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Rivendell

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This article is about a place in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. For other uses, seeRivendell (disambiguation).

Rivendell(Sindarin:Imladris) is a valley inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfictional worldofMiddle-earth,representing both a homely place of sanctuary and a magicalElvishotherworld. It is an important location inThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings,being the place where the quest to destroy theOne Ringbegan.

Rivendell
Middle-earthlocation
J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 painting of Rivendell
First appearanceThe Hobbit(1937)
In-universe information
Other name(s)Imladris
Karningul
Last Homely House East ofthe Sea
TypeRefuge of theElves
Hidden Refuge
RulerElrond
LocationeasternEriador:a western valley of theMisty Mountains
LifespanS.A.1697 -
Abandoned byF.A.120
FounderElrond

Rivendell's feeling of peace may have contributed to the popularity ofThe Lord of the Ringsduring the war-troubled 1960s. Scholars have noted that Rivendell was the home of Elvish song, from thehymntoElbereth,recallingTolkien's Catholicism,to the complexSong of Eärendilwith itsmultiple poetic devices.Others have written that it resembles theCeltic OtherworldofTír na nÓg;and that it physically recalls the valley ofLauterbrunnenin Switzerland where Tolkien had gone hiking in 1911.

Etymology

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Rivendellis a direct translation orcalqueinto English of theSindarinImladris,both meaning "deep valley". The name Rivendell is formed by two English elements: "riven" (split, cloven) and "dell" (valley). Imladris was rendered "Karningul"inWestron,the "Common Tongue" of Middle-earthrepresented as English in the text ofThe Lord of the Rings.The house of Elrond in Rivendell is also calledThe Last Homely House East of the Sea,alluding to the wilderness (Rhovanion) that lies east of theMisty Mountains.[T 1]

Fiction

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The ShireOld ForestBreeRivendellEreborEsgarothMoriaIsengardMirkwoodLothlórienFangornMordorGondorRohanHaradcommons:File:Sketch Map of Middle-earth.svg
Image mapwith clickable links of the north-west ofMiddle-earthat the end of theThird Age,showing Rivendell just West of the Misty Mountains (top centre) by the River Bruinen. The Great West Road leads westwards from there toBreeandthe Shire.

Geography

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Further information:Geography of Middle-earth

Rivendell lay in easternEriadorat the edge of a narrow gorge of the riverBruinen(one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from the nearbyFord of Bruinen), well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of theHithaeglirorMisty Mountains.Contrary to the map of western Middle-earth published inThe Lord of the Rings,the Great East Road did not, in Tolkien's view, lead through Rivendell: Rivendell was maintained as a hidden valley away from the road to the High Pass.[T 2][T 3][T 4]LikeHobbiton,it is at about the same latitude as Tolkien's workplace,Oxford.[T 5]

History

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Rivendell was founded in theSecond Ageafter the dark lordSauron's destruction of the Elvish land ofEregion.Rivendell remained as the only Elven settlement in eastern Eriador;Gil-galadgave Elrond the RingVilya,providing him with the power to protect Rivendell and slow the passage of time in its hidden valley: indeed, Rivendell kept its own calendar.[T 6][T 7][T 8]Rivendell survived repeated attacks in theThird Ageby the armies of theWitch-king of Angmar.[1][T 7]Rivendell held the heirlooms of theRangers of the Northfrom the lost kingdom ofArnor,including the shards ofElendil's swordNarsil,the Sceptre of Annúminas, and the Star of Elendil. Elrond fostered the children of the heirs to Arnor's throne, the last beingAragorn.While in Rivendell, Aragorn met and fell in love with Elrond's daughter,Arwen.They were married after he was crowned king of bothGondorand Arnor.[T 9]Sauron's enemies including Elrond formed theWhite Council,which met in Rivendell, as when the Council decided to eject the Necromancer from his fortress inDol Guldur.[T 10]Theprotagonists ofThe Hobbittake advice from Elrond in Rivendell.[T 2]Theprotagonists ofThe Lord of the Ringsmeet in Rivendell, attend theCouncil of Elrond,and decide on the quest to destroy theOne Ring.The heroAragorn's sword is reforged asAndúrilby Rivendell's smiths.[T 8][T 10][T 11]When the One Ring is destroyed, Elrond's ring loses its power, and he leaves to sail forValinor.[T 12][T 13]

