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Tolkien and Old Germanic Ethics Volume 13 Number 2 Article 3 12-15-1986 Tolkien and Old Germanic Ethics Robert Boenig Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Boenig, Robert (1986) "Tolkien and Old Germanic Ethics," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 13 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Claims the “idea that a warrior must die with his lord in battle is one of the most important moral injunctions among the various Germanic peoples.” Uses this theme to examine Tolkien’s work for his reworking of the Old Germanic ethic into a Christian perspective. Additional Keywords Germanic culture—Influence on J.R.R. olkien;T Nordic culture—Influence on J.R.R. olkien;T Tolkien, J.R.R.—Influence of Northern cultures; Paula DiSante This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol13/iss2/3 MYTHLORE 48: Winter 1986 Page 9 Tolkien and Old Germanic Ethics Robert Boenig The indebtedness of Tolkien to medieval witness to what he finds a remarkable custom: Germanic literature is axiomatic. The Raw- linson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and founder of the Kolbitar Club-- Cum ventum in aciem, turpe principi the distinguished group of scholars who met virtute vinci, turpe comitatui in Oxford to translate and discuss Old Norse virtutem principis non adaequare. sagas1 - - a manwhoonce recited the Lord's Iam vero infame in omnem vitam ac prayer in Gothic into a suspect tape recorder probrosum superstitem principi suo to exorcise any technological demons, was ex acie recessisse: ilium this century's greatest authority on Old defendere, tueri, sua quoque fortia Germanic language and literature. It takes facta gloriae eius adsignare only a superficial fam iliarity with Tolkien's praecipuum sacramentum est: imaginative works, moreover, to see that his principes pro victoria pugnant, Middle-earth, in which good characters fight comites pro principe. a seemingly hopeless battle against the forces of evil, is an Old Germanic world-- that of Snorri's Edda and the last half of When the battlefield is reached it Beowulf. Critics, of course, have noted is a reproach for a chief to be Tolkien's debt to such works, 2 but a mere surpassed in prowess; a reproach list of names3 be borrowed from Old English for his retinue not to equal the and Old Norse--Beorn, Eorl, Theoden, Gandalf, prowess of its chief: but to have Durin--or even a list of characters he left the field and survived one's adapted for use--Smaug/Glaurung/Fafnir, chief, this means lifelong infamy Turin/Sigurdr , Morgoth/Loki, Theoden/Hrojpgar- and shame: to protect and defend -cannot exhaust his indebtedness. Even more him, to devote one's own feats even important, I feel, than details of character to his glorification, this is the and plot is the Germanic ethic that Tolkien gist of their allegiance: the remolded for The Hobbit, The Lord of the chief fights for victory, but the R in g s, The S ilm a r illio n , The U n fin ish ed retainers for the chief.4 T a le s , and The Lost T a le s . The id ea th a t a warrior must die with his lord in battle is one of the most important moral injunctions This passage is problematic:5 Tacitus speaks among th e v a rio u s Germanic p e o p le s ; how in general terms and does not provide a Tolkien treats it will serve as a good specific example of one individual warrior example of what Tolkien really did to Old who died for his lord in one individual Germanic ethics as a whole. battle. If warriors did indeed act like this in specific battles, did they all do it when In his Germania (ca. AD 100), Tacitus the circumstances arose, or was this a goal provides us with our earliest literary which only the very bravest reached? If the Page 10 MYTHLORE 48: Winter 1986 historical reality of this ethical injunction Perhaps the most famous literary is hard to establish, its literary reality, treatment of this ethical motif, however, is however, is not: vernacular references are The Battle of Malden. There Ealdorman frequent in the corpus of Old Germanic Byrhthnoth, as the result of a tactical literature, especially in English and Norse. error, allows a large force of vikings to In Beowulf, for instance, the poet reproaches land and thus finds himself in a losing the cowardly thanes who deserted their lord battle. After he dies courageously, his in his last fight with the dragon: thanes either flee like those in Beowulf or die beside their lord like those in Bjarkamal—actions which, of course, define Naes da lang to 6on, their moral natures: bæt 6a hildlatan holt ofgefan, tydre treowlogan, tyne ætsomne, 6a ne dorston ær dare6um lacan Paer wurdon Oddan b ea m aerest on flea m e, on hyre mandryhtnes miclan fearfe, Godric fram gube, and bone godan forlet ac hy scamiende scyldas bæran, be him maenigne o f t mear g e s e a ld e - - gu6gewadu, pær se gomela læg. he gehleop bone eoh be ahte his hlaford. (2834b-2851) (185-189) It was not very long before those Those who did not want to be there cowards left woods—the weak retreated from the battle. The son pledge-breakers, ten together, of Odda, Godric, was the first to th o se who d id n ot dare p la y w ith flee from the battle and abandon spears earlier in their earthly the good one who often gave him lord's greatest need; but they were many horses; he mounted the horse ashamed to bear shields, battle that his lord owned.9 clothes, where the warrior lay.6 Byrhtwold, perhaps, sums up the Old Germanic Wiglaf, the one faithful thane, adds his ethical injunction to die with one's lord reproaches to those of the poet by telling best with his words. his cowardly companions that Dead bid sella/eorla gehwylcum bonne edwitlif ("Death is better for every earl than a life Her lid ure ealdor eall forheawen, of reproach" [2890b-2891]). The moral god on greote. A mæg gnornian consequences of this cowardice extend beyond se 6e nu fram bis wigplegan wendan the reproachful lives of these cowardly b en ced . thanes, because the destruction of the whole Ic eom fro d fe o r e s ; fram i c ne w i l l e . Geatish social order will follow: the ac i c me be h e a lf e minum h la fo r d e , Franks, Friesians, and Swedes (2912-2921) be swa leofan men licgan bence. w ill rise up and destroy the lordless nation. (314-319) In the Old Norse Bjarkamal,7 fragmentary in its original language but translated into Here lies our elder, all hewn up, Latin by Saxo Grammaticus around the turn of the good one on the ground. Ever the thirteenth century in his History of the may th e one who now th in k s to tu rn Danes, we have an eloquent defense of the from this battle, grieve. I am moral injunction to die with one's lord. experienced in life; I will never Over the slain body of the Danish King turn away, but I myself think I Hrolfr, two loyal warriors, Bjarki and will lie by the side of my lord, H jalti, exhort the surviving retainers to die th e much b elo v ed man. by their lord. Hjalti speaks: It is impossible to overestimate the Dulce est nos domino percepta importance of this ethical injunction as a rependere dona. Quid moror? structural principle in Tolkien's imaginative Extremam iam degustavimus escam. works. In The Hobbit, for instance. Bilbo Rex perit, et miseram sors ultima feels the pull of conscience to return to the corripit urbem. caves from which he has so recently escaped so he can defend his leader Thorin Oakenshield; later F ili and Kili fall beside Sweet it is for us to return to a Thorin, who is slain in the Battle of the lord the gifts we have received. Five Armies. In The Lord of the Rings Sam . What i f I sh ou ld d ie ? For in goes—in the Norse sense--beserk when he sees the end we shall all taste that Frodo lying, apparently, dead; he must find food. The king has died, and that his enemy Shelob so he may die defending his miserable lot has lain hold of the lord's body.
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