The Evolution of Tolkien’s Mythology by Elizabeth A. Whittingham Donald E. Palumbo C.W. Sullivan III

Author:Elizabeth A. Whittingham,Donald E. Palumbo,C.W. Sullivan III
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc.
Published: 2017-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

Tolkien’s Primitive Mythology

In the cosmology of his secondary world, Tolkien reveals—more than anywhere else—some of the influences that were impelling him and the purposes that drew him forward. Desiring to develop a mythology for the English, he looked to ancient examples. One document in Morgoth’s Ring reveals his initial thinking: in apparent reference to the 1951–1952 Annals of Aman, Tolkien cites the text’s development from his earliest writings and his original objective to simply compose a “primitive mythology, though more coherent and less ‘savage’” than other such works (370). As Flieger points out in Interrupted Music, Tolkien had the perfect “model” in The Kalevala (28). Carpenter also records in his biography, as noted above, that Tolkien desired “something” similar to Lönnrot’s collection of Finnish myths, for “the English” (JRRT 97). The Kalevala furnished the Finnish with “a national identity rooted in folk poetry” after “centuries” of domination by Russia and Sweden (Flieger Interrupted 17). Tolkien wanted a primal myth with roots in English history. Since his mythology was for the English, it eventually had to be about the primary world, our world, and to be accessible to the people of England in the twentieth century. Accomplishing both, developing a “primitive mythology” and connecting it to the reality of modern England, was a serious problem for the author, especially regarding his world’s cosmology.

Unlike the Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta in which Tolkien developed his creation story and theogony during four decades, the information regarding the cosmology of Eä, the universe created by Tolkien, is in sentences and paragraphs scattered throughout the various tales that he wrote between World War I and his death in 1973. As a result, no coherent textual history exists. The earliest clues to the cosmology of Tolkien’s world are, as with ancient mythology, in a cosmogonic tale, The Music of the Ainur from the first stage of his writing. When Ilúvatar gave the Ainur’s music form and life, they saw “the world … globed amid the void” (BLT I 56). The only other description is a brief reference to the beauty and majesty of the seas and the diversity of materials from which the Earth is constructed. With this 1918–1920 tale is a work that Christopher, in accordance with his father’s notes, titles The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor. This later section of the tale provides details about Tolkien’s earliest conception of his universe. As Manwë and Varda approach the world, they pass through three layers of air: Vaitya, Ilwë, and Vilna (65). When the Valar reach the earth, they find the “Great Lands” and in the west the “Great Seas” (68), but beyond the “Outer Lands” is the “Outermost Sea” (67). To this region Ulmo, who desires a solitary life in the depths, retires.

The light that reveals these elements of the world to the Valar is not from a specific object but courses through the air and runs in rivulets along the terrain. To dispel the darkness, Aulë convinces Melkor to erect two lofty pillars upon which Aulë sets great lights.

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