Sunday Scriberies by Elleth

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Merpeople in Middle-earth

Written for the question: Were merpeople ever included in the Middle Earth mythopea [sic]? My Quenya dictionary has oarwen as mermaid.


Given the linguistic foundation of Tolkien's legendarium, many words in his Elvish languages hold significance due to their existence in the stories, rather than as mere exercises in language-making. Merfolk definitely had their place in the early versions of Middle-earth, even so far that Tolkien devised several different names (and probably different concepts) for them: The Book of Lost Tales lists "Oarni and Falmaríni and the long-tressed Wingildi" as the followers of Ossë and Uinen, and describes them as "the spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean". The name-list of the Lost Tales lists Oar as "child of the sea, merchild", from a Qenya poetic word Ô for water, Falmaríni may translate to "women of the foam(ing waves)" and Wingildi is glossed as "nymph(s), foam-fays, foam-maidens", with the element wingë, "foam, spray, spindrift, crest of wave". There also are Oaris and Oarwen, both listed as "mermaid", and Uinen of the Lost Tales also bears the name Ui Oaritsa, "Queen of Mermaids", though this concept seems to have abandoned early on, and the Oarni especially are then associated with Ossë.

This may imply a certain delight in wildness, if not violence, but in addition to tremendous power that enables the Oarni to drag the Valar to Valinor on an island after the destruction of Almaren, the Lost Tales also depict them as lovers of music and dancing. Especially in connection with Eärendel at the Mouths of Sirion they are described as benevolent, love him because of his beauty, give him gifts, teach him sea-craft, ship-building and swimming. In numerous outlines of the same story they even act in spite of Ossë and save Eärendel (and Voronwë) from drowning after they are ship-wrecked on their journeys.

But a later concept of the same story lists Oarni and mermaids as different creatures, and Tolkien expresses some insecurity as to what the latter are: "The fiord of the Mermaid: enchantment of his sailors. Mermaids are not Oarni (but are earthlings, or fays? - or both).' In [earlier text ouline] D mermaids and Oarni are equated." Fays, here, are the predecessors of the later Maiar, but to my knowledge nothing more was explained. It may be Tolkien's first stages toward abandoning his dainty Victorian fairy-lore and the idea of "foam-fays like butterflies" and "foam-maidens with blossom-white hair" of the 1920s and early 1930s, and even the whimsical but anachronistic descriptions that can be found in Roverandom. The 1925 book shows clear connections toward Middle-earth with figures and places from the Lost Tales, but its 'canonicity' is doubtful, seeing how the story Tolkien tells his sons subsumes Middle-earth into a larger idea of Faerië that is populated by figures from Norse, Greek and Roman myth alongside speaking toys and creatures from Tolkien's own imagination – but despite the difficulties to abstract "valid" concepts for Middle-earth, these are the most substantial descriptions of merfolk that we have.

In Roverandom most merfolk belong to the common fish-tailed variant, have either dark or golden hair, live in a a domed palace at the bottom of the sea (see Tolkien's own rendering of the Mer-king's palace as illustration), enjoy music, dance and laughter, are described as graceful and beautiful, but also imbued with a sense of unrest and mild danger – there exists an ambiguity whether they saved or drowned a shipwrecked sailor, and they vehemently protest developments in the plot of the story, and are even capable of "witchcraft" that does not always seem benign. Other creatures such as "sea-goblins" are also mentioned (very much the equivalent to the land-creatures of the same name insofar that they are mischievous and evil) and "smaller sea-fairies" that ride crabs or fishes or walk along the sea-bed.

But Tolkien, by his own admission, soon came to despise the dainty in favour of a "higher" mode of stories, which was also reflected in the linguistic evolution his languages passed through: They retained many words out of the earlier Qenya Lexicon, but the concepts changed. While a later reworded poem still had "Foam-riders [wingildi] with hair like blossom / And pale arms on the sea's bosom / Chanting wild songs" Tolkien translates it with a title that is later given to the Amanyar Teleri, while a simultaneous kind of earlier "fay" creatures is rather translated as "Wood-Elves". The explicit involvement of merfolk in the legendarium disappears as much as Andersen's Little Mermaid dissolves into sea-foam.

There is a fair amount of leeways to retain the idea of merfolk in Middle-earth, however. To the best of my knowledge and research Tolkien never explicitly contradicted the concept, even though other people came to inhabit their storylines in the published Silmarillion. Instead of the Oarni, Círdan and his people teach Eärendil ship-building and help him with the building of Vingilot. His journeys are not recorded in detail, and only an oblique mention is made toward his adventures in Bilbo's Lay of Eärendil that contains no mention of a shipwreck. However, there are echoes from the earlier legendarium: Ulmo and his servants ferry the Vanyar and Noldor across the sea on an island from the Bay of Balar, Uinen's hair like that of the Wingildi is given special mention, and there exists a description of the Ainur associated with the sea in the published Silmarillion:

But Ulmo was alone, and he abode not in Valinor, nor ever came thither unless there were need for a great council; he dwelt from the beginning of Arda in the Outer Ocean, and still he dwells there. [...] Salmar came with him to Arda, he who made the horns of Ulmo that none may ever forget who once has heard them; and Ossë and Uinen also, to whom he gave the government of the waves and the movements of the Inner Seas, and many other spirits beside. (Of the Beginning of Days; emphasis mine)

In my opinion, given the common association of the Valar's servants with their chosen elements or spheres (e.g. Ilmarë, "Starlight", the Handmaiden of Varda, and Fionwë/Eonwë, "Hawk", the Herald of Manwë), the existence of merfolk (if not necessarily of the same description as above) as a backdrop to the published legendarium still seems possible, even probable. Water-spirits do exist, at any rate, considering Goldberry and her mother, River-woman. Given the fact that Tolkien did indeed consider himself 'bound' by published material, they may be a glance into the less diminutive ideas that could be used to construct a fannish interpretation of his more mature concepts.


Chapter End Notes

The Book of Lost Tales I:

Chapter III: The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor

Chapter V: The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr

Chapter IX: The Hiding of Valinor: commentary

Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales Part I

 

The Book of Lost Tales II:

Chapter V: The Tale of Eärendel

 

The Silmarillion:

Chapter I: Of the Beginning of Days

Chapter V: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Book I, Chapter VII: In the House of Tom Bombadil

Book II, Chapter I: Many Meetings

 

The Monsters and the Critics: On Fairy-Stories

The Monsters and the Critics: A Secret Vice

 

Parma Eldalamberon 14

Parma Eldalamberon 16

 

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull: J.R.R. Tolkien. Artist and Illustrator

 

Ardalambion Quenya Wordlist: http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/quen-eng.htm

Victorian Fairies and the Early Work of J. R. R. Tolkien: https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10369/3458/1/Fimi_31_05_06.pdf

 


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