Northern Air

[Lalwendë]

Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of fairy story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the large backcloths - which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our 'air' (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be 'high', purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land now steeped in poetry. I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd.

So where do you find this Northern air?

For me, the supreme section has to be the Kinslaying and the flight of the Noldor. The Prophecy of the North. The Crossing of the Helcaraxe. The Burning of the Ships.

I have always thrilled to hear stories like that - violent, epic and glacially cool. It might be the Viking blood in me calling out for such thrills, but when I hear about Feanor's deeds, no matter how bad he is, I just love it. I get the sense of sitting in a Longhouse with the fire blazing while the wind howls outside and a storyteller relates the tale. All it needs is a ruddy big dragon to descend with flames of fury to make it complete.

This kind of writing, together with the intimate re-imaginings of folklore (e.g. Tom and the Hobbits), is to me where Tolkien really excels. He just tells the story, no matter how violent, with no narratorial interruptions or asides, and it's left to you, the listener, to get your kicks. It's fey and fell and all of that.

Does anyone else get the urge to go on a rampage and burn a few ships after reading that kind of thing?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

All it needs is a ruddy big dragon to descend with flames of fury to make it complete.

This kind of writing, together with the intimate re-imaginings of folklore (e.g. Tom and the Hobbits), is to me where Tolkien really excels. He just tells the story, no matter how violent, with no narratorial interruptions or asides, and it's left to you, the listener, to get your kicks. It's fey and fell and all of that.

Does anyone else get the urge to go on a rampage and burn a few ships after reading that kind of thing?

I rather think that such desire to rampage in the Primary World is not Tolkien-endorsed and defeats the purpose of Tolkien's concept of fairie.

Originally Posted by Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

The dragon had the trade-mark Of Faërie written plainly upon him. In whatever world he had his being it was an Other-world. Fantasy, the making or glimpsing of Other-worlds, was the heart of the desire of Faërie. I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relative safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear.

Any work which compels readers to go out and actually act the dragon or the Viking or seek them would, I suspect, be regarded by Tolkien as pornography.

[Lalwendë]

Haha! Little did he know what he would unleash!



Of course, he has also inspired more than his fair share of metal and rock music, all of which also appeals to the Northern spirit. What is it? An urge for ultimate freedom? Going stir crazy from the long, cold nights?

I'd bet he'd have enjoyed the boat burning revelry of Up Helly-Aa as much as the next person.

[MatthewM]

I feel Tolkien achieved his goal in the way I feel a "northern air" while reading The Lord of the Rings. The English feeling Tolkien wanted to invoke definitely comes through in his writing.

As for rampaging...no, but I will say, everytime I read I anxiously await the day when I will take up my sword, unshealth it, and slay some orc. Maybe lead a rebellion to freedom against corruption. All while slaying some orc.

[Mattius]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

So where do you find this Northern air?

For me, the supreme section has to be the Kinslaying and the flight of the Noldor. The Prophecy of the North. The Crossing of the Helcaraxe. The Burning of the Ships.

I have always thrilled to hear stories like that - violent, epic and glacially cool. It might be the Viking blood in me calling out for such thrills, but when I hear about Feanor's deeds, no matter how bad he is, I just love it. I get the sense of sitting in a Longhouse with the fire blazing while the wind howls outside and a storyteller relates the tale. All it needs is a ruddy big dragon to descend with flames of fury to make it complete.

This kind of writing, together with the intimate re-imaginings of folklore (e.g. Tom and the Hobbits), is to me where Tolkien really excels. He just tells the story, no matter how violent, with no narratorial interruptions or asides, and it's left to you, the listener, to get your kicks. It's fey and fell and all of that.

Does anyone else get the urge to go on a rampage and burn a few ships after reading that kind of thing?

