Anderson - 1998 - Reflections of Gothic Language Legend and History in Middle-Earth

8/9/2019 Anderson - 1998 - Reflections of Gothic Language Legend and History in Middle-Earth

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/anderson-1998-reflections-of-gothic-language-legend-and-history-in-middle-earth 1/20

Reflections of Gothic Language, Legend, and History in Middle-earth

Carl Edlund Anderson

Presented 25 September 1998, Oxonmoot 1998 (International Tolkien Society), Exeter

College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

The Goths—particularly the language of the Goths—exercised an early and significant

fascination on Tolkien.1 When in school, he happened to buy a copy of Joseph Wright’s

A Primer of the Gothic Language2 from a school-friend (who had himself gotten it from a

missionary sale and did not want it). Tolkien was fascinated by this language, which

survives mostly as 4th century bible translations and some Christian religious

commentary. He soon began inventing new words to fill the gaps in the fragmentary

Gothic vocabulary, and then went on to begin constructing an apocryphal “neo-Gothic”

Germanic language—one which did not actually exist, but could have, and which obeyed

all the linguistic rules associated with Germanic language evolution. 3

About the same time as Wright’s Gothic Grammar was published, in 1910,

Tolkien was at the St. Edward’s School where he was a member of the Debating Society.It was a custom of this society to hold a Model Roman Senate, with debate conducted in

Latin. We need not be surprised that Tolkien—with, actually, characteristic impishness—

once played the role of a barbarian ambassador and addressed this august body in

Gothic.4 Tolkien also would sometimes write little inscriptions in Gothic at the

beginnings of books he owned.5

1 In this day and age I should perhaps stress that when I use the term Gothic I amreferring neither to 12th-century cathedral architecture nor to those who dressthemselves in black clothes and morbid outlooks, but rather to the Germanictribes who appeared in the regions North of the Black Sea during the 200s and300s and who spent the next few centuries careening around Europe in variousguises before eventually disappearing from the light of history. Legends aboutthem, however, remained popular long after they had vanished from the scene.

2Joseph Wright, A Primer of the Gothic Language (Oxford: Clarendon, 1892).3 If you want to try Tolkien’s experience for yourself, Wright’s Primer is no longer printed, but youmight be able to find it in a library. Alternatively, you can upgrade to Wright’s Grammar of the Gothic Language, which replaced the Primer in 1910 and was recently reprinted in hardcover and this can behad for your very own at the fairly reasonable price of around ₤12 or so.4

For the record, he at other times addressed them in Greek and Old English.5 Letters 272, pp. 356-58..



Reflections of Gothic Language, Legend, & History in Middle-earth 2

Gothic—and his own neo-Gothic—remained one of Tolkien’s chief

passions until, one day, he happened across the Kalevala, the collection and collation of

Finnish legends assembled by Elias Lönnröt in the early 19th century. While the Goths

and Gothic retained an important place in Tolkien’s thoughts—and I hope to discuss this

a bit more later—it was now Finnish that Tolkien fell in philological love with.6 It was

Finnish that became his chief inspiration for Quenya.

The rest is history—or perhaps, more usually in Tolkien’s case, philology.

After all, as Tolkien himself would often say, the whole of his Middle-earth

“sub-creation” was more or less an excuse to provide a backdrop for the Elvish

languages. Implicit in this, of course, was Tolkien’s understanding that language alone,

without the culture that employed that language or the history of that culture, was dead.

Tolkien’s original conception of his purpose was to create a “mythology for England”,

fuller than the fragmentary Anglo-Saxon material and more aesthetically pleasing (in his

opinion, at least) than the heavily romanticised medieval Arthurian material. Thus his

sub-creative work generated vast quantities of legend and history, though this process

was driven by the need to find a home for his languages.

Tolkien’s sense of himself as Philologist rather than Historian was

expressed most clearly in a letter to Christopher Tolkien of February 21st, 1958. JRR’s

son Christopher—who is probably best known for drawing the original maps of Middle-earth and for editing and publishing much of his father’s Middle-earth-related material—

was a trained academic in his own right, and a very good one. Tolkien’s letter was

written after Chris Tolkien, as a university lecturer, had delivered a lecture entitled

“Barbarians and Christians” to a society at St. Anne’s College here in Oxford, his subject

being the heroes of northern legend as seen in different fashion by Germanic poets and

Roman writers. Tolkien, who had attended his son’s lecture, wrote: “I like history, and

am moved by it, but its finest moments for me are those in which it throws light on

words and names!”7 This is very much the sentiment that guides Tolkien’s sub-creation.

