Week 15: Mountains/hills –
Tuesday 6th June 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 15: “Mountains/hills” –
Tuesday 6th June 2023
Following a poll, the theme of “Mountains/hills” was chosen.
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:
- Mountains and hills in the Legendarium
- Favourite mountain or hill
- Mountains and hills in adaptions
The Misty Mountains in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
The Rings of Power” (Episode 4: The Great Wave).
Week 15: Mountains as characters in Tolkien’s legendarium
If you’ll pardon the walking pun, when the theme of “Mountains/hills” was voted in for this Tolkien Trewsday, there were many paths I could have taken for a blog. The Blue Mountains for example have always appealed to me and have appeared in a few adaptions now. I thought about the Weather Hills in LOTRO and especialy Weathertop. And I also considered Amon Rûdh. Whilst researching I discovered quite a lot of material about the geology of Middle-earth too, and I’ll share some of those resources at the end, and how geologists and geographers get frustrated with Tolkien’s mountain ranges.
Today I wanted to focus on something that will be an ongoing part of my research into the natural (as well as supernatural/preternatural) world of Middle-earth: the idea that Middle-earth itself is a living being in its own right. This short blog will hopefully be later expanded upon.
Across Tolkien’s sources and
also in adaptions, mountains play important roles in Middle-earth – as
obstacles and barriers whilst also strongholds and homes for various beings. In
the mythical battles between the Valar and Melkor, whole mountain ranges were
raised up and thrown down. The shape of Middle-earth changed.
Thorin’s Company walking in the Misty Mountains in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
One mountain range holds a special place in Tolkien lore as pivotal in both books Tolkien released in his lifetime: The Misty Mountains.
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.-- “Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold” poem from JRR Tolkien, “The Hobbit” (Chapter I: An Unexpected Party).
The Misty Mountains (Towers
of Mist, Sindarin: Hithaeglir) divided Eriador in the west from the
Wilderland of Anduin, Mirkwood and Erebor in the east. Under the northernmost
peak of Gundabad, according to Dwarf legend, the eldest of the
Seven Fathers known as Durin awoke. Midway along the range lay Khazad-dûm,
the greatest of Dwarven kingdoms. Gundabad eventually became a haven for orcs
and another realm called Goblin-Town plagued the movement of the Free Peoples.
This mountain range is special, full of life though also death. One mystery Tolkien includes is a being infrequently mentioned but plays a part in the Hobbit, both in the book by Tolkien himself and also in adaptions; giants. What Tolkien meant by giants is hard to pin down, some saying it was Bilbo being playful with words whilst others believe the giants are real.
“When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang.”
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Chapter IV: Over Hill and under Hill)
For me this scene is very real,
something part of the wild landscape and mystery of Middle-earth. The
characters do not interact at all with the giants in this scene from the book,
merely witnessing these forces of nature clash amongst terrible weather which
eventually forces them into a cavern which is more than it seems. The mountains
are characterised by these enigmatic beings who dwell there – parts of the
mountainside become weapons to be used.
Lighting flashes in the sky whilst a giant picks up a boulder atop the
In the Peter Jackson “The Hobbit” trilogy this scene becomes even more dramatic. The giants rise up, magically, from the mountainside itself, initially part of it and then separating themselves from it and becoming their own entity. Their whole existence seems to be to fight other giants, as a new one appears the winner of the previous fights goes on the attack. The mountain is in essence fighting itself.
Balin: This is no thunder-storm. It’s a thunder-battle. Look.
Bofur: Well bless me. The legends are true. Giants! Stone-giants!-- Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey”
A giant awakens in the Misty Mountains in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
The mountain as living landscape is vividly visualised in this adaption as the Dwarves and Bilbo are thrown about the mountain paths whilst the giants battle. The giants here are not separate beings living on the mountaintops but part of it the mountains themselves, supernatural beings made of rock, possibly encouraged to life during the lightning storms – in both book and film versions the giants fight whilst lightning strikes around them.
Lightning in the Misty Mountains plays a role in another adaption, Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, when Elrond is asked to recall a legend by Gil-galad. “The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir”. Note Hithaeglir is the Sindarin name for the Misty Mountains. The story is considered to be apocryphal by some (hence Elrond’s hesitation in retelling it), describes the battle between an elf and a Balrog over a tree atop the Misty Mountains. Within the roots of the tree lies one of the lost Silmarils. At a crucial point in the story, lighting strikes the tree and the light from the Silmaril spreads deep into the mountain, forming a new and special ore later to be called Mithril. This non-canon legend, made specifically for the Amazon television series, does fit an epic and mythological theme that is at the core of Tolkien’s works – landscape and material formed of magical clashes.
Lightning strikes the tree in a scene from “The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir”
in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
The Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” does not only attempt to form a mythological lore for Mithril, it also creates wonderful lore for the Dwarves themselves which connects them deeply with the mountains that home them and this is told through the story and character of Princess Disa, wife of Prince Durin IV played by Sophia Nomvete. Disa is not part of Tolkien’s canon but through Sophia Nomvete’s wonderful performance, has earned a place in the heart of many fans. Across several interviews, Sophia describes Disa:
Princess Disa talks to Elrond in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
The Rings of Power” (Season 1 Episode 2: Adar)
“Disa’s gift is to resonate,
and the rocks listen. She speaks to the mountains,” says Nomvete
-- Variety (2022), source.
