Week 3: “Song” – Tuesday 14 March 2023
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Welcome to #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday.
The hub for this Twitter-based event can be found here.
Tolkien Trewsday (the Hobbit name for Tuesday!) invites the #Tolkien community to form a fellowship to collectively tweet about a pre-selected theme about Tolkien, his works and his life.
Each week a new theme will be selected, often via a poll or by a guest host/curator, and together we will build a collective outpouring of creativity, knowledge and love for J.R.R. Tolkien and the adaptions based on his works.
The inspiration for this comes from the highly successful #FolkloreThursday which engaged lovers of Folklore, academics, artists and more to use Twitter to discuss it.
We only ask that if you are joining in, please do so with courtesy and kindness in your tweets. This is a positive-action community event, open to all and supportive of fan diversity. Intolerance, racism, bigotry have no place here.
💬 This week’s theme
Week 3: “Song” – Tuesday 14
March 2023
Following a poll, Tolkien Trewsday invites you to join us for a day focused on the theme of "Song". From the Music of the Ainur, Tom Bombadil singing Wights and Hobbit walking songs, music and singing is at the heart of Tolkien’s works.
How to contribute
We are keeping it very simple. All you need to do to join is tweet something about the current week’s theme and use the following hashtags in your tweet:
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Your tweet, besides following the theme, can be anything. Examples include:
- Songs as magic
- Walking songs of Middle-earth
- Song in Tolkien's life
- Musicians, singers and poets
- Songs by others based on
Tolkien’s works
“Ainulindale – Harmony” by Anna Kulisz/kuliszu (2018). Source.Following the landscapes of
Middle-earth through song and music
”Behold your Music!”
– Ilúvatar, The Silmarillion: “Ainulindalë” by J.R.R. Tolkien
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s works music and song are the amongst the most powerful gifts of lúvatar. With his guidance, the choir of the Ainur sang Middle-earth into being in an event called “The Music of the Ainur”. There were three themes, the harmony of which was broken three times by the discord of Melkor (later Morgoth). As the discord rose lúvatar stood and closed the theme. He then showed the Ainur through a vision what their song had made – Eä in the Void. Eä is formed of "vast halls and spaces" but separated from the Void around it by the Walls of the World. Within Eä is Arda, the world inhabited by elves, men and others.
“Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Ilúvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void.”
Tolkien, J.R.R. and Tolkien, Christopher, “Ainulindalë” from The Silmarillion (2019 Kindle edition, HarperCollins: London)
“Luthien sends the court of Morgoth to sleep with a song of enchantment” by Pete Amachree (2020). Source.
Song and music are a powerful magic within Middle-earth: Tom Bombadil uses it against numerous beings such as Old Man Willow and the Barrow Wights. Lúthien entrances both Beren with song and sends the court of Morgoth into a magical slumber when she helps Beren seek out the Silmaril upon Morgoth’s iron crown. It was Finrod, brother of Galadriel, who went to Thargelion (East Beleriand) and awoke the sleeping men of Bëor with music played on a harp. Later, Finrod challenged Sauron in a contest of songs of power at Tol-in-Gaurhoth, though sadly Sauron was stronger.
“Finrod Felagund and Sauron: Battle of the songs of power” by mariaeldin/Bluebeard’s art crypt (Date?). Source.
Tolkien’s works are full of music,
song and poems (Tolkien, Hobbit, LOTR) but I want to talk specifically about
how song and landscape are intertwined in Tolkien as part of the creation myth
of the world and the creatures on it. I also want to compare that to similar ideas
in other (real) mythologies where song is important in creation. Song and music
do play their part in many religions and cultures across our world, but only in
some is it part of a creation myth. In the Old Testament “Genesis”, for
instance, it is the Word of God that is the creative force behind our planet
whilst in ancient Egypt the god Ra emerges from the primordial waters of chaos
at the beginning of everything, called Nun, to create other gods and then the
world.
In Tolkien’s “Ainulindalë” the oldest being, Ilúvatar, teaches and leads the other Ainur (Holy Ones) in a choir that brings about the world, Arda. They sing the world into existence. The Miwok Native Americans (Northern California) have a creation myth where at the beginning only water exists and there is no land. The first being is a Silver Fox who beings to feel lonely and so sings for a companion. A Coyote appears and they travel together. The Silver Fox makes a proposal:
“’We will sing the world’. They create the world together by dancing and singing. As they do so, the earth forms and takes shape.”
Bruchac, Joseph (1992) "Silver Fox and Coyote Create Earth" in Native American Animal Stories. Fulcrum Publishers: pp.3–4.
“Silver Fox and Coyote” by H. Kyoht Luterman (2003). Source (secondary).
