WANDERER | The Profound Anglo-Saxon Poem that Tolkien Used in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
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- čas přidán 18. 12. 2020
- J.R.R. Tolkien did something in the Lord of the Rings that no one else has been able to replicate. He made a fictional world that feels real. How was he able to do this?
What makes him stand out among writers is that he was not a writer, first and foremost. He was a scholar-one of the truly great scholars of the Middle Ages. Most of his time was spent not writing novels but as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature at Oxford, breaking ground in those fields, and translating numerous Medieval works including Beowulf. Hemingway once wrote that, “A good writer should know as near everything as possible.” And that was true of Tolkien, at least when it came to the Middle Ages. He had a pervasive knowledge of historical facts, cultures, and of human beings, especially of the Medieval flavor. Tolkien had a higher dosage of reality than most of us, and was therefore able to incorporate a high dose of reality into his fictional novels.
There’s no better example of this than the Anglo-Saxon poem called The Wanderer, A poem Tolkien loved, studied, translated, and even quoted from during a valedictory address. Composed orally somewhere around the 5th or 6th century by an anonymous poet, It’s about a medieval warrior who, as the name implies, is forced to wander the earth because his people have been defeated in battle and Completely wiped out. His friends are slaughtered and his lord is slain. His home is destroyed. He has nowhere to return to or live. He is forced to travel, to wander the earth. He is a broken man. And this poem captures that sense of brokenness magnificently. Psychologically speaking, It’s a shockingly sophisticated poem. We can think of it in terms of the stages of medieval grief:
1. Isolation-Repression
2. Dream-Fantasy
3. Sadness-Depression
4. Acceptance-Wisdom
5. Disorientation-Confusion
6. Piety-Courage
We should study The Wanderer to gain an understanding of grief. One weakness of modern psychology (it seems to me) is that it is too limited: it studies modern people, primarily. Thus it mistakes the working of the modern mind as the working of the human mind as such. But by studying ancient texts like The Wanderer, texts that pour out such raw humanity, we see just different human beings can be from one another.
We see their VALUES.
‘The Wanderer’ provides us with an example-a historical artifact, an unarguable fact-that someone, somewhere, at some point in time, found stability and fulfillment, and possibly a great deal of happiness, in submitting himself to a lord. It is a fact that it is possible for someone to have a profound love for his lord, to submit and serve because he wants to, not because he has to. Kings are not always tyrants, submission is not always oppression, liberalism is not necessary to happiness, feudalism may be a very upsetting thing to lose.
Many writers cannot break free from the modern ethos. When they write about other worlds, they feel like the modern West. The values, the behavior, the spirit are all the same. But Tolkien was able to capture the medieval ethos and work it into his stories. That's what makes him different.
When people talk about world-building, the emphasis is often on bulk and quantity: creating more languages, more ornate magic systems, more backstory and genealogies, more character arcs. Tolkien is notorious for such things, and indeed is considered the father of modern fantasy for not only pioneering this level of world-building but also making it work. But when Tolkien added to Middle Earth, he added old things, not new things. He added things from our real world, from the sweating, suffering, crying, feeling real life of the Middle Ages. When he wrote, he wrote in styles and rhythms that correspond to the real prose and poetry of ages past. His books are a thousand years deep the moment he drafts them. When you enter Edoras, you enter not a completely new land but a very familiar one: you enter Anglo-Saxon England. And What was said of Aragorn is true: “It seems that you are come on the wings of song out of the forgotten days.” He does come out of forgotten days, and The same is true of all Tolkien’s characters. They come on the wings of song, and that song is The Wanderer.
Music
Kai Engel, Plague
freemusicarchive.org/music/Ka...
Kai Engel, Periculum
freemusicarchive.org/music/Ka...
Kai Engel, Thunderstorm (Pon VIII)
freemusicarchive.org/music/Ka... - Krátké a kreslené filmy
As a now retired professor of Old and Middle English, who in old age returns to the Wanderer, let me say "well done".
That is high praise indeed. Thank you so much for the kind words.
"The wanderer wants above all to swear fealty... it is a desperate desire... The wanderer is very important I think, because it provides us with a historical artifact... Kings are not always tyrants, submission is not always oppression, liberalism is not a requirement for happiness, and feudalism may be a very upsetting thing to lose."
It seems to me that the wanderer wants what all people want, things like peace, stability, happiness, competence and meaning for themselves, their loved ones, economic prosperity for them and their people (both in the familial and societal sense). I have to imagine in the 400-500s AD, this would have been synonymous with having a body politic that is defined by a unified people swearing fealty to a single, good, lord?
Liberalism is not a requirement for happiness, because it doesn't exist yet popularly as a concept. Feudalism may be an upsetting thing to lose, because its loss is perceived (correctly, for the time period) as a loss of political stability, safety, peace, social competence, and ultimately happiness. This is because during this time period, the only system of governance known to be capable of delivering these things, is when a people are able to swear fealty to a good lord. There are no known alternatives.
An inability to do such a thing, implies the protagonist lives in a society that does not have these desired traits. It is not necessarily that the protagonist wishes to swear themselves to submission. Though they may. It is that they believe that it is only by doing so that their people can be made better.
I know nothing of the time period though, so no idea if the above could be construed as a correct interpretation. What do you think @viewfromthehillswift?
Anyway, great video : )
@@ep103103 Excellent points! As someone who loves liberal democracy, I do tend to think it is the much better alternative, and that most people would be unhappy to ‘go back’ to feudalism. (Although I do see the possibility of a dystopian future where people once again embrace allegiance to a few powerful people.)
I do think the Middle Ages are demonized by modern people as being nasty, brutish, miserable, and tyrannical. One of my goals is to show that the Middle Ages were far from simple, and not nearly as hellish (or anti-intellectual for that matter) as post-enlightenment demagogues would have us believe.