“This is Disa’s magic – using the power of her voice in order to literally move mountains!”
-- Sophia Nomvete quoted on Bear McCreary’s blog, source.
In Episode 3 (“Adar”) of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, Disa explains to Elrond about the Dwarven ability to resonate:
Disa: I was resonating a freshly-opened chamber, fairly confident we were onto a sizeable silver deposit…
Elrond: “Resonating?” I’ve not heard of resonating.
Disa: It’s when we sing to the stone. You see, a mountain’s like a person. It’s a long and ever-changing story made of countless small parts. Earth and ore, air and water.
Sing to it properly, each of those parts will reflect your song back to you, telling you its story, showing you what might be hidden, where to mine, where to tunnel, and… and where to leave the mountain untouched.Elrond: It is a beautiful tradition.
Princess Disa singing “A Plea to the Rocks” in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
The Rings of Power” (Season 1 Episode 4: The Great Wave)
This beautifully realised idea of a mountain as alive in some way and the Dwarves communicating with it through song and voice later becomes a crucial plot point in the Khazad-dûm story. When the Mithril mine suffers a collapse, Disa is called on to sing to the mountain and ask for the safe return of the miners. The scene has one of the most haunting and beloved musical pieces in the series, “A Plea to the Rocks” (Written by Bear McCreary, performed by Sophia Nomvete). It should be noted Sophia Nomvete sang this live on set and a lot of the cast (including Robert Aramayo who plays Elrond) heard it for the first time during that performance. You can hear it here.
After the song is complete, Elrond asks Disa:
Elrond: What was that?
Disa: It was a plea to the rocks to release the bodies of the miners with breath still inside them.
In “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Dwarves revere and respect the mountain that forms their home and consider it a living being that will listen to their requests in time of need. The mountain can be benevolent.
The mountain ledge on Caradhras in Peter Jackson’s
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”
But as we see in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” mountains
can be malevolent. At the advice of Gandalf, the Fellowship company attempt the
high pass of Caradhras to help them reach their destination. Gimli in
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” (Book Two, Chapter 3: The
Ring goes South) mentions “cruel Caradhras” on which he later expands:
‘Caradhras was called the Cruel, and had an ill name,’ said Gimli, ‘long years ago, when rumour of Sauron had not been heard in these lands.’
-- J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” (Book Two, Chapter 3: The Ring goes South)
Gimli continues to refer to the mountain as having sentience and ill-will towards them as they attempt to journey further:
Gimli looked up and shook his head. ‘Caradhras has not forgiven us,’ he said. ‘He has more snow yet to fling at us, if we go on. The sooner we go back and down the better.’
-- J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” (Book Two, Chapter 3: The Ring goes South)
and again, soon after:
‘Ah, it is as I said,’ growled Gimli. ‘It was no ordinary storm. It is the ill will of Caradhras. He does not love Elves and Dwarves, and that drift was laid to cut off our escape.’
-- J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” (Book Two, Chapter 3: The Ring goes South)
Finally they retreat off the mountain pass and Caradhras relents:
‘Enough, enough!’ cried Gimli. ‘We are departing as quickly as we may!’ And indeed with that last stroke the malice of the mountain seemed to be expended, as if Caradhras was satisfied that the invaders had been beaten off and would not dare to return. The threat of snow lifted; the clouds began to break and the light grew broader.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” (Book Two, Chapter 3: The Ring goes South)
Gimli views the mountain here as alive, with thought, emotions and intent. The mountain’s personality is both a barrier and a combatant against the Fellowship.
In Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” lightning, at the bequest of Saruman, strikes a mountain ledge above the Fellowship traversing Caradhras and brings a snow drift down onto them. Lighting and magical situations seem to go hand in hand on the Misty Mountains.
Lightning strikes the mountain top above the Fellowship in Peter Jackson’s
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”
Finally, in “The Hobbit” there is an item that symbolises mountains as living entities. In Erebor a precious gem was discovered, called the Arkenstone and known as the “Heart of the Mountain”:
“It was the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain. So Bilbo guessed from Thorin’s description; but indeed there could not be two such gems, even in so marvellous a hoard, even in all the world.”
-- J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” (Chapter XVIII: Not at home)
The discovery of the Arkenstone in Peter Jackson's “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
From Dwarves talking to the mountains through word and song, to the mountain with a personality, and finally to a gem representing it’s heart, mountains hold a special place in Tolkien lore and especially Dwarven lore.
Research routes:
There was a lot more I hoped to write about, but with limited time I’ve opted to get a blog out that has at least some of what I wanted to say and I can continue both the research and writing at a later date. A few other points and paths I was looking at include:
- Giants in British folklore and legend – giants forming the rocks on the landscape, buried in and creating prehistoric monuments.
- Other supernatural beings and monsters buried under hills and mountains such as dragons and Tolkien’s connection with Dragon Hill near the Uffington White Horse.
- This led onto a recent Disney film (Moana) where the island is personified as a sleeping goddess (Te Fiti)
- Geology of Middle-earth.
- Tolkien’s trip to Switzerland that inspired Rivendell and also the Misty Mountains.
- Other adaptions including LOTRO.
I was hoping to get time to read the following article too:
“Ore-ganisms”: The Myth and Meaning of ‘Living Rock’ in Middle-earth
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
Journal of Tolkien Research, Vol.13 Iss. 2 (2021)
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