and the stone upon which it stood crashed into the gulf, while the rest remained, poised, quivering like a tongue of rock thrust out into emptiness. With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard's knees, dragging him to the brink. He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. Fly, you fools! he cried, and was gone. (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings [LotR] II:5 322) SUCH IS THE FALL OF GANDALF at the bridge of Khazad-dum in Fellowship of the Ring, a powerful moment in Lord of the Rings wherein the fortunes of the Fellowship seem lost, their hearts and hope diminished, and they must carry on without their original leader. And this moment is not original to J.R.R. Tolkien but can be traced, as can many of his characters and situations, to an Anglo-Saxon source. This moment of two parties separated by a narrow bridge of course brings to mind the Anglo-Saxon The Battle of Maldon, the poem that recounts in sometimes tragic, sometimes heroic language the events at in AD 991, when an English force led by ealdorman Byrhtnoth fought--and lost to--a party of Vikings. As such, The Battle of may easily be considered an analogue, a source for the episode at the bridge of Khazad-dum, except that Tolkien adapts the situation: he takes the occasion to correct the behavior of the self-serving Byrhtnoth through the actions of the self-less Gandalf. (2) comparison--or rather, contrast-between the two leaders has not gone unnoticed, as Janet Croft recently (2004) noted in her War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (93-94). Yet Tolkien's exploration and adaptation of the issues presented in Maldon extends beyond the inclusion of an analogous moment of a hero at a bridge. Though Tolkien critiques one aspect of Maldon through Gandalf's actions, elsewhere in Lord of the Rings he celebrates the Germanic heroic code as so powerfully stated in the Anglo-Saxon poem. In a way, Tolkien takes the mixed message of Maldon--with its positive and negative exempla of heroic action--and shapes a unified presentation of heroic responsibilities in Lord of the Rings. Let us begin with the parallels of situation. According to the poem The Battle of Maldon, a force of Vikings occupied Northey Isle in the estuary of the river Blackwater along the southeast coast of England. (3) These Vikings, led by a certain Olaf, were bloodthirsty, vicious, trained to kill. They had come to collect tribute--given voluntarily or not. Facing them across the river were the English, led by Byrhtnoth; with him are some who are indeed well trained in war but mostly men who are untrained, as early in the poem Byrhtnoth must show them hu hi sceoldon standan and pone stede healdan [...] hyra randan rihte heoldon, / faeste mid folman, and ne forhtedon na (how they should form up and the position, how to hold their shields properly, / firmly with their fists, and not be at all afraid) (19-21). (4) Joining the island to the mainland is a causeway or land bridge accessible only at low tide, and so narrow that three men alone can guard it successfully. Now the scene within Fellowship of the Ring: the party has been detected by orcs just shy of the eastern gates of Moria; they have to race through the halls until they finally reach the bridge of Khazad-Dum, which is so narrow that [t]hey could only pass across it in single file. …