By Lindariel
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This article was inspired by the April 27 Block Party Challenge, "create a piece of meta." It is a sister piece to my short story With Revelry of Children about young Eärendil's experience of Nost-na-Lothion.
"... yet in its time a spring of wondrous glory melted the skirts of those white mantles and the valley drank the waters and burst into flowers. So came and passed with revelry of children the festival of Nost-na-Lothion or the Birth of Flowers, and the hearts of the Gondothlim were uplifted for the good promise of the year" -- (History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, "The Fall of Gondolin")
Turgon the Wise did not initially wish to leave Valinor, and he did so out of a sense of loyalty to his kin rather than from the desire to forsake it. He also had three personal encounters with Ulmo on the Hither Shores.1 Of all the Noldor in Beleriand, Turgon and his people would have held onto their reverence for their teachers and benefactors among the Valar longest and most faithfully. Accordingly, I imagine the Noldorin denizens of Gondolin to be some of the most orthodox in Beleriand.
In thinking about Nost-na-Lothion, the Birth of Flowers festival, Tolkien would probably have been influenced by May Day observances, especially in the UK, for inspiration. In its cool northern climate, Gondolin would have had a fairly late spring, but by May Day the snowmelt would have brought the bright sunburst-shaped flowers of lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), for which Gondolin was famous, to full bloom on the plain of Tumladen. Approaching the festival as a celebration of a particular Vala, "Vána, the Ever-young," whose presence is said to cause flowers to open2 and who oversees a garden of golden flowers,3 grounds it firmly in his cosmology as well as in Gondolin's geography, while allowing for the inclusion of many elements Tolkien would recognize from a traditional--dare we say semi-pagan--Beltane observance.
Between its forbiddingly isolated geographic situation and Turgon's long-standing desire to keep it secret, the fastness of Gondolin was in no position to trade with any neighbors. We should never lose sight of the fact that Gondolin was first and foremost a prepper cult, right down to the belief in a divine patron, a leader with direct divine experience and the power over life and death, the promise of a prophet to come, and the anticipation of a direct showdown with Evil. They were holed up awaiting the apocalypse, and all their decision making had to keep that in mind.
The Gondolindrim would have had to produce their food themselves rather than import even luxuries, much less commodities. The city's ruling class of Noldorin Elves, with their restless smith-trained fëar, would skew the culture toward maker-style technological solutions rather than magicking crops out of the ground, creating as uniformly industrial a society as the Elves ever likely produced. Their choices about livestock and crops had to prioritize multiple usages. Their cuisine would be plentiful and varied, sustainable perforce, yet with a pronounced regional character.
Taking as our starting point Tolkien's insistence that Middle-earth is Europe, it follows that Beleriand should be in at least some ways similar to Europe in climate. Consulting a hardiness zone map of Europe and modifying it for a protective northerly mountain range (plus a little indecisiveness) led me to assign Gondolin a 6 to 7 hardiness zone number. At a 6, Gondolin would be on a par with Switzerland, northern Scotland, and a fair portion of coastal Baltic countries although the light levels that far north would be lower than in Switzerland. As a 7, it would be more like much of Scotland, northern Germany, and Denmark.
Concentrated protein would come mostly from domesticated animals and dairy products. Herd animals such as sheep, cows, and goats would thrive on the plain, while game animals larger than wood grouse (on the slopes of the Echoriath) or coneys would be absent. Although spring water would have abounded, even on Amon Gwareth where it was harnessed into many fountains, there were no rivers or sizable bodies of water inside the Echoriath. Although there might be some trout in the springs on the southeast range of the Crissaegrim that fed down into the River Mindeb, a fishing trip there would be a slow and dangerous trek unlikely to yield food in sufficient quantity to make the trip worthwhile. Due to the need to dedicate most of the plain of Tumladen to crops, establishing a large-scale aquaculture undertaking would be out of the question.
Barley, rye, and oats would grow reliably, with wheat (probably in the form of spelt) being a less common, secondary grain. Buckwheat would grow too, but used in crop rotation as an off-season nectar source for bees and a soil amendment rather than for its seed.
Fruits and nuts would be limited in variety but present and hardy. Chestnut, walnut, and beech trees would flourish, along with many varieties of berries. Fruit walls sheltering hardy varieties of apple, crabapple, pear, and plum would be supplemented by delicate cherry trees over-wintered in conservatories. Fruit walls sheltering grapes similar to Alsatian and German varietals would ensure plenty of flavorful, generally uncomplex everyday wines and delectable ice wines.
The short growing season for herbs and tender fresh vegetables would be extended by the use of cold frames and greenhouses, which seem like a very Noldorin kind of invention. Root vegetables, including the lesser celandine tubers in the story,4 would have done well on the plain, likewise cold-hardy legumes. No doubt there would also be mushrooms, without which no cuisine on Middle-earth could be complete.
Animal-derived fats would probably provide many of the edible oils, but walnut, flaxseed, and possibly rapeseed (canola) oils would also be available, providing some desirable variety. Sugars would include many varieties of honey, malt from barley, and syrups of concentrated fruit juice. Sour flavors would come from fermentations, vinegars, and some fruits (but not citrus). Beers, ales, mead, and a plethora of honeyed beverages would be popular, along with fruit wines. Miruvórë, mead distilled with flowers and herbs, would serve as both medicinal and recreational beverage.
