Tolkien hid many things inside his works, in riddles[1], acrostics[2], anagrams[3]. Clive Kilby, who met Tolkien, relates to us that he came away with the impression that Tolkien was very secretive and played riddles with his audience and friends.[4] I have said for a long time that he also hid things in his images, in “plain sight”.
Continuing on from my previous blog about Tolkien’s image ‘Before’ in which I mentioned ‘Undertenishness’.
To reiterate from my previous blog, in ‘Before’ the wings are fairly straightforward to see, once somebody points them out to you. I’d looked at this picture many times before I noticed them. I then later saw that the figure also had a head, two eyes and shoulders (above the top of the door with an orange colour). You can even see two black coloured eyes in the head. I’d looked at this picture many times before because it was one of the images that contributed to my hypothesis of the ‘Door’ being represented by the Dagaz rune in Tolkien’s works (see homepage). This dagaz rune (the butterfly rune) has an obvious “X” perspective shape which you find repeatedly in many of his images. The dagaz rune is used to denote the Magic Door on the Dwarf map of Erebor. The door as a butterfly rune would explain why a door figure in ‘Before’ has wings. Hammond and Scull have also observed a hidden butterfly in Tolkien’s early drawing ‘Undertenishness’ made not long after ‘Before’, in 1913 [5].
If you look at the top two wings in the butterfly in Undertenishness can you see that they might resemble a domed tent or some kind of pavilion? Pavilion is a word Tolkien uses quite a lot. If we look at its etymology we find:
pavilion (n.)
early 13c., paviloun, “large, stately tent raised on posts and used as a movable habitation,” from Old French paveillon “large tent; butterfly” (12c.), from Latin papilionem (nominative papilio) “butterfly, moth,” in Medieval Latin “tent” (see papillon); the type of tent was so called on its resemblance to wings. [6]
This tells us that when Tolkien uses the word pavilion in his narratives, he is referring to the ‘Door’. That means that the characters in the narrative are near to crossing a threshold. What that means in full will be discussed elsewhere. But you can see what happens when you cross the threshold and pass through the door in ‘Before’ and its sister image ‘Afterwards’.
IMAGE
To quote Hammond and Scull:
“Afterwards [31] forms, a pair with Before, and probably was drawn on an adjoining piece of paper (now separated)…Could Before be the entrance to death and Afterwards the soul travelling on its way?” [7]
Firstly, when you pass over you TURN, and you turn 90 degrees. The clue to the importance of the turn in this image is in Tolkien’s use of the word ‘afterwards’, where he could more easily have called it ‘After’ right? The etymology of afterward gives:
Old English æfterwearde “behind, in back, in the rear,” from æft “after” (see aft) + -weard suffix indicating direction (see -ward);
-ward
Old English -weard “toward,” literally “turned toward,” sometimes -weardes, with genitive singular ending of neuter adjectives, from Proto-Germanic *werda- (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian -ward, Old Norse -verðr), variant of PIE *werto- “to turn, wind,” from root *wer- (2) “to turn, bend.”
So we can deduce that passing over through the Door is not simply concerned with time, but also of physical or some kind of change in orientation. That would imply a change temporally and spatially, in Time and Space. This suggests that this is possibly quite an important symbol.
Hammond and Scull are right, these two images do represent Life and the Afterlife.
The Dev rune (ᛞ) is called dæg “day” in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem. []
Dagaz is from “day” The Anglo-saxon rune poem for dagaz is translated:
“Day, the glorious light of the Creator, is sent by the Lord;
it is beloved of men, a source of hope and happiness to rich and poor,
and of service to all.”
The etymology of day gives:
day (n.)
Old English dæg “period during which the sun is above the horizon,” also “lifetime, definite time of existence,”.