And I do still often wonder whether people in the Middle Ages weren’t in fact happier at times (or had a greater sense of the ‘meaningfulness’ of things) than modern people in modern democracies. It’s something I’m still investigating.
@@EmpireoftheMind it is great to see you seeking the truth... and an absolute pleasure to witness how you unravel the past. Are you interested un the concept of the holy grail? Keep up the great work!
@@joesouthborn2960 Thank you so much! I’m definitely interested in the Holy Grail, especially in connection with Arthurian legend. I’m currently working my way (very slowly) through Thomas Malory & Chretien de Troyes’s Perceval.
My favorite line in all of Lord of the Rings speaks to the wisdom of the medieval wanderer. They were the dying words of Theoden, King of Rohan, killed by the Witch King of Angmar after he led the charge on the siege of Minas Tirith: I go now to the halls of my forebears, in whose presence I shall no longer be ashamed.
@Emperor AlHasan Exactly!
That last phrase, no longer feeling ashamed, always hits me like a ton of bricks.
Care to explain? Why is that sentence important to you?
@@igorspitz who doesn't feel intimidated by their ancestors? They call my father's generation, who lived through World War II, the Greatest Generation!. My scoutmaster was a motorcycle courier who drove a BMW behind enemy lines across Germany for 3 days without sleep to deliver special orders to a group of inglorious bastards in Dresden at the onset of the fire bombings. He is hardly of the same species that' I am!
@@markuhler2664 agreed. He now feels he's worthy, he sacrificed for his people and he is now worthy of being in the presence of his ancestors. Beautiful.
My Grandfather served with Tolkien in the Trenches in the Lancaster Fusiliers, my grandfather was Irish Rifles but his Battalion was wiped out on the first day of the Somme and he was posted to Tolkien’s Battalion. That is where he was taught about life , death , war and comradeship. The Wanderer is a truly moving poem , as I too am an old Soldier I can strongly relate to its meaning.
The Wanderers longing for a Lord is his longing for purpose-driven service.
There is nothing worse than to tell a man that he has no purpose.
Edward Hines my grandpa said, when he’s useless just put him down. He’s still alive importing wisdom to us young men.
Yes. A man with no purpose is a dead man.
Yes, that's true, thank you for clarifying!
I think there's also something (in the image of the Wanderer kneeling before his Lord) about the son's need and love for a good father. A good father who shows him, through his actions, how to lead such a life as you describe, one of purpose-driven service, and who sets the son up to do so in his turn. Best wishes.
Bingo. That’s exactly it.
"His books were a thousand years deep the very moment he drafted them."
Chills. Truly. A statement that will occupy my thoughts this night, and when I again read Tolkien's works. Thank you for this superb video!
Agreed. What many of his imitators miss is that the key to Tolkien's work is not its breadth, but its depth.
Indeed, a profound, beautiful, and foundational truism. It stirs the very something of ours that too is old and "untouched by the frost" of this mundane so named modern time.
The more I think about Lord of the Rings the more I think it was Tolkien's way of sneaking in medieval culture back into modernity.
At 7:50 in this video I immediately had to think of Theoden before teh Battle of Helm's Deep: czcams.com/video/xVEYcTyj1Do/video.html
Agreed. And I love him all the more for it.
Didn't he say one of the reasons for his books was to replace the old Anglo-Saxon myths lost after 1066?
And yet to some people Anglo Saxon anything is just evil and shouldn't exist
@@AJearth Not the case. The problem is that there are some who use Anglo Saxon "anything" as an excuse to claim superiority and to exclude others who are not of their race. White supremacy notions have always used Anglo-Saxon heritage as a cornerstone of their racist ideologies. Even Benjamin Franklin writing prior to the formation of the United States wrote that the only "true" whites were those of English (Anglo) descent, and those Germans from the region of Saxony. The rest - the Irish, the wider Germans, Eastern Europeans, even those from France, Spain, Italy, and so on - they were not "white" enough.
It's cool to be proud of your heritage - but racists ruin everything.
I always imagined that Tolkien found his own journey after the war in this work. Rebuilding a life is no easy thing, you are forever trying to fill a hole in you that you never can. When I read his works, I can feel that he has suffered and truly knows what the bottom of the well is. I feel that is what is missing from most authors of the genre, they just don't have the lived experience to fully grasp what in their writing is truly genuine.
Bang! Flash!
I agree with this completely.
I concur that his world War 1 experience was immense in his work and his view of life. The hell of that futile war made his visions of Mordor, and Frodo's acceptance of fate very believable. That experience would have made him able to relate to the morbid medieval literature, when life was intertwined with death. The historical context of his existence needs to be considered as well. Sam was a faithful batman, and class distinctions were prevalent in England at the time. There was also a resentment of the industrial revolution. Industry was filthy and common. There was much longing for the good old rural days of the yeomanry. Bit like Gone with the Wind.
@@iangoodwin4275 You don't need to have experienced a war to reach the bottom. Going through grief, I've come to realize that when people ask 'how are you really?' and think they honestly want to know, they quickly backpedal when you give an honest answer because they don't understand that space. They backpedal and they say: 'Are you seeing a grief counsellor?' 'Yeah, everyone's feeling crappy at the moment.' 'At least you had X number of years with X.' 'I'll pray for you.' 'X has moved onto a better place.' 'X is still with you and hold X in your memories.'
People think they know. They think they have some understanding. But you quickly learn to shut up because people don't actually want to know. Telling someone that things will get better or that someone is still 'there' when they are gone and you can't interact with them is cruel. If I punch you in the throat, can I console you with the knowledge that oxygen is still with you and all around you?
You don't have to serve in war to be slammed by reality.
@@runningfromabear8354 you missed my point. My great grandfather survived all four years of WW1. Probably one of a handful to manage that. Fortunately he was only on the Western Front for 1914 and 1918. The other 2 years he fought the Turks. I am not belittling anyone, but emphasizing the absolute horror of that war. WW1 was absolutely brutal. Horrendous living conditions, a much larger casualty rate, being shelled and gassed continually. It should have been the war to end all wars. It deserves a lot more prominence on History in my opinion.
