sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bernicia, Deira, Mercia, Northumbria, Quarrendon, Regiones

7 Frithuuiolí) anJ the Farmer: Farmer (fifes o f I f am and his place in history

j atxlcia Ihutwld*

Tolkien, writing to his publishers written. Tolkien places his tale "after the about Farmer GiJes o f Ham wondered 'if days of Coel maybe, but before Arthur or this local family game played in the the Seven Kingdoms of the English'4. An country just round us is more than s illy ’ *. attempt to ascribe absolute dates to the has long been tale shows Tolkien to have used three very appreciated as a tale told by a philologist. vague dating guides. Arthur is well known The o f (with an H and without as an ambiguous figure, if historical at all. a warrant) is exposed, and the blunderbuss Stenton, who one may take as a guide to definition of the four wise clerks of generally accepted history at the time Oxenford2 is related. The storyteller as Tolkien was writing, places Arthur at the historian ¡3 less eusily observed; after all, generally accepted date of around SOOAD, that same blunderbuss appears in a tale, set and ToJkien gives this date when discussing 'before the Seven Kingdoms of the English.’ 'Arthurian' illustrations of Farmer Giles o f Ham5. The distance between philologist and historian is not us great as first appears. The Seven Kingdoms o f the English The philologist looks at language within time, were in existence from some time after in looking at language change, he is also the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Initially, the looking at the histot y of people. The idea settlers seem to have been in localised that languages are ’ related", with common groupings, such as the delightfully named "ancestors' lead to the search for the Wreocensae tan, who Sat on , or 'ancestor' language. Comparison o f words the Haestlngas, who lived in . in different languages, meaning the same Larger entities such as and , leads to an understanding o f the laws can gradually bo recognised. The Seven of sound change which produced them, and Kingdoms of the English, that is the of the word from which they 'evolved*. , might include Kent, , Words never actually met in any text, Wessex, , , and never actually heard are marked with an - the precise list depends on asterisk, * thus. The vocabulary o f the the historian one talks to6. There is a firm 'ancestor' language o f English, Proto-Indo- date for the end of the Heptarchy, in the European is thought by some to reflect the end o f the ninth century: 'The same year reality experienced by its speakers. It I486] king A lfred occupied , and all contains, for example, the words for the submitted to him, except, various trees and domesticated animals. those who were in captivity to the From this, it was deduced that the Proto- ."7 Indo-European speaker (who was often confused with a racial group, or a group The start date, Tolkien’s terminus ante quern, with a common culture) lived a nomadic is much harder to define. This is because life (there was actually little evidence for the kingdoms w ere continually being r e ­ this) on the steppe of Southern Russia. This defined - and were later may be described as asterisk reality, in the Northumbria, for example. And one must same way as their language is an asterisk add to their number groups such as the language3. Cilternsastan and Hicce (of ) who continue to be treated as separate groups Farmer Giles o f Ham ca n be as late as the tenth century, and British considered as history as it should have Kingdoms such as , which was not happened: on asterisk-history which is not oonquered until the seventh century. contradicted by 'textual' history, history which is evidenced by language, by King Coel Is, according to the documentary history or by archaeology. It twelfth-century historian Geoffrey of is not easy to place Farmer Giles of Ham Monmouth, a contem porary o f 5t. Alban, Into the history of Sir Frank Stenton’s and father o f St. Helena, living in the third Anglo-Saxon , published 1943, about century AD. St. Helena went on to find four yeor* ofter Farmer Giles was largely the True Cross and give birth to 8