So the passage along the corridoor in Before to the Afterlife afterwards, is a lifetime. Therefore this is the crossing between life and death. In Afterwards we see streams of light coming from the door like a dawn.
dawn (v.)
c. 1200, dauen, “to become day, grow light in the morning,” shortened or back-formed from dauinge, dauing “period between darkness and sunrise,” (c. 1200), from Old English dagung, from dagian “to become day,” from Proto-Germanic *dagaz “day” (source also of German tagen “to dawn”), from PIE root *agh- “a day.” Probably influenced by Scandinavian cognates (Danish dagning, Old Norse dagan “a dawning”).
As the rune poem says the Afterlife, the light of day, dagaz, “is beloved of men, a source of hope and happiness”. When Bombadil opens the barrow to free the hobbits from the wight we see the rising sun behind him. The Megalithic door in Before is the megalthic door in the barrow, a common feature of ancient tumuli and barrows.
“There was a loud rumbling sound, as of stones rolling and falling, and suddenly light streamed in, real light, the plain light of day. A low door-like opening appeared at the end of the chamber beyond Frodo’s feet; and there was Tom’s head (hat, feather, and all) framed against the light of the sun rising red behind him. The light fell upon the floor,”
This is very remeniscent of the light in Afterwards. The hobbits are naked, suggesting a new birth. When the company cross into the Undying lands we see a ‘passing’ and a dawn:
“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”
Again we see a ‘rolling back’ just like in the barrow opening. The tomb of Christ obviously springs to mind which represents ressurrection and the Afterlife. And if we look at roll we can see how the TURN we see in the change between Before and Afterwards, life and death, crossing a threshold, is very relevant. Moreover the butterfly was a symbol of the soul, in Greek myth with psyche. Hammond and Scull describe Before: “It has the atmosphere of a Greek tragedy”. [] Looking at the Bombadil passage:
roll (v.)
early 14c., rollen, “turn over and over, move by rotating” (intransitive); late 14c. in the transitive sense of “move (something) by turning it over and over;”…from Latin rotula, diminutive of rota “wheel” (see rotary)…From c. 1400 as “wrap or cover by rolling or enclosing” in something, also “wrap round and round an axis;”
rotary (adj.)
1731, from Medieval Latin rotarius “pertaining to wheels,” from Latin rota “a wheel, a potter’s wheel; wheel for torture,” from PIE root *ret- “to run, to turn, to roll”
We see in roll “wrap round and round an axis”. Do you see the two spiralled columns in ‘Before’? Well, you’ll see them again in his image ‘Wickedness’ drawn around the same time. In fact you’ll find the spiral and the twinned spirals in a lot of places in his works. And you’ll also find Tolkien using the expression of the “turn”, to turn, pretty much everywhere. Tolkien gives us hints about these spirals throughout his works. The most obvious appearances include:
1. The two spiralled columns in his illustration ‘Before’.*
2. The two spiralled columns in his illustration ‘Wickedness’.*
3. The two spiralling trees, AB, around the columns on the The Doors of Durin,*.
4. The two West Gate illustrations which show two sets of spirals (AA and AB). The difference constitutes a riddle (see Chapter ‘Mirror and Chiasmus’). The first ‘Moria Gate’* shows two ‘right-handed’ spirals, AA.
5. The two spiralled columns, AB, in the illustration ‘Moria Gate (The Steps to the East Gate)’*
6. The “two trees utterly entwined” in his wedding poem. These being A and B, Tolkien and Edith.
7. The Ring of Barahir. The serpent devouring (A) and the serpent upholding (B).
8. The illustration “Three Dragons” gives a dragon’s tail spiralling upwards around a tree. This symbolizes both spirals, A (dragon) and B (Tree). The pun is on ‘Tree of Tails’.
9. The corkscrew staircase (A) in Roverandom which leads down through the centre of the moon to the dark side paired with the chimney (B) which leads in the ‘opposite direction’ upwards.
10. The double spiral forming the central spire of the new house that Father Christmas moves into after North Polar Bear breaks the North Pole. This is paired with the spiral North Pole itself which is illustrated in his illustration “The Man in the Moon”.*
11. The Fall and Endless Stair, c.f. stair and chimney in Roverandom. The Balrog and Gandalf represent A (the Enemy) and B (The Free Peoples) ending with Gandalf’s return and the “stars wheeled over”.
