Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalářská diplomová práce

2020 Vojtěch Sternberg

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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Vojtěch Sternberg

The Influence of in on the Character of in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D.

2020

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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

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Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. for his guidance and helpful notes.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 6

2 Background to Odin ...... 9

3 Background to Gandalf ...... 12

4 Similarities ...... 17

4.1 Appearance ...... 17

4.2 The Champions of Their Age ...... 20

4.3 Sacrifice ...... 25

4.4 Horses ...... 28

4.5 Weapons ...... 32

5 Differences ...... 36

6 Conclusion ...... 39

7 Works Cited ...... 41

8 Abstract ...... 44

9 Anotace ...... 45

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1 Introduction

Throughout his both personal and academic life, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien has encountered many literary works that have left an imprint on his extensive work as the author of the famous The Lord of the Rings and other additions to its universe. Tolkien was a renowned philologist, devout catholic and passionate reader of mythological lays and every one of those qualities has impacted different parts of his now iconic work.

Probably the main influence on Tolkien’s work was the Bible, for he was deeply religious and, as Joseph Pearce notes in their article “Christ” published in the J.R.R. Tolkien

Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, Tolkien viewed the Bible comparable to other , yet, unlike them, authentic: “For Tolkien, as he insisted so memorably in his famous conversation with C.S. Lewis on the nature of mythology in September 1931,

Christianity was the ‘True ,’ the myth that really happened, the myth that gives ultimate meaning to all the lesser myths” (Pearce 98). Presumably, he thought that his faith gave meaning to his own mythology, the lesser myths, and there are many observable similarities between his mythology and the Bible. For example, through Christian reading of The Lord of the Rings, it is possible to view the whole trilogy as a metaphor for the biblical Redemption, again as described by Joseph Pearce in their paper “Redemption:” “The Ring-bearer takes up his burden (his Cross) and walks through Mordor (Death) to Mount Doom (Golgotha, the place of the Skull) where the power of the Ring (Sin) to enslave the people of Middle-Earth

(humanity) to the will of the Dark Lord (Satan) is destroyed” (Pearce 562). Evidently, the Bible and Tolkien’s work are in many ways comparable, but it was Tolkien’s desire to establish a mythology for England, as discussed by Tommy Kuusela in their article “In Search For A

National Epic,” for he thought that it lacks one and the Bible and other Continental and British mythologies provided the needed framework and he, in turn, represented them within his own work.

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Tolkien had both a scholarly and personal interest in the other mythologies. He published multiple translated or re-told works and he was establishing reading clubs for his university peers, where they read lays in Old English or . Parallels could be drawn between Arthurian legends and the ending of The Lord of the Rings, as is discussed by Gerald

Seaman in their essay “Arthurian Literature:” “In this last work, the departures of the ,

Gandalf, Bilbo, and especially Frodo clearly recall the departure of the wounded Arthur for a place where all will be healed and made whole again” (Seaman 34). And other differences can be found also, but the Arthurian legend has, arguably, left the smallest mark on Tolkien’s work.

On the other hand, the similarities with Old English Beowulf are striking. Whether it is the supernatural foes, named weapons or the killing of the dragon, it can be found in both Beowulf and The Hobbit or Silmarillion. Even more significant influence had the Finnish Kalevala, the collection of Finnish folklore, as explained by Humphrey Carpenter in J. R. R. Tolkien: A

Biography: “He chose the story of Kullervo, a hapless young man who unknowingly commits incest and, when he discovers, throws himself on to his sword” (Carpenter 80-81). This becomes the tale of Túrin Turambar in Silmarillion, and later posthumously published as a standalone story The Children of Húrin by Tolkien’s son Christopher, where Túrin falls in love with his sister, whom he has not seen since his early boyhood, slays a dragon and, after realising who he has fallen in love with, takes his own life. Furthermore, Finnish language was the basis for the language of the Elves, Quenya.

The Norse myths were a great influence from Tolkien’s early age, when he loved stories about mythological heroes: “But most of all he found delight in the Fairy Books of Andrew

Lang, especially the Red Fairy Book, for tucked away in its closing pages was the best story he had ever read. This was the tale of who slew the dragon : a strange and powerful tale set in the nameless North” (Carpenter 30). The Red Fairy Book introduced

Tolkien to Volsunga , the heroic and mythological account of the Volsung line, where,

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among heroes like Sigurd, also appear Norse gods and Fafnir the dragon. Like Beowulf, the story of Sigurd helped shape The Hobbit to what today’s readers know it as and the theme of heroic deeds, supernatural horses, named weapons and powerful curses that hold true appeared in Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. The latter themes were further enforced by Snorri

Sturluson’s The Prose and the collection of poems in The :

Among the mythological lays in the Elder Edda [Poetic] none is more remarkable than

the Völuspa or Prophecy of the , which tells the story of the cosmos from its

creation, and foretells its doom. The most remarkable of all Germanic mythological

poems, it dates from the very end of Norse heathendom, when Christianity was taking

the place of the old gods; yet it imparts a sense of living myth, a feeling of awe and

mystery, in its representation of a pagan cosmos. It had a profound appeal to Tolkien’s

imagination (Carpenter 72-73).

The overall imprint of both within Tolkien’s universe is difficult to list, but the easily noticeable among them are the names – all dwarves in The Hobbit and even Gandalf are named after dwarfs mentioned in Völuspa, the theme of riddles, for riddle-contest often becomes the means of obtaining knowledge or possessions in the Norse mythology and Bilbo has to outwit

Gollum in “Riddles in the Dark,” and the races which appear alongside Men in both of the universes, even though Tolkien put forth a different way of spelling (e.g. Dwarves instead of

Dwarfs). Recognizing the impact of Old Norse folklore on Tolkien’s work, the aim of this thesis is to introduce the characters of Norse God Odin and Tolkien’s Gandalf and to explore to what degree has Odin been a source for Gandalf, for there are several similarities between the two.

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2 Background to Odin

Odin is one of the most prominent characters of the Norse Mythology. Not only is he one of the first beings created, he also appears in heroic and a large number of myths.

Odin’s actions are often pivotal to the well-being of gods or to the lives of many people. In their book Norse Myths Gods of the Vikings, Kevin Crossley-Holland describes the reason for

Odin’s inception:

A culture finds the gods it needs and the Norse world needed a god to justify the

violence that is one of its hallmarks. Odin appears to have inherited the characteristics

of the earliest Germanic war gods, Wodan and Tiwaz, and is seen above all as the God

of Battle. Terrible, arrogant and capricious, he inspired victory and determined defeat;

in his hall, , he entertained slain warriors, chosen and conducted there by the

Valkyries, who were to fight with him at Ragnarok; and he required propitiation with

human and animal sacrifice (Crossley-Holland xxv).

From the quotation, it becomes apparent why Odin is so prominent in the mythology – his character fits well into the world of the Nordic people. He is a modified version of previous deities that is more suitable for its worshippers and their way of life. His main feature is the one of the God of Battle, or war. On multiple occasions in the mythology, Odin turns the tide of battle through his sudden appearance on the battlefield or through means less direct. Even though the quotation paints Odin as an erratic being purely focused on warfare, he is more complex than that, for he is also attributed with almost unmatched wisdom and guardianship over the nine worlds of Norse mythology.