My own studies on legends of the Goths as told in Scandinavia led me

naturally to one of Chris Tolkien’s few non-Middle-earth publications, an excellent

edition and translation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. This is a rather complex

book and seems to be made up of various fragments loosely stitched together by its

medieval Icelandic composer (or composers). Chris Tolkien’s edition and translation of

this saga was not published until 1960, but that the saga was well known to JRR Tolkien

6 And philology, indeed, comes from Greek roots meaning “love of words”.7 Letters 205, p. 264.




is indubitable. For one thing, it contains a riddle game between King Heidrek and a

figure called Gestumblindi (who is the god Oðinn in disguise), in which several of the

riddles seem to have inspired some of those used for Bilbo and Gollum’s riddle-match in

The Hobbit . For another, the saga ends with many verses from a poem commonly called

“The Battle of the Goths and the Huns” which appears to be “one of the oldest poems

preserved in the North”. 8 As the saga we have tells it, this poem concerns a struggle for

dominance between the half-brothers Angantýr and Hlöð, sons of King Heiðrek. After

Heiðrek’s death, Angantýr has claimed the inheritance of the Gothic kingdom which

Heiðrek ruled. Hlöð, who was illegitimate and lived with his mother’s father, King

Humli of the Huns, is not happy about this and travels to Angantýr’s court to demand

half the inheritance, including half the ruler-ship of the Goths. Angantýr refuses to an

equal split, though offers Hlöð a third share, which seems to have been a traditional

inheritance share for illegitimate children in early Germanic custom. This does not sit

well with Hlöð, and he returns to grandfather Humli (who himself is far from thrilled

with these developments).

Accordingly, Humli and Hlöð assemble a vast host of Huns and set off for

Angantýr’s place. Along the way, they overrun the forces of Hervör the shield-maiden,

who is sister to Angantýr and half-sister to Hlöð, and she is slain. When Angantýr learns

of Hervör’s death, the Gothic host is summoned and the Huns are challenged to battle.Massive slaughter ensues in an eight-day battle. Eventually Angantýr slays Hlöð and

Humli, and the Huns try to flee.

“But,” Chris Tolkien translates, “the Goths slew them, and made such

carnage that the rivers were choked and turned from their courses, and the valleys were

filled with dead men and horses.”9 Truly this is a battle whose epic bloodshed can hold its

own against any battle depicted by JRR Tolkien in Middle-earth. The poem concludes

with a brief lament by Angantýr over the ill fate that brought him into conflict with his

half-brother.

Stirring stuff, and all very well—but how is this linked with JRR Tolkien’s

sub-creation?

“The Battle of the Goths and the Huns” formed the starting point for my

exploration of this issue. On reading the poem, one salient feature leaps out immediately.

Between the territories of the Goths and the Huns in the poem is a vast forest called

Myrkviðr . Chris Tolkien, in his modern English translation of the saga, translates this

8 Heiðreks saga, ed. by C. Tolkien, p. xxi.9 Heiðreks saga, ed. by C. Tolkien, p. 57.




name, perhaps not surprisingly, as Mirkwood. This same word is, of course, used by JRR

Tolkien for the name of the great forest of Middle-earth lying between the river Anduin

and the plains of Rhovanion.

For an English-speaker, it is easy to think of this name as meaning “the

murky wood”. Such is the sense that JRR Tolkien seems to imply when he writes that the

forest received this name when the Shadow fell upon it, though it had been formerly

known as Greenwood—and was so called again when the Shadow was lifted. In fact the

Mirk - part of this name stems from an old Germanic noun *marko (Proto-Indo-European

mereg - “edge, boundary”), which survives in Modern English as both mark and (through

French) march, meaning “a boundary or border”. Tolkien’s beloved Mercians (in whose

territory Oxford lies), probably derived their name from a form of this word. Tolkien’s

Rohirrim lived in the Mark of Rohan, the term mark signifying its status as a border state

of Gondor.

Christopher Tolkien points out that in the ancient time of the Germanic

tribes, border areas between two groups were often heavily forested in contrast to the

cleared lands where people dwelt. The Old Norse cognate of English mark is mörk , and

is only used in the sense of “forest”. Nevertheless, place-names like Denmark (Danish

Danmark ) might originally have meant either “border of the Danes” or “forest of the

Danes”, or both. In fact, it is difficult to fully separate the two meanings.Mirkwood in its Norse form, Myrkviðr , appears in another Scandinavian

poem as the boundary of Múspell , the land of fire—suggesting the use of the name to

note boundaries in Germanic legend was well-established amongst early medieval

Germanic audiences. The 11th-century German chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg uses

the name Miriquidui for “the Erzgebirge, the mountains on the north-western borders of

Bohemia.”10 In some of Tolkien’s early writings—such as “The Lost Road” and “The

Notion Club Papers”—JRR Tolkien has created a Old English form of the name,

Myrcwudu, which seems to have referred to the Eastern Alps.11 Chris Tolkien suggests

that the historical name Mirkwood (in its various Germanic cognate forms) might

originally have been applied to “the whole of the vast mountain-system that extends from

the Erzgebirge to the Transylvanian Alps, the wooded mountain-barrier par excellence”.12

We might begin to see how JRR Tolkien placed the Mirkwood where he did

in Middle-earth. Accepting Chris Tolkien’s suggested identification of the legendary

10

Heiðreks saga, ed. by C. Tolkien, p. xxvii.11 HOME 5, p. 91; HOME 9, p. 277.12 Heiðreks saga, ed. by C. Tolkien, p. xxvii.




Mirkwood, we see that it would run north and east of the river Danube—the Central

European river par excellence —down nearly to the Black Sea. On its far side lie Poland

and the Ukraine, and then the great Eurasian steppe beyond. In JRR Tolkien’s Middle-

earth, the Mirkwood lies east of the river Anduin—Middle-earth’s river par excellence —

down to the Brown Lands. On the far side lie the plains of Rhovanion and the mysterious

regions of Rhûn.

