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The Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Fascinating Products of the Imagination
J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that he found dragons to be "a fascinating product of imagination"1 (Letters, 134). Let's face it. Much of Tolkien is just this and not much else: fascinating products of the imagination.
Fascinating products of the imagination are probably most apparent in Tolkien's mythological creation of evil.
For example, when he was young, Gollum used his new-found powers of invisibility that the Ring bestowed on him to catch fish: "and ate them raw"
2 (Fellowship, 63).
So, too, the the pool before Moria, in which the tentacled Watcher dwelt, absorbed light, rather than reflected it. The Company of the Ring reached the pool as the sun was setting, but: "Neither sky nor sunset were reflected on its sullen surface"3 (Fellowship, 314).
Fascinating products of the imagination in Tolkien are not entirely limited to evil, however.
On the other side of Moria lay another pool--the Mirrormere, which figured prominently in the lore of the Dwarves. In the book, Gimli took Frodo to see the Mirrormere. Gimli and Frodo were able to see stars in the pool, even though it was broad daylight outside. They saw stars, "though sunlight was in the sky above" (Fellowship, 348).
The stream Nimrodel, which ran through the lower part of Lothlorien, had special properties, too. The Company had to cross the stream in order to get to the city of the elves in Lorien. Legolas explained: "the water is healing to the weary" (Fellowship, 353).
Writers have long time noted that Hobbits serve as an intermediary between average everyday readers and the high and heroic world of Middle-earth with its dragons and dwarves and what-not. Hobbits bridge the gap between this world and that: that is, the legendary and the heroic world of Middle-earth. The story is thus Hobbit-centric: it is told through the eyes of the Hobbits. It is told mostly through the eyes of Frodo. When Frodo goes to cross the afore-mentioned stream in Lothlorien "it was cold but its touch was clean, and ... he felt that the stain of travel and all weariness was washed from his limbs" (Fellowship, 353).
Contrast Frodo's experience of the Nimrodel in Lorien with the feel of the waters of the pool before Moria where the Watch dwellt. The Company had to cross a creek that fed the pool. Hobbits go barefoot. When the Company crossed, "Frodo shuddered with disgust at the touch of the dark unclean water on his feet" (Fellowship, 315).
The beauty of Lothlorien contrasts sharply with the Mines of Moria which the Company had just left behind. It is also tinged with fascinating products of the imagination. Even though the Company arrived in Lorien late winter, a species of trees grew there that had not yet shed its leaves. Legolas explained: "There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not ..." (Fellowship, 349).
Similarly certain flowers bloomed in Middle-earth year round, even winter. On the mound known as Cerin Amroth, Haldir the Elf told what was left of the Company: "Here ever bloom the winter flowers in the unfading grass" (Fellowship, 365).
So, too, the sustenance of the Elves had special properties. It helped the Company keep warm the night that they spent in the treetops in the dead of winter. The Elves also gave the Company cloaks and animal skins, but the other provisions were also designed to help them keep warm. The Elves told the Hobbits: "we have food and drink to give you that will drive away the night-chill" (Fellowship, 358).
The waybread of the Elves of Lothlórien--lembas--was able to sustain a man for a whole day. Gimli liked the waybread so much that he gobbled down a whole piece. The Elves cautioned him to go easy, saying: "One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour" (Fellowship, 386).
It is a logical fallacy to assume that just because an idea is new, it is true. Progress is not always in a forward direction. So we have in Middle-earth a world not where things evolve from primitive to more advanced, but where things devolve: the world is slowly deteriorating in Middle-earth under the Sun.
In Lothlorien, however, things remained as they were long ago in their original pristine form. The light in Lothlorien was brighter, shapes sharper, colors more vivid, textures more tactile, sounds clearer. Even time itself was experienced differently inside Lothlorien.
It is for this reason that, when the Company crossed the river into the heart of Lothlorien, Frodo sensed a change: "it seemed to him that he had stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the Elder Days" (Fellowship, 363).
When the Elves at last took off the blindfolds, Frodo looked upon what appeared to be "a vanished world" (Fellowship, 365).
A light was upon it for which his language had no name. ... the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn ... He saw no colour but those he knew ... but they were fresh and poignant ... (Fellowship, 365).
When Frodo went to climb the tree on Cerin Amroth, he placed his hand on the trunk of the tree: "never before had he been so suddenly and so keenly aware of the feel and texture of a tree's skin" (Fellowship 366).
Even time was experienced differently while the Company was in Lothlorien. The Company was in Lorien a whole month, while to Sam it seemed a few days. Aragorn explained: "in that land you lost your count. There time flowed swiftly by us" (Fellowship 405).
Things were different in Lorien because things existed as they were as in an earlier Age of the world. Yet Lorien was about to become plain and ordinary, too. For when the Ring was destroyed, the Elven Ring that Galadriel wore lost its power, too, and Lorien became like other lands. Consequently Haldir the Elf told Merry: "I do not believe that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or the light of the Sun as it was aforetime" (Fellowship, 363).
Last revised 11/2K4