A wise man must be patient,
He must never be too impulsive
nor too hasty of speech,
nor too weak a warrior,
nor too reckless,
nor too fearful, nor too cheerful,
nor too greedy for goods,
nor ever too eager for boasts,
before he sees clearly.
-The Wanderer
"Grief is a twisted emotion, twisted into the shape of a question..."
Beautifully written.
You just nailed this. I'm going through a miscarriage and the questions the Wanderer asks at the end and that Tolkien takes up and weaves into his books just hit me. I keep asking questions with this longing for some resolution, but the answer is not coming. There is no return. There is no going back and "fixing" everything. There is just the grief and the silence and the questioning. Thank you. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
I’m so sorry my friend. This world is not as it should be.
I pray for you.
“ never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection or sought thy help was left unaided.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, in thy mercy, hear and answer me.”
I return to the prayer I learned as a child when I’m facing the worst.
May your grief be lessened in time.
I feel for you, brother, and the child's mother. My own mom lost 4 of my siblings that way, and my cousin's daughter lost two. It's a hollow longing that will not be quenched fully in this world; like what a mother who aborted her child goes through, but with one very BIG difference; the lack of guilt, at least it ought to be so. There is no guilt here for anyone, and all the more joy will be present to all when you finally meet him or her on the other side of the vail! You guys also have a way of helping with the grief; ask your child to pray for you both, and know that soul will, beyond a doubt! And of course as you have alluded to, our Blessed Mother will surely be a comforting mother to you as well. Pray your rosary daily my friend, and may the Triune God bless you greatly!
HI
Only Jesus intercedes for us. ' For there is one that intercedes between man and YHWH, the man Christ Jesus/ Yeshua. Trust Him. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain' But behold I live forever more' Shalom to us only in Christ Yeshua. All else are Nephilim.
The artwork used throughout the video is:
1:08 Viktor Vasnetsov - A Knight at the Crossroads (1878)
2:13 Student/Circle of Rembrandt - The Man with the Golden Helmet (1650)
2:56 Luca Giordano - The Dream of Solomon (1693)
3:45 Rembrandt - History Painting (1626)
6:40 Rembrandt - Man in Armour (1655)
7:10 TaleWorlds - Mount and Blade Warband main screen art.
7:21 David Friedrich - The Abbey in Oakwood (1810)
8:20 Edvard Munch - Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette (1895)
9:10 Edvard Munch - Anxiety (1894)
11:55 Anthony van Dyck - Commander in Armour, with a Red Scarf (1625-1627)
12:15 Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)
Thank you for the list! However, I think "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" is Caspar David Frederich.
@@geertensing6406 ah yep. Fixed
Thanks.
.
Thanks for listing
my gran had Man with the Golden Helmet on her wall, and i have looked at it so often, but only now seen the depth of sorrow on his face.
As an ex British infantryman i can relate to the feeling of being lost and useless when you no longer have comrades to fight for or anything to serve. It was very difficult for me to adjust to civilian life.
As a former American Marine Infantryman I too feel this woe my brother
I read Tolkien in my 20s and came upon The Wanderer in my 50s, but had not tied them together until now. Duncan Spaith wrote that The Wanderer had a great deal of personal authentisity. For me, every line is a page from my "many winters".
It deserves to accompany us on our journey through life, as it no doubt accompanied the people who passed it down orally from generation to generation!
There is no unhealthy degree in being obsessed with Tolkiens work.
I hated English lessons in school, (I´m from Germany), and I only know Tolkiens Books in German Language.
But I more and more want to learn English, so I will be able to understand Tolkien how he wrote.
I got goose bumps from watching this video, thank you.
Tolkien war an den Übersetzungen beteiligt, soweit ich weiß. Natürlich ist das englische Original wichtig, aber auch die deutsche Übersetzung trägt Tolkiens Stempel.
DISREGARD ENGLISH
AQUIRE ELVEN
Yes.
Good insight. Understanding the original text.
@@jannguerrero It's a beautiful language. Makes me proud to be English
Well knowing it in German is perhaps one stem better, and far more ancient. Ancient even to the Anglo saxons were the old warriors of Germany. Clad in iron and bronze, smelling of pine, blood and sweat. Those men reshaped Europe and led to the creation of English.
I was lucky to have read the Lord of the Rings at a time when I did. Its fabric of adventure, companionship, courage, sorrow, with mythologic weavings saved me in a time I was bullied and neglected.
First time I've heard of Wanderer and it gave Me shivers, cause I can relate to it on core level, as my people, culture and mother language, which all can count millenias, are dying out and fading away in history.
Are you Syriac? Either way I can relate.
@@sarasho6098 I'm from Svaneti, one of three ethnic groups which created Georgia, we have our own language, which is part of Georgian family of languages, but it's much older than Georgian, we have our own culture, whic has lot in common with Sumerian, mentality and history, but our population is decreasing and our language is part of dying languages. I'm living in times, when my culture is dying.
@@Magnus689 I'm sad to say that that happens to all languages and cultures, eventually. Once upon a time, Latin was spoken from the British Isles to your own homeland; now it's a dead language, spoken only by scholars and clergymen. It doesn't change your situation, but at least you can take some comfort in knowing that your culture isn't being singled out: this is just how Time and Entropy work.
@@Sup3rD4ve You're right, but witnessing its death, isn't easy
@@Magnus689 No, I'm sure it isn't. All you can do - all any of us can do - is try to rise to meet this changing world with as much grace and compassion as we can muster.
Very moving indeed. Tolkien had a prodigious mind. Anyone who's struggled through Anglo Saxon or even Middle English courses knows how unlike modern English they are. It's a revelation that Tolkien used that ancient poem "The Wanderer" as a basis for his own fiction.
