17 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

The longing that trees might have the ability to defend themselves had weighed heavily on Tolkien since his schooldays. His childhood disappointment, on reaching the climax of Macbeth, that ‘Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill’ was only a play on words, disappointed him deeply. ‘I longed to devise a setting by which the trees might really march to war,’ he said. And that is what he did.

Chapter 9 - 'The Ents'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

18 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Standalone sentences, especially those with poetic features like Boromir’s rhyming couplet The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears (and Aragorn’s reply-in-kind, Where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls), sometimes declare themselves as proverbs, while others have what Michael Stanton describes as ‘a definite air of sayings that are being repeated, not originated’.   Beyond that point, however, the waters become murky and discerning what is or isn’t a proverb starts to become a matter of taste and opinion. 

From the Introduction

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

19 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

This scope for freewill and creative liberty does not imply that right and wrong are purely relative terms amongst Tolkien’s peoples, or that ‘anything goes’.  As Aragorn says, Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.  Evil undeniably exists, but it is good and appropriate for each culture and each individual to have a distinct perspective on what it is to avoid it, and in so doing live a full and virtuous life.

From the Afterword: On Good and Evil

David Rowe

To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November. 

20 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Hobbits seem particularly eager to learn from the Elven tradition.  Sam memorises and repeats Haldir’s A rope may be a help in many needs, the Elvenking’s It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good reappears in the mouth of the Gaffer, and Gildor’s Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger is remembered and used by both Merry and Sam.

Chapter 7 - 'The Elves'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

21 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

This volume could simply be a list of sayings, with comments attached.  Instead, it uses the proverbs of Middle-earth as a lens through which to carry out an investigation of Middle-earth’s cultures.  By doing so, we are able to appreciate not only the insight and poetic quality of particular sayings, but also the fact that they form a coherent part of their speakers’ philosophical worldview: Elven proverbs are distinctly Elvish, the Ents’ proverbs are distinctly Entish, and so on.

From the Introduction

David Rowe

To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November.

22 days to the publication to "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

As with the Ents, the Istari, and the Elves, Bombadil’s ageless longevity (and that of his wife, the similarly mysterious River-daughter, Goldberry) makes something of a mockery of the idea of an ‘oral tradition’. Poems, stories, and songs are constantly in his mouth, but since he has no previous generation to receive them from and no new generation to teach them to, we are left to wonder why such vessels of transmission are being used at all.

Chapter 2 - 'Bombadil and Goldberry'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

23 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Only days after the death of the King’s son had forced the Rohirrim to contemplate the possibility of their kingdom’s destruction, the last host of the Eorlingas arrives on the Fields of the Pelennor at dawn. Having been a declining decrepit dotard, fretting in the darkness of Meduseld and leaning on the crooked words of a corrupt counsellor, Théoden now leads his people in joyfully risking everything in order to fulfil their national oath.

Chapter 8 : 'The Rohirrim'

David Rowe

To be published on the 18th November.

24 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Unfinished Tales relates an unpublished ‘jotting’ suggesting that during the War of the Ring ‘many Drúedain… came forth out of the caves where they dwelt [in Drúwaith Iaur] to attack remnants of Saruman’s forces that had been driven southwards.’ (Tolkien, Unfinished Tales, p. 387, note.) 

Chapter 10 - The Peoples of Gondor

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

25 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

As well as a good example of how Treebeard uses proverbs (Do not be hasty, in altered form, and It is easier to shout stop! than to do it), this brief passage reveals the debate that is going on below the surface. Treebeard is Stoically seeking to back away from his anger and not be led by sentiment, but he cannot deny the righteousness of his indignation. He is facing an existential crisis. ‘His long slow wrath is brimming over,’ says Gandalf. 

From Chapter 9 - 'The Ents'

David Rowe

To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

26 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

The ideal Saruman – the Saruman perhaps of his first thousand years in Middle-earth – would therefore have been a second (lesser)  Aulë.  He would have been a mender and a reforger of the broken or twisted, labouring to undo the work of the Dark Lord. In this way, without breaking the Istari’s ban against directly confronting Sauron, Saruman could have played a significant part in restoring the beauty and order of Aulë’s original intention for the physical world.

From Chapter 4 - 'The Istari'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

27 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Bilbo has had his life transformed, and though he doesn’t regret that change he is determined to make it clear to those hobbits who would follow him, and especially to Frodo, that Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine. Once you step into that Road, saying yes to the dormant Tookish streak and to the lure of the world Outside, There is no real going back.

From Chapter 1 - 'The Hobbits'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

28 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

In correspondence, Tolkien described Sam as ‘a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself.’  The kind of selfless service he had in mind does not require a great store of insightful wisdom, only the will to keep going and not give up. Sam will keep going ‘if it breaks my back and heart’, and the majority of the proverbs he uses aid this endurance.