12. The alternating switch-back classical labyrinth design of the plan of Minas Tirith. The alternation of directions symbolize the left-handed and right-handed spirals around the axis mundi.
13. At the destruction of Isengard, the coil of vapour (B) twisting around Orthanc with its “”narrow stair of many thousand steps”(A).
14. The ”rising girdle” of the path that “wound snakelike” around Orodruin*. *The Lord of the Rings, Book 6, Chapter 3.
15. The zig-zag rising path of Dunharrow.* *plate 165, Untitled (Three Sketches of Dunharrow) J.R.R. Tolkien Artist & Illustrator.
16. The winding stair of Cirith Ungol.* *plate 174, p.177 “Untitled (Tower of Kirith Ungol) J.R.R. Tolkien Artist & Illustrator.
17. The final illustration of Mr.Bliss, the participants of the traditional Maypole dance spirally interweave the ribbons around the pole.*
18. The “red may-tree” from the two Cottage of Lost Play poems.*
The hawthorn is known as the “may-tree”. The etymology of haw is from PIE root *kagh- “to catch seize; wickerwork fence”. “Wicker” is from PIE root *weik- (2) “to bend, to wind.” This symbol is repeated in the May Tree at the end of Mr.Bliss, see previous note. It grows ubiquitously in Oxfordshire and it was known in folklore as the Faerie tree, being inhabited by faeries and guardian spirits. Other names include whitethorn and ‘quickthorn’. Quick means living. ‘Quickset hedging’ was done to enclose land.
19. Danuin, Ranuin, Fanuin, Tolkien’s equivalent of the 3 sisters Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis, and the interwoven cables of the Sun and Moon.*
20. The green and red interwoven “snake-like” pattern down the right border of the Númenorean carpet.*
21. The spiral around the “pallid minaret” in “The Man in the Moon” drawing.
22. The right-handed spiral on the right turning “covered bridge” in the Untitled drawing of circa. 1915.
23. The idiosyncratic language of the “screw” in The Lord of the Rings.
24. The ladder flanked by the two thorn runes on the urn in his illustration, ‘Conversation with Smaug’*, which are intended to be dwarf axes, with pun on axes meaning plural of axis, ‘axes’, A and B. See Chapter ‘Mirrors and Chiasmus’.
25. Spirals A and B on the scroll bottom-right, ‘Conversation with Smaug’
26. In Farmer Giles of Ham, using the same pun on axes for the ‘ax’ element in the names of the Dragon Chrysophylax (A) paired with the sword Caudimaudax (B).
27. The two coils of the lemniscate appear in “Hringboga Heorte Gefysed (Coiled Dragon, with Two Flowers’)*
28. The spiral oak stair in the Cottage of Lost Play. Now that was Ilverin or Littleheart. These two guided him down the corridor of broidered stories to a great stair of oak, and up this he followed them. It wound up and round until it brought them to a passage lit by small pendent lamps of coloured glass, whose swaying.
29. The winding path around the hill with the shaven crown in the Old Forest passage.
Relating the passing of the fellowship over into Aman, and the barrow opening, with the turn and Before and Afterwards, remember the words of Gandalf on the bridge facing the menacing winged figure of the Balrog? “You cannot pass”.
pass (v.)
late 13c., passen (transitive), “to go by (something),” also “to cross over,” from Old French passer “to pass” (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *passare “to step, walk, pass” (source also of Spanish pasar, Italian passare), from Latin passus “step, pace” (from PIE root *pete- “to spread“).
Death is described as a “crossing over”. The winged figure in Before reminds us of the Balrog. In Before it represents the fear of death and the doubt in the reality of the Afterlife which originates with the the lies of the Devil. We can further link the moment on the bridge of khazad-dum to ‘Before’ via the words “step” and “spread” that we see in the etymology of pass.
“Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.’
