By AZIZAH NURUL LAILY Student Number: 074214021 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
THE NORSE AND CELTIC MYTHOLOGICAL ARCHETYPES
SEEN IN THE MYTHICAL CREATURES IN
J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S THE LORD OF THE RINGS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
AZIZAH NURUL LAILY
Student Number: 074214021
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
THE NORSE AND CELTIC MYTHOLOGICAL ARCHETYPES
SEEN IN THE MYTHICAL CREATURES IN
J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S THE LORD OF THE RINGS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
AZIZAH NURUL LAILY
Student Number: 074214021
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
(Thomas Wayne – Batman Begins)
For Bapak and Ibuk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, my deepest gratitude goes to Allah SWT for giving me a chance to live a wonderful life with awesome people around me. Thanks for Your love, protection, kindness, blessing, and being with me through everything.
I also would like to give my big gratitude for my advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., for all the knowledge, time, and valuable suggestions and corrections. I also thank my co-advisor, Harris H. Setiajid, S.S., M.Hum., for the corrections and inputs for this thesis.
My thanks go to Bapak and Ibuk for all the patience, support, attention, and advices. Also, thanks go to my sisters, Mbak Riri and Dek Fahma. Thanks for sharing Bapak and Ibuk, joy, and laughter with me. I will not forget to mention my late grandma whom I love very much. Thanks for all, Mbah Uti. I miss you so.
A ton of thanks go to my best friends the Begundals (Ani Kuda, Tombro, Iyut, Aya, Pibi a.k.a. Nona Ruruk, and Lala), Cica, and Rani. Thanks for the friendship, support, and being with me at the good times and bad times. Thanks go to Mas Agathon for the chats about The Lord of the Rings, help, and support, and also Heni for the support and the short course about archetype. My thanks also go to my friends on English Letters Department, especially the class of 2007, that I cannot mention one by one. Last but not least, special thanks go to Nicolaus Gogor Seta Dewa for being my bundle of thrill. Thanks for your time, patience, understanding, encouragement, and affection during the time we have shared.
Azizah Nurul Laily.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGEA. Object of the Study ………………………………………………….. 18
A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………….. 6
B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………………… 7
1. Theories of Characterization …………………………………….. 7
2. A Brief Review on Norse Mythology …………………………… 10 3.
A Brief Review on Celtic Mythology …………………………… 12
4. Theories of Archetype ...………………………………………… 13 C.
Theoretical Framework …… ……………………………………… 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
…………………………………………. 18
B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………… 20
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW
C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………… 20
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
………………………………………………… 23 A. The Presentation of the Mythical Creatures in The Lord of the
Rings
……………………………………………………………..… 23
1. Gandalf …………….……………………………………..……... 27
2. Saruman ………. …….………………………………………… 27
3. Sauron …………………………………………………………… 28
4. Shadowfax ….…………………………………………………… 30
5. Elves …….. ……………………………………………………… 31
………………………………… 6
D. Definition of Terms ………………………………………………… 4
………………………………………………………………… i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
APPROVAL PAGE
…………………………………………………………. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE
……………………………………………………… iii
MOTTO PAGE
……………………………………………………………… iv
DEDICATION PAGE
…………………………………………………….…. v
STATEMENT PAGE
………………………………………….…………….. vi
…………………………………………………. vii
C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………………… 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
…………………………………………………… viii
ABSTRACT
…………………………………………………………………... x
ABSTRAK
……………………………………………………………………. xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
……………………………………………. 1
A. Background of the Study ……………………………………………. 1
B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………….. 3
6. Dwarfs …………………………………………………………... 32
B. The Influence of the Norse and Celtic Mythologies on the Presentation of the Mythical Creatures in The Lord of the Rings
…… 36
1. The Influence on Gandalf .………………………………………… 36
2. The Influence on Saruman ……………………………………….... 40
3. The Influence on Sauron ………….……………………………….. 42
4. The Influence on Shadowfax ……………………………………… 44
5. The Influence on Elves …………….……………………………… 45
6. The Influence on Dwarfs …..……………………………………… 47
7. The Influence on Galadriel ………………………………………... 48
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
……………………………………………… 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 56
APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 58
1.Summary of The Fellowship of the Ring …………….......………….... 58 2. Summary of The Two Towers ……………….……………………..… 60 3. Summary of The Return of the King …………………….………….... 61
ABSTRACT
AZIZAH NURUL LAILY. The Norse and Celtic Mythological Archetypes
Seen in the Mythical Creatures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Yogyakarta: English Letters Department, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.This undergraduate thesis discusses the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes seen in the mythical creatures in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, Shadowfax, the elves, the dwarfs, and Galadriel are the characters used to reveal the existence of the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes in the story. Therefore, theory on characterization, a brief review on Norse mythology, and a brief review on Celtic mythology are applied in this thesis. The approach used to support the analysis is the archetypal criticism.