Constantine.8 Coel is almost certainly a rather than the representative of a local hero formed from the name of , dynasty’ . This comment is prompted by and may be associated with the nursery the description Frithuwold is given in this rhyme 'Old King Cole was a merry old charter as “of the province of the men of Soul\9 , sub-king of Wulfhere, king of the Mercians’ . Patrick Wormald11 suggested Thus Tolkien places his story in a that the Frithuric who was the first time, defined by semi-myths as lying witness to the charter was the somewhere between the fourth and sixth 'F rid u rie p r in c e p s ' who gave land at centuries, between the late Roman and Breedon-on-the-Hill, to early English. He never specifies the Medehamstead. Wulfhere issued the vernacular, although the use of “ dog latín” charter at Thame. would suggest a British population. Blair’s ’ further piece of evidence’ John Blair, in his paper Frithuwold's is a twelfth-century life of St Osgyth of Kingdom and the Origins of Surrey10 , . It relates the story of Osgyth, introduces “ One further piece of evidence, a daughter of Wilburh, sister of king never before considered in this context, Wulfhere of Mercia, and "king [which] implies that Frithuwold ruled an Fredesweld", Born at her father's palace area extending well beyond the boundaries at Quarrendon, she wan brought up by her of Surrey“. The place-names appearing in maiernal aunt St. at Aylesbury. this paper (Quarrendon, Aylesbury and Another aunt, St. Eadburh probably lived at Bicesteru lake Surrey into northern , and yet another, St. Cyneburh at and central . I Castor. Blair deduces that although the would like to suggest that before Blair, Vita is late and dubious, it gives a plausible Tolkien the historian used his knowledge of name to Osgyth’s mother, and can be Anglo-Saxon charters to construct a understood in a context of Wulfhere of speculative early history for the kingdom, Mercia founding minsters on the borders which he called The Little Kingdom. To do o f Mercia, "and placing them in charge of this I have had to make use of Blair’s his numerous surplus sisters". Wilburh was excellent and convincing research and fully given, not to a border-land , but as acknowledge my debt to him. wife to a sub-king of Mercia, Frithuwold of Surrey. It is interesting to read the history of Surrey given by Collingwood and Myres Blair goes on to speculate on a in and the Anglo-Saxon possible connection with Frithogyth, wife Settlements (19371, a book which Tolkien of King Atheleard o f Wessex who went to 'helped ... untiringly with problems of in 7 37 and Frithuswith (’ St. Celtic philology" (p. vii). Frideswide") who was reputedly buried in in 727. "The Thames must in any case have been the route by which Surrey was settled, Blair’s conclusions deserve to be quoted in and it is in the Wandle valley, the nearest full: tributary to London, that the earliest remains, including cremation-cemeteries “To take the Quarrendon story seriously have been found. ... The distribution of the entails greatly enlarging Frithuwold's realm, earliest type o f place names here again to include not merely Surrey but a swathe supplements and confirms the o f the and Chilterns archaeological evidence... this may well extending up into northern have been a corner of England to which Buckinghamshire. If it seems rash to the new religion came late. ... the name propose so large a principality on so Surrey, Suthrige, the southern district, is slender a basis, it must be acknowledged there to remind us that at one time its that there is room for it. The Middle political connections w ere with the regions lay to the north and east, the north o f the Thames ... As fo r back os Middle extended well into there is any record Surrey was dependent but not necessarily far, if at upon either Kent or Wessex.“ (pp370-37l). all, into Buckinghamshire. If these two p ro rin c ia e were indeed late and artificial Stenton odds to this 'a certain amalgams of tribal territories, formed in a Frithuwold, who gave a great estate to context of Mercian overlordship, there is with the consent of no reason why W ulfhere should not have Wulfhere, king of Mercia ... looks like on created a third such p r o v in e ia for under-king appointed by a superior lord Frilhuwold. The lack of any clear record if hardly surprising, for the principality muit have been very fhert-lived - perhaps only formed in c.670 and and abandoned by the mid-bBO’s. Wulfhere’s ratification of the Chertsey oharter at Thame, more than thirty miles from Chorts-ey, is worth recalling in the context of the present hypothesis. If Frithuwold's kingdom extended to the modern Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire boundary, where Thame lies, there may have been some symbolic appropriateness in this choice of a royal villa on the frontier between land in Wulfhere’s direct control and land ruled by his sub-king.

‘ This investigation w e ll illustrated the difficulty of understanding the relationships between tribal territories and delegated power under the seventh-century I believe that Tolkien took the archae­ overkingships. W e are still left uncertain ological and documentary knowledge of whether the original Surrey was (i) a Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire used in heterogeneous group of reg lo n es , some Collingwood and Myres and combined it looking towards Kent and Sussex and others with his knowledge of early Surrey and towards the Thames valley-, (ii) merely that and the idea of residual British fraction of its eventual self which lay west populations to generate the idea of an of Fullingadic% the southern part of an early kingdom of 'Greater Middlesex*, i.e. early unit of which the northern part was 'The Little Kingdom', existing some two perhaps the Staines or VFlxan territory; (iii) hundred years before Frithuwold. the southern part of a putative ‘greater Moreover, it is known that Tolkien was Middlesex’, probably an artificial creation actively involved in the study of Celtic of the late seventh century but perhaps elements in place-names, and envisaged this more stable than this and a century or so kingdom as a B ritis h political unit. The older; or (iv) the southern part of a precise nature - Saxon or British - of the different artificial Mercian province, population of the Little Kingdom is never created by Wulfhere for his client and revealed, and the date allows for a late brother-in-iaw Frithuwold." (p.107). sub-Roman mixed population.