Analysis

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Physical origins

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Tolkien based Rivendell on his 1911 visit to theLauterbrunnentalin Switzerland.[2]

The Rivendell valley is based upon the valley ofLauterbrunnenin Switzerland, where Tolkien had gone hiking. Tolkien stated directly that "From Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, the journey... including theglissade[of Bilbo and the Dwarves] down theslithering stonesinto the pine woods... is based on my adventures in Switzerland in 1911 ".[T 14][2]

The medievalistMarjorie Burnswrites that Bilbo's approach to Rivendell parallels the early fantasy writer and translator of Norse legendWilliam Morris's approach through the wilds of Iceland to a place he called "Water-dale" (Vatnsdale); both ride across uplands dotted with patches of green, becoming extremely tired; both then cross narrow ravines, and bogs; and both arrive at a hidden valley that offers shelter and comfort. In another place, Morris crosses a "narrow, bridge-like rock", just as Bilbo faces a "narrow bridge of stone without a parapet" on entering Rivendell.[3]

A place of sanctuary

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Further information:Tolkien and the CelticandLothlórien § Analysis
Rivendell has been compared to theCeltic Otherworld,[4]here in a 1910 illustration byStephen Reid

Matthew T. Dickerson,in theJ. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia,writes that Rivendell consistently represents a sanctuary, a place that felt like home, throughout the legendarium.[1] The journalist Jane Ciabattari writes that a major reason for the popularity ofLord of the Ringswas the desire for escape among theVietnam Wargeneration. She compares themilitary-industrial complexwithMordor,and suggests that they yearned for a place of peace, just as Frodo Baggins felt an "overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace… in Rivendell".[5] Burns writes that Rivendell and the other Elvish realm ofLothlórienparallel theCeltic Otherworld(in Irish,Tír na nÓg), being hard to find, but if one is admitted and welcomed, one crosses a river, symbolising the spiritual transition from the ordinary realm, and "the weary adventurer is transported into a haven of Elven hospitality and delight".[4]There are multiple markers of the transition:

To enter Rivendell is to leave, for a time, the uplands' bleak, mountainous, northerly terrain. First comes the steep descent...; pines are replaced by beech and oak; the air grows warmer; the first of the elves greet them with laughter and song, and then comes the inevitable water crossing that divides the rest of Middle-earth from the inner core of every Elven realm.[6]

Burns notes that both "Riven" and "dell" suggest a low place into which one must descend; and that a descent is characteristic of Celtic tales of entry intothe underground realmof theTuatha Dé Danann,whose chiefs each rule a burial mound.[7]

Heroic quest's starting-point

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Further information:Christianity in Middle-earth

The philologist and Tolkien scholarTom Shippeyremarks that Tolkien, aChristian,was extremely careful with dates and timelines, but that hardly any readers notice that the Fellowship sets out from Rivendell on itsqueston 25 December, the date ofChristmas,and succeeds, destroying the Ring and causing the fall of Sauron, on 25 March, the date in Anglo-Saxon tradition for theCrucifixion.[8]

The Tolkien scholarVerlyn Fliegerwrites that both Frodo and Aragorn receive their renewedmagic swordsin Rivendell,marking them out as heroesin the epic tradition ofSigurdandArthur,at the start oftheir quest.[9]

Cultural allusions

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Further information:Poetry in The Lord of the Rings § Glimpses of another world

