Proverbs of Middle Earth

On Starting Out

It's a dangerous business going out of your door.
You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet,
there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

BILBO

One always wants to start a new project (be it a blog, a Quest, or whatever) in a blaze of glory amid the fanfare of trumpets, and that's sometimes fitting, but usually it's more of a case of taking that first step.

On September 23rd, the hobbits stepped into the Road.

Concerning Hobbits

The Holbytlan haven't been around long enough for a mature wisdom tradition to describe them.  But Gandalf's axiomatic language leaps into the void.  Since we usually see Middle Earth through the hobbits' eyes, we forget how anomalous they are to everyone else.  These descriptions help.

Hobbits really are amazing creatures.
You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month,
and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.
GANDALF

Soft as butter [hobbits] can be, and yet sometimes as tough as old tree roots.
GANDALF

On Advice

Go not to the Elves for advice, for they will say both no and yes.
FRODO

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise,
and all courses may run ill.
GILDOR

On The World

The wide world is all about you:
you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
GILDOR

All’s well as ends well;
though perhaps we should not say that 'till we reach our own doors.
FARMER MAGGOT

September 25: The hobbits, now in Crickhollow, unmask their conspiracy and prepare to leave the Shire - their oasis is no longer any protection, and the only course of action available is the most dangerous.

Gildor's words from the previous night ring true, as, unwittingly, do those of Farmer Maggot, who was not to know just how long it would be before the hobbits finally would reach their own doors.

At Bree

September 29, and the hobbits have arrived in Bree-land.

One thing drives out another.
BUTTERBUR

It never rains but it pours.
BUTTERBUR

Bree is a crossing point, where the Greenway (joining Arnor to Gondor, via Tharbad, Dunland, and Rohan) met the Great East Road (traversed by the Elves of Lindon, Rivendell and Mirkwood, as well as the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and the East).

It had been under the authority of the Numenorean kings of Arnor, but retained little of that high culture, having been settled by lesser men and by hobbits.

It might have been expected that such an ethnic and geographical meeting place would provide the perfect opportunity for the accumulated wisdoms of Middle Earth to combine and meld into something High, but almost the opposite is the case.

What’s done can’t be undone.
BUTTERBUR

There’s no accounting for East or West.
BUTTERBUR

The wisdom and consequent sayings of the Breelanders are almost entirely practical, functional, and run-of-the-mill, and the general attitude to the Outside World is one of bemusement and shoulder-shrugging wonder, mixed with distrust of what their ears pick up.  News is plentiful, but the men and hobbits of Bree are more concerned with day-to-day functionality than with great things, even though they can 'see through a wall, in time'.

If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be.

ARAGORN

At Weathertop

September 30 - October 6: From Bree-land through the Midgewater Marshes to Weathertop; no time for proverbs, adages or maxims of guidance.  When a wisdom-saying next emerges, it is clearly Strider the Ranger, rather than Aragorn the Royal Heir or Estel of Rivendell, who is speaking.

Fire is our friend in the wilderness.
ARAGORN

The Rangers were the Numenorean remnant in the North: landless and powerless, their majesty veiled, yet the custodians of Middle Earth's great tasks.  'Only a Ranger?'  Their wisdom was High (as Elf-friends as well as inheritors of the legacy of Westernesse) but had gained an earthy practicality, due to their lives in the Wild.

The Counsel of the Council

Elves may thrive on speech alone, and Dwarves endure great weariness;
but I am only an old hobbit, and I miss my meal at noon.

BILBO

 The Council of Elrond provides a fascinating opportunity to see proverbs in action.  The peoples represented all have their own wisdom traditions, some of which coincide and complement each other, and some of which don't.

Proverbs pop up regularly, used naturally and in context, illustrating the ease with which Tolkien fitted his characters within recognisable traditions.

Oft in lies truth is hidden.

GLORFINDEL

Nothing is evil in the beginning.

