An Ethnically Cleased Faery?

An Ethnically Cleansed Faery? Tolkien and the

David Doughan

Aii earlier version of this article was presented at the Tolkien Society Seminar in Bournemouth, 1994.

1 was from early days grieved by the ” (p. 369), by which he means a poverty of my own beloved country: it had specifically Arthurian presence. It is most no stories of its own (bound up with its interesting that Lewis, following the confused or tongue and soil), not of the quality 1 sought, uninformed example of Williams, uses the name and found (as an ingredient) in legends of “Logres”, which is in fact derived from Lloegr other lands ... nothing English, save (the Welsh word for ), to identify the impoverished chap-book stuff. Of course Arthurian tradition, i.e. the Matter of Britain! No there was and is all the Arthurian world, but wonder Britain keeps on rebelling against powerful as it is, it is imperfectly Logres. And despite Tolkien's efforts, he could naturalised, associated with the soil of not stop bursting into Lloegr and Britain, but not with English; and does not transforming it. replace what I felt to be missing. (Tolkien In The Book of Lost Tales (Tolkien, 1983), 1981, Letters, p. 144) Ottor W

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simply, “” was the Roman version of complex of legends about this heroic king and the native name for what the Welsh have his henchmen Cei the White and Bedwyr One- traditionally called Ynys Prydain - the Island of hand; he is such a significant legendary figure Britain. In the period of Roman rule (AD43 - that he has already attracted to himself takes of ca.410) the overwhelming majority of their quite different (and much later) historical subjects here were Ancient Britons, i.e. the figures, such as Owain Prince of Rheged (a noted ancestors of the Welsh. Indeed, for a long time 6th century fighter against the English). the term “British” continued to mean “Welsh” - According to many stories, he had not died but as late as the turn of the 19th century, Welshmen was sleeping under a hill, or had passed over sea resident in referred to themselves as the to the Blessed Realms, and would one day return Ancient British. The descendants of those to free the British (i.e. Welsh) from their Saxon Ancient British who between about AD380 and conquerors. The Bretons in particular developed 500 had emigrated to North-western were a whole body of literature around Arthur; and known as Bretons, and their country as , when in 1066 the almost-perfectly-naturalised or Britain the Less, as distinct from Great conquerors of Neustria, which is now called after Britain. This last term was adopted by James 1 them “the land of the Northmen” - Normandy - (England’s first Scottish king) to emphasise that took it into their heads to become the last in a the merging of his two kingdoms was an long line of conquerors of Britain, they brought imperial idea (at least in his eyes, and those of with them their Breton minstrels - who for the his sons). The confusion over the names of sake of their Norman masters, had translated Britain and England became further confounded, their lays into French. so that in the early 19th century (again!) William So, by 1100 AD there are two different sets Blake could make his prophetic spirit Los speak of Arthurian traditions in Britain: the “native” of: Welsh ones, as they appear in the middle section The Briton Saxon Roman Norman of the , and the more courtly Breton- amalgamating Norman ones, in the French language imported In my Furnaces into One Nation, by the Norman Conquerors. The Norman and the English Angevin kings who were now ruling over the Jerusalem, (plate 92,1.1-2) still occasionally refractory English found it And in more recent times, the resistance to politically useful to identify themselves with distinguishing between England and Britain has these traditions, especially if they could be been expressed by a range of literate people, associated with the legends of the Return, most blatantly perhaps by the eminent historian gaining Welsh support by claiming to be the A.J.P. Taylor. Still, Purcell and Dryden were heirs of Arthur who had finally sorted out the definitely on the right lines in calling their semi­ English. Moreover, the Normans had not only opera King Arthur, or The British Hero - gone to England but had spread themselves and because in origin at least, King Arthur was a their culture over a considerable part of western Welshman. and southern Europe, so that from this point on The name “Arthur” suddenly starts the Arthurian tales are no longer just Welsh, or becoming popular in the Welsh and Irish parts of Breton, or even Breton-Norman; they become Britain in the later 6th century, and stories are European. being recorded by the 9th century of a “dux Anyway here we have a number of easily bellorum” (= war commander) by that name perceptible reasons why Tolkien might have who, after the withdrawal of central Roman wanted to avoid Arthurian tales, not least of authority in the 5th century, rallied native which is that they were associated with the Romano-British resistance to the invading Norman invasion he so detested. However, a (or English as they called themselves), thorough-going conscious rejection of the and even made them retreat. The derivation of Arthurian element would also have meant a the name is probably from “Artorius”, an attested rejection of his beloved and ancient Welsh Roman gentile name. By the 10th century both language, and Tolkien drew back from such a Welsh and Breton sources have a growing definite break. As I have already mentioned,