Dumville has suggested that a There is a gap in the ’'textual' kingdom conceived in terms of the people , a lack of * who dwell in a region "King of the people archaeological remains coupled with a lack dwelling in Kent' “may be an indication of of documentary evidence for human sub-Roman community and/or an avoidance activity. The only' things which tell us that of of a convenient racial label' such as people were here is the linguistic evidence 'the Middle Angles’ . Frithuwold is "of the of place-names and extrapolations from province of the men of Surrey", and it is later evidence and comparisons with other possible that Surrey may be a sub-Roman parts of the country. Collingwood and unit.10 Myres (p. 407) noted a dearth of archaeological material 'in east Oxfordshire Unfortunately Dumville does not and Buckinghamshire'. The authors believe indicate whether this is his own idea, or Saxon settlement was late, and that a whether it has been in existence fo r some considerable number of the pre-Saxon time, so it is not possible to say if Tolkien population may have survived. Their could have read this piece of evidenoe for conclusions were supported by the work of his Little Kingdom. Jackson12, but it is important to note that their views were divergent from the belief Tolkien, in a letter c ritic isin g an expressed by Leeds13 and summarised by illustrator, says of the geography of Baugh (first published in 1935) 'Many of the Farmer Giles o f Ham 'This Is a definitely undoubtedly were driven into the located story (one of its virtues if it has west and sought refuge In and any)"16. The English reader has probably '1*. never had any difficulty in locating Thame, 40

Oakley and . The further from Saxons’ seem somewhat late and artificial the centre, the mere obscure the places; ... which only acquired a common name and although the 'standing stones' to the north identity in the context of Mercian are positively identified as the Rollright overlordship.’ 25 Stones in L et te r s17 and intuitively recognised as such by some readers, few There are similar doubts about the Middle readers will have, like Doughan18, Angles, possibly a short-lived Mercian recognised Venedotia as . creation20 and possibly, as says, a Tolkien’s description of the geographical provinc/a Ikingdoml composed of re g io n e s boundaries are, as he says, vague. The [tribal groupings, which presumably existed kingdom 'seems never to have reached far for long before the Mercian rule]27. Only past the Thames into the West, nor beyond one constituent tribe of the Middle Angles Otmoor to the North; its eastern borders is known, the Gyrwe of the fenland border, are dubious’ . The one point he is firm but another, the Feerpingas, appear in an upon is; Anglo-Saxon annotation of the . It is not known where this people 'The capital of the Little Kingdom settled, and I wonder if Tolkien played was evidently, as is ours, in its south-east with the idea of Faerpingas-ho/ Faerbingas- corner.’ 19 ho.

Thame is called 'c h ie f to w n '20, but Farmer Giles of Ham is not the only work the possibility is left for a capital in the where one may observe Tolkien using the south-east, possibly to be iden tified with philologist-as-historian approach to creation. Chertsey. Tom Shippey28 says that in writing The The foreword contains one hint o f an Hobbit, Tolkien was creating 'a sort of extension o f the kingdom beyond Otmoor, ‘asterisk-world’ for the Norse Eider Edda. with 'an outpost against the Middle Kingdom Tolkien himself says that he wrote his ... at Forthingho’ . I find this one of the mythology as 'a situation in which a common most puzzling pieces of topography in greeting would be e/en site ium enn' Firmer Giles o f Ham, and can come up omentie/mo' 29 - an ‘asterisk-world’ for an with no satisfactory explanation to the ‘asterisk-language’. Or perhaps one should use question 'Why Farthingho’ (and conversely, some other punctuation mark when the why not Farthinghoe? Perhaps Tolkien had language is created, not deduced. played with a folk etymology Far-thing-ho (distant-parliament-hill), or perhaps, like Queen B eruthiel’s cats, it is just part of ! £ $ ? ? @ « % & + ??!? tEdj the mythology that explains itself. A letter hints at a 'sketch' of this incident21, which would be most interesting to read. NOTES