I recall reading that the Dark Ages/Anglo-Saxon mindset involved honoring and valuing someone who died a good death even if the battle is lost [and how Galadriel spoke of this when she used the phrase 'the long defeat' to describe what the elves had been doing for millennia]. Fight on even if you know that you are going to lose because dying with your sword in hand is good [one could even call it being selfish but honest]. This was very different from the Medieval post 1066 mindset that involved more Christian-like principles of chivalry and saving maidens; sacrifice for others because they are more important than you [that could in contrast be described as humble but also quite arrogant]
@@davidbellamy2612 the Battle of Maldon is a good example.
A man cannot become wise before he has a portion of winters in the kingdom of the world.
Boomers be sitting there in the eternal summer they created for themselves are proof of this.
@@XavierXonora damn dog, this comment is deep.
@@XavierXonora And how wise are you?
@@XavierXonora You talk as if Baby Boomers were all white heterosexual males born into wealth. Imagine being born black and poor in the 50s in the segregated South. Eternal summer? I think not. Now before you say “Ok boomer”, let me say I’m not a boomer.
It is not often I get lost for words.
But I am...
winter the greatest teacher of them all
Humans and their pens and the things the sums they conjure up survives while everything else turns to dust.
A circle that is never new
But always old a offspring
Of the sun which never sets a son of the moon
That keeps on coming back like the waves that hits the daughters on the cliffs and on the shore that give birth to ships of man majestic as they seem babies they are
For they have yet to figure the sum of it all
it is brief period till the circle seems new again but
It is just being improved
Nothing new under the sun.
I always knew there was something I liked about tolkien good to know it wasn't just about the my precious thingy.
Humans and their pens I guess.
very British yet very relatable at the same time same things and the same characters keep on wandering back
How wonderful when one can see it .
My first instinct is the dreams are hinting at a deep love and intimacy that men feel but cannot show. It's not unusual in history to see men entirely heartbroken by the death of the man they have sworn to serve, but it is unusual for it to be written so vividly and uncomfortably. I think the poet wanted to highlight the depth of the grief.
It is only uncomfortable to our modern minds because we have been taught that all intimacy must be sexual. "Wow those two soldiers in that film sure do sacrifice a lot for each other, they must be secretly boning each other!" This is actually relatively very new, go look at photos of brothers/close friends from the early days of photography in the 1860's and you'll find them sitting in laps and holding hands, because they knew that those actions didn't signify Eros. The overly openness our society has allowed sexuality has irreparably harmed our psyches.
@@stantrien8106 You have hit that nail square on the head so to speak! Very well put sir.
@@stantrien8106 If you are sexually open then the situation won't be uncomfortable, I solved the problem.
@@pplelo9364 yeah then you get BDSM gay pride parades. Not the most comfortable
@@rustybayonette6641 You had to make that far a stretch to make your point, I win again.
Lancelot also speaks of his search for a worthy lord to follow and fight for. As if he is not complete, without purpose.
Sounds more like Sir Bedivere after the Fall of Camelot.
Because in this life as a human being suffering in the pursuit of betterment and the righteous light is more fulfilling than slow decay in contented stasis.
I'm a true believer that we live this life to have our minds and hearts opened for what comes next.
The Dunedain were wanderers of the destroyed kingdom of Arnor.
Which gave me a thought about the world and the poem - Middle Earth was kind of intended as a sort of pseudo-mythology of England, since Tolkien was upset that England really didn't have its own cultural mythology (even King Arthur and the round table are rooted in French mythology and Charlemagne). Perhaps the variant of the poem we get in the books is the "original", as sang by Aragorn, and passed down and tweaked and modified through the ages in oral tradition, until it's translated by and inspires a young Tolkien.
@@KingBobXVI King Arthur is certainly not French. It's largely based on Saxon invasions of Britain told in the view of the Brithonic people. That's why it's largely associated with Cornwall and Wales.
Also there is actually a mythology of Britain. I suggest you search "The Matter of Britain".
Thanks. This level of profundity is rather rare in CZcams videos dealing with phenomena like the Lord of the Rings which have made it into pop culture.
Thank you so much!
@@EmpireoftheMind Honour where honour is due
@@Residentgnome Hear hear.
As an old man with winter set firm around my heart, I thank you for this. Bereft, dumb and never far from tears this was a joy to hear. Thank you so much for this. L/s.
For those of you unaware of Clamavi de Profundis, they have a recording of The Lament referred to in the video, and I personally love their rendition, so be sure to look it up.
Superb analysis of this wonderful poem. Anglo-Saxon poetry has a particular quality of its own, a bracing bleakness, such a shame that so little has survived.
Thank you so much! It’s heartbreaking to think how much art and beauty has been lost to time.
@@EmpireoftheMind In that Tolkien documentary a scholar was talking about how England was demythologized after the norman invasion when the anglo-saxon literary class was disposessed. And then also in the industrial revolution which had the effect of taking peoples interest away from folktales and such. So this was something Tolkien decided to remedy!
@@EmpireoftheMind Quite! -
Thank you so very very much for this composition and narration. LOTR and other Tolkien writings are treasures on paper. Conveying so much more of what can't be spoken of. MANY thanks indeed.
I think it's lovely that a poem written hundreds of years ago can still have as much relevance to the modern day. More than I thought possible.
Truth is timeless
@@AnyLastWords_ I like that a lot.
"The old that is strong does not wither..."
Where now the Horse and the Rider
Where is the Horn that was Blowing
Where now the Helm and the Hauberk
And the Bright Hair Flowing?
They have passed like Rain on the Mountain
Like a Wind in the Meadow
The Sun has gone down in the West
Behind the Hills, into Shadow.
Hwær nu ðæt Hors and se Ridend
Hwær is se Horn Blowende
Hwær is se Helm and seo Byrne
And ðæt Beorhte Hær Flowende?