JRR Tolkien also knew the Old English poem Widsith, which is essentially a catalogue of

references to Germanic legendary material. It some of it has a bearing on “The Battle of

the Goths and the Huns”, as it mentions several characters from Heiðreks saga in their

Old English forms, as well as struggles between the Goths and Huns ymb Wistlawudu,

which means “around the Vistula-wood”. The Vistula is the river running through central

Poland and down into the Baltic Sea.

Archaeology suggests that the ancestors of the Goths did indeed probably

live in the lower Vistula valley in the first several centuries of the first millennium AD.

By the time their early encounters with the Huns, however, they had moved south to the

area of the Ukraine north of the Black Sea, stretching as far south as the banks of the

Danube.




Widsith is wrong in locating the struggles of the Goths and Huns where it does, but it

may well remember a very old piece of lore that places the Goths in the Vistula valley.

In the Scandinavian “Battle of the Goths and the Huns” poem, the battle itself takes place

on Dúnheið, which Chris Tolkien translates as the “Danube-heath”. In Heiðreks saga

there is a cursed sword called Tyrfing , which is described as heirloom of the house of Heiðrek and Angantýr. When Hlöð asks for half of Angantýr’s inheritance, Angantýr

replies in verse that he will not “sunder Tyrfing in twain”. The idea of splitting the sword

between them doesn’t make much sense, it must be said. But Christopher Tolkien

suggests that originally the name Tyrfing was derived from the ethnonym Tervingi,

which identified of the old sub-divisions of the Gothic peoples. Only later, through

misunderstanding, did the name get transformed in to that of a sword. The verse in

Heiðreks saga seems far older than the prose, however and Angantýr’s poetic refusal todivide Tyrfing makes more sense if we see him as having been refusing to split the ruler-

ship of the tribe with Hlöð.

The Tervingi’s northern neighbours were the Greuthungi, whose name may

be preserved in that of a minor character in Heiðreks saga called Gizur Grýtingaliði

(which can be interpreted as “vassal or retainer of the Greuthungi”). The historical

Greuthungi lived north of the Tervingi on the banks of the Dnepr river, the name of

which appears in the “The Battle of the Goths and the Huns” as Danpar .




Having examined some of the background on Gothic history and legend which

JRR Tolkien would have known, we may turn more fully to its reflections in Middle-

earth. The obvious links between the historical Germanic peoples and Tolkien’s

Northmen, as well as between the historical Huns and Tolkien’s Easterlings, has long

been recognised. In the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien assures us that he

has rendered the alien Mannish languages of Middle-earth into historical languages

which most closely mirror the relations of the Middle-earth languages—though this often

seems little more than a thin excuse which allows him to depict the Rohirrim, while

living at a vast remove from the historical Anglo-Saxons, to speak the Tolkien’s beloved

Mercian dialect of Old English. Similarly, in one of his letters, Tolkien describes the

tongue of the Men of Dale and the Long Lake as corresponding to Old Norse—though

this is only evidenced in his books by the representation of the Dwarf names, which are

taken from Dwarf names in Old Norse poetry.

That Tolkien used Old English (specifically Mercian Old English) to

represent the names of the Rohirrim is well known. However we care to view Tolkien’s

linguistic conventions in The Lord of the Rings, it’s clear that by 1977 TA Tolkien is

granting Old English personal names to members of the Éothéod (the precursors of the

Rohirrim); for example, Frumgar (OE for “first spear”) leads the Éothéod to the Northern

Anduin.Before this point, however, the situation is less clear. In Unfinished Tales, it

is stated that the Éothéod were “first known by that name in the days of Calimehtar of

Gondor (who died in the year 1936 of the Third Age).”13 Éothéod is certainly an OE

word, and means “horse people”. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that

as late as the 1940s, Tolkien gave members of this group names which may appear more

Gothic in form (following Christopher Tolkien’s own identification of them as such): for

example, Forthwini son of Marhwini, and also the leader of the Éothéod contingent at the

battle north of the Morranon (where King Ondoher of Gondor and his sons fell in 1944

TA) whose full name is unknown but began Marh-.14

Marhwini certainly looks a Gothic-style name that could mean “horse

friend”, assuming an unrecorded (or newly invented by Tolkien) Gothic word marh that

would be cognate with OE mearh (the plural of which, mearas, Tolkien uses as a term

for the horses of the Rohirrim).15. An element -wini “friend” could be seen as cognate

13

Unfinished Tales, p. 288.14Unfinished Tales, pp. 291, 294.15The feminine form of the word, mére, has produced Modern English “mare”.




with the OE element wine, which appears in numerous Rohirric names. The name

Forthwini would likewise appear to contain this -wini element, though the meaning of

the forth- section is harder to identify. This element could have been a neo-Gothic

creation of Tolkien’s, but might more likely be based on some early Old English form.

