Knowledge from language and dreams

An interesting aspect of Tolkien’s legendarium is the ubiquity of language. Particularly, language and words seem to give rise to myth over and over again. One of the clearest examples of this comes from Tolkien’s creation myth. Tolkien’s universe was created by the music of the Ainur. The Ainur created the world by singing a song. Another example of this can be seen in The Lost Road. The opening chapters of The Lost Road follow Alboin, who seems to get glimpses of a language from dreams. He attempts to study and translate this language through these glimpses. The dreams began to get more intense, however, they were still “tantalizingly linguistic.” Later the dreams take on a far more realistic form when Alboin is seemingly transported through time to witness the fall of Númenor. Once again, we can see a myth starting with words or language.

The more interesting account of creation through language is Tolkien’s own writing of his legendarium. It’s of no surprise to anyone that language was very important to Tolkien when writing his works. There’s even a Wikipedia page titled “Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien.” However, what makes this interesting is that Tolkien saw his languages as the origin of his creations. This is similar to how the Ainur sang the world into existence. In letter 131 he says “[m]any children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.” He later goes on to say that “to those creatures which in English I call misleadingly Elves are assigned two related languages more nearly completed, whose history is written, and whose forms (representing two different sides of my own linguistic taste) are deduced scientifically from a common origin. Out of these languages are made nearly all names that appear in my legends.” So, Tolkien started with the creation of languages. He went from languages to the naming of many of his characters. While this is interesting, his use of language goes far deeper than this. In the same letter when talking about the origin of his stories he says that they “arose in my mind as ‘given’ things, and as they came, separately, so too the links grew.” So, according to Tolkien, once Tolkien had his languages, the stories essentially appeared in his mind. He didn’t have to spend tons of time trying to come up with a story, they were just given to him.

Another interesting link between dreams and language comes out in Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers. In the Notion Club Papers the characters have a short discussion about native languages. During this discussion one of the characters, Ramer, argues that a native language is more than just the first language one learns. He says “English is not my native language. Nor yours either. We each have a native language of our own - at least potentially.” .Ramer seems to believe that a persons native language is the language of our thoughts and subconscious. He later goes on to say that “[i]n such rare dreams as I was thinking about, far away by oneself in voiceless countries, then your own native language bubbles up, and makes new names for strange new things.” For Ramer dreams are somehow closely related to the way we truly think about language.

So, Tolkien clearly believes that there’s a link between language and creation. Language seems to give rise to middle earth in Tolkien’s own mind, and language gave rise to middle-earth within that mythology. Furthermore there is a clear link between language and dreams. Alboin received blips of language through his dream, and the Ramer argues that native languages are related to dreams. This can should lead us to investigate Tolkien’s thoughts on dreams to perhaps learn more about how he creates through language.

There are many examples of dreams in Lord of the Rings. At the very end of Chapter five in book one, Frodo has a dream with a fairly vague meaning.  At first Frodo was looking out of a window at many trees. He later hears the noise of the sea from a distance. He then discovers he’s out in the open and smells salt. He notices a tall tower and has the urge to climb it, but as he begins to try there’s thunder and the dream ends. This dream is undoubtedly obscure. We can try to gleam meaning from it, but it is likely debatable. On the other hand, just two chapters later Frodo has a dream with a pretty clear meaning. In this dream Frodo comes before a wall of rock with an arch. He’s then lifted up and notices that the wall was a circle of hills, and in the center is a tall tower of stone with a man with white hair on top. Frodo later notices a large eagle which grabs the man and takes him away. This dream clearly resembles Gandalf’s rescue from Isengard. Isengard itself is surrounded by a circular wall of rock. Furthermore, the tower of stone likely represents Orthanc, the tower which Gandalf was imprisoned on top of. Additionally, Gandalf was rescued by an eagle. The way the meaning of these dreams play out closesly resembles how Galadriel explains one should interpret the visions in her mirror in chapter seven of book two. Regarding the mirror she says “to some I can show what they desire to see. But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable then things which we wish to behold. [...] For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.” Regarding its usefulness she says that Frodo “may learn something, and whether what you see be fair or evil, that may be profitable, and yet it may not. Seeing is both good and perilous.” So, dreams can sometimes be useful, but they are sometimes perilous. Furthermore, their meaning can be very clear or their meaning can be vague.

I think this image represents how Tolkien thought about language. In the way that a dream is extremely clear sometimes, Tolkien can scientifically deduce languages from a common origin. But, perhaps sometimes it can be very unclear how to interpret language. Thinking something has a certain meaning when it doesn’t can be perilous. But, when one correctly interprets language it can have great rewards.

-YA

Sources:
- The Lost Road and Other Writings, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Sauron Defeated, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien