Suite101 article for February 25, 2002

[Michael Martinez]

Et tu, Faramir?

The one thing even J.R.R. Tolkien could not provide his readers (or himself) was a large corpus of Middle-earth literature, stories and narratives written by the inhabitants of Middle-earth. We have a few poems and songs, enough to tantalize the more avid hunters of esoteric snippets among us, but there is really no attempt to construct a literary tradition for Middle-earth. The Silmarillion source texts are mostly written as Tolkien's own retellings of the older stories.

In a few places, such as the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien provides brief translated citatons from the imaginary older texts. One example occurs in the section on Arnor, where the chieftains of the Dunedain are discussed:

There were fourteen Chieftains, before the fifteenth and last was born, Aragorn II, who became again King of born Gondor and Arnor. 'Our King, we call him; and when he comes north to his house in Ann minas restored and stays for a while by Lake Evendim, then everyone in the Shire is glad. But he does not enter this land and binds himself by the law that he has made, that none of the Big People shall pass its borders. But he rides often with many fair people to the Great Bridge, and there he welcomes his friends, and any others who wish to see him; and some ride away with him and stay in his house as long as they have a mind. Thain Peregrin has been there many times; and so has Master Samwise the Mayor. His daughter Elanor the Fair is one of the maids of Queen Evenstar.'

Everything within the single-quoted material is supposed to be a translation from the Red Book of Westmarch. The Lord of the Rings is therefore a modern retelling of an ancient (forgotten) story, and not strictly a translation, as many have characterized it. Tolkien tells it in his own words and style, so he is not so much acting as a translator as merely a story-teller.

In presenting the legends this way, Tolkien frees the reader's imagination to devise ancient texts of virtually any style and length. But he also irrevocably denies us the most complete look through his mind's eye at what became Middle-earth. It's a bit silly to argue over who "actually" wrote a certain text. We don't really have enough texts to evaluate the styles and voices.

And yet, I feel as though I can almost tell who wrote what. The above citation, for example, is written from a Hobbit's perspective, and I feel as though it was Merry's "voice". Why? Perhaps because both Thain Peregrin and Master Samwise are mentioned in the third person. Merry might write about his companions but not himself. On the other hand, it might just as well be a Took's voice. The apparent respect in the brief mention of both, and the distance the writer places between himself (herself?) and the King's friends the writer felt some reverence for Pippin and Samwise (and possibly Merry).

The passage can be reasonably dated to sometime between Shire Year 1436 and S.Y. 1442. Elanor became one of the queen's handmaids in 1436, and in 1442 her family rode to Gondor on a visit. She was probably not in Arwen's service for more than a year or two. Sam was Mayor in these years, and Merry had become Master of Buckland in 1432. Pippin became Thain in 1434.

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