Indeed, this interpretation rapidly leads to the recognition that in fact Forthwini is good

early Old English ( Forþwini/ Forthwini) but bad Gothic (** Faurþwins/** Faurthwins),

while Marhwini is neither good OE, even early OE (**Mærhwini) nor good Gothic

(**Marhwins). Possibly, in these names Tolkien wished to represent a stage of OE so

early that it might better be called Late West Germanic, after loss of final - z (PGmc

*marχaz > *marχa > *marh; PGmc *winiz > early OE wini) but before Germanic a

changed to early OE æ (Late West Germanic *marh > early OE mærh). Thus, names like

Forthwini and Marhwini are probably best understood as not being Gothic in inspiration

(as Christopher Tolkien suggested in Unfinished Tales, p. 311), but something more like

Late West Germanic or very early Old English.

Thus, what appear to be the most obviously “Gothic” elements in Tolkien’s

literature (thanks to his sons apparently erroneous identification of them as such) turn out

not to be. However, if we turn to examine the history of Tolkien’s various Northman

groups in greater detail, we can definitely identify elements of inspiration from Gothic

history at work. It may even be that Tolkien deliberately chose ambiguously earlyGermanic names for characters set in the early history of the Éothéod—names that could

be (and have been) mistaken for Gothic name—to blur the linguistic line between his

distinct use of OE for the Rohirrim and his use of material from the Gothic world

elsewhere.

Turning back a number of centuries from the well-known period in which

The Lord of the Rings is set, to the 13th century TA and the period of the of the Kin-strife

in Gondor, Tolkien gives several Northmen names that definitely are strongly

reminiscent of real historical Gothic names. Vidugavia is a slightly Latinized form of

Gothic Widugáuja, meaning “countryman of the wood”—this name is historically

attested in use amongst the Goths. In fact, Widugáuja was a long-remembered hero

amongst the Germanic peoples—his name appears in the Old English poem Widsith as

Wudga, and the historian Jordanes tells us that the Goths sang the tale of how he fell in

battle against the Sarmatians, a nomadic horse tribe from the Black Sea region, though

later legends changed Widugáuja’s foes to the more familiar Huns. Tolkien’s Vidugavia

had a daughter called Vidumavi, and this name Tolkien has created from Gothic elements




meaning “maiden of the wood”. These are certainly appropriate names for the Northmen

of that period, dwelling under the eaves of Mirkwood.

Tolkien gave Valacar’s son by Vidumavi the Rhovanion/Gothic name of

Vinitharya. This is also an historically attested name, and its first element, Vinit -, might

refer to the historical tribe known as the Weneti, or Wends—alternatively it might stem

from a lost word meaning “pasture land”. The latter would certainly be more appropriate

for Tolkien’s usage. The second element, -harya, is similar to Gothic word harjis

(“army”) and might be taken to mean “warrior”. In his early drafts, Tolkien suggests

Vinitharya’s name is similar to that borne by his grandfather, which was Romendacil , a

Quenya name meaning “East-victor”. As the historical Weneti were a Slavic tribe living

east of most Germanic peoples (thought not the Goths), perhaps Tolkien’s implication

could be interpreted as suggesting Vinitharya is to be understood as “one who wars

against eastern peoples (such as the Weneti)”, which is not so far from Romendacil’s

meaning of “East-victor”.

Assuming that these names formed on real Germanic languages overlie

unrecorded Middle-earth names in some variant of Westron, Tolkien’s use of Gothic

must be intended, among other things, to engender a sensation of archaism. During the

“Gothic name phase” of the Northmen, we may imagine an archaic period before the

Migrations in which some of them, the Éothéod (with their Late West Germanic or earlyOld English names), moved to their modern territories. Likewise, we might see the Men

of Dale and the Long Lake, whose “Old Norse” style language is used by the Dwarves

for their public names, as representative of a people who had not moved very far from

their old homes. Indeed, in real history, Scandinavia has often figured as the “origin

place” for many Germanic peoples in their own legends (whether or not this was

historically true). In any event, Tolkien’s assertion that his use of languages like Gothic

and Old English in the context of Middle-earth was simply a “translation” of “genuine”

Middle-earth languages certainly saves him the trouble of explaining how the ancient

Northmen’s Gothic language mutated into the Old English of the Rohirrim. Certainly,

Gothic and Old English are related languages, but Old English is not a descendant of

Gothic—rather both have a common ancestor. Tolkien might have been able to concoct a

linguistic explanation to explain how, in his sub-creation, Old English did descend from

Gothic, but this would have been needlessly complex and might even have diminished

the impact of the connotations associated with his use of these languages.




We might now turn away from the “names and words” which so delighted

Tolkien and to the history of the Northmen of Middle-earth, upon which Tolkien’s use of

language throws no little light with regards to his underlying inspiration and

methodology.

The history of Tolkien’s Northmen is fairly straightforward. In the Chronology

they appear primarily as independent allies of Gondor, interposed between Gondor and

the Easterlings. The Éothéod/Rohirrim subgroup has a habit of appearing at battles

unlooked for and taking the enemy in the rear, thereby saving the Gondorian army.16

Eventually they enter into a formal defence pact with Gondor.