Þæs oferreode eall swa swa Regn on þæm Beorge
Swa swa Wind on þære Mædwe
Seo Sunne is gesigen West
Behindan Hyllum, into Sceadu.
@@ithinknot6833 Excellent, I only wish I could hear it spoken true.
I love when Theoden says that line in the second LOTR movie
@@ithinknot6833 anglo-saxon looks looks like frisian. Damn
@@julianhuitema7133 looks most like Modern English to me
I listened to you and thought of how this explains what is going on with my son. He is 41, has lost his family whom he loved and worked so hard to provide for. A difficult upbringing and many mistakes of his youth inspired him to prove he was capable of the good inside him. His desire to do better in life was challenged by a wife, much younger than him, who was not happy with anything. His inexperience with life at that pace caused him to run off the rails, make bad choices like he's done in the past. Those choices, like a bad battle plan, caused him to fail his mission, lose everything he was fighting for. He wandered about for a few years before coming home and... Well, in his heart and his head, continues to wander. I don't see here what the ending is to the poem. I don't know if I want to know the ending.
All things come to an end
@@anderslind8422 😔
@Emperor AlHasan Thank you
I hope your son is able to find himself, he’s around my brothers age and I can still see him, and my father, wandering
@@anon2427 Thank you. Its hard to watch it drag on day after day...for years. God bless you and your family.
This video deserves more views.
Thanks! I hope more people will find it.
Views hell, this channel needs more subscribers
I have liked, commented, subscribed. I hope it helps!
@@Moneyalmenial It absolutely does help. Thank you so much for the support!
just stumbled on to this but could not agree more, serious video
I've ways noticed a deeper connection to the words in Tolkien's works and now I understand why. There's 1000 years of human depth and feeling on every page of his literature. Awesome video.
"Upon a dais of many steps was set a high throne under a canopy of marble shaped like a crowned helm; behind it was carved upon the wall and set within gems an image of a tree in flower. But the throne was empty."
Most modern writers would follow up that sense of intransigence of Middle-Earth with revanche, or a reclamation of the lost glories of the world. The Wanderer really fits into a view common medieval Christian mindset. That everything gets worse and fades until the day of Judgement.
And that's where George Martin gets it wrong. Not wrong per se, but wrong in believing he's better than Tolkien. That was also Tolkien's worldview. That's why evil in his books is not a positive attribute, but rather a decay from the perfect state God designed for the world and everything in it. It's always a Fall. Incidentally, that's also why Evil cannot be vanquished by Men (or Elves), but only resisted against. That's why Frodo failed to destroy the ring and Gollum had to enter as the unwitting agent of Fate.
@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 We are still falling, and haven't crashed against the earth yet?
@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 he doesn't think he's better he just thinks that in worldbuilding Tolkien often chooses themes over realism and thinks its wrong to do so.
@@markuhler2664 It seems that God makes the hole we are falling in deeper every time we get closer to it. If that's mercy or punishment, only the Judgement Day will say it.
One of my favorite poems from the Anglo-Saxon canon...and honestly, one of the best in eternity. I really have enjoyed watching your musings on life through the art of the past. Excellent stuff!
Thanks! Glad you enjoy it!
This video is so profound. As an aspiring writer, a person who loves Anglo-Saxon poetry, and a proud Tolkien nerd, this was fascinating on so many levels and actually made me just a bit teary (something no other CZcams video has made me do!) I've never actually read this poem but I am definitely going to now! Thanks Empire of the Mind! You have my fealty ⚔
This is the first time I've admitted something like this, but your video has changed my life. It's not just the rich content of the video, but the way you presented it.
I come back to this every time life takes a vicious swing, and it helps me back to my feet everytime
Thank you.
I remembered! Tacitus said "The fault is not in the stars, it is within us"
"This is no mere ranger. He is Aragorn son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."
its always funny when a video is talking about Tolkien specifically and people post Peter Jackson dialogue
Never mind, Sir Von Klok. What do your runes mean, by the way?
Thank you for this. At last, a CZcams channel requiring actual thought.
I am reminded of the opening of the last book of Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King’:
That story which the bold Sir Bedevere,
First made and latest left of all the knights,
Told when the man was but a voice in the white winter of his age,
To those with whom he dwelt,
New faces, other minds.
I wonder if he might also have accessed this poem.
You’re welcome!
Beautiful. Also love Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses.’ Different subject matter, but still an aching, dissatisfied, homeless feeling.
Not sure what the status of Anglo-Saxon literature was in the 18th century, but that’s a good question...
Your presentation was hypnotic and haunting. Well done.
Tolkien reaches back and, with seeming ease, coaxes the fingers of history to shape the world he created. I believe this is why so many for so long have found a home in Middle Earth.
Great work!
I’m drawn to deep thinking, pondering. I’m also a Tolkien fan and have always loved that line, “Where is the horse, and the rider...”
I think it all awakens something within us, even if we are not consciously aware of it. Something deep within all of humanity, veiled in forgetting, but still lingering on. It calls to us in many voices, many names, and from many places.
This is beautiful. I have had LOTR in the back of my mind, for my first fiction of 2023. And now I will go get The Fellowship off the shelf and start.
Just like my dad’s best friend told me when I first read the trilogy in my Sophomore year: you’ll read this many times, and each time you read it, you’ll find something new. This poem sets the stage for me discovering even more beauty in Tolkien’s world
Tolkien was once asked during an interview (that I can't reference but impressed me very much) whether he would have preferred to be remembered for his scholarship rather than writing 'children's stories.' His answer revealed the awareness and integrity of the man. I'll let you find it for yourself.