The first beings in the Norse mythology were a giant and a cow named Audumla, and each of them was a parent to either the race of Giants or Gods, respectively. Ymir, while sleeping, sweats out the first two giants that were to come into existence, while Audumla licks

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Odin’s grandfather, Buri, out of stone blocks. Odin and his two brothers, later on, slay the giant

Ymir and from his body fashion the Earth, sky and seas. Afterwards, the three brothers create the first people out of two fallen trees who become the common ancestors to every man and woman in the universe. Odin’s kin becomes known as the Aesir who are one of the two strands of gods in Norse mythology. The two godly families soon engage in a war after which the other family, the , are overshadowed by their counterparts and become less prominent than the

Aesir (Crossley-Holland 3-8). As described by in “Ynglinga Saga,” the war does not have a clear victor: “Óðinn went with an army against the Vanir, but they put up a good fight and defended their land, and victory went alternately to both sides. They each raided the other’s land and did damage. But when both sides grew weary of this, they arranged a meeting of reconciliation between them and made peace and gave each other hostages”

(Sturluson, I 7). Clearly, Odin is an important figure in the universe, he plays a key part in the creation of the world and its peoples. The opening myths of the lore show that

Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, were essential characters for the establishment of the cosmos. Unlike Odin, Vili and Ve are not mentioned in the mythology from that point onwards in other way than a brief mention or an acknowledgement of their existence. And the second family of gods, the Vanir, too, become less important after the war with the Aesir, which is to establish the Aesir as the ruling deity and to dismantle the pantheon that had been worshiped before the Norse mythology’s inception. These notions highlight the strength of Odin’s character. Not only does he outshine every other character from the story of the world’s creation, for he is the only one that keeps consistently appearing in the myths, he is able to dethrone the Vanir deity through an inconclusive war and become the sovereign of his pantheon, comparable to Zeus in the Greek mythology.

The Norse pantheon constitutes of twelve gods and thirteen goddesses and Odin is the ruler. Snorri Sturluson described him in the in the following fashion: “Odin is the

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highest and oldest of the asas [Aesir]. He rules all things, but the other gods, each according to his might, serve him as children a father” (Sturluson 28). All other beings in the cosmos regard Odin as the ruler or the father and for that reason he is often called the Allfather. He either fathered, is related to or helped create the substantial part of the peoples of the nine worlds. He resides in his hall Valhalla, where the warriors slain in battle, the , are brought by the to feast and train in preparation for the mythological ending of their age called the Ragnarok. In his high seat, , he is able to see everything that is happening within the nine worlds and his two ravens Huginn and Munnin, Thought and

Memory, bring him news from the worlds each day (Crossley-Holland xxv-xxvi). He embodies the knowledge of the world and its history, too, and his authority is unquestionable.

Furthermore, Odin is the God of the Dead and the God of the Hanged, for he had impaled himself with his spear to the base of the world tree , and the God of Poetry, because he had stolen the from the Giants, which may be the reason for his unrivalled participation in the myths, as explained by Crossley-Holland: “The same inspiration that enabled one man to win a battle enabled another to compose poetry. Thus Odin, the God of

War, travelled to Jotunheim to win the mead of poetry for the gods, and one reason why he is so prominent in the eddaic poems may be that he was the patron of the poets who composed them” (Crossley-Holland xxvi). Even though his patronage may be the cause for Odin’s frequent appearances in the Eddas, he surely presents qualities that make him an interesting figure, nonetheless. As an addition to his erratic nature and preoccupation with warfare, for, presumably, he only cares about poetry because the prerequisites for winning a battle and composing a poem are comparable, Odin displays kindness and compassion, too. His position of the Allfather means he bears responsibility for the gods and heroes of the nine worlds and he fulfils this task well. He sacrifices himself to acquire knowledge to help him in his quest, as discussed in a later chapter, and he raises a völva [seeress] from the dead to be told of the fate

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of the world and even in the light of the miserable prophecy of doom he keeps his guardianship over the peoples under his care.

The Lord of Men, as he is often dubbed within the lore, is a complex God that often does not meet the standards for the ruler of a pantheon, but still achieves his task to accompany his subjects to the bitter end of his deity. From the genesis of the universe he is at the forefront to combat each difficulty the gods find themselves in, both in struggles of war and discords within the pantheon. He is the patron of poets, warriors, thralls and rules over the dead and alive alike. The very world tree Yggdrasil translates from Old Norse as Odin’s horse, which designates the nine worlds as Odin’s dominion. The Allfather is ever watching and even his fated death is a sacrifice to ensure the rebirth of the universe.

3 Background to Gandalf

“I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me,” (Tolkien, The Hobbit 8) is one of the first sentences the mysterious grey-clad traveller reveals to Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of The

Hobbit. The name Gandalf is directly borrowed from the Poetic Edda’s “Völuspá” poem that lists the names of all the dwarves in the Norse mythology and one of them is Gandálfr.

Throughout Tolkien’s work, Gandalf’s character bears great significance and is pivotal not only to the plots of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit but to the grand story of Tolkien’s universe, as well. He possesses immense wisdom, knowledge of the world and its peoples and bravery comparable to that of heroes of any Middle-Earth's age, yet he is compassionate and kind towards his fellow inhabitants of the world, though he can be short-tempered when facing folly. Nevertheless, his origin and true nature are only explained in the Silmarillion and

Unfinished Tales, which leaves the reader of the trilogy wondering who Gandalf actually is.

In fact, Gandalf is only one of the names this character goes by, as he explains to

Faramir in The Two Towers: “’Many are my names in many countries. [...] Mithrandir among

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the Elves, Tharkun to the Dwarves; Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incánus, in the North Gandalf” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 876). All of these names that originate in Middle-Earth are descriptions of his appearance in the language of the respective race. For example, Mithrandir means The Grey Pilgrim in the elven tongue Quenya

(Tolkien, The Unfinished Tales 505). The exception is the name Olórin, which is the name he is given in the West, in Valinor, and the one he is, chronologically, first titled with.

Olórin is one of the Maiar, who, as explained by Tolkien, are: “[...] persons of the

‘angelic’ order, though not necessarily of the same rank. The Maiar were ‘spirits,’ but capable of self-incarnation, and could take ‘humane’ (especially Elvish) forms” (Tolkien, Unfinished

Tales 510). The Maiar are the servants or executors of the will of the godly Valar, much like the angels of Christianity, who reside in Valinor and have created the world. He is the Maia under Manwë, the high god of the Valar pantheon, whose main trait is wisdom, but he also learns from another Vala – Nienna: “Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin. He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience”

(Tolkien, Silmarillion 22). Nienna is the Queen of the Valar and when, in the beginning of

Tolkien’s mythology, the Valar create the world through their songs, hers is one of sadness, which leads to the conception of grief in the world. In contrast, she is also affiliated with pity and courage. Olórin practices the qualities taught by both of his masters throughout the whole story and never falters, even before his departure for Middle-Earth, as described in Silmarillion:

For though [Olórin] loved the Elves, he walked among them unseen, or in form as one

of them, and they did not know whence came the fair visions or the promptings of

wisdom that he put into their hearts. In later days he was the friend of all the Children

of Ilúvatar [Elves and Men], and took pity on their sorrows; and those who listened to

him awoke from despair and put away the imaginations of darkness” (Tolkien,

Silmarillion 22).

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Next to Melian, Marion (Sauron) or Ossë, Olórin is one of the most powerful and influential

Maiar to be mentioned within the mythology. Which is why Manwë personally chooses him to be one of the five Maiar to be sent to Middle-Earth. Around the year 1000 of the Third Age, five wizards arrive to the Grey Havens: Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast and two blue wizards, who depart for the East and do not play any part in the story. Only few inhabitants of Middle-

Earth discover their real identity and purpose, for they are the five Maiar, chosen by the council of Valar, whose quest is to oppose Sauron when he comes back:

For with the consent of Eru they [Valar] sent members of their own high order, but clad

in bodies of as of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and

weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble

spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years [...]

bidden to advise and persuade Men and Elves to good and to seek to unite in love and

understanding all those whom Sauron, should he come again, would endeavour to

dominate and corrupt (Tolkien, Unfinished Tales 503).

The Valar choose a different approach to battling Sauron than they had in the past with Melkor.