This may be contrasted with a brief summary of Gothic history. The Gothic

peoples initially appeared between the Romans’ Danubian borders and the steppe to the

east. Driven from their territories by the Huns, they alternated between being Roman

allies and enemies. Eventually, Gothic groups more or less seized control of the Western

Roman Empire, but—having determined that they were better off preserving the Empire

than dismantling it—were in many ways assimilated to Roman culture. In Italy their

power reached a peak under Theodoric the Great in the early 6th century, but they

essentially disappeared soon after. A Gothic kingdom in Spain lingered until the Moorish

invasions in 711.

The reality of Gothic history is considerably more complex than thatsummary, of course. Gothic tribes had already been making a name for themselves in

raids on the Roman Empire in the 200s and 300s AD. However, at the same time, Gothic

groups also worked as Roman allies and some kind of military pact might have existed

between the Romans and some Gothic tribes.

This situation might echo the links between the Northmen and Gondor in

the earlier part of the Tolkien’s Northman chronology. The Northmen were said to be

“nearest in kin of lesser men to the Dúnedain.” 17 Tolkien, of course, was a great

aficionado of things Germanic—but also of things Roman, and much of his treatment of

the relations between the Northmen and Gondor can be ascribed to this fact. Tolkien’s

history not only provides a backdrop for his languages, but reflects his sensibilities

regarding those languages and the world in which they existed. Tolkien’s Elvish was a

holistic expression of his linguistic aesthetics, not just in the form of its vocabulary, the

beauty of individual words, but in its evolution and function—the beauty of its

16Calimehtar’s battle with the Wainriders on Dagorland, the Battle of the Fields of Celebrant, and the

Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Within Rohan, Erkenbrand appears unlooked for at the Battle of Helm’sDeep, though on foot, and assaults the army of Isengard from behind, saving Théoden’s army.17 LOTR, Appendix A.iv, p. 1021.




phonology and grammar. Similarly, Tolkien’s history reorganises his understanding of

real history in a way more pleasing to him.

The historical Gothic tribes were not a cohesive entity, but consisted of

various groups that formed, dissolved, and reformed various alliances—not just with

other Gothic groups, nor just with Romans, but with everyone. As an example, in 451

AD at the great battle of the Catulanian Fields in Gaul, we may read that the Hunnish

army of Attila squared off against the Roman army of Aëtius. In fact, both armies were

primarily made of Germanic troops and there were large Gothic contingents on both

sides.

About a century before this battle, perhaps the most decisive event in Gothic

history had taken place. In the mid-300s AD, the Hunnish tribes from the steppe had

collided with the Gothic kingdoms north of the Black Sea. Christopher Tolkien has

suggested the early conflicts resulting from this meeting might have given rise to the

legend recounted in the much later “The Battle of the Goths and the Huns” poem. In that

poem, it is Angantýr’s Goths who are victorious. In history, however, the Goths could

not stand against the Huns. Many Goths fled south, seeking refuge within the Roman

Empire. Here, they were badly treated, however, and their grievances led eventually to a

clash in 378 AD between the Gothic army and that of the Eastern Roman Emperor

Valens.In this, the battle of Adrianople, the Gothic forces were positioned in laager

with their wagons, and were attacked by the Roman infantry. The battle was fierce, but

inconclusive, until the Gothic cavalry that had been out foraging returned unexpectedly

and assaulted the Romans from behind. Caught off-guard, the Roman army was

annihilated and the Emperor slain—one the greatest Roman military disasters. Further

warfare continued without either side being able to conclusively gain the upper hand.

Eventually a peace was concluded in 382 AD—the Goths were made federates, which

meant they would receive land as a group in return for military service for the Romans.

Tension between Goths and Romans remained, however, and open warfare again broke

out in 395 AD, leading eventually to one group of Goths sacking Rome in 410 AD. Soon

after a settlement was concluded with these Goths, who were reorganising themselves as

the Visigoths, and they were settled in southern Gaul, later expanding their influence into

Spain.

Meanwhile, other groups of Goths had come under the dominion of the

Huns, and accompanied them under Attila on the invasion of Gaul in 451 AD. After




Attila’s death in 453, the Hunnish empire began to fall apart, and these Goths—settled in

Pannonia, what is now eastern Hungary—were able to reassert their autonomy. Known

now as the Ostrogoths, they reached their peak after their king Theodoric the Great

conquered Italy in 493 AD. As it happens, Theodoric’s great-grandfather was named

Vinitharius according to Latin sources—this name is exactly Gothic Winitharjis, and can

be equated with Tolkien’s Vinitharya, King of Gondor and descendant of Vidugavia the

Northman.

Nevertheless, chains of events such as these would hardly suit Tolkien’s

purposes in Middle-earth. The idea of the Northmen, pushed south from Rhovanion by

the Easterlings, slaughtering Gondorian armies and sacking Minas Tirith verges on the

unthinkable. Bits and pieces of Gothic history, however, shine through clearly in

Tolkien’s writing—not always without being turned around, and not always in our

history’s chronological order.

Early on we see conflict between Gondor and the Easterlings from which

Gondor emerges victorious. This establishes the primary conflict as one between Gondor

and the Easterlings. The Northmen are not mentioned except possibly as “Men in the

Vales of the Anduin” who acknowledge Gondorian supremacy during the reign of

Hyarmendacil.