The Little Kingdom is an abbreviation 1. L e t t e r s p.43 of the 'Little Kingdom of the Wormings’ 22. The name 'Worming' is presumably Old 2. i.e. Murray, Bradley, Cragie and Onions, the four English Wyrm - 'reptile, serpent, worm* editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (see plus 'ing' in its sense of 'men dependent Oxford English Dictionary p. 947). on’ . Tolkien recognised that the 'Worming’ element in iVorminghall is 3. Renfrew, Colin Archaeology and Language: The purely from 'wyrm', with no 'in g ' in early Axzrfe o f Indo-European Origins (Cape, 1987). uses. At the time o f Farmer Giles, the Little Kingdom appears to have been a sub­ 4. p.49. kingdom of the Middle Kingdom22. The middle kingdom has always been discussed 5. L e t t e r s p.280. as Mercia2«: but Mercia did not become a power in Oxfordshire until the seventh 6. This list is taken from: Dumville, D. 'Essex, Middle century. If one looks for a 'middle Anglia and the Expansion o f Mercia’ in Bassett, S. kingdom '. M iddle A nglia and M iddlesex (ed.) The Origins o f the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (pp. offer themselves, as well as Mercia. Blair 123-140) University Press 1989 writes: 7. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle trans. Garmonsway, It is tempting to conclude from the GM Dent, ISS3. name that Surrey was once the southern half of a Middle Saxon kingdom larger than & Geoffrey o f Monmouth The Hfstory o f the Kings modern M iddlesex. But ... the ’Middle o f »H a h , trans. Thorpe, L Penguin, 1966. pp.131-132 H

9. Opie, I. and P. (ed s.) The Oxford Dictionary o f 16. L e t t e r s p.I30. Nursery Rhymes Oxford University Press, 1951. 17. b i d 10. Blair, J. 'Frithuwokfs Kingdom and the Origins of Surrey’ in Bassett, o p . c iL 18. Doughan, D. Letter\n Mythiore Vol. XL, Autumn 1984. 11. 'Bede, the B r e t w a ld a s and the origin of the Gens Angbruni, in (dealand R eafty in Frankish and 19. Farmer Gies o f Ham, 1949, p.B. Anglo-Saxon Society ; ed. Wormflld, P. 20. b id . p.76.

12. Jackson, K. Language and H istory in Early 21. Letters pASS. B rita in University Press, 1953. 22. b i d p.137. 13. , T. The Archaeology o f the Anglo-Saxon Settlements Oxford University Press, ¡913. 23. Farmer GSes o f Ham, 1949, p.19.

14. Baugh, A. A History o f the 24. Shippev, T. The Road to Atfddb-Earth G eorge Routledge, 1959. Allen and Unwin, 1982.

15. O p c iL p A E I. It is interesting to note Dumvile’s 25. Blair, apLcit- p.100. use of the term "sub-Roman”. Although one would imagine that this would mean "below” the Roman, 26. Attp.107. Iron Age in archaeological strata, in fa ct it means "following” the Roman. The term is relatively 27. Dumvilie, o fx d L p.131-132. recent - Tokien would not have heard it when he was writing Farmer Gies; Encyclopedia Britannica 28. Shippey, apuSt. p.54. XXXI, 57 records the first use of "sub-Mycenaean” in 1902, and "sub-Roman” first occured in 1962 (Loyn, 29. L e t t e r s no. 205 Cp. 265). H.R. Anglo-Saxon England i 39).

H I I R I S bg bouiArcf Shilton

Gnarled roots above the ground, Twisted trunk no longer round.

Boughs destined for the clouds Hang limp; nowhere bound.

Knobbled face once so proud, Widened now into a frown.

Barren and leafless upon a mound It stood; fungi as a mock-crown.

Moribund now within a weed-shroud In the wild wood dun and brown.

Woodpeckers peck with frenetic pound And pummel; eerie is the sound.

Wood-spirits watch and slowly surround Old Man Oak falling to the ground.