On Darkness and Tongues

 

Tolkien's Tree of Tongues

“One sees that the thing which attracted Tolkien the most was darkness: the blank spaces, much bigger than most people realize, on the literary and historical map.” (Shippey, 30)*

            I would like to explore this remark by Shippey using the language of the Dwarves (Khuzdûl) as a vehicle. Of the languages we read about, I was most fascinated by the Dwarf language because of the secrecy surrounding it. Khuzdûl is notable for its absence from the shared knowledge of the peoples of Middle-earth. It is described as a language that is as dark in its origin “as is the origin of the Dwarvish race itself” (The Lost Road, 194).  With this sentence, Tolkien defines both the Dwarves and their language as originating in darkness. I want to investigate Khuzdûl as an example of Tolkien’s interest in blank spaces and darkness. I found multiple inconsistencies in how Khuzdûl is described across the readings we did for class, and I am wondering if these inconsistencies are deliberate (as perhaps a reflection of the philologist’s job of considering multiple possibilities to fill blank spaces) or are mere mistakes, which is unlikely considering how intentional Tolkien is in his world-building. I do not expect to come to a definitive answer, but maybe this will invite others’ opinions and thoughts.

            In Appendix F, Tolkien writes the following about the Dwarf tongue: “Yet in secret (a secret which unlike the elves, they did not willingly unlock, even to their friends) they used their own strange tongue, changed little by the years; for it had become a tongue of lore rather than a cradle-speech, and they tended it and guarded it as a treasure of the past…in this history it appears only in such place-names as Gimli revealed to his companions; and in the battle-cry which he uttered in the siege of the Hornburg…Their own secret and ‘inner’ names, their true names, the Dwarves have never revealed to anyone of alien race. Not even on their tombs do they inscribe them.” I plan to refer to this passage multiple times in my post, so it is placed here, at the top, for easy reference.

            I would like to examine this concept of Khuzdûl as a language that is “dark.” When the Fellowship travels through Moria, the most notable aspect of the scenery is the heavy darkness. It is very easy to associate the dwarves and their language with darkness, as they dwell underground. Yet Gimli is quick to dispel the misconception that Dwarf dwellings are dark. In fact, the dwarves devised such powerful technology that Moria of old “‘was not darksome, but full of light and splendour, as is still remembered in our songs’” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). The technology of Moria was so advanced that the dwarves created artificial light that resembled that of “'sun and star and moon'” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). So, although Moria is dark when we encounter it in The Lord of the Rings, it was not always so, and its light was not merely that of lamps but that of the cosmos. Something is disturbing about this concept of technology that can imitate the light of “sun and star and moon.” In Genesis, God’s first act of creation is to create light by separating the light from the darkness. By crafting these imitations of natural light, the dwarves of Moria imitated God’s act of creation and disrupted the structure of creation by introducing natural light where it was not meant to be. The darkness that the Fellowship finds in Moria feels like a reversion to the mountain’s natural state, but this too is painted as extremely unsettling, if only because we as readers feel that something went wrong here long ago, and something could go very wrong here in the future.

Perhaps the darkness in Moria feels so oppressive because the place lacks the language that belonged to it. In one of Gimli’s remarks, we can see that Moria, the dwarves, and Khuzdûl are intertwined. When Gandalf is trying to find the right word to open the doors to Moria, Gimli explains the impossibility of recalling the word that might unlock them: “what the word was is not remembered. Narvi and his craft and all his kindred have vanished from the earth” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). There is a great sense of loss here. The dwarves as a race are not extinct, and neither is their language, but a certain way of life, life as it was lived in Moria, has vanished. This way of life cannot be brought back, even by dwarves who return to try and do just that. When Balin tried, the place (through the Balrog) rejected them. To continue the Genesis parallel, Moria seems a Garden of Eden for the dwarves. The dwarves overzealously imitated creation, and forces beyond their control intervened. Their race, language, and stories were allowed to survive, but any attempt to return to Moria, to that Edenic state, was destined to fail.**

"The Eastern Arches" by Allen Lee

To return to the language, it is important to note that Khuzdûl is a “lore language.” This implies that it is not commonly spoken even amongst the dwarves. The tongue “has changed little over the years,” perhaps because it is not a “cradle-speech.” I think we are all aware that spoken languages change quickly. I will provide the overused example of slang. Today, there is always a new word or phrase that emerges from the internet and into common usage. For Khuzdûl to have changed little over the years implies that it is not spoken enough to undergo the constant alterations that most languages experience. It seems to me that the only way for Khuzdûl to change little over the years is for it to be this rarely spoken lore language, but if this is so, how is the language preserved?