The historical early Gothic kingdoms were certainly disrupted by the Hunsin the mid-300s, but over the following centuries one was perhaps as likely to find Goths

fighting for Huns as fighting against them. The only acknowledgement of collusion

between the Tolkien’s Northmen and the Easterlings against Gondor comes in the 1200s

TA, during the reign of Narmacil I. In 1248 TA, however, we are told that Minalcar

(later Romendacil I) was assisted in his war against the Easterlings by Vidugavia the

Northman—and after this the Northmen appear only in the role of Gondorian allies.

Tolkien combines his Northman royal house and the Gondorian heirs of

Númenor by marrying Vidugavia’s daughter Vidumavi to Valacar of Gondor. In some

ways this seems to echo the marriage of Visigothic leader Athaulf (brother of Alaric,

who had sacked Rome) to Galla Placida, sister of the Western Roman Emperor Honorius

in the early 410s AD. Their son was named Theodosious, after the child’s grandfather,

the Roman Emperor of that name. Athawulf is said to have considered replacing the

Roman Empire with a Gothic Empire, but to have changed his tactics towards

maintaining the Roman Empire with Gothic military power. Certainly, being father to a

Roman imperial candidate would have assisted with this plan, but Athaulf was




assassinated and his wife and children were killed in the ensuing coup—all perpetrated

by rival Goths (kin-strife of a different kind than Tolkien’s in Gondor). Tolkien’s half-

Northman king of Gondor was able to recover his throne, eventually, with the help of

many Northmen.

Though the Gondorian Kin-strife is cast as an internal Gondorian matter, and only

precipitated by events concerning the Northmen, this can be compared to situations

where Gondor is aided more directly in battle by the Northmen. Prior to the Kin-strife,

we are told that Romendacil had brought many Northmen into his army, often giving

them high-ranking positions. This is reminiscent of the situation of the late Roman army,

which contained many Germanic troops, including high officers. It is particularly

reminiscent of the military service agreements concluded between the Romans and Goths

following the battle of Adrianople in 378 AD. After Eldacar regains his throne, many

Northmen enter Gondor to help repopulate it in the wake of the Kin-strife. Here may be

echoes of the various Gothic resettlements by the Romans, particularly the resettlement

of the Visigoths in Gaul, after they helped defeat an imperial usurper there in 412 AD

and campaigned further for the Romans in Spain in 414 AD.

The attack of the Wainriders in 1851 TA, which shatters the Northmen in

Rhovanion, is the assault of the Easterlings which best recalls the effects of the historical

Hunnish invasions on the Gothic tribes. Tolkien, however, has the king of Gondor goforth and rally the Northmen against the Wainriders—although admittedly to no avail.

Gondor is defeated and their king slain, as is Northman leader Marhari, leaving the

people of Rhovanion to be enslaved by the Wainriders. Some Northmen are led by

Marhari’s son Marhwini to the middle Anduin, where they form the Éothéod. Barring the

battle between the Gondorians and Northmen against the Wainriders, this seems a lot like

the Hunnish assault which broke the Gothic kingdoms in the mid/late 300s which led to

the migration of various Gothic peoples—such as the Visigoths who end up in Gaul and

Spain.

It is worth remembering that, in our history, shortly after the Visigoths

settled in Gaul in the 410s, various Germanic peoples were settling in Britain, creating

the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and simultaneously the Old English language. It may or may

not be accidental that Tolkien marks his shift from genuinely Gothic to West Germanic

and Old English names with the migration under Marhwini in 1856 TA. Within a

hundred years, by Frumgar’s time it seems, Tolkien was satisfied to associate the

Éothéod purely with classical Mercian Old English.




The Goths (and quite possibly the Anglo-Saxons) were used as federates by

the Romans. That is, they were they were given land as a group in exchange for military

service. This is paralleled by the Oath of Cirion and Eorl, in which Calenardhon was

granted to the Éothéod in exchange for their assistance in the defence of Gondor.18

The cataclysmic battle of Adrianople between the Goths and Romans in 378

could have no equivalent in Tolkien’s world. Yet echoes of it may be seen in all of the

rescues that the Éotheod and Rohirrim effected for Gondorian armies. The Romans were

defeated at Adrianople by a surprising rear attack from the Gothic cavalry. Tolkien

consistently casts Easterlings and Orcs in the places occupied by the Romans in such

battles, Gondorian armies in the role of the Gothic infantry, and the Éothéod or Rohirrim

starring as the Gothic cavalry.

Finally, we may return to “The Battle of the Goths and the Huns”, where

possibly one further detail that entered Tolkien’s world might be glimpsed. The great

battle before the Morannon between Ondoher and the Wainriders in 1944 TA seems to

have been fought in the same place as the Host of the West and the armies of Mordor in

3019 TA. The landscape in 3019 is described in terms of “great heaps and hills of slag

and broken rock and blasted earth”,19 as well as “grey mounds” where “dust rose

smothering the air”.20 The northern mountain chain of Mordor above the battle site is

called Ered Lithui, or the Ash Mountains. In “The Battle of the Goths and the Huns” poem, the battle is said to take place on the Danube-heath below the Jassarfjöll , a name

that Chris Tolkien translates as “Hills of Ash”. It seems that the poem’s description of

it’s battle taking place “on the Danube-heath below the Hills of Ash” may well be

paralleled by Tolkien’s Dagorlad (“Battle-plain”) below the Ash Mountains.

