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The Noldor and the Tuatha Dé Danaan: J.R.R. Tolkien's Irish Influences

2009; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0146-9339

Annie Kinniburgh,

Diverse Education Studies and Reforms

IN HIS 1936 LECTURE BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS, J.R.R. Tolkien chastised the literary and academic community for dissecting the Beowulf legend historically, anthropologically, and linguistically, and thereby reducing the power of the myth as a whole. He preferred to respect the integrity of what he referred to as the secondary world, in which the myth possessed its own logic and cohesive structure, and felt that modern scholarship relied too heavily on names, dates, and facts in its interpretation of early mythologies. That said, he was open about the influences that had led to the creation of his own mythology, chronicled primarily in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. His Elven languages, Quenya and Sindarin, owe much to Finnish and Welsh; the feudal societies of Rohan and Gondor echo the Anglo-Saxon mead-hall culture; the horse-lords of the Rohirrim strongly resemble early Viking warlords. About one aspect of his mythology, however, Tolkien was strangely silent. The Elves are the most complex of Tolkien's races; much of The Silmarillion is dedicated to their history, and the creation of the Elven-tongues was the impetus for the entire greater mythology of Middle-earth. Aside from their importance to his linguistic work, Tolkien also saw them as highly symbolic; although fallible themselves, the Elves were Men as Men ought to have been. Put in terms of his Catholic faith, Elves were Men before the Fall, greatly enhanced aesthetic and creative faculties, greater beauty and longer life, and nobility (Tolkien, Letters 176). Yet this incredibly integral species is rarely addressed outside of the context of Tolkien's own world. In his Letters, he states that his Elves are very little akin to the Elves and Fairies of Europe, yet never elaborates further on the cultural or mythological sources that might have influenced the creation of his Elven races, and indeed says that they are not consciously based on any other work (Letters 176). Tracing the history of the Elf as a mythological construct only takes the reader so far; although there are several important parallels between the original Scandinavian alfar and Tolkien's Elves, the alfar are a generalized species who only figure marginally in greater Norse mythology. The link then grows even thinner: from Scandinavia, the elves entered Scottish, Irish, and Welsh mythology, where they resemble Tolkien's Elves only in name. In fact, the people that most resemble Tolkien's Elves are not elves at all, but the Irish demigods known as the Tuatha De Danaan, and the Celtic mythology from which they come is one whose influence Tolkien vehemently denied. It would be irresponsible, however, to ignore the strong parallels between the alfar, who represent the first recorded elven species, and Tolkien's Elves. These parallels are most noticeable in early Elvish history. Although the Quendi, the first group of Elves, were born in Middle-earth, they were menaced by Melkor, a mighty Vala turned from benevolence to tyranny, and so the Valar brought them to Valinor to escape this threat. [The Valar] were filled moreover with the love of the beauty of the Elves and desired their Fellowship (Tolkien, The Silmarillion [Silm. ] 52). However, not all the Quendi wished to take up residence in Valinor. And though the Valar went to war against Melkor to protect the Quendi (casting him into the Halls of Mandos for three ages), their strength and fearsomeness in battle only increased the apprehensions of the Quendi, and when the call to enter Valinor came, not all answered. Those Elves that stayed were called the Anvari, the Unwilling, and were sundered from those that went--the Eldar--for many ages. The Eldar were also separated, being divided into three hosts: the Vanyar, the Noldor, and the Teleri. In Valinor, they became the friends and companions of the Valar. Tolkien wrote in a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman that, Since also they are something wholly 'other' to the gods [. …