Goldberry

[Jon S.]

HOLEY MOLEY!!! I am not the first to make this connection between Goldberry and the Grateful Dead. In fact, The Annotated Grateful Dead includes this email:

Date: Mon, 28 May 2001
EBrown1027@aol.com wrote:
Dear Mr. Dodd,

Your site is wonderful, and greatly appreciated by the new generation of Deadheads.

I was listening to Sugar Magnolia one day while reading J.R.R Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring, and it occurred to me how much the girl being sung about is like the character Goldberry in the novel. She is described in the following verses.

I had an errand there: gathering water lilies
green leaves and lilies white to please my pretty lady
the last ere the year's end to keep them from the winter
to flower by her pretty feet til the snows are melted
Each year at summer's end I go to find them for her
in a wide pool, deep and clear, far down Withywindle
there they open first in spring and there they linger latest
By that pool long ago I found the River-daughter
fair young Goldberry, sitting in the rushes
Sweet was her singing then, and her heart was beating.

It seemed especially similar to the line "Saw my baby down by the river" as well as "Rolling in the rushes; Down by the riverside". Hope this helps you, and keep up the great work!

Sincerely
Emily Brown

This is truly a case of parallel interpretation as I absolutely did not know of this email when posting my first post directly above!

[storm_krowe]

I think Goldberry and Tom Bombadil are actually a blending of the Mary & Christ and Adam & Eve stories (if you consider the Old Forest an Eden [sacred grove?]).
The association goes like this:
Water=woman=mother figure=Mary (with hints of Eve, created from Adam’s rib who was in turn created from clay from the Garden, a region described as lying in the midst of rivers.)
This point is bolstered by the association of lilies (which Tom gathered for Goldberry) with mother-son relationships.
Consider this from 800florals.com:
“Through the ages, allegorical tales have linked lilies to the sacrament of motherhood. Ancient fables tell us the lily sprang from the milk of Hera, the mythological Queen of Heaven. Roman mythology credits lilies to Juno, the queen of the gods [S_K: Note that Mary is called the Queen of Heaven]. The story goes that while Juno was nursing her son Hercules, excess milk fell from the sky. Although part of it remained above the earth (thus creating the Milky Way), the remainder fell to the earth, creating lilies.”
“Often called the "white-robed apostles of hope," lilies are said to have been found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony. Tradition has it that the beautiful white blooms sprung up where drops of Christ's sweat fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress. At Easter time, Churches bank their altars and surround their crosses with masses of Easter Lilies, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope of life everlasting.
“The pure white lily has long been associated with the Virgin Mary, too. In early paintings, the Angel Gabriel is pictured extending a branch of pure white lilies to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she is to be the mother of the Christ Child. In other paintings, saints are pictured bringing vases full of white lilies to Mary and the infant Jesus.”

Another point:
The ring corrupts the worldly desires of mortals (even those to do good). Perhaps Tom was immune from the ring’s effects because he was not geared toward mortal ambitions, but had motivations on a higher/separate plane (in Christ-like fashion)

Tolkien’s treatment, blurring the Mother-Son relationship into the Wife-Husband relationship is much like the Babylonian tale of Nimrod and Semiramis. Tradition has it that after Nimrod was slain by one of his uncles (A righteous son of Noah, as I recall), his queen, Semiramis, clung to power by claiming her son (with whom she was pregnant) was the reincarnated Nimrod.
This idea of Mother-Son-Husband lived on in subsequent pagan religions. (Eventually, worshipers began to focus on the Mother/Virgin/Love Goddess/Nature Goddess). This dynamic was then grafted into the Catholic Church in attempts to lure pagan converts.
Tolkien, as a devout Catholic and studied scholar, would no doubt be familiar with this association.

[Firenze]

This week on the LOTR podcast that I listen to (www.sqpn.com/?cat=34), host Father Roderick talks about the mystery of Tom Bombadil. It's very well done. I highly recommend it to all fans, Catholic or not. This podcast is interesting because Fr. Roderick takes his listeners on a journey through Middle-earth (via the LOTR online game) as he talks about the mythology and faith behind the stories. You don't have to be a Christian to enjoy this podcast, though. He makes no attempt to convert anyone. He is simply a huge fan who has a different perspective as a priest. I think any LOTR fan will love it.