The Istári, the wizards, are not allowed to display their might and angelic form and must take an appearance of Men. Furthermore, they are not to directly assail Sauron, but are tasked with guiding the races of Middle-Earth towards their own defence. This is the reason why Gandalf hardly ever uses any powers throughout the story of The Hobbit and of The Fellowship of the

Ring, for before his reincarnation as Gandalf the White, he is not permitted to display his true might. Gandalf proves to be the only one of the Istári mentioned in the story, who stays true to his quest. Saruman studies the lore of the Rings of Power and desires their might, disobeying his orders, craving the control of the peoples of Middle-Earth and resorting to attempting to achieve his own aims. Radagast is consumed by his love of nature and its beasts and forgets about his mission to battle Sauron. Only Gandalf is able to resist the temptations the new

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continent offers and, in the end, is able to achieve victory over Sauron even without the help of his peers. And he manages through the vices taught by Manwë and Nienna – compassion and wisdom.

Gandalf’s compassion is unrivalled among the characters of The Lord of the Rings. He truly strives to help the peoples of Middle-Earth, on multiple occasions he shows mercy to those who in many eyes do not deserve it and cares for the well-being of his fellows.

Compassion is what Saruman lacked and Radagast had too much of. Unlike them, Gandalf possesses the perfect amount of it to kindly guide the Elves and Men towards their own redemption. But the moment when his pity is essential to the success of his mission is when he explains to Frodo why Bilbo had not killed Gollum: “It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and

Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 78). Not only does Gandalf show compassion towards Gollum, he clarifies to Frodo that Gollum deserves it. Michael N. Stanton discusses this interaction between Gandalf and Frodo in his paper “Gandalf:” “Gandalf counsels Frodo to remember pity and mercy; the occasions when Frodo does so are all-important. Gandalf does not offer Frodo this counsel because it is expedient, although it is, but because it is morally correct to act according to such feelings” (Stanton 231). This advice is one of the main reasons

Frodo manages to arrive to Mount Doom. Without it, Frodo may never allow Gollum to lead them into Mordor and may not fulfil his task of destroying the Ring.

The wisdom of Gandalf ranges from general quotes about life to the profound understanding of the situation the West finds itself in and the knowledge of what steps to take to overthrow Sauron. He is also the moral compass of the story, the character to pronounce judgements or to have the last say in the matters regarding the whole of Middle-Earth, for even other characters see him as an authority. Furthermore, Gandalf is the medium through which

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Tolkien passes on to the reader the archetypal and timeless wisdoms about life, for example the famous sentence from the ending of the trilogy: “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 1348). This quotation and ones similar to it display the depth of Gandalf’s character and, also, the level of humanity he possesses, which should not be taken for granted for he is not of human kind and other Maiar often experience difficulties trying to understand the younger races. Saruman is devoid of any sympathy whatsoever, Radagast does not understand Gandalf’s fascination with anything else than the creatures of Yavanna and Sauron only sees the Elves and Men as means to his master’s end or peoples to be subjected under Morgoth’s rule. Another of his wisdoms, which could be used to summarise the plot of The Lord of the Rings and explains his love for the Hobbits, can be found in Silmarillion: “’Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrandir, ‘and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter” (Tolkien, Silmarillion 362). This almost prophetic statement, proclaimed centuries before Bilbo obtains the ring, further demonstrates Gandalf’s understanding of the powers in Middle-Earth and also of the corruptibility of the powerful. But the greatest show of Gandalf’s wisdom is in his construction of the campaign against Sauron. During the Council of Elrond, he defends his plan as follows:

Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise,

and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that

he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the

thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy

it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

351).

Even though the Elves are not in favour of Gandalf’s design to entrust one of the most powerful objects in the world to the hands of few and send them into the land of the Enemy, Gandalf understands that it may be the best option they have. He correctly reads his opponent. It may

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seem like folly to the younger races, for only Gandalf’s wisdom is so great to assess what

Sauron is and is not expecting and to comprehend his mind. Moreover, he does so without underestimating Sauron and that may well be why he succeeds; the downfall of many evil characters in Tolkien’s universe is the underestimation of their opponents, but Gandalf avoids this mistake.

Gandalf, or Olórin, is the personification of Good within The Lord of the Rings and The

Hobbit, but he is only able to defeat the Enemy through the character traits passed onto him by his godly masters, the Valar. Thanks to compassion and wisdom he vanquishes the forces of

Evil and manages to rid Middle-Earth of Sauron. It is his understanding of his opponent and his ceaseless struggle to make his plan work that allows it to come true. When he leaves the hobbits on their way back to the Shire, he departs to meet Tom Bombadil with the following explanation: “He is a moss gatherer, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another” (Tolkien, The Lord of the

Rings 1304). Now that he has fulfilled his mission, he is about to sail back to the Undying

Lands and possibly never come back, for not many Maiar play a significant part in Middle-

Earth for longer than one age. Soon after he departs for Valinor with the Ring-bearers and the remaining Elves.

4 Similarities

4.1 Appearance

The first notable similarity between Odin and Gandalf is their appearance. Tolkien has in one of his letters, when talking about Gandalf’s appearance, described Gandalf as an “Odinic wanderer” (Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 107), which confirms that they were supposed to look alike.

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When visiting the world of men, they both choose to assume the appearance of an old man. According to J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter, Gandalf’s looks were partly based on the painting Der Berggeist (“The Mountain-Spirit"), by German artist

Josef Madlener, that Tolkien acquired in Switzerland (Carpenter 59). On Gandalf’s first appearance in the story, the visit of Bilbo at the start of The Hobbit, he is described followingly:

“All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots" (Tolkien, The Hobbit 6). Despite the colours not matching, the person in Madlener’s painting and Bilbo’s account on Gandalf’s appearance are identical. The colour of Gandalf’s cloak needed to be changed to highlight the fact that at this point he is still Gandalf the Grey, for the colour will bear great significance later in the story.

But Mithrandir’s appearance changes throughout the story of Middle-Earth. When the hobbits and Aragorn reunite with Gandalf in Rivendell, Frodo describes Gandalf differently than Bilbo did before:

Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two [Elrond and Glorfindel]; but his long

white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some

wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark eyes

were set like coals that could leap suddenly into fire (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

295).

In Rivendell, Gandalf does not resemble the old wanderer he did in the Hobbiton but seems more regal. Possibly, he feels safe in Rivendell, does not need to maintain the illusion of a fragile man and offers a slight glimpse of his true appearance as the angelic Maia. Furthermore, his rank within the mythology is known to the Elves, or at least to the two that accompany him at that moment, so to retain the image of a wanderer is not needed. In Two Towers, when

Gandalf is resurrected and healed, his appearance changes to indicate him as the new leader of

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the Order of Istári, replacing Saruman. The new incarnation of Olórin, as Gandalf the White, is described in the chapter The White Rider:

There he stood, grown suddenly tall, towering above them. His hood and his grey rags

were flung away. His white garments shone. [...] His hair was white as snow in the

sunshine; and gleaming white was his robe; the eyes under his deep brows were bright,

piercing as the rays of the sun; power was in his hand (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

644-645).

The second coming of Gandalf again presents him more divine in appearance than he was before. His image even demonstrates power to the onlookers. Michael N. Stanton, in his article for the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, explains that in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings there are three versions of Gandalf, as described, and this is the most powerful one. “He is still literally ‘an old man with a staff,’ as he was in The Hobbit, but enormously magnified” (Stanton

231).