The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall;”
The Devil Melkor created the fear of life without hope in the Afterlife. Tolkien tells us in his draft of the Ainulindale:
“In this way the mischief of Melko spread darkening the music,…Melkor creates: “flame, cold without mercy, been born, and death without hope.”
And in the Silmarillion Tolkien describes the discords as a ‘spreading’:
“Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound.”
What’s the significance of step and spread exactly? We can relate the spreading wings in Before and of the Balrog to the discords ‘spreading’. We are told that the fear of death “death without hope” results from his discords. And the threshold we see in Before is the threshold of death. And Gandalf sacrifices himself on the bridge. But there is a deeper relevance of spread, stretch, though. which we don’t have space to go into here. Looking at step:
stair (n.)
Middle English steir, from Old English stæger “stair, staircase, flight of steps arranged one behind and above the other,” from Proto-Germanic *staigri (source also of Middle Dutch stegher, Dutch steiger “a stair, step, quay, pier, scaffold;” German Steig “path,” Old English stig “narrow path”).
The stair recalls a number of things, most notably the Endless Stair which Gandalf and the Balrog ascend up after first falling down- it spirals up, rather like the spirals in Before. Old English stig gives “narrow path”. That’s the “narrow way” of Christian dogma, which is the path of life which is the corridoor in Before. It’s also the bridge of Khazad dum.
“Look ahead! ‘ called Gandalf. `The Bridge is near. It is dangerous and narrow.'”
And later:
“Over the bridge!’ cried Gandalf, recalling his strength. `Fly! This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow way. Fly! ‘”
‘Narrow’ is also used elswehere such as in their first attempted crossing over the Misty Mountains. It’s a recurring image because it represents a recurring symbolism which you can see in his drawings, which involve the crossing of a threshold through a door of some kind. It’s a recurring event in his literary machinery. And what’s more we can further link the crossing over of the bridge of Khazad-dum with all of this imagery and repeating symbolism in the two spirals that appear in Before replicated in Tolkien’s image of the East Gate of Moria. IMAGE Has anybody ever pondered why the features in the rocks in Tolkien’s image of the West Gate line up exactly with the features of the East Gate? IMAGE This is because Tolkien’s grammar is based on mirrors. The presence of Mirrormere and Galadriel’s mirror to the East Gate is a hint.
So we can infer that the narrow way leads in between the two columns, the ‘middle way’ in Before which are spirals which both turn in opposite directions. The figure in Afterwards takes the left hand turn. This middle way, the narrow way is deeply embedded in religious thought. And Tolkien invites us earlier in the Moria passage to make more sense of this symbolism:
“Before him stood a wide dark arch opening into three passages: all led in the same general direction, eastwards; but the left-hand passage plunged down, while the right-hand climbed up, and the middle way seemed to run on,
smooth and level but very narrow.”
This soudns rarther like the three paths in the rhyme Thomas A Rhymer whfich Tolkein cites in On Fairy Stories, wihch has “yon narrow road..That is the path of Righteousness, the “braid road…That is the path of Wickedness and “yon bonny road…the road to fair Elfland”.
In other words, given the Endless Stair and the battle between good and evil, Gandalf and the Balrog, and the devil appearing at the door in the middle of ‘Before’, and given the Balrog comes from deep down below in Moria, and given we know that heaven is up and hell is down, we are invited to pair the two spirals in Before and in the East Gate of the Moria illustration with spirals leading us up and down: the two orientations of Good and Evil of the Gandalf and the Balrog. And these orientations we can pair with the left turn or the right turn in Before and Afterwards. Spirals in common terminology are described as right-handed or left-handed. In other words, to turn left is to turn up to heaven, to turn right is to turn down to hell. In fact this ‘handedness’ of orientation relates directly to the two hands of Iluvatar in the discords sequence.
This relation is also supported in the etymology of stair which gives ‘step’ which is the Endless spiral stair filled with steps and the effects of the discords of Melkor ‘to spread’. And remember we also see these two spirals in ‘Wickedness’ in which a figure is suggested by the hand to be about to pass over a threshold, coming from the opposite direction to that suggested in Before. When Iluvatar raises both of his hands, at the “two musics utterlry at variance”, the two sprials, Su and moon are fused together into a counjunction of opposites. This is why “West of the Moon, east of the sun”?? is an impossible place to reach because it defies human reasoning and relies on faith and the heart. WEst ofr the moon east of the Sun after all deos sound like a conjunction of oppsites.
Undertenishness
So we’ve spoken about a narrow middle way which leads to a door (dagaz, the buttefly rune) which crosses a threshold accompanied by a change of orientation, the TURN. This helps to explain why Tolkien hid a butterfly in ‘Undertenishness’. It also supports my annotation of the genreal form of the image conforming or suggesting the “X” dagaz shape.
We have some more repeated symbolism in Undertenishness. In Undertenishness we can see two trees. It’s obvious what these are- these later become the Two Trees of the Sun and Moon. We know that the Gates of Moria which are using this symbolism also have two trees to either side of the door and Tolkien gives us a hint in his image where we can see two spirals to either side of the columns in his illutration. IMAGE? These two spirals are repeated in ‘Wickedness’ and in his east gate illustration. But the west gate spirals are both going the same way. We have no time to explain why that is in this essay but it is part of a riddle which includes the mirrored features on the east and west.
So we can equate the two spirals with the two trees. And so we can equate the two sprials with the Sun and Moon. And therefore given my argument we can equate these things to the left and right hands of Iluvatar. And these are the Lady of the Sun and The Man in the Moon. Christopher tells us that these two are real people. They are Tolkien and Edith. Given their identity can an you see a suggestion of anthropomorphism in the Two Trees in Undertenishness? Imagine they have two arms raised up and mgiht be regarded as being on on their knees.
If the door lies between two trees and they have been identified with Tolkien and Edith, might we regard the two wings of the butterfly as corresponding to this duality?
door (n.)
“movable barrier, commonly on hinges,…Middle English had both dure and dor; the form dore predominated by 16c. but was supplanted later by door. The oldest forms of the word in IE languages frequently are dual or plural, leading to speculation that houses of the original Indo-Europeans had doors with two swinging halves.
The two wings of the butterfly are the two halves of this door. We can relate these two halves to the hinges, which swing in opposite directions, which are the left and right-handed spirals and the left and right turns. These are the two musics “utterly at variance” in the Music of the Ainur. And I’ve related these to the Sun and Moon who are Edith and Tolkien. We can relate the door with hinges to the Magalithic door in Before because henge comes from the same root as hinge. Hence why we see the two wings attached to the two uprights of the door in Before. The two contrary directions of turning of these two halves is further supported by the TURN on the other side, that being either left or right. Therefore we can equate the two uprights in the Megalithic door to the two spirals and all of the other dualistic phenomena.
in Undertenishness can you see leading to the head of the butterfly what appears to be a “^” shaped lane flanked by green trees? This is the narrow middle way, the Lane of Dreams, the Olórë Mallë, the Straight road, etc. This leads to place “West of the Moon, East of the Sun”.
“Lindelos there was a light there as of summer evening, save only when the silver lamps were kindled on the hill at dusk, and then little lights of white would dance and quiver on the paths, chasing black shadow-dapples under the trees. This was a time of joy to the children, for it was mostly at this hour that a new comrade would come down the lane called Olórë Mallë or the Path of Dreams. It has been said to me, though the truth I know not, that that lane ran by devious routes to the homes of Men, but that way we never trod when we fared thither ourselves. It was a lane of deep banks and great overhanging hedges, beyond which stood many tall trees wherein a perpetual whisper seemed to live; but not seldom great glow-worms crept about its grassy borders.”