The planet forming below them, they jump down to and continue to sing, bringing rivers, mountains, trees and animals into existence. In much the same way, in Tolkien’s Legendarium the chosen Ainur descend to Arda where they become known as the Valar, the “Powers of the World”.
“But when the Valar entered into Eä they were at first astounded and at a loss, for it was as if naught was yet made which they had seen in vision, and all was but on point to begin and yet unshaped, and it was dark. For the Great Music had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the Timeless Halls, and the Vision only a foreshowing; but now they had entered in at the beginning of Time, and the Valar perceived that the World had been but foreshadowed and foresung, and they must achieve it.”
Tolkien, J.R.R. and Tolkien, Christopher, “Ainulindalë” from The Silmarillion (2019 Kindle edition, HarperCollins: London)
Like the Silver Fox and Coyote of Miwok mythology, the Valar having entered Arda must now make “great labours” to build the world they saw in their vision. Whilst they do this, Melkor in jealousy attempts to undo their work and thus begins the first war between the Valar and Melkor.
“So began their great labours in wastes unmeasured and unexplored, and in ages uncounted and forgotten, until in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast halls of Eä there came to be that hour and that place where was made the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar.”
Tolkien, J.R.R. and Tolkien, Christopher, “Ainulindalë” from The Silmarillion (2019 Kindle edition, HarperCollins: London)
How these labours worked is not described in any detail but we can see Valar using song and prayer to create things. After the destruction of the Two Lamps, Yavanna sings the Two Trees into existence:
“And as they watched, upon the mound there came forth two slender shoots; and silence was over all the world in that hour, nor was there any other sound save the chanting of Yavanna. Under her song the saplings grew and became fair and tall, and came to flower; and thus there awoke in the world the Two Trees of Valinor.”
Tolkien, J.R.R. and Tolkien, Christopher, “Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 1: Of the Beginning of Days” from The Silmarillion (2019 Kindle edition, HarperCollins: London)
It is likely that song was used, alongside more physical acts, to help fashion the barren world the Valar descended to, just like the Silver Fox and Coyote sang their world into being in the Miwok mythology. And Song is used for other tasks across the Legendarium as described above in the actions of Tom Bombadil, Finrod and Lúthien.
“Yavanna's Trees” by Jacek
Kopalski (2012). Source (Secondary).The use of song to shape land during “The Music of the Ainur” continues later as a method to know and understand landscape as travel routes through song and poem. The Hobbits, shown through Bilbo and Frodo, love “Walking Songs” and we have variations such as “A Walking Song” and “The Road Goes Ever On” known as the Old Walking Song.
These Walking Songs, appearing in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, may not give precise instructions of route or actual landscape in front of the walker, but they indicate the features that will be encountered:
“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe,
Let them go! Let them go!
Sand and stone and pool and dell,
Fare you well! Fare you well!”The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 3: “Three is Company” by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Brandyfoot family nudge Poppy Proudfellow to sing her mother’s walking song, “This Wandering Day”
They are of course not singing landscape into existence, but the songs are a kind of mnemonic device, remembering landscape, to aid the traveller in their walking. This use of landscape is clearer in the song Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) sings during episode 5 (“Partings”) of Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”. With lyrics by J.D. Payne, the final version produced by composer Bear McCreary and sung on the show by Megan Richards had call-backs to both the Peter Jackson films and Tolkien’s own words. “This Wandering Day” is lore-wise the work of Poppy’s mother so a passed-down heritage of both walking route and morale boost via music. The song has become part of Harfoot tradition along the annual Migration route, a nod to the Tolkien-lore of the Hobbit “Wandering Days”. Bear McCreary does a fantastic write-up of the song creation process for “This Wandering Day” here.
The idea of songs passed down from generation to generation as part of landscape memory and ancestral routes is a key aspect of the Aboriginal Dreamtime and Songlines in Australia. There are complex and varied differences across Australia with these beliefs but essentially the Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, was a mythical past when Aboriginal Ancestors walked the land and created sacred sites and other places of significance. The routes they took across the land were called Songlines, the Ancestors singing landscape into memory and applying ceremony to the special places. “Singing the world into existence” the Ancestors,
“while travelling through the country, was thought to have scattered a trail of words and musical notes along the line of his footprints, and how these Dreaming-tracks layover the land...
In theory, at least, the whole of Australia could be read as a musical score. There was hardly a rock or creek in the country that could not or had not been sung.”
“Singing the land and signing the land: Exhibit 5” from a Bruce Chatwin article [Online] Accessed 12/3/23. Source: http://singing.indigenousknowledge.org/exhibit-5.html
The Songlines in Aboriginal art from the Japingka Aboriginal Art gallery in Perth, Western Australia. Source.
The Ancestors passed down these Songlines and their descendants continued the tradition:
“The man who went 'Walkabout' was making a ritual journey. He trod in the footprints of his Ancestor. He sang the Ancestor's stanzas without changing a word or note – and so recreated the Creation.”
