Elementals - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Balfrog · 01-21-2017, 01:28 PM

The fourth and last part on Ms. Seth's series about Goldberry is now available.

https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...17/01/16/3579/

At the beginning, there's a lot of incidental type information – but her basic belief is that Tolkien linked his mythology into our world's legends. In doing so he included the 'elementals' described by the 16th century alchemist commonly known as Paracelsus – citing Tolkien's knowledge of them and him.

There's much good information out there on the Internet about Paracelsus' writings and his belief in spirits inhabiting the four building blocks of the Greek mythological world – earth, air, fire and water. In any case she proposes the stones of Hollin along with Trolls were prime examples of Tolkien's inclusion of Paracelsian elementals into TLotR.

To my knowledge, I haven't seen this proposed before on this site or by established scholars – except in the briefest manner. It seems that the core evidence is a Tolkien letter about Trolls which ties in with medieval mythology that elementals possess no souls. This in turn links back to Goldberry by the way of the once wildly popular tale of Undine – a water elemental who attained a soul by marriage (which she already covered in Part II),

The evidence is scant – but there again there really isn't much written on Goldberry. One thing is for sure and that is Ms. Seth kept her promise in her Introduction at the beginning of the four part series. Certainly she has looked at Goldberry in a completely different manner to others. Her suggestions appear quite plausible – but there again that is my personal opinion.

01-21-2017, 01:28 PM	#1
Balfrog Haunting Spirit Join Date: Nov 2014 Posts: 87	Elementals The fourth and last part on Ms. Seth's series about Goldberry is now available. https://priyasethtolkienfan.wordpres...17/01/16/3579/ At the beginning, there's a lot of incidental type information – but her basic belief is that Tolkien linked his mythology into our world's legends. In doing so he included the 'elementals' described by the 16th century alchemist commonly known as Paracelsus – citing Tolkien's knowledge of them and him. There's much good information out there on the Internet about Paracelsus' writings and his belief in spirits inhabiting the four building blocks of the Greek mythological world – earth, air, fire and water. In any case she proposes the stones of Hollin along with Trolls were prime examples of Tolkien's inclusion of Paracelsian elementals into TLotR. To my knowledge, I haven't seen this proposed before on this site or by established scholars – except in the briefest manner. It seems that the core evidence is a Tolkien letter about Trolls which ties in with medieval mythology that elementals possess no souls. This in turn links back to Goldberry by the way of the once wildly popular tale of Undine – a water elemental who attained a soul by marriage (which she already covered in Part II), The evidence is scant – but there again there really isn't much written on Goldberry. One thing is for sure and that is Ms. Seth kept her promise in her Introduction at the beginning of the four part series. Certainly she has looked at Goldberry in a completely different manner to others. Her suggestions appear quite plausible – but there again that is my personal opinion.