Food customs for a late spring observance such as Nost-na-Lothion would be a combination of eating up the last of the winter foods and enjoyment of the fresh spring foods. As the earliest of the grains to ripen in the spring, barley seems appropriate to select as the fresh spring grain. Lamb is a meat enjoyed in the spring when lambing occurs. Fresh green herbs and spring vegetables such as asparagus would be welcome. The small but plentiful tubers of lesser celandine would be eaten only for the festival, ceremonially, because they come from a special flowering plant. Appreciating the existence of flowers--by wearing, giving, accepting, offering, eating, and drinking them--is the leitmotif of Nost-na-Lothion.
Two kinds of breads made of barley appear in the story: a thin flatbread and a thicker skillet bread. Barley would be an everyday kind of food in Gondolin, and Eärendil's picnic lunch before the festivities get started is mostly simple foods. The little pastries would have been quite a treat, though, not because of the reconstituted dried apple filling but because the pastry is made of wheat flour.
The barley flatbread is based on traditional breads eaten in northern Europe. You can make them leavened,5 or unleavened.6
The skillet bread is barley bannock, also called griddle bread or girdle bread. Bannock is often eaten at Beltane in northwest Europe. It is unleavened but thicker and more scone-like than flatbread, cooked in a heavy skillet. You can make it with sweet milk7 or buttermilk,8 and you can even bake it in the oven.9 If you want you can make bannock with oats instead of barley;10 both types are traditional and would have been familiar fare in Gondolin.
Eggs are a springtime food and symbol, and new green growth is the hallmark of springtime. Savory tarts and fritattas, egg dishes with large quantities of green leaves in them, are a spring tradition in a number of places. This menu suggestion owes most of its inspiration to a May Day frittata from northern Italy that is made with seven fresh herbs.11 Since the Elves count in twelves, I thought six a better number to use than seven. I was also influenced by the Persian dish kuku sabzi, a very herbal frittata served at Nowruz, the spring equinox.12
Any set of six herbs would be great for this, especially those herbs which grow well in cooler climates such as sage, parsley, thyme, basil, mint, marjoram, oregano, and chives. Thyme, sage, marjoram, and parsley are explicitly mentioned in The Lord of the Rings.13 The Linnaean names for sage and mint appear as Hobbit female names in the Lord of the Rings' appendices.14 Any green onion-type product (leek, scallion, ramps, etc.) or one or more of your favorite green leafy vegetables (spinach, chard, kale, etc.) would work well too.
Instead of a frittata,15 any herbal quiche, tart, or crustless quiche16 would also do very nicely here. You can use a muffin tin to make small individual servings if you are feeding elflings.
Bonfires are great, but bonfires that become cookfires are even better! As it so happens, lesser celandine actually does have tubers that are quite edible if they are roasted, a technique that appears to have been known in the European Bronze Age.17 As a more practical substitute, however, any root vegetable roasted wherever you can roast it would do; turnips and carrots are mentioned in The Lord of the Rings18 and would grow in the conditions at Gondolin. If you want to stay as close to the concept of "so many flowers we are even eating them" as possible, you can roast Jerusalem artichoke tubers.19
It is not enough to eat flowers and other parts of flowering plants. Eating unrelated foods that have been shaped to look like flowers seems like a logical extension of the idea, and a great way for a Noldorin cook to show off. These buns would have been a very special food for the Gondolindrim indeed, being made of wheat, the grain they rarely get to eat unmixed. If you feel comfortable making shaped breads, individual rose-shaped buns seem utterly delightful to attempt.20
"Herbed wine with strawberries in it" is May Wine, a European drink traditionally flavored with sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and sliced strawberries and served on May Day. You can sometimes find bottles of it for sale in the spring; I used to be able to get the Brotherhood Winery version when I lived in upstate New York. If you can't get any, you can flavor white or rosé wine (lightly!) with woodruff or just cut some strawberries into it.
Yulda is simply "drink," in this case lavender herb tea (we're even drinking our flowers!). Chamomile, linden, or elderflower tea would be equally appropriate.
Beer, ale, light and sweet wines, and mead are all suitable for the adult recreational beverage/bonfire part of the evening, especially if everyone shares.
Strawberry fool is fruit puree swirled into whipped cream. You can use muddled strawberries, you can cook the fruit, you can jazz it up with jam, you can stack it like a parfait. You can make it vegan with coconut milk, healthier with Greek yoghurt (or whichever non-dairy yoghurt product you prefer), or you can use different berries. But the idea is a simple yet sumptuous dessert based on fresh berries,21 and this is about the simplest you can get other than pouring heavy cream over a dish of berries, which would also be lovely.
What holiday is complete without an irresponsible junk food that everybody loves? Edible flower treats are the "fair food" of this particular outdoor holiday, the food equivalent of American funnel cake: fried batter served hot, messy, and sweet, and adored by children everywhere.
Eat only organic unsprayed flowers of whose identities you are absolutely sure! Elderflowers (Sambucus nigra) make an amazing flower fritter,22 but many other flower fritters are more common, such as zucchini blossom, squash blossom, and daylily (Hemerocallis fulva or H. flava). You can also fritter dandelions,23 which is the coolest thing I learned during this project. Many other edible flowers such as roses, violets, mallows (Malva sylvestris), borage, and nasturtiums can be chopped into any plain fritter batter. You can flavor fritter batter with rosewater or orange flower water, too. Just be sure you serve them with more flowers -- in the form of honey!
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Lindariel has been a Tolkien fan for nearly five decades and a fandom author for nearly six months. She is Team Vairë and enjoys wearing obscure JRRT fangirl tees. Her happy place is a mallorn tree. When she's not reading or writing, she might be tablet weaving Tengwar inscription bands or planning a Tolkien garden.