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Proverbs in The Lord of the Rings

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The many proverbs in The Lord of the Rings are used by J. R. R. Tolkien to create a feeling that the world of Middle-earth is both familiar and solid, and to give a sense of the different cultures of the Hobbits, Men, Elves, and Dwarves who people it.

Scholars have commented that the proverbs are sometimes used directly to portray a character such as Barliman Butterbur who never has time to collect his thoughts. More often they serve to make Tolkien's created world seem at once real and solid, and unfamiliar. Further, they help to convey Tolkien's underlying message about providence; while he keeps his Christianity hidden, readers can see that what appears as luck to the protagonists reflects a higher purpose.

Appearances

There are many proverbs in The Lord of the Rings; estimates range from 29[1] to "about 110",[2] depending on the criteria used to distinguish proverbs from other sayings. Some are traditional, some adapted, and many were invented by Tolkien.[3] They are used variously by the free peoples of Middle-earth, namely Hobbits, Men, Elves, and Dwarves, as well as by Wizards and Orcs.

Example uses of proverbs by Middle-earth peoples
Race Speaker Situation Proverb LOTR Chapter
Elf Glorfindel On the lies of Saruman about the One Ring "Yet oft in lies truth is hidden" 2:2 "Council of Elrond"
Dwarf Gimli On the need for formal oaths to bind the Fellowship "Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart" 2:3 "The Ring Goes South"
Hobbit Gaffer Gamgee On Sam Gamgee's return, and the "scouring" of the Shire "It's an ill wind as blows nobody any good…"
"And All's well as ends Better!"[a]		 6:9 "The Grey Havens"
Man Boromir,
Aragorn		 On hearing wolves in the wilds of Eregion "The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears."
"But where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."		 2:4 "A Journey in the Dark"
Wizard Gandalf Of Barliman Butterbur, who may not seem very bright, but... "He can see through a brick wall in time (as they say in Bree)" 2:1 "Many Meetings"
Orc An Orc-driver Chasing on Frodo and Sam, who are dressed as Orcs "Where there's a whip, there's a will"[b] 6:2 "The Land of Shadow"

In addition, familiar sayings and platitudes form part of the speech of some characters, and the songs of the Hobbits express sentiments that sound like proverbs.[6]

Analysis

Portraying character

The Riddle of Strider

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

J. R. R. Tolkien, 1:10 "Strider",
The Lord of the Rings

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, state that Tolkien has Barliman Butterbur, the fat bustling landlord of The Prancing Pony inn at Bree, speak in a mass of "commonplace sayings" like "I'm run off my feet"[7] and proverbs like "It never rains but it pours, we say in Bree"[8] and shortly after that "One thing drives out another, so to speak".[8] Katharyn W. Crabbe comments that Barliman's constant stream of common sayings "is perfect as a representation of the conversation of a man who is too busy to concentrate"[9] on anything, suggesting "a kind of semiconscious conversation",[9] so that when he finally admits he forgot to send Gandalf's letter of warning to Frodo, the reader has "a shock of recognition".[9]

Making the world real

Hammond and Scull note the proverb-exchange between Elrond and Gimli:[10]

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens", said Gimli.
"Maybe", said Elrond, "but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall."
"Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart", said Gimli.
"Or break it", said Elrond.

— 2:3 "The Ring Goes South"

They cite Crabbe's comment that statements "of traditional wisdom" are entertainingly placed in opposition to each other.[10] In Crabbe's view, Tolkien was suggesting, as in this exchange between Gimli and Elrond, that proverbs are at best only partly true, and as such are of limited use as guides to action.[11] She comments that such proverbs serve to "build the sense of the familiar, but also to create a sense of the individuality of cultures" among the various races.[11] She adds that even if readers do not catch the references, they get a feeling of the solid reality of Middle-earth, since having a folk-wisdom suggests a culture like those that they know makes sense, feels coherent, and appears to be governed by a set of discernible rules: "in short, to seem real".[11]

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that there are several such exchanges in the novel, usually involving dwarves, though there is one between Théoden King of Rohan and the Hobbit Merry Brandybuck. The differing styles of the races build up a picture in the reader's mind, he writes, of the diversity of Middle-earth, and dramatise the debates between the characters on ethics; the statements of the dwarves indicate "a kind of unyielding scepticism".[12]

Heather Haas, in the Journal of American Folklore, writes that proverbs in Tolkien's fantasy may help to link the created world with the familiar, while simultaneously distinguishing the two. She notes that they may equally be used to delineate a character's personality, attitudes, and views, and to point to underlying themes.[13]

Pointing to the character of reality

Further information: Interlacing in The Lord of the Rings and Christianity in Middle-earth