Tolkien, Christopher. The Book of Lost Tales 1 (The History of Middle-earth, Book 1) (p. 18). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
But if this lane is also the narrow way in Moria, this lane in the Moria narrative is leading east, not the Straight Road leading into the West! The West Straight road is only one manifestation of this phenomenon. The Straight road leads in all 4 cardinal directions and it existed before the World was made round in the Second Age Cataclysm. It was made in the Music of the Ainur. Each of the FRee Peoples of Elf, Men, Hobbit and Dwarf all pursue destinies along these cardinal axes. It is the fundamental device with which Tolkien moves the narrative forward through the reorientation of characters via the crossing of thresholds, passing through ‘doors’, whether literal or metaphorical -‘rites of passage’. And since crossing through these doors is accompanied by a change of orientation, the TURN, and since these are associated with the two spirals- asscociated with up and down to heaven and hell, then therefore crossing these thresholds equate to the characters moving upwards to ‘higher truths’ closer to God and their destinies. In other words, Before and Afterwards not only symbolizes the crossing over between Life and the Afterlife, they also symbolize all of the many doors passed through in order to go upwards towards the light and the Final Door of Death. These doors lead to higher rational planes. This will be covered elsewhere on my site but consider this statement by Tolkien:
“Let us consider this point alone, at first. Why? Well, if we try to ascend straightaway to a rational plane, and leave behind mere anger with anyone who interferes with our habits”
Does this upward spritual journey through gates remind us of Dante’s Purgatorio? Can you see Purgatorio in Minas tirith? Minas tirith’s plan is laid out as a classical labyrinth. The classical labyrinth appeared on the floors of of many churches such as Chartres, and were walked as part of a pilgrimage, a physical journey of (re)orientation, which at a deeper level was a journey of the soul. And so the inner journey of the soul of Dante in Purgatoria is outwardly incarnated in the physical world as the tiered city. The same is true for the Lord of the Rings. Both Dante’s Divina Comedia and Tolkien’s mythos are symbolic landscapes, the outer world is the inner soul incarnate, much like the Arthurian heterocosmos- in which Tolkien took a deep interest. Navigating a labyrinth requires many turns, and each turn in minas tirith takes you through a gate to a higher level of the city. And the plan of the city is a composite of left and right turns, left and right spirals. And this reminds us of the maze of Moria with its spirals and middle way. Minas tirith is intended to suggest Mino-taur. Mazarbul, is intended to suggest Maze-AR-bull. AR being the Sun, phonetic “R”. The maze is caused by the discords of Melkor, the “two music utterly at variance” -producing the two spirals which travel in contrary ways.
How many turns does it require to ascend Purgatoria and Minas tirith?
“Far more powerful and poignant is the effect in a serious tale of Faërie. In such stories when the sudden “turn” comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through.
“Seven long years I served for thee,
The glassy hill I clamb for thee,
The bluidy shirt I wrang for thee,
And wilt thou not wauken and turn to me?”
He heard and turned to her.”
Purgatoria and Minas tirith both have 7 levels, so this journey is a journey of 7 turns through 7 doors. Metaphorically it is a passage of 7 years. A year is a passage of the Sun. THe Sun, the Day’ Eye illuminates the day, and a day means lifteime as we have seen. This explains the AR in Mazarbul beingr the Sun. The Sun slants in through the ast wall into Mazarbul and Gadnalf describes himself as wielder fo the Flame of Anor, the Sun. Minas tirith is also minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun. This journey to the top of the glassy hill ends with Aragorn’s (Tolkien) and Arwen’s (Edith’s) marriage. The glassy hill appears in the black Bull of Norroway. The hill is treacherous much like a maze might be, like the ‘hill’ of Minas-tirith and mazarbul, both incorporating word play on word-play on ‘bull’.
So you might be asking, so how exactly do characters go through this door? What are the mechanics of that in narrative terms? I’ll return to that in a later blog. You can find some brief outlines on my homepage.
[1] ‘Bombadil’ riddle (“enigma”), Letters, #144 To Naomi Mitchison.
[2] ‘The Riddles of the Hobbit’, Adam Roberts.
[3] ‘Breaking the Tolkien Code’, Priya Seth.
[4] ‘Tolkien and the Silmarillion’, Clive Kilby.
[] [6] J.R.R Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator, Hammond & Scull, page 35.