Appendices.
Appendix I.
The Two Spirals in Tolkien’s Works.
I have identified over thirty instances of the spiral in Tolkien’s works. The most obvious appearances include:
1. The two spiralled columns in his illustration Before (A&I 34).
2. The two spiralled columns in his illustration Wickedness (A&I 37).
3. The two spiralling trees, AB, around the columns on the The Doors of Durin. (LotR 2.IV.305).
4. The two West Gate illustrations which show two sets of spirals (“AA” (Pictures 22) and “AB” (Pictures 24). The difference constitutes a riddle.
5. The two spiralled columns, AB, in the illustration Moria Gate (The Steps to the East Gate) (Pictures 24).
6. The “two trees utterly entwined” in his wedding poem (Carpenter 106). These being A and B, Tolkien and Edith.
7. The Ring of Barahir. The serpent devouring (A) and the serpent upholding (B). Beren is Tolkien, Lúthien is Edith. In the two serpents we can infer the two trees of his wedding poem from the words in the Silmarillion in which Tolkien describes his “house”- his lineage and his future wife:
“Fear left him, and the pride of the eldest house of Men returned to him; and he said: ‘My fate, O King, led me hither, through perils such as few even of the Elves would dare. And here I have found what I sought not indeed, but finding I would possess for ever. For it is above all gold and silver, and beyond all jewels. Neither rock, nor steel, nor the fires of Morgoth, nor all the powers of the Elf-kingdoms, shall keep from me the treasure that I desire. For Lúthien your daughter is the fairest of all the Children of the World’”(Sil. 200).
The two trees from Tolkien’s wedding poem are entwined and entangled: “two fair trees […] utterly entwined […] tangled in the sweet growth”(Carpenter 106). We can infer from the description of the Ring as “twin serpents” that the serpents are in fact “entwined”. The word “entwine” is from “twine” which is “from Old English twin “double thread,”“. In the Ring of Barahir passage we read:
“His words were proud, and all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarfin and his house. Then Melian leaned to Thingol’s side, and in whispered counsel bade him forgo his wrath. ‘For not by you,’ she said, ‘shall Beren be slain; and far and free does his fate lead him in the end, yet it is wound with yours. Take heed!’”(Sil. 200).
Here we can see that it is Thingol who is cast as the devouring serpent in opposing Beren’s betrothal to his daughter Lúthien. Beren has said that “all the powers of the Elf-kingdoms”, that being Thingol, will not prevent him taking Lúthien as his wife. This symbolism of the two serpents is later echoed and manifested by the witholding of the Ring and other heirlooms from Aragorn by Elrond, in Aragorn’s pursuit of Elrond’s daughter Arwen. Thingol’s fate is “wound” with Beren’s. “Wound” is the past tense of “wind”: “Old English windan “to turn, twist, plait, curl, brandish, swing” […] Meaning “to twine, entwine oneself around” […] “turn or twist round and round (on something)”.
We know that one serpent “upheld”. “Hold” gives: “Old English haldan […] “to contain; to grasp; to retain (liquid, etc.); to observe, fulfill (a custom, etc.); to have as one’s own; to have in mind (of opinions, etc.); to possess, control, rule; to detain, lock up; to foster, cherish, keep watch over; to continue in existence or action; to keep back from action,”” This echoes Aragorn’s statement: “here I have found what I sought not indeed, but finding I would possess for ever”. This obviously suggests the wedding vows “to have and to hold” But equally it could be regarded by the wife, Edith-Luthien negatively, such is the “happy war” of the Sun and Moon.
8. The illustration “Three Dragons”(Pictures 40) 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 (Tales 41).
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 (Letters from Father Christmas 20). This is paired with the spiral North Pole itself which is illustrated in his illustration “The Man in the Moon” (A&E 49).
11. Gandalf’s Fall and the Endless Stair, c.f. stair and chimney in Roverandom (Tales 41). In the dialectic the Balrog and Gandalf represent A (the Enemy) and B (The Free Peoples) ending with Gandalf’s return and the “stars wheeled over”. As a pair they are also a composite of the Mithraic iconography.
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) (LotR 2.II.260). “One great coil of vapour went whirling up, twisting round and round Orthanc”(LotR 3.X.571).
14. The “rising girdle” “wound snakelike” around Orodruin: “It climbed like a rising girdle from the west and wound snakelike about the Mountain, until before it went round out of view it reached the foot of the cone upon its
eastern side”(LotR 6.III.941).
15. The zig-zag rising path of Dunharrow, plate 165, Untitled (Three Sketches of Dunharrow) (A&I 170).
16. The winding stair of Cirith Ungol, plate 174, “Untitled (Tower of Kirith Ungol)” (A&I 177).
17. The final illustration of Mr.Bliss, the participants of the traditional Maypole dance spirally interweave the ribbons around the pole (Mr.Bliss 84).
