Tolkien Prediction #5 That the meaning and description of Núrnen would incorporate the word ‘bitter’.
“and the bitter inland sea of Núrnen amidmost”
(The Black Gate is Closed, TLoTR)
I have most of my research material, quite a large number of books on Tolkien, and almost all of Tolkien’s works in digital form. It allows me to search for words. I was talking with a friend about all of this- – and I suddenly realized what was going on (in fact the previous prediction occurred that way as well). Like a jigsaw piece suddenly falling into place. I knew that I would find the word bitter used to describe the inland sea. The reason being, Tolkien has used a device for constructing the Lord of the Rings. Another of his riddles. I started to realize more clearly what was going on over the last 12 months, and as happens so often in doing this, when researching something unrelated, I later stumbled upon a quote which verified it (or supported it- you need to collect a lot of interconnecting evidence). From ‘On Translating Beowulf’ from ‘The Monsters and the Critics’.
| Finally, Beowulf itself is like a line of its own verse written large, a balance of two great blocks, A + B; or like two of its parallel sentences with a single subject but no expressed conjunction. Youth + Age; he rose – fell. It may not be, at large or in detail, fluid or musical, but it is strong to stand: tough builder’s work of true stone |
I first discovered the mode of construction around two years ago. It seemed quite bizarre to begin with- one of the more bizarre things I’ve found. So I wasn’t 100% sure if I had it right or not. It evolved in another step to something a bit more intelligible last year. Christmas [2016] was something of a watershed when lots of things started to quickly fall into place. That was the third and latest evolution in my understanding of it. Tolkien has built the Lord of the Rings in True Stone. Not only has he incorporated what I would call (provable and demonstrable) fractalism or self-similarity, he has also a metaphorical set of stone masons tools with which he constructs the narrative, structure, and indeed landscape and the map. Each one of the characters in The Fellowship is one of these symbolic tools. He is building in ‘True Stone’. The relation described is in fact the relation between the map of the Lord of the Rings and the seven illuminated Ts as mentioned in the text.
The term fractal of course post dates Tolkien but we have examples in literature and pictorial art throughout history, and equally the tree, which is Tolkien’s primary motif and metaphor for the world, is self-similar. The study of philology (comparative histories of words: trees and branches of language development) would (might) naturally lead to an understanding and articulation of the world in those terms. The man was brilliant, and I stand by my claim that he is up there with the likes of Shakespeare and Beethoven.