Similarly to Gandalf, Odin also assumes the body of an old wanderer. Crossley-Holland notes on his appearance: “Odin is a formidable presence. He has only one eye and wears a wide-brimmed hat to escape instant recognition; he always wears a blue cloak and carries the magic spear ” (Crossley-Holland xxvi). Besides his clothing, Odin has one extra distinguishing feature; he is missing one eye, which he surrendered to the well of Mimir to gain wisdom. This detail makes it easier to recognize Odin within the lore, for he often adopts different names. Crossley-Holland's description is akin to two different portrayals of Odin in

Volsunga Saga: “Now when the battle had gone on for some time, a man who had on a black cloak and a hat coming down low over his face entered the fray. He had but one eye and in his hand he held a spear” (Finch 20) and “This is how he was dressed: he had on a mottled cape, he was bare-footed and had bound his linen breeches round the leg” (Finch 4). All quotations

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depict Odin as a person almost identical to The Mountain-Spirit from Madlener’s painting, but with the spear and without an eye. Furthermore, in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál: The Lay of Grimnir Odin lists all his names he ever adopted or was called by and among them are

“Sidhött”, “Sidskegg” and “Baleyg” (Thorpe 38). These names are translated in the notes to

The Prose Edda by Rasmus B. Anderson and mean “The slouchy hat,” “The long beard” and

“The burning-eye,” respectively (Sturluson, The Prose Edda 82). These names, attributed to

Odin based on his appearance, are in line with the descriptions of Gandalf. Especially the last one, for Gandalf the White was also described as having “eyes [...] piercing as the rays of the sun” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 645). This feature gives them both the scorning look often commanding respect and dignity. During Ragnarok, though, Odin rides into battle on his horse dressed differently: “The asas and the einherjes arm themselves and speed forth to the battlefield. Odin rides first; with his golden helmet, resplendent byrnie, and his spear

Gungner” (Sturluson, The Prose Edda 47). Clad for war, Odin rides to meet his end in shining, golden armour, assuming his strongest form, much like Gandalf does after his resurrection.

Evidently, Odin and Gandalf are often depicted as similarly-looking. Their disguise of an old wanderer is only a mask to hide their true identity of God and a godly Maia. It often helps them, for beings they encounter underestimate them and do not attribute them their real wisdom, power or stature. Later on, they both reveal their strongest form: God of War leading a host into battle in golden armour and the powerful Maia who was sent by the gods to defeat the chief enemy of the Good.

4.2 The Champions of Their Age

In both the Tolkien’s universe and the Norse Mythology, just like in many religions, the time is regarded as cyclical. The story of The Lord of the Rings takes place in the Third Age and every age culminates with a terrible war. The First Age ended with the dethroning of

Melkor, Second Age with the defeat of Sauron and The War of the Ring, Aragorn’s coronation 20

and the departure of the Ring-bearers for the West marks the end of the Third Age and the start of the Fourth. In Norse Mythology, most of the gods, people and other races are slain in the final battle Ragnarok that indicates the end of their pantheon, only for the new world to be founded on the ashes of the old one. Odin and Gandalf are the ones chosen to guide peoples towards the new age knowing their chances of survival are slim in Gandalf’s case and in the case of Odin non-existent altogether.

Odin is the foremost God, the Allfather, to whom is revealed the prophecy named

“Völuspa” in The Poetic Edda. A seeress, or as called in the myths ‘a völva’, declares to Odin that the final battle of Good and Evil, Ragnarok, shall end his reign. As described in “Völuspa,” it shall be preceded by general chaos in the society:

Brothers shall fight,

and slay each other;

cousins shall

kinship violate. [...]

No man will

another spare.

Hard is it in the world,

great whoredom,

an axe age, a sword age,

shields will be cloven,

a wind age, a wolf age,

ere the world sinks (Thorpe 12).

The upcoming end is foreshadowed by the collapse of the society. Kinship is broken, family ties are undone and battle ensues among the peoples. Moreover, three continuous winters come,

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the Sun and the Moon are swallowed by the wolves who chase them across the sky, resulting in perpetual darkness, and other dire circumstances arise. Ultimately, the gods and the warriors gathered by Odin and his Valkyries in Valhalla meet the host of evil beings from other worlds,

Loki and the giants in a battle. Most of the pantheon falls in Ragnarok. Among other, kills the world serpent Jormungand only to die of his poison, the gods and Heimdal kill each other and Odin is swallowed by the fearsome wolf :

The Fenris-wolf advances with wide open mouth; the upper jaw reaches to heaven and

the lower jaw is on the earth. He would open it still wider had he room. Fire flashes

from his eyes and nostrils. [...] Odin rides first; with his golden helmet, resplendent

byrnie, and his spear Gungner, he advances against the Fenris-wolf. [...] The wolf

swallows Odin, and thus causes his death (Sturluson, The Prose Edda 47).

He is later avenged by his son Vidar, but this is the end of Odin. With full knowledge of what is to come, he still rides to the battle which he inevitably loses. He is chosen to represent the peoples of the nine worlds for his wisdom, courage and cunning, and he proves he is the right choice. The culmination of the age of his reign results in the defeat of the gods, but he has led the gods and the peoples through all of it. And, even though the Earth is scorched by the flames of the Fire God , the few surviving gods and one human couple, which seeks refuge in the base of the World Tree Yggdrasil, rebuild the world, its deities and communities. The sacrifice of Odin is not in vain, which was also prophesised by the völva.

Whereas, Gandalf is chosen by the Valar to be the opponent to Melkor’s servant Sauron, as he admits: “The third age was my age. I was the enemy of Sauron; and my work is finished.

I shall go soon” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 1272). The gods have chosen him as their champion. Focusing on Gandalf as the enemy of Sauron clearly establishes him as the hero of the grand campaign against Sauron in the Third Age with his main purpose to root out the

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remaining evil in Middle-Earth. Before the Siege of Minas Tirith, he explains further what his objective is:

I'll say this: The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or

small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care.

And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task, though Gondor should perish, if

anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again

in days to come. For I also am a steward (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 992).

This quotation alone demonstrates Gandalf’s wisdom and the depth of the character; he does not challenge the powers of evil for the sake of eradicating them or for the sake of battle, his goal is not to exterminate but to preserve. Tasked with the protection of what is good and living in the eastern part of the Tolkien’s world, Gandalf crafts a plan to eradicate the threat spreading from Mordor. His first step is to exile the Necromancer, who later turns out to be Sauron, from

Dol’Guldur, but the White Council, consisting of the most powerful agents of the gods in

Middle-Earth led by Saruman, denies his pleas in 2851 of the Third Age, for Saruman secretly wants to seize the One Ring for himself. Over a hundred years later, he launches the quest to reclaim Erebor from Smaug, which is the story of The Hobbit. As explained in The Guide to

Middle Earth, helping the dwarves is part of his grand scheme: “Gandalf also realises that the

Dwarves of the Iron Hills, whilst a strong bulwark against the East and a great strategic asset in the area, are compromised by the presence of Smaug in the Lonely Mountain” (Lowson

148). And he also fears that Sauron could use Smaug to help him achieve the domination of

Middle-Earth (Tolkien, Unfinished Tales 416). Gandalf’s plan is very well thought through, he factors in even the beings that are not yet allied with the Enemy. But the possible alignment of

Sauron’s and Smaug’s aims would further diminish the chances of the West prevailing. He eventually succeeds and in the year 3001 TA he realised that Bilbo’s ring may be the One Ring.

His worries are confirmed by the Scroll of Isildur and the final part of the struggle for the Ring

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begins. Thanks to Shadowfax, he is able to traverse the West with immense speed and help where he is needed. He actively, one by one, secures the regions of the West and urges them to join the conflict. It all culminates in the battle in front of the Black Gate, which is a last attempt to increase Frodo and Sam’s chances to destroy the Ring. He realises there is little hope in survival:

We must walk open-eyed into that trap, with courage, but small hope for ourselves. For,

my lords, it may well prove that we ourselves shall perish utterly in a black battle far

from the living lands; so that even if Barad-dur be thrown down, we shall not live to

see a new age. But this, I deem, is our duty. And better so that to perish nonetheless -

as we surely shall, if we sit here - and now as we die that no new age shall be (Tolkien,

The Lord of the Rings 1152).