Shippey contrasts the versions of theOld Walking Songsung by Bilbo and Frodo. Bilbo follows the "Road... with eager feet", hoping to reach the peace of Rivendell, to retire and take his ease; whereas Frodo sings "with weary feet", hoping somehow to reach Mordor bearing the Ring, and to try to destroy it in theCracks of Doom:diametrically opposed destinations and errands.[10]He notes that Rivendell was the home of Elvish song, and cites Tolkien's statement that the song that the Hobbits hear in Rivendell,A Elbereth Gilthonielinvoking the semi-divineVarda,was ahymnsuggestive of his own devout Catholicism.[11]Shippey writes, too, that Tolkien had Bilbo write and sing the Song ofEarendilin Rivendell, making use ofmultiple poetic devices– rhyme, internal half-rhyme, alliteration, alliterative assonance, and "a frequent if irregular variation of syntax" – to create a mysterious Elvish effect of "rich and continuous uncertainty, a pattern forever being glimpsed but never quite grasped."[12]Rebecca Ankeny comments that Tolkien uses verse, too, to signal the horror of the Elves when Gandalf speaks the dark lord'srhyme of the Ringsaloud, in theBlack Speech,threatening the end of Rivendell.[13]

The Tolkien scholarGergely Nagynotes that Tolkien wanted to present the complex set of writings ofThe Silmarillionas a seemingly-genuine collection of tales and myths within the frame of his fictional Middle-earth; he modifiedThe Lord of the Ringsto ascribe the documents to Bilbo, supposedly written in the years he spent in Rivendell, and preserved in the fictitiousRed Book of Westmarch,its name alluding to theRed Book of Hergest.[14]

Burns writes that Rivendell, "the Last Homely House",[T 8]offers a welcoming home, repeating the pattern set in bothThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsof "easy-going but tidy bachelor indulgence" from Bilbo'sBag Endhobbit-hole onwards; despite Arwen, there is hardly anything "of the feminine".[15]Shippey states that Frodo has "to be dug out... of no fewer thanfive 'Homely Houses'",of which Rivendell is the last.[16]

Adaptations

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InPeter Jackson's 2001 filmThe Fellowship of the Ring,Rivendell is romantically conceived, with sophisticated culture. The "post-Ruskinian"style does not match Tolkien's own illustrations. Some have claimed it represented his dislike of industrialised manufacture.[17]

InPeter Jackson's 2001 filmThe Fellowship of the Ring,Rivendell was represented byKaitoke Regional Park,New Zealand,though the waterfalls were added withcomputer-generated imagery.[18]Brian Roseburycomments that Jackson presents the Elves as sophisticated, where Tolkien made them close to nature. All the same, he writes, the film Rivendell's "architecture and ornaments are dominated by natural motifs", suggesting "integration with nature, but at one remove", something that works well for the "Portmeirion-like idyll "of the portrayed Rivendell. Rosebury describes the design as"post-Ruskinian",as inpre-Raphaelitepaintings,William Morris'sArts and Craftsdesigns, andArt Nouveauarchitectural details. These differ fromTolkien's own illustrations,but in a way, Rosebury suggests, that Tolkien would have liked as it matches his dislike of industrialised manufacture.[17]

Legacy

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In the period ofcounterculturein theWestern worldof the 1960s and 1970s, acommunecalledMaos Lyst(Mao's Delight) was founded on the island ofZealand,Denmark,in 1968, its inhabitants replacing their surnames withKløvedal,the Danish for Rivendell. Several of them later became well-known cultural personalities in the country.[19][5] The Rivendell Winery operated from 1987 to 2008 in New York'sHudson River Valley.[20] The Tolkien Ensembleset all the songs inThe Lord of the Ringsto music on four CDs between 1997 and 2005, each with "Rivendell" in its title.[21]The Swedish classical composerAnna-Lena Laurinhas written a work for two guitars entitled "Rivendell".[22] The Canadian progressive rock bandRushmemorialised the Elvish sanctuary in the song "Rivendell" on their 1975 studio albumFly by Night.The song focuses on the tranquillity and seemingly endless time a weary traveller could find there, with lyrics such as "Elfin songs and endless nights / Sweet wine and soft rela xing lights / Time will never touch you / Here in this enchanted place".[23][5]

