Goldberry: a relic of an earlier idea?

[Arvegil145]

The nature of both Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry has been a subject of a lot of discussions and theorizations.

However, I tend to follow the idea of 'assuming as little as is humanly possible, with the most bang for the buck in return'...


With that out of the way, let me introduce you to Ailinónë:

Ailinóne (ĭ) a fairy who dwelt in a lily on a pool.

This quote comes from the Qenya Lexicon ('Qenya' being a very early precursor to 'Quenya') in the Parma Eldalamberon Vol. 12, p. 29

Now, the 'fairy' part of the above quote had a few different meanings in Tolkien's earliest legendarium - but in this context, judging from some other entries (such as 'Nardi', another fay), I believe it is clear that it refers to 'fays'.

What are 'fays'? Fays are essentially Maiar before the concept of 'Maiar' came about: but it's more complicated than that.

In the very early legendarium, such as the one in The Book of Lost Tales, not all of the lesser Ainur (all of whom were called 'Valar' at that point, anyway) who came into the world served the greater Ainur (i.e. Manwe, Ulmo, etc.).

Some just came into the world essentially for fun! And some of them were so minute that even Elves and Men possessed greater power than them - as well as being incredibly detail oriented as well - such as, for example, a fay (i.e. Ainu in the later legendarium) dedicated to lilies in a pool (or, interpreted in an even more extreme point of view, a fay dedicated to this particular lily on a pool).




So...what does all of this have to do with Goldberry? Well:

1) Goldberry's association with both water and lilies

Her long yellow hair rippled down her shoulders; her gown was green, green as young reeds, shot with silver like beads of dew; and her belt was of gold, shaped like a chain of flag-lilies set with the pale-blue eyes of forget-me-nots. About her feet in wide vessels of green and brown earthenware, white water-lilies were floating, so that she seemed to be enthroned in the midst of a pool.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, 'In the House of Tom Bombadil'

...and much, much more, both in the LOTR as well as The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (and I really mean it - it's everywhere!)


2) Goldberry's association with Tom Bombadil - the king of all weirdness in the LOTR, as well as with the Old Forest, Old Man Willow and the Barrow-downs: while this isn't exactly a slam-dunk, all of the above elements always struck me as very...fairy like, if you would.

Especially her relationship with the river Withywindle, literally being called the 'River-daughter' (albeit in a poem) - but, unlike in Tolkien's later conception where (at least) the Valar refrained from procreation, in the 'Lost Tales' and the texts closely related to it, the Ainur seemed hardly hesitant to the idea of procreation.

Additionally, the idea of a 'River-daughter' seems quite 'elemental' to me, at least - something that Tolkien himself in his early years enjoyed quite a bit:

On another sheet of paper, placed immediately after "The Creatures of the Earth" in the sheaf of loose leaves inserted into Notebook B, there is a short list labeled simply "Valar" that appears to expand on sections D and E of the table, presenting various types of fays and folk of the Valar arranged according to the elemental categories of Air, Earth , Water, and Fire.


About half of the names on the "Valar" list also appear on the "Creatures of the Earth" or in the Lost Tales (or both), including 'manir', 'suruli' (Air-fays); 'Tavari', 'nermir', 'nandini' (Earth-fays); and 'wingildi', 'oarni', 'oaritsi' (Water-fays).[/B] The remaining names are unique to this text. In the list of Earth-fays, the 'pelloini' are apparently fays of towns or hedged fields . . .

. . . The 'alandri' must be fays of the woods . . .

. . . Among the Water-fays, the 'nenuvar' are probably fays of lily-ponds, the 'aïlior' fays of lakes and pools, the 'ektelarni' fays of fountains, and the 'capalini' fays of springs. The "Valar" list provides no names under the category of "Fire", although GL mentions Sacha 'the fire-fay' (Q Sáya), a mysterious being about whom nothing else is ever said.

Tolkien's elemental fays may owe something to the four varieties of elemental "spirit-men" described by Paracelsus: sylphs (air), pygmies or gnomes (earth), nymphs (water), and salamanders (fire). The 'Mánir' and 'Súruli' are in fact referred to as "sylphs" in "The Coming of the Valar". . .

- Parma Eldalamberon, Vol. 14, 'The Creatures of the Earth', pp. 7-8 (some of the linguistic stuff was removed by me, so as not to clutter the post too much)



Anyway...these are my two cents.