In conclusion, we can detect a use of (or inspiration from) real history in

Tolkien’s sub-creation that parallels his use of (or inspiration from) real linguistics. We

do not need to look far to understand the reasons for this: Tolkien wanted his invented

history and legend to be no less “beautiful” than he wanted his invented languages to be.

Just as Tolkien’s invented languages reflect his aesthetic ideals—being modelled on and,

in Tolkien’s conception, improving on real world languages—so do his invented history

and legend take real world examples as their starting point but then reshape or (as

18 The dual language Oaths here are reminiscent of the Oath of Strasbourg, which cemented an alliance between Charles the Bald and Louis the German in 842, and was sworn both in Old French and Old HighGerman. This is particularly interesting in light of Tolkien’s own comparison of the return of the king inGondor—the ascension of Aragorn—to the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne

(grandfather of Charles the Bald and Louis the German).19RK, p. 869.20RK, p. 873.




Tolkien might well have conceived it) “fix” the imperfections that he saw in the real

world. For example, it is clear Tolkien ardently admired many aspects Gothic culture but

must have seen their often-antagonistic history with the Roman world (either as military

foes or as adherents to the Arian heresy) as “problems” that needed “resolution”. In

drawing up a history of the relations between the various Northman groups (analogous to

the Germanic peoples) and Gondor (analogous to the Roman world) in his Middle-earth,

Tolkien has clearly drawn on features of real history while excising or streamlining

elements that would not suit his vision of idealized harmony between the Germanic and

Roman worlds: events analogous to the Battle of Adrianople or sack of Rome clearly

have no place in Tolkien’s conception of idealized history. This process of ideological

expression, cast in literary form, may be compared to his oft-cited intention to create the

“mythology for England” that he felt the real England lacked, or had lost. In Tolkien’s

use of Gothic language, legend, and history, however, we can see this intention taken

further—Tolkien is creating a mythologically idealized wider European history that

resolves and replaces the elements that most clash with his own sense of aesthetics.




Appendix A: Abbreviations

PGmc Primitive Germanic

ON Old Norse (Old Icelandic)OE Old English

NE New (Modern) English

Anglian Anglian dialect of Old English

Northumb. Northumbrian dialect of Old English

> developed into

~ related to

= equivalent to

+ combined with

* inferred form

** false or non-occuring form




Appendix B: Early Germanic Names and Words in Middle-earth

PGmc *markó (border? forest?)

> Gothic marka (‘border, coast)> ON mõrk (forest; border?)

> Old Danish mark (Danmark)

> early OE mærc (‘border’)

> WS mearc

> Anglian merc

+ Northumb. merce > ME merke > NE “mark” (Mark of Rohan)

~ OE Mierce/Myrce, ‘Mericans, i.e. people of the border regions’

PGmc *widuz (‘forest’)

> Gothic *widus, *widu-

> ON viðr

> OE wudu > NE ‘wood’

ON: Mirkviðr

Thietmar: Miriquidui (= Erzgebirge, mountains on borders of NW Bohemia)Tolkien’s OE: Myrcwudu (= Eastern Alps?)

OE: eoh (horse) + þéod (people, nation) > ** Éoþéod / Éothéod

Gothic Gut - (Goth-) + þiuda (people, nation) > Gutþiuda

ON goti (Goth) as poetic word meaning “Gothic horse”

Old Swedish guti (Goth = “Gothic horse” in c. ad 800 runic inscription)

PGmc *winiz ‘friend’

> Gothic *wins (**Marhwins; Odoin? Guduin? Osuin? Toluin? Nanduin?)

> early OE wini > standard OE wine (Gléowine, etc.)

PGmc * furþa ‘forwards, in front’

> OE forþ ‘forwards, further, onwards’ ( Forþwini/ Forthwini) > NE “forth”

~ Gothic faúrþis ‘first, beforehand, formerly’ (** Faurþwins/** Faurthwins)




PGmc *marχaz “horse”

> Gothic? *marhs, *marh- (Marabadus?)

> very early OE mærh

> early OE mearh

= WS mearh (plural mearas)

> Anglian mearh/*mærh/*merh (Tolkien’s plural Mearas)

PGmc *harjaz (“army”)

> Gothic harjis

> early West Germanic *hariz

> late West Germanic *hari (*marh + *hari = Marhari)

> OE here (Dúnhere, Herefara, etc.

Latinized: Vidigoia

Gothic: *Widugáuja; *widus, *widu- (“forest”) + gáuja (“countryman”)

Tolkien: Vidugavia

[OE: Wudga, Widia]

Latinized: Venetharius; perhaps from *Winiþa- (Wends, a Slavic tribe) + Gothic harjis“army”

Tolkien: Vinitharya; -harya from a Tolkien-Gothic *harja “warrior” (from PGmc

* χarjón, like *PGmc * χarjaz “army”)?