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from the earliest days Welsh-related languages the language of Britain, the place-names of formed an essential part of Tolkien's conception Logres give the game away. In fact, the of the Elves. Similarly, the Arthurian element is “imperfect naturalisation” of the English means constantly suppressed, but none the less it keeps that instead of Britain being haunted by on breaking through. something we may call Logres, Logres is In this connection it is interesting that haunted by something we may call Britain. Tolkien refers to the Arthurian corpus as being So the English denied their Welsh heritage; “imperfectly naturalised”. Usually it is up to the it might be suggested that this denial of their newcomers to a country to become “naturalised”, “roots”, to use a cliché, is at least a partial or assimilated - and Tolkien reversed the normal explanation of why consists order of things to confuse the issue. Historically, only of “impoverished chap-book stuff’. In the it was up to the English invaders to become Book of Lost Tales, as I mentioned earlier, “naturalised” - and this, in a linguistic and Tolkien is equally concerned to reject the British cultural sense, they signally failed to do. Their inhabitants of these islands. The real Welsh are Christianity, on which Tolkien sets so much replaced by the “fairies” - fairi - providing an store, they eventually took not from the native invented linguistic substrate in place of the real British, but from Roman missionaries - in this Welsh one that the English rejected in their instance at least they rejected insular British linguistic cleansing of Lloegr. And, of course, culture and tradition in favour of identification the Book of Lost Talcs implies an ethnic with a federal Europe. Even more importantly cleansing of Tol Eresséa - Logres denying the English rejected the native language of the Britain. island they had conquered in a remarkably But Tolkien was not enough of a committed extreme fashion. Although for many centuries English nationalist to carry through this line the English lived side-by-side with Welsh- consistently. Just as the places-names of speakers in what is now England, the ancient England maintain an otherwise denied Welsh British language has left almost no trace on tradition, so in Tolkien's Legendarium the English; whereas the native has Arthurian substrate keeps breaking through in borrowed extensively from English since at least the same way. Already as early as the Lay of the 11th century (for example, a mediaeval Leithlan the country where the action takes place Welsh word for “chapel” - belws - which is originally called “Broseliande”. This name is survives in place-names is in fact a Welsh straight out of the Matter of Britain. Originally it version of the Old English bcd-hus = prayer- was the Welsh “Bro Celiddon” - the land of house). But of Welsh in English there is hardly a , and the supposed place of one of trace; and in the very rare instances when a Arthur's battles. Emigrants to Armorica Welsh word has crept into English usage, it is transported the name to a local forest, and French usually of a geographical character, such as minstrels not only made it into a romantic sea- “coomb”. Even the French language can do drowned wood, but Frenchified the better than this - there is evidence of a Gaulish pronunciation into Brocéliande. From at least the substrate (as it is technically known) in a number 12th century on it became an essential part of the of relatively common words, such as “bee” and Matter of Britain - and at first of Tolkien's “glaive”. But English has solidly rejected its legendarium, until he caught himself and potential Celtic substrate. And yet an informed changed it, bypassing the Welsh-Arthurian look at the map of England shows that it cannot substrate apparently in favour of an even earlier be so easily ignored. A considerable number of one - the place-name “Belerion”, recorded by what we think of as purely English place-names Greco-Roman biographers as Lands's End. Thus are in fact of Welsh origin; to give just a few was created Beleriand, with only the Arthurian examples: Malvern, Berkshire, Pendle, Lichfield, suffix -and remaining to become a common Tamworth, Eccles, Winford, Penge, , Elvish element meaning “land,” “country”. Still, London, and of course all these rivers with it is hardly surprising that the Arthurian element names like Thame, Thames, Ouse and Avon. So pokes through in a work that its author calls both although the English have consciously rejected a “gest” and a “lay” - forms that were used by