In the 1970's, I was fascinated by the earliest lore about King Arthur. I was trying to understand the writings of Gildas and Nennius to help me understand the world and language this lore came from and I kept being referred to Professor Tolkien for background information. I found the professor's writing hard to read and so, I kept turning to interpreters who left me unsatisfied only to be referred back to the professor once again. I got from this just how universally respected in this area and how he was the ultimate authority for what I was seeking. At this time, I met someone who tried to convince me that someone with that name wrote about elves and magic. I thought that was preposterous. Someone else must be running around with that unusual name, maybe a distant relative. When I became jaded with King Arthur, I turned to read Professor Tolkien's fantasy knowing him first as a respected historian and only later as a writer of fantasy. And so, I had certain expectations about depth of background and none of these expectations were disappointed. I have not talked to anyone in depth who came to Tolkien's books expecting only lyrical fantasy from them, a retreat from the real world. I would wonder if these people would be led down unexpected riverbeds into the depths or if they would be blinded by their expectations and never see what lay beneath.
The frikin ads ruin the emotional moment.
I can totally feel the poem in my bones!!!
There's a deep truth. A wise note that hit the right chord in my heart.
Thank you!
I'd be okay with having to watch a certain amount of ads to unlock content, or just pay a little outright, but ads in the middle of content (especially music or poetry) drive most of us insane. U tube has become evil in more ways than just censorship.
I, myself, have been a lover of J.R.R. Tolkeins works since I was a young boy. I will enjoy and love re-reading his works for many year to come.
From one Tolkien nut to another, this is a masterpiece as well.
Wow that made me really emotional, the beauty of Tolkien’s words and the depth of his understanding.
Tolkien’s Catholic and Medieval influences make his work feel so, real, middle Earth feels like a real world of moral gravity and meaning.
Edit: I think both the Anglo Saxon influence and Catholic influence are equally important. Anglo Saxon culture defines the human kingdoms, but Catholic theology defines the mystical history and themes.
- I prayed to the most Holy Tongue & Jaw of Saint Anthony of Padua & Saint Clare of Montefalco’s Fingernails And Hair Clippings that we would accept The Pope into our life - and my prayers were efficaciously boosted by these powerful relics, I think you'll agree !!
Agreed. He held his faith close to him and it bled through into everything he wrote. We can never, under any circumstances, cut that away without destroying the whole.
Catholic Anglo-Saxon England bought forth great works of art and literature comparable to anything produce on the continent.
@@kayharker712 your comment is filled full of ignorance and hate. Your distaste for things you don't understand keep you from educating yourself
@@ortho4252 Hey - I was being serious. We need more Principled Anti-Hate Catholic Doctrine like the Papal Bull "Cum nimis absurdum" issued by Pope Paul IV in 1555 to ensure all jews in Rome were walled up in the Roman Ghetto. It takes its name from the Bull’s first words: "Since it is absurd and utterly inconvenient that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery..." Under the Papal Bull, Jewish males were required to wear a pointed yellow hat, and Jewish females a yellow kerchief and were confined to a ghetto and their livelihood limited to dealing in second hand clothes - up until 1870 when the Italian risorgimento abolished Papal rule in Italy. (The creation of Vatican City and a yearly massive cash donative was later agreed upon by Mussolini and Pius XI in 1929)
Mmmm ... sounds familiar ....reminds me of the actions of a certain Austrian Catholic ruler in the 1930s and 40s who resurrected the 3rd Holy Roman Empire, 10,000 of whose followers ‘miraculously’ managed to get to Argentina a bit later with the help of the Vatican..... errr....where the Pope is from….errrr….which is obviously a total coincidence.
Nothing to see here.
Let’s move on.
Ehrrmmmm…..as I was saying - let us continue to adore the One Holy Apostolic Church - that made Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Paraguay into those ‘shining cities on a hill’ and inspired the youthful morality of Rodrigo Borgia, Dr. Joe Mengele, Joe Biden, Hugo Chavez, John Brennan, Tony Fauci, Samantha Power, Carlos The Jackal, Kat Timpf, Heinrich Himmler, Mel Gibson, Adolf Hitler and Che Guevara. Bravo !!
I am the wanderer, this poem literally describes my reality...it is strangely...comforting
Yes, this idea of the wanderer wanting to submit to a lord describes my situation. I've always enjoyed work more when working directly under a manager, and since my manager lately has thrown me under the bus, I've felt adrift at work.
Thank you for sharing The Wanderer.
I heard in its five compartments not stages of medieval grief, but the stages of life. Here, I'll link your descriptions to what I felt in each:
Stage 1 - isolation and repression - birth (inability to communicate, to understand)
Stage 2 - dreams - childhood (a world of imagination)
Stage 3 - sadness, depression - teen angst, loss of childish innocence
Stage 4 - acceptance, wisdom - mature adulthood
Stage 5 - disorientation, confusion - old age, perhaps dimentia
Perhaps the Wanderer, having lost his lord, which one might think of as his father, and his homeland, which might be akin to his mother, is born again. Must go through, and is describing the stages of his new life.
It's like a matryoshka doll, with a life nestled inside a life.
Anyway, that's how it seemed to me.
Thank you again, @Empire of the Mind.
I just assisted in a Unitarian Church Service that explored The Lord of the Rings and why it has been especially meaningful during the Covid epidemic. CZcams put this in my path and I wish I had watched it before I wrote my reflection. But I now have something to put at the top of my summer reading. Thank you for this post, i was quite moved by it.
The wanderer is an ancient man; but he is the modern man.
Asking emotional questions to yourself that you already know the answer to.
Longing for something or someone that has been lost and can never return.
Damn, that hits me hard.
It just struck me that this perfectly describes Poe's The Raven as well. It echoes down the ages.
"Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore"
Not often does a youtube video bring me to tears. Thanks. This was beautiful.
Man what a masterpiece of interpretation! I'm glad that popped up on my recommended, deserves way more views and appreciation! Astonishing work, voice and text reading mate. Huge thanks from Brazil and Tolkien fan
'a thousand years deep' as a line bloomed beautifully. Keep your poetry close my dude. Keep going. Subscribed about a minute or two in. Got me picking up my anglo-saxon readings again!