The Battle at the Black Gate is Gandalf’s Ragnarok, for, much like Odin, he urges to charge in spite of the certainty of his death. Even though the protagonists of the Tolkien’s work survive thanks to the eventual happy end, before the battle they displayed equal courage to the gods of

Asgard as they knowingly rode towards their demise. Gandalf even recognizes that the moment where their age ends and a new one begins is approaching, to everyone else it was just a battle, where they might fall, but Gandalf knew the outcome of the battle would be more severe. After the destruction of Sauron, during Aragorn’s coronation, the new king acknowledges Gandalf’s role: “[Gandalf] has been the mover of all that has been accomplished, and this is his victory”

(Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 1268). He truly is the architect of Sauron’s defeat, Aragorn’s ascendance to the throne and the preservation of life in Middle-Earth.

Both Gandalf and Odin display immense courage in the face of adversity, not frightful of their death, they ride into battle not for their own sake, but for the sake of the age that is to come. This purpose of theirs is commented on by Gandalf at the beginning of the first book:

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“Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule”

(Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 1150). Gandalf is prepared to surrender his life for the better future and Odin does so, the willingness to suffer the ultimate sacrifice, and bravery needed for it, is the personality trait that renders these characters interesting, heroic and the champions of their age.

4.3 Sacrifice

Next important similarity between the two is that the both of them sacrifice themselves to gain wisdom, power and to come back as an enhanced version of their characters. Through death they receive the blessing of other figures of the universes, which help them on their quest to guard and guide the peoples striking obvious similarities with the crucifixion of Christ, as

Joseph Pearce notes in their essay “Christ” from J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia when discussing

Gandalf: “Gandalf clearly reminds us of Christ in his ‘death,’ ‘resurrection,’ and

‘transfiguration,’ especially in the way that Tolkien’s description of Gandalf’s ‘resurrection’ resonates unmistakably with the Gospel accounts of Christ’s Transfiguration” (Pearce 98). It is apparent, that the story of Christ has influence on both the Tolkien’s and Norse mythology.

When it comes to Odin, he chiefly strived for wisdom. Firstly, he sacrificed an eye for one draught from the Well of Mimir, which is one of the three wells spread across the nine worlds, where the World Tree Yggdrasill’s roots are watered. This gained him immense wisdom and without the offering of the eye he would not be allowed to drink the water. Roused by the newly acquired knowledge, Odin impales himself, with his own spear Gungnir, to the trunk of Yggdrasill to further be enriched with wisdom, as described in Havamal Words of the

High One:

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Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows

For nine long nights,

Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odhinn,

Offered, myself to myself [...]

They gave me no bread,

They gave me no mead,

I looked down;

with a loud cry

I took up ;

from that tree I fell (Auden 14).

For this sacrifice, Odin receives nine songs and eighteen runes or spells that he learns and no one else knows. The runes allow him many things, ranging from the ability to stop a flying arrow, releasing himself from any bonds, healing or calming the sea to the ability to seduce women and bless children that they never shall fall in battle. Crossley-Holland summarises this myth: “These were the words of Odin before there were men. These were his words, after his death, when he rose again” (Crossley-Holland 17). This act adds to the long list of Odin’s titles the name Lord of the Gallows, for he also learns to talk with the dead, and transform Odin into the fearsome magician he is known as.

Even though Gandalf’s sacrifices himself with the goal of allowing the Fellowship to continue on their quest rather than to gain wisdom, he also becomes more powerful as the result of it. In Moria, the Fellowship encounters a Balrog, The Durin’s Bain, and Gandalf faces him, resulting in the death of both the Maia and the Balrog. When Gandalf reappears later in the story, he describes what happened to him: “I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see”

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(Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 645). Gandalf struggles with the Durin’s Bain for ten days, after which they are both slain, but Gandalf being the emissary of the Valar only loses his human body, whereas the servant of Morgoth dies, for Morgoth had renounced the powers of the West. This might not seem as a sacrifice, but Tolkien comments on the events of the Bridge of Khazad-Dum in one of his letters:

For in his condition it was for him a sacrifice to perish on the Bridge in defence of his

companions, less perhaps than for a mortal Man or Hobbit, since he had a far greater

inner power than they; but also, more; [...] for all he could know at that moment he was

the only person who could direct the resistance to Sauron successfully, and all his

mission was vain. He was handing over to the Authority [the God Ilúvatar] that ordained

the Rules, and giving up personal hope of success (Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R.

Tolkien 202).

Tolkien explains that Gandalf truly does sacrifice himself, even though he does not cease to exist. He favours the preservation of the Fellowship over his own mission that he was selected for by the high God Manwë. At the Bridge of Khazad-Dum he realises that even if he does not come back his companions have a better chance of completing their quest without him than of escaping the Balrog. It also seems that with each of his incarnations, Olórin loses, at least partly, his memory, for he does not even remember his name in Middle-Earth. Furthermore,

Gandalf also describes being resurrected:

Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on

roads that I will not tell. Naked I was sent back – for a brief time, until my task is done.

[...] I was alone, forgotten, without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay

staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of

the earth (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 655).

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After the death of his human body, Olórin’s spirit travels back to the West, where his gods reside, and they revive him and send him back to Middle-Earth. But it is not an easy or quick process, Gandalf reappears at the peak of Celebdil where the battle with Balrog took place and lays there for seemingly endless amount of time. Later, he is rescued by Gwaihir, the Eagle who also rescues Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom at the end of the story. Out of his death,

Gandalf emerges much more powerful than he was before, for the gods allow him to openly use his strength when he comes back and he, for the first time in the trilogy, starts using spells to combat the Evil.

Gandalf and Odin both sacrifice themselves at some point in their stories and they only do so to gain strength and wisdom so that they can truly become the champions of their age, as discussed in the previous subchapter. Once again, they both display their courage and determination to protect their companions and the inhabitants of the worlds they find themselves in.

4.4 Horses

Another notable similarity are the horses of the two characters, for both, Gandalf and

Odin, own a horse that allows them to travel either via the incredible speed of Shadowfax or through air and water on Sleipnir which bears great value to the wanderers who need to travel the world(s) with great speed.

Gandalf’s horse, Shadowfax, is lent to him after he escapes the Saruman’s tower

Orthanc and comes to Rohan to warn Theoden that war with Isengard is near: “For Gandalf took the horse that is called Shadowfax, the most precious of all the king's steeds, chief of the

Mearas, which only the Lord of the Mark may ride. For the sire of their race was the great horse of Eorl that knew the speech of men” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 566). Shadowfax’s noble bloodline is bound to the Kings of Rohan. Even though Shadowfax cannot speak with men,

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like his ancestor could, he and Gandalf are still able to communicate through thought. In The

Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf describes his borrowing of Shadowfax and the horse itself:

And there is one among them that might have been foaled in the morning of the world.

The horses of the Nine cannot vie with him; tireless, swift as the flowing wind.

Shadowfax they called him. By day his coat glistens like silver; and by night it is like a

shade, and he passes unseen. Light is his footfall. Never before had any man mounted

him, but I took him and I tamed him, and so speedily he bore me that I reached the Shire

when Frodo was on the Barrow-downs, though I set out from Rohan only when he set

out from Hobbiton (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 342).