The obvious answer is through writing, but even this is deceptive.  Khuzdûl is barely described as a written language. When the Fellowship finds Balin’s grave, there is an inscription in Daeron’s Runes, which were used in Moria of old. The inscription (“Balin son of Fundin Lord of Moria) is “written in the tongues of men and dwarves” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). The inscription is written in Daeron’s Runes, used in Moria of old. Gandalf can, apparently, read these runes. Also written partially with Daeron’s Runes is the record of Balin’s time in Moria (LotR bk. 2, ch. 5). Gandalf can read some of this document (also written in Elvish and the runes of Dale), but it is not specified whether he is reading the parts written in Elvish, in the runes of Dale, or in Daeron’s Runes. Also complicating the Dwarf tongue as a written language is the true names of the dwarves. We know that the dwarves never write out their true names, but they presumably share them with other dwarves. This implies that the preservation of true names depends entirely upon an oral tradition, or that perhaps true names are known only to their bearer and die with the dwarf. This attitude around names implies a language that takes on the mortal nature of its speakers, incorporating an acceptance of darkness and blank spaces.

The final point of confusion for me (that I will discuss in this post) about Khuzdûl is that “the Dwarves have skill and craft, but no art, and they make no poetry” (The Lost Road, 194). This statement is straightforward enough, but conflicts with what Gimli says about the preservation of Moria and its splendor in “our songs” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). The dwarves have songs, implying the existence of verse, and presumably in their own language. In fact, one of my favorite pieces of verse in the book is one that Gimli recites about Moria (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4). This is recited to the Fellowship in common speech, but I would assume that it was originally composed in the dwarf tongue. I loved this piece of verse for its rhythm and reverence. If the dwarves have songs, how can it be said that they “make no poetry” (LotR bk. 2, ch. 4)? This implies a difference between songs and poetry, but both are composed in verse, and when Gimli recites his verse about Moria, it is described as a chant, which seems like something in between.

            What are we supposed to do with all of these contradictions regarding Khuzdûl? It is the “dark” language of a civilization that attempted to bring the light of the sun underground and suffered for its greed. The written aspect of the language is kept in shadows, and its preservation in an unchanged form is both due to and threatened by the fact that its speakers can only speak it amongst themselves, and even then speak it rarely. If Tolkien was attracted to darkness and omission, the dwarf language seems the embodiment of this darkness and omission in that the details about it are contradictory and inconsistent. It is also, perhaps, an embodiment of the contradictions in Dana Gioia’s poem: “The world does not need words,” yet “to name is to know and remember.” The few bits of dwarf speech in The Lord of the Rings are place names, and these place names carry with them a great potency. The name of Moria contains within it all of the lore surrounding this place, and we get to see that in Gimli’s yearning to behold the mythical land. Yet the true names of dwarves are not known, nor remembered. The potency of a Dwarf’s true name is found in the fact that it is secret and fleeting. I have come to view the language of the Dwarves as an expression of what was simultaneously fascinating and frustrating for Tolkien about philology. Shippey writes “What, then, had happened to England and the English during those ‘Norman centuries’ when, it might be said, ‘language’ and ‘literature’ had first and lastingly separated” (30). Khuzdûl is a language that expresses the fascination and frustration of the separation between language and literature, and maybe that is why the mystery is better left unsolved.

-ACB

*I have an earlier edition of Shippey, so page numbers are different. I have cited LotR by book and chapter number, and have listed other works by Tolkien in my works cited, as I have earlier editions of those than the ones the bookstore had for class. I didn't feel the need to specify my edition of LotR, since book and chapter number are consistent throughout the editions.

**The dwarves were successful in re-colonizing Moria during the fourth age, which I think could either defeat my Genesis parallel or add dimension to it. Information about the successful retaking of Moria is in The Peoples of Middle Earth, which I do not have a copy of.

Works cited:

Shippey, T.A. The Road to Middle Earth. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. First published 1954-1955.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lost Road and Other Writings: Language and Legend Before the Lord of the Rings. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Ballantine Books, 1987.