Shippey writes that the proverbs scattered across the book lend weight to the subtle implications of the text's interlaced structure. While the real-world proverbs are broadly neutral, some being optimistic, some gloomy, the invented proverbs are, he suggests, closer to Tolkien's thought. So Théoden's "Oft evil will shall evil mar", Aragorn's "The hasty stroke goes oft astray", or Gandalf's "A traitor may betray himself", all contribute to Tolkien's portrayal of what he believed was the character of reality. The implied message is that what appears as luck to the protagonists – if they keep up their courage, and ignore, as Frodo and Sam have to, "their bewilderments, infatuations, sense of being lost and abandoned" – is indeed a higher purpose, and that all can work out well.[14]

The scholar of literature Randel Helms writes that the "significance" of the destruction of Saruman's realm of Isengard is summarized by a pair of similar proverbs, Théoden's maxim just mentioned, and Gandalf's "Often does hatred hurt itself"; the action of the Ents taking revenge on Saruman then shows just how providential control and cause-and-effect morality work out in practice.[15]

One exchange of sentiments that Shippey states "sound like proverbs"[16] is between the Dwarf Gimli and his friend the Elf Legolas as they examine the stonework of Minas Tirith, the city of the Men of Gondor. Gimli says that Men begin things, but a frost or a blight comes, "and they fail of their promise". Legolas replies that "seldom do they fail of their seed", adding that it will "lie in the dust" and "spring up again in times and places unlooked-for".[16] Shippey remarks that the seed lying in the dust recalls the New Testament Parable of the Sower, and wonders if Tolkien is having these "soulless creatures", Dwarf and Elf, talk about the coming of Jesus to save the world. He points out that this would be "an odd effect" in a book that Tolkien described in a letter as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; but all the same, not a contradiction, as in his view it would make sense for the virtuous pagans to have an inkling that a Saviour might one day come.[16]

Complex effects

George Boswell evaluates the proverbs' contribution to the work's success. He identified 29 utterances as definite proverbs, among other things not considering any Orc utterance to be a proverb. In his view, 8 of the proverbs are Wellerisms, humorous sayings with facetious sequels,[17] giving as example[1]

"'Where there's life there's hope', as my Gaffer used to say; 'and need of vittles', as he mostways used to add", said Sam.

— 4:7 "Journey to the Cross-roads"

Boswell notes the presence of several figures of speech in the proverbs, including (in decreasing order of frequency) antithesis, alliteration, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, and (once each) assonance, simile, metonymy, litotes, and onomatopoeia.[1] He located 13 of the 29 in books about proverbs, identifying them as more or less unaltered English forms, such as Éomer's "Need brooks no delay, yet late is better than never";[18] two others he thought were platitudes. Of the original ones, 4 were "of local application only", and the remaining 10 could be considered "viable" new proverbs. In his view, Tolkien's interweaving of originality and tradition in his phrasing, as in his creation of races, helped to make his style effective.[1]

B. A. Afanasiev and C. B. Krivopustova write that the multiple features of Tolkien's proverbs, sometimes including both direct and figurative meaning, make them exceptionally difficult to translate. They compare five existing translations of a proverb, "'Up with your beard, Durin's son!', he [Legolas] said. 'For thus is it spoken: Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.' [their emphasis] But what hope he saw from afar he would not tell", into Russian. Finding none of these satisfactory, they supply their own version, "Nadezhda voznikayet tam, gde podstupayet t'ma k vratam".[c] They state that despite their best efforts, managing to retain the rhyme, assonance, and archaism of the English original, their translation unintentionally adds figurative content.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ The proverb is a play on "All's Well that Ends Well".[4]
  2. ^ The proverb is a play on "Where there's a will there's a way".[5]
  3. ^ The complete passage in Cyrillic is "Выше бороду, отпрыск Дурина! – воскликнул он. – Говорят ведь: «Надежда возникает там, где подступает тьма к вратам». Но что за надежду он увидел вдали – так и не сказал." No chto za nadezhdu on uvidel vdali – tak i ne skazal."[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Boswell 1969, pp. 60–65.
  2. ^ Afanasiev & Krivopustova 2017, article 14.
  3. ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 109.
  4. ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 665.
  5. ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 611.
  6. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 215–216.
  7. ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, pp. 151–152.
  8. ^ a b Hammond & Scull 2005, pp. 151–152, on chapter 1:9 "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony".
  9. ^ a b c Crabbe 1988, p. 100.
  10. ^ a b Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 266.
  11. ^ a b c Crabbe 1988, pp. 98–99.
  12. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 137–138.
  13. ^ Haas 2011, pp. 29–54.
  14. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 188–190.
  15. ^ Helms 1971, article 2.
  16. ^ a b c Shippey 2005, pp. 249–250.
  17. ^ "Wellerism". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  18. ^ Boswell 1969, pp. 60–65, citing 5:5 "The Ride of the Rohirrim".
  19. ^ a b Afanasiev & Krivopustova 2017, article 14, citing 5:9 "The Last Debate".

Sources

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