ELROND

The question at hand - what is this ring and what are we to do with it? - occupies those present for a whole morning.  All hear the same histories and the same reasoning, yet respond differently, according to their kind.

What was is less dark than what is to come.
DENETHOR

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
GANDALF

 Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon.
BOROMIR 

Only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero. 
GANDALF 

Elrond - emblematic of the combined wisdom of Elves & Men - has a key role; allowing voices to be heard and perspectives to be honoured, whilst guiding the Council toward deciding a definite course of action that seems wise, or at least necessary, to all.

The might of Elrond is in wisdom not in weapons.
BOROMIR

It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.

ELROND

 It is wisdom to recognise necessity, when all other courses have been weighed,
though folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
GANDALF

Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world:
small hands do them because they must,
while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

ELROND

Haldir on the World

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places;
but still there is much that is fair,
and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief,
it grows perhaps the stronger.
HALDIR

Upon entering the Naith of Lorien, the Fellowship quickly become aware of an 'otherness' about the place, as if the ticking clock of the outside world has no influence within its bounds.  The distinctiveness of the Galadhrim is more than mere 'Elvishness'; the land is an unstained Eden, protected from the wider world but also estranged from it, hemmed in within unseen borders (as also was Bombadil).

 
Their guide, Haldir, is one of the few who still has dealings with the Outside.  He therefore has a rare perspective, as his life involves passing between the fallen and unfallen worlds.  His pronouncements, though arguably not proverbs per se, resonate with the poetic wisdom of the Elder Days that still lives in Lorien.

In nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown
than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.
HALDIR

On and From the Dwarves

As a race, there appears to be some kind of existential insecurity about the Dwarves.  Throughout the quest of Erebor and, through Gimli (and to some small degree, Gloin) in the War of the Ring, they appear brash and boastful, proud to the point of conceit, and guilty of constantly showing off or seeking conflict in an attempt to appear impressive.
 

To use a comparison, it is almost as if they are the younger (or illegitimate) child of a great house, eternally in the shadow of greater siblings, and falling into the trap of brazenly trumpeting the most meagre of their triumphs to any who will listen in search of approval or praise.  Additionally, they go out of the way to point out the perceived weaknesses of their siblings, to cut them down to size.

The legs of Men will lag on a rough road,
while a Dwarf goes on, be the burden twice his own weight.
GIMLI

A plague on Dwarves and their stiff necks!
LEGOLAS

The gradual humbling of the stiff-necked Gimli over the course of the Quest is one of the most subtle and least observed character transformations in the story.  Interestingly, it is he alone whose character  is illustrated by proverbs spoken (as it were) by the Narrator.

Stone-hard are the Dwarves in labour or journey.

Dwarves make light of burden.

It is significant that, of the proverbs that Gimli uses, little or no wisdom is actually displayed.  Most are intended either to outline the greatnesses of the Naugrim or to do down other races (with the exception of Hobbits, who threaten his status little).  As such, the combined wisdom of the Dwarves is presented as being little more than (as the Scots would say) "Wha's like us?"

On the Rohirrim

In these times the unbidden stranger finds us swift and hard.
EOMER

It is important to notice that, while Men, the people of Rohan are not the same as the Numenoreans; neither the distant Rangers of Arnor, nor their allies in Gondor.  They are strongly distinct.

A younger nation of different ethnic stock; a simpler culture, less 'high' and learned; and an impetuous and warlike national character.  They throw the Men of the West into striking contrast - the Eorlingas are the fledgling Norse to Gondor's decadent, dimished Greece or Rome.

We first meet the Rohirrim, fittingly, galloping across the Eastemnet down the trail of the Orcs they have just destroyed; brave yet suspicious, long hair flailing in the wind.   Their 3rd Marshall describes his people with proverbs as unvarnished as he.

The Men of the Mark do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived.
EOMER

Aragorn, not Strider

With the great chase across the Wold of Rohan behind him, and Minas Tirith growing ever nearer ahead, Aragorn grows both in confidence and in stature, at last allowing himself to be more than a Ranger.