Wow, this is a high quality channel that deserves more recognition. Glad to have stumbled on it
Thanks!
This is one of the most touching videos I watched on CZcams. Thank you.
This is the first video of yours that I’ve encountered, and it was enough within itself to get me to subscribe. This is incredibly valuable, informative, and educational content, while still being compelling and holding the attention and triggering an emotive resonance. This is the content the world needs.
The voice, reading these words, combined with seeing them in Gothic text, were a moving combination that spoke gravitas and authority. Much to think on, thank you. I have traveled around this country myself for seven years, and I feel this.
Not only are WANDERER and LOTR masterpieces, this video is as well. Thank you.
I wonder if The Wanderer also influenced Robert E. Howard on his creation of Solomon Kane. Reading through the poem, it definitively reminded me of Howard's Kane work, especially the poetic ones.
Brilliant. Utterly speechless from your deliverance; the tone, the music, the vernacular. Fantastic work my friend.
You just helped sow a field of meditation on the loss of my dad. I thought of him the entire time, listening to your video. I’m short on words because I’m emotional now, but thank you, from what’s left of my heart...thank you
this is a masterpiece and i have no clue why it doesn't have more views
Amazing. I studied - to an extent - Anglo Saxon literature and language at university - many moons ago. . This has inspired me to return to those wonderful texts.
I’m jealous. I’ll bet that’s an amazing field to study!
This is one of the best CZcams videos I've ever seen in any genre. Great job.
I’ve forwarded a link of your video to several people now, what a great analysis of the depths of which Anglo-Saxon literature influenced Tolkien’s work. This was really really nicely done and also held a lot of flavor and poignancy in its own right.
Tolkien`s service as a Subaltern in WW1 seems to have influenced Lord of the Rings and he did take part in the Battle of the Somme and lived to tell the tale too.
He only survived because he got sick. His friends were killed when he was at a rest camp. It’s why the Rings story ends the way it does.
@@ianpage2509 He got sick in the later half of that tragedy I believe
A ronin would have understood this poem. It might be observed that a Lord-Servant relationship frees a warrior of many adult responsibilities and emotional conflicts. An extended childhood is the experience.
Only in a very limited way. You still have to master yourself
Meh, it could better be called an isolated vs an integrated existence. Following is a part of existence. Isolation is an aspect of death.
I first read the works of Tolkien over forty years ago. Thank you for this. I have bored many over the years expressing, less eloquently than you, what I felt their true worth was. You have done so better than any film could...so again...thank you.
I see a lot of "refrences" that translated to LOTR like:
1:55 "There is none now living..." with Galadriel at the start "for none now live who remember it"
The Middle-Earth term
7:50"Where is the horse gone? Where is the rider?" with King Theoden in Helm's Deep " Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn the was blowing?"
This is an amazing video!
This is one of the most meaningful things I have ever seen on youtube
I wonder if the origin was about the wiping out of the Jutes on Vectis (the Isle of Wight) by the Suth Saexe. Also of course an outlaw could obtain sanctuary by giving his oath to a distant Thegn or Eorl, to join a new master's heorthwerod (hearth ward/guard).
It's worth saying, as CS Lewis did in various places, that the people in the past could not hide from pain and grief in the way that modern people can. They didn't have anaesthetics or analgesics except alcohol, and Marx's opiate for coping with pain. Pre-industrial writers wrote extensively about suffering in ways modern readers refuse to spare the time for. What they wrote about was precisely dignity, endurance, the courage of putting on a brave face, and acceptance, since modern forms of self-medicating weren't available. And of course theological contextualisation of pain, to understand it as meaningful not random, as having a purpose and a necessity, and patience with pain as duty, as well as treating pain as a form of admonition to correct wrong thoughts or wrong ways of relating to others, to make your confessions, apologies, and your due sacrifices to the gods or God.
I legitimately believe this is one of your better videos, i keep finding myself back to remind and contemplate it. fantastic work.
Your recitation here is absolutely perfect. I haven't heard a better voice using a more appropriate tone for this poem; the music is also very fitting. It would be cool if you could make a video reciting the whole poem in this style
How the world has changed in just a matter of decades. Yes, back then was a harder and more brutal age to live in, but at least there was honour, there was respect. One would even respect a worthy enemy. We now live in an era where all that once was good is now gone. I cannot imagine where this is leading us. Maybe I prefer not to know...
Sometimes evil can be defeated by a small Fellowship that accepts responsibility for the world. There’s always hope.
I read The Benedict Option- I’m thinking a parallel economy is the answer.
Bravo, sir. Excellent analysis and masterful narration. It's only a matter of time your work receives all the recognition it deserves.
Thank you so much!
This has transcended analysis and has become true art. You've set a high bar and have earned a new subscriber.
Perhaps the best essay I've seen years. Wonderfully done.
I love the Lord of the Rings more each time I read it. There's no other book like that for me, except perhaps Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
This poem makes me wonder if possibly the centuries preceding the poem were especially difficult, with many tribes relocating or wiped out. It doesn't sound like a singular experience, but more like a shared, familiar story for the time.
It’s unknown exactly when the poem was composed but the final collapse of the western Roman Empire was 476AD. It was a very drawn out decline. After Rome fell, people in Europe got taller and taller but the hallmarks of civilisation like advanced craftsmanship, scholarship, large-scale organisation, etc. basically all vanished. Every territory, free of centralised rule, was now up for contest. So yes there was a violent lurch back to the old ways of hunting and raiding, not working, to live. People grew bigger and stronger than they’d been for centuries by eating lots of boar and deer again, spending lots of time relaxing instead of labouring, with an upbringing that was full of athleticism & adventures on hunts.
Oh my, what a superb presentation that gathered my emotions, intellect, ignorance, memories, and dreams into a place by the fire. I can't wait to see more of your creations.