“Singing the land and signing the land: Exhibit 5” from a Bruce Chatwin article [Online] Accessed 12/3/23. Source: http://singing.indigenousknowledge.org/exhibit-5.html
In Poppy’s “This Wandering Day” special places are remembered too, as part of the Migration route: “trees of stone”, “the light in the tower”, “eyes of pale fire” and “black sand for my bed”. The song is a remembered route to safety. The final line of “This Wandering Day” says “That not all who wonder or wander are lost” and connects to two different lines in two different mediums. The first part, about wonder, is Nori in “The Rings of Power” TV series:
“Haven’t you ever wondered… What else is out there? How far the river flows or where the sparrows learn the new songs they sing in Spring? I can’t help but feel there’s wonders in this world. Beyond our wanderin’”
-- Nori to Marigold on “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past).
Here also are special places: the end of the river and where sparrows learn new songs. The second part of the last line is from “The Lord of the Rings” and several characters repeat the line, “Not all those who wander are lost” including Gandalf, Strider and Bilbo, each loremasters in their own right.
The sharing of song passed down through the generations is something Tolkien admired in his works. The Elves, Men of Gondor and Hobbits of the Shire all saw great import in keeping these things alive and wrote them down. The great repositories of knowledge like Rivendell, the libraries of Minas Tirith and later the Undertowers at the Great Smials, all collected oral traditions such as song and poems as part of the wider Middle-earth cultural heritage.
Billy Boyd, Peregrin "Pippin" Took in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, closed the Hobbit films off with a spellbinding song called “The Last Goodbye”. The song was the perfect nod to Tolkien’s Walking songs following the landscapes of Middle-earth whilst remembering the joys and loss of adventure: “Over hill and under tree, Through lands where never light has shone, By silver streams that run down to the Sea”. The next line states, “To these memories I will hold” – the landscape is kept in song.
We started with part of a quote from Ilúvatar to the Ainur and return to it now, having seen some of the people of Middle-earth who keep the memory of landscape alive through song:
“Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added.”
– Ilúvatar, The Silmarillion: “Ainulindalë” by J.R.R. Tolkien
📌 More thoughts and things of interest
The topic of song in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien is vast and scholars and lore-fans will be researching and writing about it for many years to come.
I thought I would close this blog, following the pattern of what we learned above, bringing alive points of interest on the “landscape” of the Legendarium and works of Tolkien. Maybe some of these will inspire your own journey of discovery in pursuit of the magic of song.
🎵 Evan Palmer’s Aniurindale webcomic
An illustrated 54 page version
of J.R.R. Tolkien's Ainulindalë by Evan Palmer. Discover it here.
🎵 Donald Swann’s “The Road Goes
Ever On”
A book of sheet music as a
collaboration between JRR Tolkien and Donald Swann first published in 1967.
Information here.
🎵 Bilbo’s Last Song
A poem written by J.R.R.
Tolkien which is sung by Bilbo Baggins at the Grey Havens. Artist Pauline
Baynes created a beautiful poster in November 1974 which you can see here.
🎵 The Lord of the Rings: A
Musical Tale
Upcoming musical at the Watermill
Theatre near Bagnor, Newbury (UK). Details here.
🎵 Tolkien Ensemble
A Danish ensemble formed in
1995 to recreate the poems and songs of J.R.R. Tolkien. Their complete songs
were released as a boxed set of four CDs in 2006 with a beautifully illustrated
booklet by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. More information here and here.
📜 More lore: The Second Music of
the Ainur
The Second Music of the Ainur
would come after the Dagor Dagorath, the Battle of all battles, where Arda will
be rebuilt. The Ainur and the Children of Ilúvatar will participate in the
Second Music, making it greater than the first.
📜 More lore: Rúmi
The Valar told the Elves the
story of Music whilst they dwelt in Aman (the Blessed Realm) in the west. It
was the task of Rúmi, a loremaster of the Noldor in the city of Tirion, to
write down the story which became the Ainulindalë.
🎵 The Dread Crew of Oddwood,
“They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard”
A performance by the folk metal
band The Dead Crew of Oddwood at Bristol Renaissance Faire in 2010 can be found here.
📚 Further reading
Below are a few books, still in print, that feature music and song in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.
📗 Heidi Steimel and Friedhelm Schneidewind (2010). Music in Middle-earth (Cormarë Series No. 20). Walking Tree Publishers.
📗 David Harvey (2016). The Song of Middle-earth: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Themes, Symbols and Myths. HarperCollins.
📗 Heidi Steimel and Friedhelm Schneidewind (2019). Music in Tolkien's Work and Beyond (Cormarë Series No. 39). Walking Tree Publishers.
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