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those same French-Breton jongleurs and And another thing - at this stage in the conteurs whose major theme was the Matter of development of the Legendarium - in the Britain; and that causes no surprise when found aforementioned second draft of the Fall of in the work of a scholar who was at this time Numenor - Tolkien called the new abode of Thu, publishing a definitive edition of the highly or “Sauron” in Quenya, the Black Land - Arthurian Sir Gawaine and the Green . Mordor. This name has numerous resonances - The appearance of “Broseliand” in the Lay of not least, it recalls the traditional form of the Leithian is thus an example of Britain rebelling name of King Arthur's nemesis: . The against Logres; but the rebellion was fairly fact that this Arthurian echo first appears in the swiftly put down at this time, and converted into evolution of the Legendarium at precisely the something rich and strange, viz., Beleriand. same point as “” is doubtless pure However, there was a more serious revolt to coincidence - a chance occurrence, as they might come. say in Middle-earth. When Tolkien started to write The Lost Well, this is all very far fetched, and I won't Road, he found himself approaching the stories object if anybody denies its likelihood. But there of the Elves from a very different direction - is no denying one thing: a spectre is haunting first via the Lombards, and then involving the Middle-earth - the spectre of Britain. Arthurian Downfallen Land: Atalante, derived from a elements keep making their way into the Quenya verb TALTA ‘incline, decline, shake at Legendarium, and not just in nomenclature. By foundations, make totter, etc.’ which had already the time that Tolkien wrote The Lord of the appeared in the Book of Lost Tales, long before Rings, the ethnic agenda had receded into the Numenor was even thought of. The appearance background, and the plot had become full of of Numenor moved Tol Eressea still further elements that recall the Matter of Britain: for west, so that it is near Valinor; and now it example, the Return of the King, the inverted acquires a new name in the second draft of the and the departure westward over the sea Fall of Numenor - Aval lone, “for it is hard by for healing beyond the circles of this world. And Valinor”. Of course, the derivation of the since Tolkien was above all a linguist, his Arthurian is very different - it is related treatment of names is particularly significant. As to the Welsh afal ‘’ - but the form of the we have noted, he has a tendency to take names name is the same as the Welsh word in Tolkien, from other traditions - especially the Arthurian - and unlike that of Broseliand, it was not and make them relate to his very different transformed, and Aval lone became the Haven of tradition by transforming their linguistic origin: the Valar. Its etymology is obscure, but it one might say, he naturalises them. A look at the appears to be connected with the word vala. This place- and personal names of the Shire and Bree is using elements that go far back in the are highly instructive in this regard. And despite development of the Legendarium, though it is his original intentions, despite his attempts to interesting that it does not account for the double cleanse Logres of material that was not of its 1 in both Avallon and Avallone, which reflect the own language and its own culture, he could not usual form of Ynys Afallon in Welsh. Could it stop his work being haunted by the Matter of possibly have been that there was an Britain. Eventually he stopped trying, and at last unconscious process of back formation at work everything came together - Logres with Britain, here? That the known Arthurian “Avalon” had The Shire with Valinor - and the intended suggested a name for angelic beings who might Mythology for England was finally transformed have been connected with it, or a word for an into what we now might call the Matter of island? As the known might have Middle-earth. suggested an appropriate Quenya verb form?

References

C.S. Lewis That Hideous Strength London: John Lane (the lindley I lead Ltd) 1945 J.R.R. Tolkien Letters London: George Allen & Unwin 19X1 The Ilook of Lost Tales London: George Allen & Unwin 1983

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