It is explained to the reader that Shadowfax is almost as old as Middle-Earth itself and that he was destined to be ridden by Gandalf. His speed is unmatched even by the horses bred in

Mordor who are ridden by the Nazghúl and are faster than the horses of men. As advertised in the quotation, Shadowfax bore Gandalf to the Shire in mere six days, he departed on 23rd

September and arrived on the 29th. For comparison, Aragorn, Glorfindel and the hobbits travel from Weathertop to Rivendell in fourteen days, which is about a quarter of the distance Gandalf rode from Rohan. Shadowfax allows Gandalf to be at the right place in the right time, bearing him across Middle-Earth throughout the whole story, so that Gandalf is able to put his plan to work. This makes the horse indispensable, for otherwise Gandalf would not be able to help

Frodo on his way to Rivendell, bring help to the siege of Helm’s Deep that routed the army of

Saruman or organize the defence of Minas Tirith for the War of the Ring. In the end, Shadowfax sails West with the Ring-bearers into the Undying Lands, as discussed by Tolkien in one of his letters:

I think Shadowfax certainly went with Gandalf [across the Sea], though this is not

stated. [...] Gandalf was last seen riding Shadowfax (III 276). He must have ridden to

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the Havens, and it is inconceivable that he would [have] ridden any beast but

Shadowfax; so Shadowfax must have been there (Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R.

Tolkien 354).

Appropriately to his importance to the story, the reward for Shadowfax is to remain with

Gandalf and to travel to the West. In Tolkien’s mythology this is regarded as a great opportunity, for the West is where the gods and some of the elven fractions reside and no evil has corrupted these lands for millennia.

Similarly, Odin’s horse is also of noble blood. In fact, the trickster god Loki gives birth to the eight-legged Sleipnir. During the re-building of the wall around , the gods find themselves in a difficult place for they have been tricked by a giant. They task Loki to stop the giant from winning a bet he has made with the gods. He decides to slow the giant down by distracting his horse. He shapeshifts into a mare and the giant’s stallion starts following him, making the giant unable to win the bet with the gods. In nine months, Loki returns riding

Sleipnir, for he was unable to outrun the stallion, and he gives Sleipnir to Odin as a gift

(Crossley-Holland 9-14). This makes Sleipnir as powerful and magical as the other children of

Loki, but Sleipnir is the only offspring that sides with the gods during Ragnarok. The other children are terrible creatures, who greatly contribute to the demise of the Aesir. Sleipnir becomes the fastest and strongest horse in the mythology, as described in The Poetic Edda in the poem “Grímnismál”:

Yggdrasil’s ash is

of all trees most excellent,

and of all ships, Skidbladnir,

Of the Æsir, Odin,

and of horses, Sleipnir,

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Bifröst of bridges,

and of , (Thorpe 37).

Sleipnir being the most excellent of all the horses makes him a great fit for Odin who often uses him to traverse the different realms of Norse Mythology. Sleipnir is also able to travel from Asgard to Helheim, the realm of the dead ruled over by the giantess , another child of

Loki. This deed is impossible for ordinary horses, for the nine realms of Norse Mythology are structured within the world tree Yggdrasil on three planes. Asgard is on the topmost plane,

Helheim at the very bottom and only the two higher planes are connected via the rainbow bridge Bifröst. This is explained in The Prose Edda when Odin rides to Jotunheim, the realm of the giants located on the same plane as Helheim: “Odin rode on his horse Sleipner to

Jotunheim, and came to the giant whose name is Hrungner. Then asked Hrungner what man that was who with a golden helmet rode both through the air and over the sea, and added that he had a remarkably good horse” (Sturluson, The Prose Edda 57). This quotation reveals

Sleipnir’s ability to traverse air and water, which Odin used to travel the planes, proving

Sleipnir’s value to the God. Moreover, in Volsunga Saga Odin awards the epic’s hero Sigurd with the horse sired by Sleipnir and it becomes the strongest and fastest horse in the world

(Finch 24).

The stallions that Gandalf and Odin ride are supernatural horses, who allow their riders to navigate impassable terrain and to travel faster than on regular horses. Within their respective mythologies, the horses play very important role, for without them their riders would not be able to act on the needs of their worlds. It is no accident that both of them owned such a stallion, for, much like Odin, Gandalf is the main authority of the Good.

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4.5 Weapons

To the reader of both Norse mythological literature and Tolkien’s work, it is clear that the two, Gandalf and Odin, possess special weapons that help them fight their enemies. Odin’s

Gungnir and Gandalf’s Glamdring are famous within their world and, as Anthony Burdge and

Jessica Burke note in their article “Named Weapons” in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, the purpose of the two weapons is not purely to be an instrument of war: “Naming weapons has long been part of our mythological past. In tales of heroic epic, the named weapon was of singular importance, and served as part of the hero, journey and rite of passage. The weapons in Middle-earth are unique creations, imbued with their own story, connecting readers to ritualistic warfare” (Burdge and Burke 704). The weapons are important even outside of the battlefield, for they are renowned among the enemies; The Goblins of The Hobbit recognize the Elven weapons Thorin and Gandalf carry and Odin’s spear is one of his features that helps other inhabitants of the nine worlds recognize the God.

Gandalf happens upon his sword, and two more – Sting for Bilbo and Orcrist for Thorin, in a troll-hoard while accompanying the dwarfs to reclaim the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit.

Later on in Rivendell, Elrond inspects the three weapons and proclaims:

These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the

West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come

from a dragon’s hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city

many ages ago. This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient

tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer

that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well! (Tolkien, The Hobbit 61-62)

Elrond recognizes the weapons as swords from Gondolin, a city that had fallen in the First Age of Tolkien’s legendarium and its defeat is described in Silmarillion and as a stand-alone story

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The Fall of Gondolin, edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher and published decades after

Tolkien’s death. Gondolin is a city where a part of the Elves hides after Nirnaeth Anoediad, also known as Battle of the Unnumbered Tears, where they are crushed by Melkor. They are able to escape Melkor’s destruction for many years sheltering in Gondolin, but Melkor later learns of their location and razes the city with his army of goblins, dragons and balrogs, killing its king Turgon and many other renowned Elves. Only the swords survive the end of Gondolin and are found again by Thorin’s company. The swords are not only esteemed among the Elves, but also the goblins know of them, as explained in The Hobbit when Thorin’s company fights to escape their captivity:

[Gandalf] took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned

with rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for

delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave. It made no trouble whatever of cutting

through the goblin-chains and setting all the prisoners free as quickly as possible. This

sword’s name was Glamdring, the Foe-hammer, if you remember. The goblins just

called it Beater, and hated it worse than Biter [Orcrist] if possible (Tolkien, The Hobbit

77).

The swords are feared among the goblins, for they also share legends of terrible weapons of their enemies. Furthermore, they weapons are forged by the Elves, which imbues them with the ability to gleam with blue light when goblins or orcs are nearby. Frodo makes extensive use of this aspect of Sting during his journey to Mordor, for Bilbo gives the sword to him before

Frodo departs from Rivendell. As Burdge and Burke explain in their essay, quoted at the start of this sub-chapter, “In tales of heroic epic, the named weapon was of singular importance, and served as a part of the hero, journey and rite of passage,” which comes true for the three companions who set out to recover the Dwarven kingdom occupied by the dragon Smaug;

Bilbo is given Sting as a rite of passage – he is no longer the staid Hobbit who is not involved

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in the events of the larger world, but becomes the brave adventurer who is to outwit a dragon,

Glamdring helps Gandalf on his journey to save Middle-earth and Orcrist becomes part of

Thorin and is buried with him after the Battle of the Five Armies.

Similarly, Odin’s spear Gungnir bears more significance than a purely fighting weapon would. Sara Ann Knutson discusses the importance of magical items in Norse mythology in their article “The Materiality of Myth: Divine Objects in Norse Mythology:”

The Norse myths similarly retain records of materials in the past that reinforced

Scandinavian oral traditions and gave the stories power, memory, and influence: Thoe’s

hammer; ’s feathered cloak; Odin’s spear; Loki’s magic shoes. These materials

and the stories they colour are informed by everyday objects of Iron Age life, spun with

magic, belief, religion and narrative tradition that ultimately make them icons (Knutson

31-32).

