Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza

Looking up the ladder to the topmost chamber of the tower of Cirith Ungol thanks to @Silky Gooseness mentioning ladders, I noticed an echo of an old tale that I had not noted before.

Sam has run up and then down and then back up the stairs of the tower, and cannot find Frodo. Now he sits on a step and begins to sing: "In western lands beneath the Sun..."

‘Beyond all towers strong and high,’ he began again, and then he stopped short. He thought that he had heard a faint voice answering him.

Here is surely an echo of the tale of the rescue from captivity of Richard the Lionheart. Here from an article in The Medium:

One of the most beloved stories about King Richard involves the quest of his loyal minstrel Blondel to find the king after Richard disappeared on his way back from the Holy Land. Blondel, it is said, traveled from castle to castle throughout Europe, singing the first verse of Richard’s favorite song until he heard the king answer with the second verse. Blondel’s discovery of the king’s location facilitated Richard’s return to England to assume his rightful place as king, or so the story goes.

I'm not claiming to have discovered this. I'm sure it has been noted before. Just saying that I never noticed it.

Oh yes!! I did know this story about the beloved minstrel, but I had never made that link before. The relationship is also somewhat akin: king and beloved minister? There is also a long history of antiphonal song in the church, which may also have inspired Tolkien in some way. I’ve always thought, for example, that the text from Hymn to a Virgin echoes Frodo’s cry to Elbereth in Cirith Ungol.

Of one that is so fair and bright
Velut maris stella
Brighter than the day is light
Parens et puella
I cry to thee, thou see to me
Lady, pray thy Son for me
Tam pia
That I may come to thee
Maria!
All this world was forlorn
Eva peccatrice
Till our Lord was y-born
De te genetrice
With ave it went away
Darkest night, and comes the day
Salutis
The well springeth out of thee
Virtutis.


Particularly the “I cry to thee” - Le nallon sí d’nguruthos! which also has echoes of Psalm 23, I cry to thee from the valley of the shadow of death!

and of course all the comparisons to stars

Silky Gooseness wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 6:35 am There is also a long history of antiphonal song in the church, which may also have inspired Tolkien in some way. I’ve always thought, for example, that the text from Hymn to a Virgin echoes Frodo’s cry to Elbereth in Cirith Ungol.

Particularly the “I cry to thee” - Le nallon sí d’nguruthos! which also has echoes of Psalm 23, I cry to thee from the valley of the shadow of death!

and of course all the comparisons to stars

That reply above is my favourite plaza post, ever.

This incident with Sam and Frodo in Cirith Ungol echoes an earlier story in The Silmarillion. Here from the 1937 version in The Lost Road (p. 276).

Therefore in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in the dark vaults beneath the earth, [Fingon] took his harp and played a fair song of Valinor that the Gnomes had made of old, ere strife was bom among the sons of Finwë; and his voice, strong and sweet, rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard before aught save cries of fear and woe.

Thus he found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him. Maidros it was that sang amid his torment.

Something not the same but similar is found in 'The Lay of Leithian'. After Felagund's death in the tower on Tol Sirion, of Beren it is told:

Then in his dream it seemed he sang,
and loud and fierce his chanting rang,
old songs of battle in the North,
of breathless deeds, of marching forth
to dare uncounted odds and break
great powers, and towers, and strong walls shake;
and over all the silver fire
that once Men named the Burning Briar,
the Seven Stars that Varda set
about the North, were burning yet,
a light in darkness, hope in woe,
the emblem vast of Morgoth’s foe.

‘Huan, Huan! I hear a song
far under welling, far but strong;
a song that Beren bore aloft.
I hear his voice, I have heard it oft
in dream and wandering.’ Whispering low
thus Lúthien spake. On the bridge of woe
in mantle wrapped at dead of night
she sat and sang, ańd to its height
and to its depth the Wizard’s Isle,
rock upon rock and pile on pile,
trembling echoed. The werewolves howled,
and Huan hidden lay and growled
watchful listening in the dark,
waiting for battle cruel and stark.