Dark Age Of Camelot: One Ring to Rule Us All

In several hours, you will find me sitting in a darkened theater. Perhaps my husband will have treated me to a bucket of popcorn, and I'll certainly have a cold drink in the cup holder next to me. Approximately two hours later, you'll see me squirming in my seat, cursing myself for getting that cold drink because the film runs for another hour, and I won't want to miss a second to run to the bathroom.

Indeed, The Two Towers opens today. We have all waited a year for the next installment in Peter Jackson's epic. Some people have read the books and know what will happen. Others of us never got around to it, and can hardly wait to see what befalls our heroes this time. I spent last night watching a special on the making of the movie, and then plunked The Fellowship of the Ring into my DVD player to refresh my memory before tonight's big show.

Which leads to some interesting information. Tolkein borrowed heavily on Norse mythology whilst writing about Middle Earth. In fact, the word "Midgard" means "Middle Earth". (I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mythic for not adding Hobbits into their own slice of Middle Earth. At least Kobolds have hairless feet.)

If you read The Hobbit, you see first that Tolkein made free with Norse names. The original party of Dwarves that showed up at Bilbo's door contained more than a few notable bits of nomenclature. Dwalin, the first to show up for the tea party, resembles Dvalin, the dwarf who invented runes. Thorin, quite obviously, resembles the god Thor. The other Dwarven names, while not noted in most common mythos, all adhere to Norse naming standards.

He does more than borrow names, though. As I discovered in this article, which is an excellent read, Tolkein placed a good deal of Norse mythology in his stories. This should not really surprise anyone, as Tolkein was a professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University. He loved the literature and language of the Germanic peoples, and peppered his own work with ideas from his studies.

In his writing about the creature Gollum, who possessed a magical and cursed ring, J.R.R. Tolkein retold the story of Andvaranaut, called the Ring of the Nibelung by Wagner. Andvaranaut began in the possession of Andvari, a dwarf who could assume the shape of a fish if pursued. Andvari lived beneath a waterfall, collecting great wealth with the help of the ring.

At one point, Loki caught Andvari with the aid of a net made by the goddess Ran, and the Trickster God forced the dwarf to yield all the gold he possessed. Andvari attempted to retain possession of his precious ring, which would allow him to rebuild his wealth, but Loki took the ring as well. In revenge, the dwarf cursed all the gold, that misfortune would befall all who possessed it.

Bilbo's riddle battle with Gollum could not get more Norse. Contests of trivia, riddle and wit abound in the Icelandic mythologies. The hobbit's own winning riddle resembles closely Odin's Unanswerable Riddle, asked of King Heidrekr.

Thorin resembles the myth of the Dwarven King Alberich, who guarded the hoard of Nibelung gold. He lived in a subterranean mountain forest carved out of the rock, much as the hall in the Mountain that Thorin reclaimed. The Nibelung hoard, cursed by Andvari, brought misfortune to all who possessed it, as did Thorin's own hoard of gold. When Thorin refused to share his wealth, a war came to pass, which cost him his life.

In fact, the cursed gold theme carries over into The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo, as he comes into possession of Bag End and the One Ring, finds his own life altered for the worse. As he strives to return the Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it, he leaves in his wake a string of tragedies that will engulf his companions in violent wars and heartbreaking losses.

Dwarves, of course, began in Germanic tradition, as master craftsmen who lived below the ground. However, they were far from the jolly creatures that Bilbo followed. A randy and somewhat dark group, they loved their gold and lusted after goddesses. Scandinavian Dwarves had an implied connection to the dead, given some of the names mentioned in the Prose Edda, such as Dainn ("dead one") and Nar ("corpse"). Given that, it might not have been inappropriate for Mythic to make Dwarves possible Bonedancers.

Elves came not only from Celtic tradition, but from Norse as well. Tolkein's High Elves certainly draw parallels to the alfar. Elvish smithing in Tolkein's works may come from the notion that the svartalfar and dokkalfar ("swarthy elves" and "dark elves") are what are also called Dwarves. For those up in arms about the notion of Dark Elves starting as Dwarves, I should note that as the lesser of two evils. The word "Drow" actually started as the world "troll".

Smaug may have flown right out of the text of Beowulf. His dragon gold certainly hearkens back to that ill-fated Nibelung hoard, and poor old Thorin again. The gold, and consequently the One Ring, causes desire in everyone who does not possess it, but brings only death for those that do. Dragon gold, of course, has lead many to their doom on badly planned raids.

So the next time you put on a suit of mithril armor, or wield a mithril weapon, remember J.R.R. Tolkein and his love of the Germanic. As Old Norse mythology influenced him, so did he influence Mythic's take on Midgard. After all, mithril was his invention.