18. The “red may-tree” from the two Cottage of Lost Play poems, (BoLT I.29). 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”.
19. Danuin, Ranuin, Fanuin, Tolkien’s equivalent of the three sisters Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis, and the interwoven cables of the Sun and Moon (BoLT IX.pp.218-219).
20. The “winding spiral road” around the mountain of Meneltarma on the star island of Numenor:
“Near to the centre of the Mittalmar stood the tall mountain called Meneltarma, Pillar of the Heavens, sacred to the worship of Eru Ilúvatar. Though the lower slopes of the mountain were gentle and grass-covered, it grew ever steeper, and towards the summit it could not be scaled; but a winding spiral road was made upon it, beginning at its foot upon the south, and ending below the lip of the summit upon the north”(Unfinished Tales [U.T.] 166).
21. The green and red interwoven “snake-like” pattern down the right border of the Númenórean carpet (Pictures 46).
22. The spiral around the “pallid minaret” from his poem “The Man in the Moon Came down Too Soon”(BoLT VIII.204) as seen in drawing The Man in the Moon (A&E 49), see note 10, above.
23. The right-handed spiral on the right turning “covered bridge” in the Untitled drawing of circa. 1915.
24. The idiosyncratic language of the “screw” in LotR, (LotR 2.X.pp.403-404) and (LotR 6.II.903).
25. The ladder flanked by the two thorn runes on the urn in his illustration Conversation with Smaug (Pictures 17), which are intended to be dwarf axes, with pun on turning axes, A and B. Tolkien leaves a hint in Hobbit, “axes are used for trees”(Hobbit 1.26).
26. Spirals A and B on the scroll bottom-right, Conversation with Smaug (Pictures 17).
27. In Farmer Giles of Ham, using the same pun on (turning) “axes” for the ‘ax’ element in the names of the Dragon Chrysophylax (A) paired with the sword Caudimaudax (B).
28. The two coils of the lemniscate appear in Hringboga Heorte Gefysed (Coiled Dragon, with Two ‘Flowers’) (A&I 52).
29. 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”(BoLT II.46).
30. The winding path around the hill with the shaven crown in the Old Forest passage: “The wood stood all round the hill like thick hair that ended sharply in a circle round a shaven crown. The hobbits led their ponies up, winding round and round until they reached the top”(LotR 1.VI.113).
31. The eagles spiralling up in their rescue in Hobbit: “Soon the light of the burning was faint below, a red twinkle on the black floor; and they were high up in the sky, rising all the time in strong sweeping circles.”(Hobbit VI.93)
32. The eagles spiralling down from their eyrie in The Hobbit. “circling round in great spirals. They did this for a long while”(Hobbit VI.97).
33. The Nazgûl spiralling in the air. “The Nazgûl gave a long wailing cry and swerved away; and with that the four others wavered, and then rising in swift spirals”(LotR 5.IV.810).
Regarding instance (4.). The two two right-handed spirals (AA) in the West Gate drawing detail are intended to be mirrors of the two raised left hands (two left-handed spirals) at the North Gate, the Argonath. This is because the West Gate and North Gate are mirror images of each other. The West Gate is associated with the Moon and silver. The North Gate is associated with the Sun and gold. The Two Trees of Sun and Moon at the West Gate are mirrors to the statues of Anárion and Isildur representing the Sun and Moon at the North Gate. The first ‘Moria Gate’ shows the two ‘right-handed’ spirals, AA. We can directly link the handedness of the spirals with the Sun and Moon by equating the two spirals with their crescent moon shapes around the Doors of Durin with the two crescent moons in the trees. The spirals around the two columns which bear clear crescent moons shapes in the left hand image can be equated with the trees with the crescent moon shapes in this image on the right. Therefore we can conclude that the two spirals are Sun and Moon and that they are right and left handed and have opposite contrary directions. These equate to the two oars in the river. The river is water and the Music of the Ainur is water which has harmony and discord, the “two music utterly at variance”. These paired phenomena are all manfestations of the two hands of Ilúvatar in the Music of the Ainur. Therefore we can see an equivalence in all of these things. However, at the West Gate we have two right-hands, two moons, the two crescent moons. At the north gate we have two left-hands, two suns, even though Isildur the moon is present. Therefore the gates are in some way disfunctional because as we’ve already observed in the etymology, doors originally had two halves which swung in contrary directions. In these doors the two halves swing in the same direction. Therefore we can identify them as representing discord as opposed to harmony. This makes sense given that Frodo is attacked at the West Gate after which the gate is barred by the Watcher and Gandalf falls in Moria. This is echoed in the killing of Boromir at the north Gate which results in the capture of Merry and Pippin and the separation of the Fellowship.