He declares himself openly by name and lineage, stands forth as a leader amongst strangers, and speaks with ever-increasing authority.

Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear;
nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.
It is a man’s part to discern them.
ARAGORN
 

At the Doors of the Golden Hall

 

 Seldom does thief ride home to the stable.
ARAGORN

The role of Hama, the Door-ward of Theoden, is one of high honour and responsibility in the Mark, akin to a personal bodyguard.  It is his purpose to be both welcoming and suspicious of visitors, to divine the motives and trustworthiness of strangers before they become a more direct aid or threat to his king.

A king will have his way in his own hall, be it folly or wisdom.
GANDALF

 

The exchange of words between Hama and the four travellers is expressive of the similarities and differences between the races of Middle Earth.  Suspicion is high, offence is caused, but common ground and wisdom are nevertheless sought.  Hama is both strict (in forbidding Aragorn to bear Anduril) and lenient (in permitting Gandalf's staff), and justifies his choices with proverbs.

Every man has something too dear to trust to another.
ARAGORN

The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age...
Yet in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.
HAMA

Wisdom with a Forked Tongue

  News from afar is seldom sooth.
THEODEN

Ill news is an ill guest.
GRIMA

Gandalf receives no welcome at all when he re-enters Meduseld.  He stands before King Theoden perceived to be a meddler, trouble-maker, and bearer of woes.  Such has been the success of Grima Wormtongue.

A name like Wormtongue cannot have been accorded without cause, and it is clear that Grima's place at the King's side (and in his ear) is no stroke of luck on his part.  He is clever, quick-witted, and far-seeing, and is one of the few examples of a character able to smear the reputation of the Wise by using their own weapons.

His sly proverbs of lore are directed at Gandalf and Galadriel, the greatest threats to Saruman's authority over the White Council and the most immediate aid available to Rohan, and it is some compliment to Wormtongue's abilities that Gandalf does not even attempt to argue with him.

Webs of deceit were ever woven in Dwimordene.
GRIMA

The wise speak only of what they know.
GANDALF
 
 
 

More Dreams and Legends

 

Sam stands up, hands behind his back, for a recitation of Oliphaunt, making Frodo laugh within sight of the Black Gate.  The equivalent today might be Jabberwocky or The Hunting of the Snark, with a legendary beast set in rhyme to stir the imagination.  Hobbits never actually believed the rhyme, or anything much else that they didn't see with their own eyes.

News from Bree and not as sure as Shiretalk.
SAM

And then Sam sees one.  He knows that no one at home will believe him.

 

Far away, in the green fields of Rohan, the King has had a similar set of experiences: firstly meeting the Holbytlan, then seeing Ents; both creatures of fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme.

Songs have come down out of strange places, and walk visible under the Sun.
THEODEN

On Perils of Evil and Beauty

Living in the shadow of the Shadow has given Faramir experience aplenty, not least of the interaction of humility and courage when danger approaches.

There are some perils from which a man must flee.
FARAMIR

Such things [as mighty heirlooms] do not breed peace among confederates.
FARAMIR

Unlike Boromir, he is aware of his own weakness, despite neither lacking strength of body nor fortitude of character.  He is strong, but knows when his own strength is not enough.  Also, he knows that perils are often beautiful (as in the case of the Ring), and that even extreme beauty can be a danger to those for whom it is not intended.

It is perilous for mortal man
to walk out of the world of this Sun [into Lothlorien].
FARAMIR

Beregond of the Guard

Beregond is the first rank-and-file man of Gondor to come into the story, and an insight into 'normal' Numenoreans.  As others in the City, he looks upon Pippin with an honest curiosity, nodding to himself as his guest's words conform to the wisdom of his people that has been handed down to him.