I agree, it really makes my spine tingle and I love the way they let their anger overide every other thought in their mind (especially Feanor). They throw patience to the wind and rise up for themselves, forsaking the Valar and their council. Righteous rage I like to call it.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

As for rampaging...no, but I will say, everytime I read I anxiously await the day when I will take up my sword, unshealth it, and slay some orc. Maybe lead a rebellion to freedom against corruption. All while slaying some orc.

You can 'rampage' while slaying Orc though! A Rampage is not always a bad thing, sometimes it is Essential

Originally Posted by Mattius

I agree, it really makes my spine tingle and I love the way they let their anger overide every other thought in their mind (especially Feanor). They throw patience to the wind and rise up for themselves, forsaking the Valar and their council. Righteous rage I like to call it.

It's just so human how they react - and that whole idea of swearing an oath is incredibly Northern. Not to say that Southern cultures don't have Oaths, but you can hardly imagine a Scandinavian, Germanic or Celtic hero who had not taken some kind of Oath.

I don't know, but it's also so masculine in a way. Not masculine in the sense of men doing irrational things but in the sense that it is a muscular, strong reaction. If you look at how Eowyn wants to go to war, it is seen as an activity for the menfolk - yet she still wants to do it ; honour is clearly as important to the Rohirrim as it is/was to old Norse cultures for example. You can see they have their own 'Valhalla' when Theoden talks about going to the halls of his forefathers.

And you get that sense of cool Northern air in the Ride of the Rohirrim too. There's no sadness about it - this is a job which must be done, and if they die, then at least they have taken some Orc with them

[drigel]

The whole autumnal themes of the books sets the framework for the northern air feel for me. Especially so in my primary world, in the winter, when the angle of the sun is such that the light becomes bent, and confirms my place in the northern hemisphere. Something in my gut wants to reach for my war hammer and drive my ship to new lands..... ahhiiiiiaaaahh-ah!

only after the carefull reading of chicken organs, of course

seriously though, it's the lighting for me.

[Lalwendë]

We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow...

That was released five days after I was born - maybe I subliminally learned it as a child.

There's also this feeling in Tolkien's world that the North is never very far away, particularly in The Hobbit (which is where I think much of the darkness of that story stems form) and in The Shire. The wolves, brought by the Fell Winter (the Fimbulwinter?), the Thain, wandering Dwarves and Odinic wizards...

[drigel]

exactly.

As if the moderate\southern clime that I inhabit is somehow foreign to me.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow...

A most excellent song Gotta love Led Zep.

Although not having to do with the Northern air, I started a topic similiar to this, called "The Lord of the Rings and the Fall-Winter Seasons", as dringil mentioned the feeling is especially strong in the autumnal seasons-

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...utumn%2FWinter

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

There's also this feeling in Tolkien's world that the North is never very far away

I agree. It might be because I went to beautiful England last year, but even before that I deem I always felt this Northern air blowing through the pages of Middle-earth.

[drigel]

I enjoyed your thread MathewM. Spot on

A most excellent song Gotta love Led Zep.

..the leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way....

Another way the northern air influences the feeling is in the dead of winter. The sense of striving for survival my bones feel as I hike the snow trodden plain, that evokes a fleeting sense of a primeval struggle that my ancient forefathers must have lived in every day.

[Lalwendë]

It's interesting that we never really see many places in Tolkien's world which are hot and 'southern' too - we see the permanent temperate woodland of Lothlorien, and the gentle old gardens of Ithilien, but never any baking hot places - except Mordor!

And there's something else - in the Norse and Icelandic myths, and in Anglo-saxon poetry, we don't see the 'interior monologues' of most modern fiction, we must judge character only on action - and that's what Tolkien does. How often do you hear the cry that he doesn't develop his characters enough? Well that's because he does it in an archaic way, through showing their words and actions.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

This isn't really answering the question, as I feel that air prevades quite a few of the tales told. It is sort of a cool detactment, as if we are as ancient as the land observing the impassioned turmoil and misteps of living things in those more sparely populated expanses. Isolation is a reoccuring theme with the isolation of the Shire, Morgoth, and of the Men of Dor-lomin to name a few.