Norse mythology describes its gods as owning common objects, to make the stories conceivable, but enhances them with other-worldly attributes. Odin’s spear is made by dwarfs and given to him by Loki. In Prose Edda it is stated that Gungnir “would never miss its mark,”

(Sturluson, The Prose Edda 68) Crossley-Holland describes it as “as strong as it was slender”

(Crossley-Holland 49) and in Volsunga Saga it is depicted as stronger than regular weapons:

“He [Odin] had but one eye and in his hand he held a spear. The man advanced towards King

Sigmund, raising the spear to bar his way and when King struck fiercely, his sword hit against the spear and snapped in two” (Finch 20). The last quotation also shows that Odin always carries Gungnir on his person and, just like the weapons from Tolkien’s world, Gungnir is as important to the story as Odin himself is, they complement each other. Moreover, Odin’s spear appears in the customs of Scandinavian people, as described in the Appendix A to

Volsunga Saga:

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Rerir does not die in battle, but of sickness, and there are grounds for the belief that a

man mortally ill might be marked with the point of a javelin, being thereby dedicated

to Odin (the javelin was a weapon especially associated with him), and thus presumably

made one with the Einherjar, the dead heroes who spend their days in fighting and

carousing with Odin in Valhalla until the Doom of the Gods is at hand (Finch 81).

Odin is the God of the Dead and he, together with his Valkyries, collects fallen warriors from the battlefield and brings them to his hall Valhalla, where they are to practice their fighting skills throughout the day and feast during the evening as preparation for Ragnarok. As Finch describes, it was a custom to mark a warrior, who did not manage to die on the battlefield, with a spear to at least try and assure his entrance into Valhalla. Another custom from the Eddas that have invaded the lives of Scandinavians is based on Odin starting the first war by “casting his spear into the host of the Vanir” (Crossley-Holland 7) and, as Hilda Ellis Davidson states in their book The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe, it was often imitated: “[...] the custom of flinging a spear over the enemy at the outset of a battle with such words as ‘Odin take you all’ is reasonably well attested’ (Davidson 98). The spear throwing before battle commences was an attempt to ask Odin for his favours, for, above all, he is the God of Battle, who determines which army achieves victory and who is crushed.

The weapons Gandalf and Odin carry throughout their adventures in either Middle- earth or the nine worlds of Norse mythology, Glamdring and Gungnir, are, aside from regular weapons, either imbued with magical powers and bear historical significance or so deeply embedded within the lore that the followers of Odin use them for both pre-battle rituals or after warriors passing outside of the battlefield. It is clear, that they are no mere weapons and bear significance even comparable to minor characters especially in the case of Gungnir for it is mentioned within the mythology more often than some of its living participants.

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5 Differences

In the scope of this paper, where the goal is to discuss to what degree are the characters of Odin and Gandalf similar or different to each other, it needs to be said that Gandalf is not the only character, within The Lord of the Rings universe, to be influenced by Odin and that there are many qualities they do not share, as described by Marjorie Burns in her article “Old

Norse Literature” published in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical

Assessment:

Odin, however, is not a simple or consistent figure. [...] On the plain of Middle-earth,

Gandalf is the one who manifests Odin’s favourable qualities as a seeker of truth and a

defender of good. In The Lord of the Rings, Odin’s negative traits (those that mark him

as a promoter of war, death and deception) are allotted to both Sauron and Saruman.

[...] Odin’s ring, (an arm ring), produces eight more rings every nine nights;

Sauron’s One Ring has the ability to dominate the three, seven and nine lesser Rings

(Burns 474).

It is clear that Odin is a complex character who displays both good and bad traits. To display what a complicated figure he is, it is only fitting that his attributes can be traced to both the main protagonist and the main villains of the story. Crossley-Holland's comments on the eddaic poem “Harbardsljoth,” where Odin in disguise argues with his son Thor, describe the dark side of Odin: “Odin is subtle, a deceiver, and arrogant. Odin’s boasts relate to his prowess with women, his magical powers and his pleasure in stirring up strife and ‘setting princes at one another’s throats.’ These are three familiar aspects of his character and recur in many of the myths” (Crossley-Holland 217). Truly, it is common to read about Odin portrayed in such a way and these are the traits one would associate with Tolkien’s villains.

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Saruman is the deceiver whose silver tongue and magical powers are often put to use to subdue, among others, the old and mighty Treebeard or Théoden and even Gandalf is wary of his abilities and he voices his concern when his company is about to encounter Saruman, defeated by the Ents: “But there is no knowing what he can do, or may choose to try. A wild beast cornered is not safe to approach. And Saruman has powers you do not guess. Beware of his voice” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 752). And Jonathan Evans discusses Saruman’s powers in their essay titled “Saruman” in the J.R.R. Tolkien Ecyclopedia:

Saruman’s ability to influence others is attributed largely to his powers of speech. […]

In his parley with Gandalf and Théoden, Saruman’s voice modulates between carefully

controlled flashes of anger and suave, melodious tones said to be in ‘very sound an

enchantment’ whereby he holds the others spellbound and enthralled (TT, III, x, 183).

His rhetorical devices are varied” (Evans, 589-590).

Saruman certainly speaks in the skilled manner of the master of speech he is. No other character, within The Lord of the Rings, can captivate their listeners to this level, not to mention that Théoden is close to enslaved by Saruman’s might. Even though Gandalf the White casts

Saruman out of Théoden’s mind, suggesting he is more powerful, he is still wary of his former comrade. This is not Gandalf’s way, for he is always upfront about the immediate requirements he has of the person he is speaking to. He never clouds his purpose in order to gain power or authority. Furthermore, as Burns describes, there is one more similarity between Saruman and

Odin that Gandalf does not share: “Of the two villains, Saruman is the one most closely associated with Odin’s ravaging wolves and carrion birds” (Burns 474). Odin keeps two wolves and two ravens and Saruman controls his spying birds and Wargs, and Gandalf does none of this. He only maintains friendship with the eagle Gwaihir, who at different points of the story assists him.

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On similarity to Odin’s fondness of stirring up strife, two other Tolkien’s villains come to mind – Sauron and Melkor. Sauron, once a powerful Maia comparable to Saruman or

Gandalf, is reduced to the burning eye, whose gaze is scouring the lands and is intolerable for mere mortals. Likewise, Odin also has the commanding look: “The Father of Battle took the spear and raised it and looked around the hall. Nobody could withstand his terrible gaze”

(Crossley-Holland 51). Moreover, just like Sauron, Odin can overlook his domain: “In Asgard is a place called Hlidskjalf, and when Odin seated himself there in the high−seat, he saw over the whole world, and what every man was doing, and he knew all things that he saw”

(Sturluson, The Prose Edda 20). The similarity can be seen not only in the absence of one eye, for Odin sacrifices his and Sauron just does not possess the other one, but also in the ability to oversee their subjects and, literally, look through the world in search of something or someone, as both often find themselves doing.

Another correlation can be observed between Odin and Melkor, for both of them can be cruel and enjoy ‘stirring up strife,’ as can be seen in the myth where Odin masks himself as

Bolverk and obtains the Mead of Poetry from the Giants. On the way there, he encounters nine thralls:

Bolverk looked at them with his one eye. He smiled grimly. Then he threw the

whetstone into the air. In the sun it glinted, it looked like silver. The thralls gasped.

They raised their scythes and ran, all of them eager to be under the whetstone when it

fell. [...] The thralls jostled, they stepped backwards, they suddenly swung round; and

in the end, in their confusion, they all slit one another’s throats. [...] Still smiling grimly,

Bolverk caught the whetstone, tucked it into his belt, and walked back the way he had

come (Crossley-Holland 29).