From Chapter 1 - 'The Hobbits'

David Rowe

To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

29 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

The wisdom of Rohan is not book-knowledge but oral heritage, primarily expressed in Anglo-Saxon meadhall traditions of story and song.  This makes the Rohirrim keenly aware of, and emotionally close to, their forebears. Other forms of commemoration abound – wood-carvings, shield and banner emblems, and burial mounds covered in simbelmynë, the ‘evermind’ flower of remembrance – but it is singing that primarily keeps history at the Horse-lords’ fingertips.

From Chapter 8 - 'The Rohirrim'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

30 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

While some proverbs come into the collective consciousness via the work of an individual – John Donne’s No man is an island, for example, or Teddy Roosevelt’s Speak softly, and carry a big stick – the most common source of sayings is simply ‘tradition’, that is to say, a combination of anonymous and multiple authors. Reference to oral tradition is therefore akin to quoting a favourite poet or orator,except that it is not an individual whose wisdom is being cited, but an entire culture. ‘As my old Gaffer used to say…’ is not Sam Gamgee crediting his father as the inventor of an insight, but recognising the person from whom one aspect of Hobbit-sense was most often, or most memorably, received.

From the Foreword

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

One month (31 days) to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Gandalf declares that the world is too wild to predict or control, so that Even the very wise cannot see all ends. Many proverbial expressions in Middle-earth deal with this issue of unpredictability – of the deceptiveness of appearances – and Gandalf uses the most. First impressions should not be trusted, warns the angel in the body of an old man. Through his proverbs, optimistic bravado is tempered and those who lose heart are strengthened. Hope is not victory, he reminds the cocksure, while to the disheartened he says, Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.

Chapter 4 - The Istari

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

32 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Having learned to distrust even themselves, the Elves recognise that wisdom is wider than any single philosophy or worldview, however well-informed. Therefore, when Boromir derides his own folk tradition as old and far-fetched – ‘for the most part old wives’ tales, such as we tell to our children’ – Celeborn admonishes him, saying Oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know. To Elves like Celeborn, the wisdom of another tradition, like that of Gondor, is just as worthy of attention as their own

Chapter 7 - 'The Elves'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November.

33 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

In 1923, Tolkien contributed a poem of his own composition to a Leeds University magazine. The poem was called ‘Iumonna Gold Galdre Bewunden’, a line taken from Beowulf that translates as ‘the gold of ancient men, wound round with magic’.  In it, Tolkien describes the effect of a treasure-trove on its successive possessors, including a dwarf who ‘counted the gold things he had got’ even as his eyes grew too dim to enjoy them. 

Chapter 6 'The Dwarves - Thorin'

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

34 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Tolkien compared this idiosyncratic nature with that of the Jewish diaspora: a unique people, ‘at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue’.  Possibly influenced by this thought, he constructed Khuzdul, the Dwarvish language, along Hebraic/Semitic lines, with triconsonantal roots and a comparable phonology. The comparison could even be extended, with both Jews and Dwarves at times subject to cartoonish stereotyping, both known for expertise in the working of precious stones and metals, and both recipients of great jealousy and/or distrust. 

Chapter Six - The Dwarves

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November

35 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle-earth"

Tolkien reflected that Elrond symbolises ‘the ancient wisdom, and his House represents Lore – the preservation in reverent memory of all tradition concerning the good, wise, and beautiful.’ In the person of Elrond, as well as in his children, much of the highest and best of Middle-earth’s history is embodied – the beauty of Melian and Lúthien, the royal kingdoms of Doriath and Gondolin, the valiant courage and faithfulness of Beren and Tuor, and so on. But when he speaks of the ‘many defeats, and many fruitless victories’ he has seen, Elrond reveals the extent to which his wisdom is built not only on the beautiful lessons of history, but also the bitter. The rash pride of his Noldorin forebears, the arrogance of his great-great-grandfather Thingol, the tragic destruction of Gondolin, Menegroth, and the Havens of Sirion: all are just as much the story of Half-elven family tree as its beauty and light.

David Rowe

To be published by Oloris Publishing on 18th November.

36 days To the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle Earth"

‘Learning from dead others’ abounds in Tolkien’s world. Even without including sayings, songs, riddles, and other pieces of oral inheritance, there are over five hundred references in The Lord of the  Rings alone to the first two ages of Middle-earth – from Elrond’s retelling of the War of the Last Alliance, to Gandalf explaining to Butterbur that Deadman’s Dike was once Norbury of the Kings,  the capital of Arnor. This multitude of references is the inherited tradition, a ‘vast sea of wisdom underlying the story’.

David Rowe 
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November

37 days to the publication of "The Proverbs of Middle Earth"

In Unfinished Tales, we are told that Saruman was ‘so far fallen that he believed all others of the Council had each their deep and far-reaching policies for their own enhancement’.  In Gandalf, for example, he sees a rival with the same priorities that motivate him, whose ambitions will only be satisfied by ‘the Keys of Barad-dûr… the crowns of seven kings, and the rods of the Five Wizards’.  Gandalf simply laughs at this, saying ‘I fear I am beyond your comprehension.’

David Rowe
To be published by Oloris Publishing on the 18th November