As for burning one's stolen boats rather than bridges.... It inspired me to think of painting the scene rather than emulate it. Feanor's pride and passion struck me a foolishly dramatic. It may have served to keep his people focused on the forward march, rather than be tempted to turn back, but it also unmistakably alerted the orcs to their presence.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

This isn't really answering the question, as I feel that air prevades quite a few of the tales told. It is sort of a cool detactment, as if we are as ancient as the land observing the impassioned turmoil and misteps of living things in those more sparely populated expanses. Isolation is a reoccuring theme with the isolation of the Shire, Morgoth, and of the Men of Dor-lomin to name a few.

As for burning one's stolen boats rather than bridges.... It inspired me to think of painting the scene rather than emulate it. Feanor's pride and passion struck me a foolishly dramatic. It may have served to keep his people focused on the forward march, rather than be tempted to turn back, but it also unmistakably alerted the orcs to their presence.

Isolation is there alright - if you think about it, even within the Fellowship there are some incredibly isolated characters. Gandalf for one has always been a lone wanderer (Tolkien's Odinic Wanderer) and now Frodo is another. He might have Sam with him, but the relationship strikes me as a strange one in that Frodo does not necessarily get all the comfort he needs (due to the Ring no doubt), and Sam gives but does not 'get'. Then of course you also have Gollum's loneliness.

Heh, don't seriously think I am going to burn any boats But boat burning is a strong Viking image and that's what strikes me as soon as I read about those events. In the case of Vikings, a burning would be more 'sacrificial' than anything. Who knows, maybe it formed that kind of symbol to Feanor in his heat and rage and lust to deal with Melkor. Maybe he felt he had got his use at the Kinslaying out of those kin he had to all intents and purposes left behind to perish, so he was symbolically sacrificing them in the name of his mission?

Or was it symbolic that Feanor maybe did not see any return to Valinor and so he felt he may as well burn his means of return? It would certainly send out the signal to his people that there was no return, maybe only through death in battle.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by drigel

I enjoyed your thread MathewM. Spot on

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

And there's something else - in the Norse and Icelandic myths, and in Anglo-saxon poetry, we don't see the 'interior monologues' of most modern fiction, we must judge character only on action - and that's what Tolkien does. How often do you hear the cry that he doesn't develop his characters enough? Well that's because he does it in an archaic way, through showing their words and actions.

Thanks for pointing this out, it is pretty much true. I love how Tolkien does this. For what should people be judged on if not their words and actions? Being a Catholic, I must bring up that Jesus said it is by your words that you will be judged. Interesting, perhaps another unseen Christian influence that slipped into Tolkien's work.

[Lalwendë]

I completely understood exactly what Tolkien meant by a Northern Air last week. I was sat by the side of Whitby harbour in the late afternoon, at the back of our cottage reading an Icelandic Saga. A sea fret was rolling in with the tide (a weird kind of mist you only get on the Yorkshire coast - I got sunburn during the fog...) and as the quayside disappeared and reappeared in and out of the murk, and the fog signal sounded, all you could hear all of a sudden was waves slapping slowly on the sand, and muffled noises of voices. I was expecting a Viking ship to appear at any moment, stealing in under the fret.

The language in the Icelandic sagas mirrors the strange way Tolkien writes, exploring characters not through 'interior monologue' but through their actions and speech. They also give characters evocative names which describe what they are like - as does Tolkien - much of his 'meaning; can be found in tracing what those names and words mean. Compare this with other fantasy, even with Lewis, where we get these insights into what the character is supposed to be thinking - it's often quite boring and we just want to get back to the action. Which is what Icelandic sagas do - you are guaranteed action in every paragraph.

Maybe those were perfect conditions for reading such work, but I felt myself going right back in time, being transported to a period in time where the danger of having your head chopped off by a marauder sneaking out of the mist was ever present; and that's one of the places where Tolkien finds the 'peril' he writes about.