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This nonchalant approach to death of others is common to Odin’s character and probably is needed in God of Battle, but it is not a trait one would expect from a main protagonist of a story, like Gandalf, or God tasked with guardianship of all peoples. The other, Melkor, is best described by Joseph Pearce in their essay “Morgoth and Melkor:” “Melkor is the embodiment of, and the primal perpetrator of, the sin of pride; like Lucifer he is intent on corrupting humanity for his own purposes” (Pearce 435) and by Tolkien in Silmarillion: “But [Melkor] desired rather to subdue to his will both Elves and Men […]; and he wished himself to have a subject and servants, and to be called Lord, and to be master over other wills” (Tolkien,

Silmarillion 7-8). Melkor wants to rule the younger races and, for an age, achieves this goal by setting them against each other and compelling them to defy the Valar. Throughout the story of Silmarillion, he steals the Silmarils, which launches a chain of events that causes, among other acts, the first kinslaying among the Elves.

These character traits are not observable in Gandalf and they are exactly the attributes he wants abolished. The evil presence of Sauron and Melkor’s craving for dominion over Men and Elves, though comparable to Odin’s characteristics, are neither shared nor tolerated by

Gandalf and he fights Sauron with a method that is just a reversal of Melkor’s and Odin’s; his goal is to unite the men of the West and encourage them to free themselves of the incoming and malicious reign of Sauron.

6 Conclusion

This thesis introduced Tolkien’s character Gandalf and the Norse God Odin and attempted to explore to what degree has Odin been an inspiration for Gandalf through finding similarities and differences in their characters, possessions and appearance. The similarities this thesis has found heavily outnumbered the differences, but that does not have to mean that

Gandalf is based on Odin, for a lot of the similarities mentioned can also be found in different

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mythologies and in different characters from Norse mythology. Whether Gandalf carries a magical sword as an echo of Odin’s spear or as a parallel to King Arthur’s Excalibur is hard to say; nonetheless, the overall influence of Norse mythology on Tolkien’s work is clear. It can be traced to character names, for Gandalf and the Dwarves of The Hobbit are named after dwarfs in The Poetic Edda. The important objects of Tolkien’s universe remind the reader of similar ones from Norse mythology – magical weapons, rings or supernatural horses. Some character arcs resemble heroes and gods from either the Eddas or Volsunga Saga, for, as explored, Gandalf is reminiscent of Odin; Aragorn is the living legend, whose sword, and family line, needs to be refnewed, just like Sigmund’s, who is one of the heroes from Volsunga

Saga; and Saruman is the powerful being, relying on deceit and his sharp tongue, who strays from the path of the Good, just like Loki. Furthermore, both of the discussed universes end similarly, as prophesised by Gandalf in one of the most famous poems by Tolkien: “From the ashes a fire shall be woken,//A light from the shadows shall spring” (Tolkien, The Lord of the

Rings 222), after the great battle, world is reborn in peace. It is either after the War of the Ring, when the Men and Elves get to start anew, in Valinor or in the West of Middle-earth under

Aragorn’s rule, or after Ragnarok, when two people and two gods survive the terrible battle and are to establish the population and pantheon again. In conclusion, it is known that Tolkien had both scholarly and personal interest in Norse mythology and there is reasonable evidence that some of the aspects of his legendarium are influenced by it, but it is arguable whether

Gandalf is purely based on Odin, or only on his favourable qualities, or not.

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7 Works Cited

Auden, W.H., translator. Havamal Words of the High One. Kessinger Publishing, LLC.

2010.

Carpenter, Humphrey. J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle

Edition.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. Norse Myths Gods of the Vikings. Penguin. 2018.

Davidson, Hilda Ellis. The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. Routledge. 1993.

Drout, Michael D.C., editor. J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia Scholarship and Critical

Assessment. Routledge. 2006.

Burdge, Anthony and Jessica Burke. “Named Weapons.” Drout, pp. 703-705

Burns, Marjorie. “Old Norse Literature.” Drout, pp. 473-479

Evans, Jonathan. “Saruman.” Drout, pp. 589-590

Pearce, Joseph. “Christ.” Drout, pp. 97-98

Pearce, Joseph. “Morgoth and Melkor.” Drout, pp. 435-436

Pearce, Joseph. “Redemption.” Drout, pp. 562

Seaman, Gerald. “Arthurian Literature.” Drout, pp. 32-34

Stanton, Michael N. “Gandalf.” Drout, pp. 230-232

Finch, R.G., editor and translator. The Saga of the Volsungs. Thomas Nelson and Sons

LTD. 1965.

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings A Reader’s Companion.

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Harper Collins Publishers. 2014.

Knutson, Sara Ann. “The Materiality of Myth: Divine Objects in Norse Mythology. Temenos

– Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 55(1), 29-53.

https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.83424

Kuusela, Tommy. “In Seach of a National Epic: The Use of Old Norse Myths in Tolkien’s

Vision of Middle-earth. Approaching religion, 4(1), 25-36.

https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.67534

Lowson, Iain, and Peter Mackenzie and Keith Marshall. The Guide to Middle Earth.

Reynolds and Hearn Ltd. 2001.

Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla Volume I The Beginnings To Óláfr Tryggvason.

Translated by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes. Society. 2011.

Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Translated by Rasmus B. Anderson. Digireads.com

Publishing. 2017.

Thorpe, Benjamin, translator. The Poetic Edda. The Northvegr Foundation Press. 2004.

Tolkien, J. R. R. Húrinovy děti. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Argo. 2007

---. Silmarillion. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Harper Collins Publishers. 1999.

---. The Fall of Gondolin. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Harper Collins Publishers. 2018.

---. The Hobbit. Oxford University Press. 1999.

---. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher

Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2000.

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---. The Lord of the Rings. Harper Collins Publishers. 1991

---. Unfinished Tales. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Harper Collins Publishers. 2014.

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8 Abstract

This bachelor’s thesis explores the vast topic of the influence of Norse mythology on

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit and Silmarillion and focuses on the characters of Gandalf and Odin. The thesis attempts to examine the connection between the two and to what degree is Gandalf based on the Norse God of Battle.

First part of the thesis introduces both characters and explains their role and position within their respective universe, describes their origin and the way their story concludes, what they represent and what their main character traits are. Furthermore, it compares them to other figures of their mythology and highlights the reasons they are so prominent in the lore.

The second part of the thesis, firstly, identifies and discusses their similarities – their appearance, their courage in the face of certain demise, their sacrifices and lastly the supernatural horses and magical weapons they possess. Secondly, it explains that even though the number of similarities between the two characters is high, there are also differences, for only Odin’s favourable qualities can be traced to Gandalf and the terrible and capricious side of Odin is detectable in the villains of Tolkien’s world.

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9 Anotace

Tato bakalářská práce prozkoumává rozsáhlé téma vlivu severské mytologie na knihy

Hobit, Silmarillion a trilogii Pán prstenů od Johna Ronalda Reuela Tolkiena a blíže se soustředí na postavy Gandalfa a Odina. Práce se pokouší najít spojení mezi těmito dvěma postavami a zjistit do jaké míry je postava Gandalfa inspirována severským bohem války Odinem.

První část textu představuje obě postavy a vysvětluje jejich roli a pozici v kosmu, který je jim vlastní. Popisuje jejich původ a jejich poslední zmínky v mytologii, jaké jsou jejich hlavní charakterové rysy a co jejich postava v příběhu reprezentuje. Dále je porovnává s ostatními postavami jejich mytologie a zdůrazňuje důvody, proč zrovna tyto dvě postavy jsou tak prominentní.

Druhá část pojednává o jejich podobnostech – jejich vzhledu, odvaze tváří v tvář jasné smrti, jejich obětování se, a nakonec o jejich magických koních a kouzelných zbraních. Poté vysvětluje, že ač je mezi těmito postavami hodně podobností, tak jsou mezi nimi i rozdíly, protože pouze Odinovy kladné vlastnosti jsou patrné v Gandalfovi a Odinovy negativní vlastnosti jsou spíše reflektovány v Tolkienových záporných postavách.

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