At the very end of the chapter "Three is Company", in The Lord of the Rings, but embedded in the middle of a paragraph and given little emphasis - is an extremely important moment when the high elf (that is, an elf born and having dwelt in Valinor - the land of the Valar or gods) Gildor Inglorion 'blesses' Frodo with the words:
"I name you Elf-Friend; and may the stars shine upon the end of your road!"
From this moment, Frodo is changed, and in a way that is visible to those attuned to elvishness.
For example, the next night, when he sleeps at Crickhollow, Frodo has a prophetic dream of a tower near the sea; and when the following day he meets Goldberry (wife of Tom Bombadil) and immediately extemporizes a poem in her praise, she looks at him closely and responds:
"But I see you are an elf-friend; the light in your eyes and the ring in your voice tells it."
And similar comments are made throughout the rest of the story. It seems Frodo was permanently and palpably changed by the blessing of Gildor.
This is never explained in the Lord of the Rings, and indeed I have not encountered any analysis of why Gildor should be able to bestow this blessing on Frodo - but this is another example of depth in the Lord of the Rings, because it links Frodo back to Tolkien's earliest legends (collected in The Lost Tales) and to The Lost Road and Notion Club Papers.
Elf-friend is an Englishing of the Old English Aelfwine, which was the second-chosen name of the human protagonist of the Lost Tales who sailed to Fairie and lived with the Elves, and brought back knowledge of their history; and Aelfwine-based names also occur in the main characters of Lost Road, while the emerging main character of the Notion Club Papers is Alwin (i.e. again elf-friend) Arundel Lowdham.
The original name of Aelfwine was Eriol, which means (according to Tolkien) 'one who dreams alone' - and dreaming is one of the marks of Frodo's new elf-friend status - that for the rest of the book he has many dreams which (in obscure fashion) have many prophetic meanings.
So, with Gildor's blessing, somehow Frodo becomes the elf-friend who dreams alone - he is set apart from the other Hobbits, becomes a bridge between elves and Men (hobbits are a kind of Men), between the mortal and immortal worlds: he becomes a man of destiny, guided by 'fate' (the One).
The blessing appears to be a great privilege and a source of strength, insight and wisdom for Frodo; and without this blessing and its effects it is very doubtful whether the quest to destroy the ring would have been achieved.
But being an elf-friend is not a cause of this-worldly happiness for Frodo - quite the opposite - since like most such intermediate mortals in Tolkien's work, the contact with Fairie is bitter-sweet, and this world becomes distant, and he becomes weary and psychologically-isolated.
However, we are assured that - by passing over the sea and being allowed to dwell in Fairie for a while, Frodo will be healed, and will achieve peace before he dies; so in the end and overall the elf-friend blessing was of great benefit to Frodo, as well as to Middle Earth.
9 comments:
Well, the obvious thing to say, if we take seriously Tolkien's remark about his work being applicable if not exactly allegorical, is that there's an echo here of the sacraments' bestowing of grace, from the Catholic perspective.
@SJ - I think a blessing is equivalent to... a blessing!
Specifically a blessing by a priest, monk or even Saint. These are certainly intended to have a permanent, or at least lasting, effect.
The idea of a sacraments analogy has been made by Stratford Caldecott and Bradley K Birtzer in relation to Lembas.
@SJ - I think a blessing is equivalent to... a blessing!
You mean like Aaron's blessing?
Specifically a blessing by a priest, monk or even Saint. These are certainly intended to have a permanent, or at least lasting, effect.
You're probably right. I guess I hadn't thought of this since the idea of "blessing" others in this way isn't really a significant part of modern western Protestantism (it would seem a lot like "magic"!). I can't say I've ever had experience of someone being "blessed" and it having any positive spiritual effects. Have you?
@SJ - Yes, like that. Priesthood blessings are absolutely mainstream/ frequent in Mormonism, I understand - and there is a special one-off Patriarchal blessing, which is prophetic. In the Catholic tradition (Eastern and Western) also.
I don't really have any personal experience of this exactly, although in the Church of England liturgy the priest blesses the whole congregation and if you are not taking Holy Communion then you may receive a blessing (with laying on of hands) at the altar rail.
I would imagine that the effects of an effective blessing are most likely to be observable only to the one receiving it - I don't think these things are supposed to be a sign (like a spectacular public miracle) to impress other people.
*
What is interesting about Gildor's blessing in LotR is that he has the 'authority' to give it (which he clearly does, since the blessing is so clearly effective).
This seems to open up a whole realm of metaphysical speculation concerning the relation of elves and men, and especially the powers of the high elves!
I've thought a bit about this since first reading the post, and the thing that I have wondered the most about is the causality.
Is Gildor an active agent here, or does he merely reflect something pre-existing. Is Frodo already an Elf-friend when meeting the Elves (a good case could surely be made that this is the case), or does Gildor's words make him one (an equally good case can, in my opinion, be made that this the case)?
As is hopefully clear, I do not claim to know the answer, and I even suspect that the answer may be unknowable.
What would it change in the analysis if this is not an active blessing, but a statement of pre-existing fact? One possibility would be that it is a result of Frodo being meant to take the Ring to Mordor (as Elrond will later point out), which would put the ‘blessing’ down to providence.
Other scenarios can surely be devised with different levels of spiritual meaning.
@Troels - The main evidence suggesting that Gildor made a difference, is that only afterwards is Frodo recognized as an Elf-Friend; and also that he immediately begins to have 'prophetic' dreams.
Everything hinges on the fact of before and after.
Of course absence of evidence (before the 'blessing') is NOT evidence of absence - but I'm assuming that this isn't the kind of thing Tolkien would have left-out by mistake.
Elf-friend is an Englishing of the Old English Aelfwine, which was the second-chosen name of the human protagonist of the Lost Tales who sailed to Fairie and lived with the Elves, and brought back knowledge of their history; and Aelfwine-based names also occur in the main characters of Lost Road, while the emerging main character of the Notion Club Papers is Alwin (i.e. again elf-friend) Arundel Lowdham.
And of course, the name Elfwine would crop up again in Lord of the Rings, in the person of the son of Éomer of Rohan and Lothíriel of Dol Amroth, she of the seeming Elven lineage.
For that matter, I've always wondered what exactly the significance of Elfhelm's name was...
re: Elfhelm
- the literal etymology is presumably elf and helmet - but I wonder if it is a 'kenning', a metaphor for something.
...Having thought of this notion, and looking up this possibility in a web search, I find the suggestion that Elfhelm might mean 'protected by elves' -
http://d-k-e.euro.ru/elfsaga.htm
- or, I would add, perhaps 'protected by enchantment, magic, dwimmercraft'
- by analogy with a helm(et) protecting the head.
Possibly off-the-wall thought, for which a quick search (e.g., of Bosworth and Toller online) gives no support: could 'Elfhelm' suggest/indicate 'born with a caul'?
This elf-friend elf-blessing is really very interesting! The - addition? or, explication? - "and may the stars shine upon the end of your road!" seems no little part of the interest, e.g., given the Lady Galadriel's gift, which has such force in Shelob's lair! But what a complicated compressed history is there, with that stage of the Eärendil story - Eärendil as half-elven become sidereal! (Also, cf. the star-token in Smith of Wootton Major!)
Having just been busy with the Taliessin through Logres guest-commentary series at The Oddest Inkling, all sorts of Charles Williams 'blessing' references to which I have never paid sufficient attention spring to mind, clamoring for comparison as well!
David Llewellyn Dodds
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