References

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Primary

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  1. ^Tolkien 1955,Appendix F, "On Translation"
  2. ^abTolkien 1937,ch 3 "A Short Rest"
  3. ^Tolkien 1937,ch. 18 "The Return Journey"
  4. ^Tolkien 1937,ch. 19 "The Last Stage"
  5. ^Carpenter 2023,#294 to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer ofThe Daily Telegraph,8 February 1967
  6. ^Tolkien 1955,Appendix D, "The Calendars"
  7. ^abTolkien 1980,part 2, "The Second Age" ch. 4 "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", "Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn"
  8. ^abcTolkien 1954a,book 2, ch. 1 "Many Meetings"
  9. ^Tolkien 1955,Appendix A:The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
  10. ^abTolkien 1954a,book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
  11. ^Tolkien 1954a,book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"
  12. ^Tolkien 1955,Appendix B, "The Great Years"
  13. ^Tolkien 1955,Appendix A, "The Númenórean Kings", "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
  14. ^Carpenter 2023,#306 toMichael Tolkien,1967-8

Secondary

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  1. ^abDickerson 2013,pp. 573–574.
  2. ^abMacEacheran, Mike (24 May 2014)."In Alpine villages, Hobbits lurk".BBC.Retrieved18 August2020.
  3. ^Burns 2005,pp. 81–84.
  4. ^abBurns 2005,p. 54.
  5. ^abcCiabattari, Jane (20 November 2014)."Hobbits and hippies: Tolkien and the counterculture".BBCCulture.
  6. ^Burns 2005,p. 61.
  7. ^Burns 2005,p. 66.
  8. ^Shippey 2005,p. 227.
  9. ^Flieger 2004,pp. 122–145.
  10. ^Shippey 2005,p. 213.
  11. ^Shippey 2005,p. 230.
  12. ^Shippey 2005,pp. 218–219.
  13. ^Ankeny, Rebecca (2005). "Poem as Sign in 'The Lord of the Rings'".Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.16(2 (62)): 86–95.JSTOR43308763.
  14. ^Nagy 2020,pp. 107–118.
  15. ^Burns 2005,pp. 136–137.
  16. ^Shippey, Tom(2001).J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century.HarperCollins.p. 65.ISBN978-0261-10401-3.
  17. ^abRosebury 2003,pp. 212–213.
  18. ^"Kaitoke Regional Park, Wellington, New Zealand".Newzealand.Retrieved15 January2020.
  19. ^"1960'erne: Ungdomsliv: Eksperimenterne"(in Danish). DR (Danish Radio). 26 October 2010.Retrieved18 August2020.Kollektivet bestod blandt andre af forfatteren Ebbe Reich og udmærkede sig ved, at medlemmerne tog det fælles efternavn Kløvedal fra bogenRingenes Herre.[The collective consisted, among others, of the author Ebbe Reich and was distinguished by the fact that the members took the common surname Kløvedal from the book "The Lord of the Rings". ]
  20. ^Thompson, Lenn (26 October 2007)."Rivendell Winery Location for Sale in the Hudson Valley".New York Cork Report.Archived fromthe originalon 30 June 2020.Retrieved29 June2020.
  21. ^Bratman, David(2010)."Liquid Tolkien: Music, Tolkien, Middle-earth, and More Music".InEden, Bradford Lee(ed.).Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien.McFarland.pp. 158–159.ISBN978-0786456604.
  22. ^Laurin, Anna-Lena(2018)."Rivendell".Vanguard Music Boulevard.Retrieved27 March2021.[permanent dead link‍]
  23. ^"Rivendell by Rush".Songfacts.Retrieved27 March2021.

Sources

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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rivendell&oldid=1252017846#Geography"