Men who go warring afield look ever to the next hope of food and of drink.
BEREGOND

At the table small men may do the greater deeds.
BEREGOND

Having mainly hidden behind the other hobbits' seniority until this point, becoming the nearest thing to a passenger that the Fellowship could offer, Pippin no longer has that option.  He is seen as a prince and treated not unlike one, and for the first time we are able to see the future Thain act like one.

We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.
PIPPIN

Strange accents do not mar fair speech.
BEREGOND

On and From the Drughu

Amongst the diverse races and nations of Middle Earth, there can be few cultures as wholly alien as the Woses of Druadan Forest.  A lingering remnant of an ancient house of Men, highly honoured in the past but now hunted, their unique nature gives them a distinctive perspective on the world.  Most of their proverbs, such as they are, describe themselves.

Wild men have long ears and long eyes; know all paths.
GHAN

Wild men are wild, free, but not children.
GHAN

Ghan-buri-Ghan wants no more than freedom for his people to live wild, and in his wisdom he recognises the Rohirrim as allies against the Darkness.  The short intervention of the Druedain saves Minas Tirith, but they want no reward, loving only the death of orcs and being unhindered in their simple lives.

Kill orc-folk!  No other words please Wild Men.
GHAN

Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts.
GHAN

Gimli's Brush with Humility

As has been previously noted, Gimli seems almost pathologically incapable of accepting his own weakness or the strength of any who are not of his race.  His pride is chronic, and his attitude typically dismissive.

Men need many words before deeds.
GIMLI

Strange are the ways of Men.
GIMLI

Doubtless the good stonework is the older
and was wrought in the first building.
It is ever so with the things that Men begin:
there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer,
and they fail of their promise.
GIMLI

Yet, by following Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, Gimli reached a point of humbling.  "Here is a thing unheard of!" he declared, "An Elf will go underground and a Dwarf dare not!"  And now, recounting to Merry and Pippin the terror of the Paths of the Dead, it seems that this humility has stayed with him.

I was put to shame: Gimli Gloin's son,
who had deemed himself more tough then Men,
and hardier under earth than any Elf.

GIMLI

On the Black Land

The Shadow... can only mock, it cannot make.
FRODO

The land of Mordor, stronghold of Sauron for five millennia, is a dreary, gasping desert (especially in Gorgoroth and Udun), void of culture, creativity, or learning.

Yet there is knowledge (albeit basic) and there is experience (albeit brutal), so the basic ingredients required for wisdoms to develop are there.  And sure enough, in our short exposure to the Orcs of Mordor, even they use proverbs.

Where there's a whip there's a will.
MORDOR ORC

Mercifully, we don't hear much more.  The majority of the thinking and talking is now being done by Sam, in spite of being the servant and despite rarely trusting his own judgement.  But his simple pragmatic dictums do the job, and keep them nudging forward.

Talking won't mend nothing.
SAM

On the Limits of Hobbits

The Ring is destroyed and the Dark Tower broken; the Shadow is passed.  There is nothing left to debate except when next to eat.

 

At last, the members of the Fellowship have the chance to get reacquainted, to tell their stories, and to marvel at how much they (or Merry and Pippin at least) have grown.

Mortals cannot go drinking ent-draughts
and expect no more to come of them than a pot of beer.
GIMLI

There is a lot to catch up on, though Sam plainly can't get his head around it, and it is clear that the breaking of the Fellowship, though grievous, worked to great good.

One can't be everywhere at once.
SAM

On Home

Just as Aragorn and Arwen can finally build their long-anticipated home, it is time for the hobbits to leave Gondor and return to theirs.

It is easy to forget that the hobbits - none of whom had gone further than Bree previously - have been in exile for over seven months, living rough for much of that time (which would be hard enough for anyone, but particularly home-comforted halflings).  It must have been a sore test.

And now they must go back, and finally break up the Fellowship.  The proverb with which the King dismisses them is ironic, coming from a homeless wanderer like him, but true nonetheless.

The tree grows best in the land of its sires.
ARAGORN