This was the first video I had the pleasure of viewing on your channel. For the last few months now I have rewatched all of your videos a number of times, in fact, I'm a production manager for a small factory and often times listen to your videos on headphones while operating some of the more noisy machines. I really enjoy your channel and I hope it continues to not only deliver great content but gain more and more subs. From the bottom of my heart, thank you my friend.
The channel Clamavi de Profundis takes alot of Tolkiens written poems and performs them amazingly including the Lament for the Rohirrim 😩🙏
That was beautiful. Masterfully done.
This Video is underrated and under-viewed. Such a Great Work you did here. Thank you
I had to part with several very dear friends of mine. This has been so helpful. I now wonder if most people we know are themselves in one-stage-or-another of grief when we meet them. Very touching, thorough, and wonderful video!
His tribe is dead. His lord is a symbol for his family. And being in submission also means being in your place. Having a place in a chaotic world is everything. "Bare is a brother-less back."
This was brilliant. It's inspiring to see where Tolkien got his inspiration.
It is rare that I choose to subscribe to a channel on a single viewing. This is magnificent! Thank you.
The Wanderer has, for quite some years, been my favourite Anglo-Saxon writing. This is a wonderful video.
To think, I nearly kept on scrolling missing out on this unbelievably beautiful part of human history
The position of the wanderer towards his lord can be interpretted on the basis of the parallels that can be found between lordship and fatherhood. Often, we the moderns tend to equate the positions we find the 21st century with their barely similar ancient counterparts. So often, a lord becomes and seems to us as nothing but an employer, a leader, who the average medieval person would follow. But we ought to remember that the relationships in ancient times were much more intimate, especially in a society based around fealty and kinship like that of the Anglo-Saxons. A lord is therefore much more than just a person of high status to follow and a person from whom the warrior receives benefits. A lord is a father and a shepherd to his own people. Putting one's head in another's lap can be seen in this instance as an expression of a quasi father-son relationship between the ruler and his follower.
I just found your channel through this video, and let me say, wow...
I will definitely be looking into more of your content. Thank you for putting excellence into your craft.
Thank you for this unintentional therapy. I lost my grandfather at the beginning of 2020 and I finally was able to see my widowed grandmother (after I got my vaccine) this past weekend. As I sat with my family for the first time since the funeral I was thinking, where is my grandfather's laughter? Where are his strong hands? Where are all his questions about how I'm living my life? Where is the lap where his great-grandchildren used to sit?
As I reach middle age, the reality of loss and grief are on my mind more than ever. The Wanderer and your presentation of it through the familiar quotes from JRRT are very helpful. You now have a new subscriber, thank you.
One of the things that always puzzled me about Tolkien is the fact that his stories seem to be incredibly allegorical but in one of the Prefaces, he talks about how much he hates allegory.
So, I've always struggled to understand the depth of the story beyond just being an alternate mythical history of England. Still trying to unpack exactly all that you've said here but I think it really connects the dots between the alternate history take and the "not allegory".
Well... Now I guess I have to read them all over again for the 10,000th time. Well done sir!
Glad I could help to give another perspective. Tolkien can be a tough nut to crack at times. I’m currently re-reading the books now and still finding new things. Thanks for watching!
The Wanderer also follows a structure of meditative poetry traceable to St Augustine. In using the 3 faculties of memory, understanding and will, which also correspond to and recall the 3 persons of the Trinity. St Augustine says, “we resolved indeed to ascend (as it were) by steps and to seek in the inner man a trinity of its own kind, so that we might come with a mind more developed by exercise in these lower things to that Trinity which is God.” John L Selzer, in The Wanderer and the Meditative Tradition, concludes, “Hence, the speaker’s quest for his earthly lord in the Wander is satisfied when aet rune, in meditation, he finds his spiritual Lord. He continues: The quest that began in the past (1-57) , through the use of memory, becomes fully cerebral in the predominantly present tense analysis, and is satisfied when the meditators soul achieves his Lord, not in time or past present, but outside time and space in mental an d theological union with the Faeder on heofonum.
If you want to hear what Old English sounds like, I recommend you google “The Lord’s Prayer in Old English” as you are likely to be familiar enough with the modern English to be able to follow the Old English. Unfortunately the book chapter I am relying on is buried behind expensive academic pay walls, but I have a scanned copy if anyone is interested.
These are great conversations, so please keep it up.
This is fantastic! Thanks for adding to the conversation. I was not aware of the connection with Augustine.
The format of the section ""Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?...", called an
'ubi sunt' in Latin, derives from the book of Baruch in Hebrew. The Germanic meditative tradition is represented by the 'horns' of Odin/Weden, as depicted on the Sutton Hoo helm. These are actually the ravens, Huginn (thought) & Muninn (memory), which grow out of his head, turning to face one another as in dialogue. This too has a Judean parallel in that YHWH speaks from "between the cherubim" [Ex25v22]
@@differous01 Nice - I hadn't known of the representation of the ravens as the horns of the helmet.
"St." Augustine of Hippo was a pervert who couldn't stay away from young women, so he blamed the human libido as being Satanic. Few modern Christians seem to know he was one of the most deceptive, destructive men in Christian history. He was also behind the belief in Foreordination and the idea that unbaptized babies would not go to heaven, among other evils.
One of the most beautiful and insightful videos I have yet seen on Tolkien's work. Your "narrative" was almost a poem in itself. Thank you so much for introducing me to the wonderful "Wanderer"! Why do people still think that the Anglo-Saxons were primitive? Their poetry was fabulous and their art inspiring!
I came across this video on a day when I truly needed to here it. The past can seem like a lost country; a homeland to which there is no return. There is pain on this road without direction. However, its use is not in showing us what we could have again. It is a place that can we can journey from to arrive, as you so rightly said, at wisdom.
I am passing this on to some of my friends who are English teachers. Thank you.