Quenya: Romendacil (“East-victor”) — grandfather of Vinitharya

Tolkien: Vidumavi; from Gothic *widus, *widu- (“forest”) + mawi (“maiden”)

ON: Jassarfjöll ; Jassar - (from Slavic jasen/ jesen ‘ash tree’) + ON fjöll

(mountains) [= Gesenke (also from jasen/ jesen), mountains in

Silesia]

Tolkien: Ered Lithui = Ash (i.e. burnt matter) Mountains




Appendix C: Chronology of Northmen and Easterlings in the Third Age

The Early Years

490 The first invasion of Gondor by the Easterlings.

500 Romendacil I defeats the Easterlings.

541 Romendacil the first is slain by the Easterlings, but his son Turambar goes on to defeat the

Easterlings and extend Gondors territory eastward.

1050 Hyarmendacil conquers Harad; Gondorian power is at its height, and the Men of the Vales

of Anduin acknowledge Gondorian authority.

The Kin-strife

1226- In the days of Narmacil I, some Northmen join with the Easterlings in attacks against

Gondor.

1294 [Note: The Northmen live in the plains between Mirkwood and the River Running, where

they are already noted horsemen. Their settled homes are along the eaves of

Mirkwood, especially the East Bight which was made by their clearing of the forest. ]

1248 Minalcar defeats the Easterlings between Rhovanion and the Inland Sea (Sea of Rhûn), and

takes the name Romendacil. He was assisted in these wars by the Northman, King

Vidugavia.

1250 Valacar, son of Romendacil/Minalcar is sent to Rhovanion as an ambassador to the

Northmen and learn their ways. Valacar falls in love with Vidugavia’s daughter,

Vidumavi, and they are married. Their son is Vinitharya, later called Eldacar.

1304-1366 Romendacil/Minalcar is crowned as Romendacil II; he builds the pillars at Argonath at the

entrance to Nen Hithoel. Foreigners are forbidden passage of the Emyn Muil.

Romendacil, however, offers places in his army to many Northmen, including high-

ranking positions.

1432 Death of Valacar; the Kin-strife begins over the issue of Eldacar’s mixed blood.

1437 Eldacar flees to the Northmen of Rhovannion.

1447 Eldacar, with the assistance of many Northmen, recovers the Gondorian throne. Many Northmen enter Gondor, helping to repopulate it after the Kin-strife.

The Wainriders

1636 Beginning in the winter of 1635, the Great Plague ravages Gondor and, even more so,the

Northmen of Rhovannion.

1851 The Wainriders attack Gondor from the East. The Northmen bear the brunt of their assualts.

1856 Narmacil II marches into the plains south of Mirkwood and rallies many Northmen to him,

but is defeated and slain by the Wainriders. Marhari of the Northmen is slain in theretreat. Southern and eastern Rhovanion is enslaved by the Wainriders. Gondor




retracts its frontiers to the Emyn Muil. Some Northmen flee north to merge with the

kinfolk in Dale.

1856-1936 In the days of Calimehtar, the Éothéod emerge as a distinct group, dwelling in the Vales of

Anduin, between the Carrock and the Gladden Fields, mostly on the western side of the

river. They were led there by Marhwini, son of Marhari and descendant of Vidugavia,after the defeat of Narmacil II in 1856. They are described as “close kin” of the

Beornings. [Note: This marks shift from more clearly Gothic names or the Northmen to

more West Germanic names.]

1899 Marhwini sends messages to Calimehtar that the Wainriders plan to invade Calenardhon,

and also that Rhovanion intends to revolt against the Wainriders. Calimehtar leads an

army against the Wainriders to draw them from Rhovannion. Calimehtar fights the

Wainriders on Dagorlad, and Marhwini’s troops save the day. Meanwhile, Rhovanion

had revolted but was laid waste in the process. Marhwini returns to the Anduin vales.

1940- Wainriders ally with the Men of Khand and Near Harad. Forthwini, son of Marhwini, warns1944 Ondoher that the Wainriders are regaining strength, as they are raiding the Éothéod up the

Anduin and through Mirkwood.

1944 Ondoher and his sons are slain by the Wainriders in battle by the Morannon. Some men of

the Éothéod take part in the Battle, led by Marh????21 (son of Forthwini?); they retreat

through the Dead Marshes. Eärnil II defeats the Wainriders and drives them to the

Dead Marshes.

The Northern Anduin and Calenardhon

1975 The Witch-king of Angmar is defeated.

1977 Frumgar leads the Éothéod to the vales of the Northern Anduin, where they drive out the

remnants of the Witch-kings minions. The Éothéod now dwell between the Misty

Mountains and the Forest River in Mirkwood, and south to the confluence of the

Greylin and Langwell, where they have a fortified burg .

2510 Orcs and Easterlings (identified as the Balchoth) overun Calenardhon. Eorl, son of Léod,

leads his warriors south to the Battle of the Field of Celebrant, taking the Orcs and

Balchoth from behind. The Oath of Cirion and Eorl grants Calenardhon to the Éothéod,

who move there. It is renamed Rochand, or Rohan.3019 Muster of Rohan and Battle of the Pelennor fields in which Théoden fulfils the Oath of Eorl,

as told in The Lord of the Rings.

[4th Age] Éomer leads the Rohirrim under King Elessar in wars in the South and “beyond the Sea of

Rhûn”.

21 The name is illegible in Tolkien’s original handwritten manuscript.

Documents

Anderson - 1998 - Reflections of Gothic Language Legend and History in Middle-Earth