To make the study develop well, two problems are formulated. Thus, there are two subchapters in the analysis section. They are: (1) how the mythical creatures are presented and (2) how the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes influence the presentation of the mythical creatures in The Lord of the Rings.
The writer uses library research to collect data. The data consist of primary data and secondary data. The primary data is the novel The Lord of the Rings itself, while the secondary data is the supporting sources taken from internet, encyclopedia, dictionary, and several other books. There are steps applied in analyzing the novel. First, the writer has a thorough reading of the novels The
Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers, and The Return of the King for several
times. The second step is getting references related to the study and the theories of literature focused on the characterization, the Norse mythology, and the Celtic mythology. The third step is applying the theories to answer the problem formulations. The last step is drawing a conclusion which covers the statement based on the answers of the formulated problems.
As the result, the writer finds out that the characters Gandalf; Saruman; Sauron; Shadowfax; the elves; the dwarfs; and Galadriel are influenced by the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes. Gandalf; Saruman; and Sauron, for instance, are influenced by the Norse god of battle named Odin. In making his own mythology, Tolkien does not only borrow the parts of the Norse and Celtic mythologies, but he also makes several changes too. Hence, the similarities found between his mythology and Norse and Celtic mythologies are normal because Tolkien provides us the Norse and Celtic mythologies as a bridge connecting his world to ours.
ABSTRAK
AZIZAH NURUL LAILY. The Norse and Celtic Mythological Archetypes Seen in the Mythical Creatures in J.R.R.
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2011.
Skripsi ini membahas arketip mitologi Norse dan Celtic yang terdapat dalam makhluk-makhluk mitos di The Lord of the Rings karya J.R.R. Tolkien. Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, Shadowfax, kaum peri, kaum kurcaci, dan Galadriel adalah karakter-karakter yang digunakan untuk menyingkap adanya arketip mitologi Norse dan Celtic di cerita. Oleh karena itu, teori karakterisasi, tinjauan singkat mengenai mitologi Norse, dan tinjauan singkat mengenai mitologi Celtic dipergunakan dalam skripsi ini. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah kritik arketipal.
Agar penelitian berkembang dengan baik, dua pertanyaan dirumuskan. Oleh karena itu, terdapat dua sub-bahasan di bagian analisis: (1) bagaimana makhluk-makhluk mitos digambarkan dan (2) bagaimana arketip mitologi Norse dan Celtic mempengaruhi penggambaran makhluk-makhluk mitos di The Lord of the Rings .
Penulis menggunakan studi pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data. Data terdiri dari data primer dan data sekunder. Data primer adalah novel The Lord of
the Rings itu sendiri, sedangkan data sekunder adalah sumber-sumber pendukung
yang diambil dari internet, ensiklopedia, kamus, dan beberapa buku lainnya.Terdapat beberapa langkah yang diterapkan dalam menganalisa novel ini. Pertama, penulis membaca secara seksama novel The Fellowship of the Ring, The
Two Towers , dan The Return of the King beberapa kali. Langkah kedua adalah
mendapatkan referensi-referensi yang berhubungan dengan penelitian dan teori- teori literatur yang memfokuskan pada karakterisasi, mitologi Norse, dan mitologi Celtic. Langkah ketiga adalah menerapkan teori-teori tersebut untuk menjawab pokok permasalahan. Langkah terakhir adalah menarik kesimpulan yang meliputi pernyataan berdasarkan pada jawaban pokok permasalahan.
Hasilnya, penulis menemukan bahwa karakter Gandalf; Saruman; Sauron; Shadowfax; kaum peri; kaum kurcaci; dan Galadriel dipengaruhi oleh arketip- arketip mitologi Norse dan Celtic. Gandalf; Saruman; dan Sauron, sebagai contoh, dipengaruhi oleh dewa perang Norse yang bernama Odin. Dalam menciptakan mitologinya sendiri, Tolkien tidak hanya meminjam bagian-bagian dari mitologi Norse dan Celtic, namun juga membuat beberapa perubahan. Oleh karena itu, persamaan-persamaan yang ditemukan di antara mitologinya dan mitologi Norse serta Celtic adalah wajar karena Tolkien memberi kita mitologi Norse dan Celtic sebagai jembatan yang menghubungkan dunianya dengan dunia kita.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is one of the most
popular books which is very interesting to discuss. The book, which is intended to be published as a single volume in fact, is divided in six sections instead of as a trilogy by its author gives eternal life to the name of Tolkien. It is written as one complete story, but the publisher decides to split it into three books instead: The
Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), and The Return of the
King (1955). The making of the work itself takes about fifteen years for Tolkien to
finish it.
In Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), the precursor of The Lord of the Rings, the story centers on a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who is trapped into a treasure hunting adventure and finds a ring, the Ring. In The Lord of the Rings, the Ring later passes to his nephew, Frodo Baggins, and becomes the central symbol in the story. It tells about Frodo’s long journey to bring the Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it and battle Saruman the evil wizard and Sauron the Dark Lord, a demonic being, who desire to control all over Middle-earth. Both of the stories take place in Middle-earth, a medieval fantasy world that is filled with magical places; creatures; events; and where the forces of good and evil compete for dominion.
Tolkien fills Middle-earth with different races: hobbits, elves, dwarfs, wizards, orcs (goblins), humans, and ents. Each of these races has different physical and moral traits. For instance, hobbits are short in figure and love a simple comfortable life. They represent the sid e of Tolkien‟s nature that loves tobacco, beer, and companionship. Elves are tall, slim, and beautiful. They stand for
Tolkien‟s religious and aesthetic ideals. Dwarfs are a race of miners. They are small but powerfully built and value the gold and gems they dig from the earth highly. Wizards are tall, thin, and possess great magical powers. Some are good and others are evil. Orcs, or goblins, are hideous monsters which represent the evil. Men stand for the potential for courage and cowardice, friendship and betrayal, generosity and selfishness. Ents are tall giant tree-like creatures. They can walk and talk.
Tolkien, through his works, aims to create a mythology for England, his nation he believes lacked any coherent mythology comparable to the Germanic or Finnish mythologies. His knowledge and familiarity with the poems and epics of Old and Middle English literature affect his works. They extremely give important effect in
Tolkien‟s mythology in his creation of The Lord of the Rings out of the Norse and Celtic mythology.
“Gandalf and Galadriel (and their negative counterparts) are not the products of Tolkien‟s imagination alone. They owe a good part of their presentation and behavior to figures
—particularly highly ambiguous figures— drawn from mythology and from earlier literary works before Tolkien‟s time” (Burns in Bloom, 2008: 70). Gandalf, the wizard in The Lord of the Rings, for instance, has got connection with the Scandinavian god, Odin, in some ways. It seems a highly unlikely one to compare Gandalf to Odin, the god of battle. Odin owns several titles or attributes applied to him that indicates the god‟s variable character. Some of the titles are Traveler, Warrior, Wand-Bearer, Grey-Beard, Shaggy-Cloak Wearer, Drooping Hat, Wanderer, and Wise. It should already be evident that those titles are appropriate for Gandalf. “The cloak, the staff, the wide- brimmed hat, the figure of an old bearded man are Gandalf precisely” (Burns in Bloom, 2008: 72). While Galadriel resembles Morrigan, one of the Celtic war goddesses, in some ways.
The writer choses this topic because the writer thinks that Tolkien does not only use mythical creatures from Norse and Celtic mythology in his works, but also makes the new ones by himself. It is interesting to see how he blends the Norse and
Celtic mythology with his own „mythology‟. Like the tale of Odin the Scandinavian god; the epic Beowulf
; and the tale of the Celtic‟s goddess, the Morrigan, his works still live up to now along with them.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to make the study organized, the research questions below are formulated as the guide and limitation of the subject that will be discussed:
1. How are the mythical creatures presented? 2.
How do the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes influence the presentation of the mythical creatures in The Lord of the Rings?
C. Objective of the Study To make the study develop well organized, the study has two objectives.
The first one is to see the mythical creatures as presented in the story. The second one is to find out how the Norse and Celtic mythology influence the presentation of the mythical creatures in the story.
D. Definition of Term
To avoid the misunderstanding about the meaning of the terms that are used in the study, the definition of terms such as characterization, mythical creature, and mythological archetype are given.
The first term is characterization. Microsoft Encarta Dictionary 2009 defines characterization as description or portrayal of fictional character. M.H.
Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms says that there are two methods in characterizing the persons in a narrative. The methods are showing and telling. “In showing (also called "the dramatic method"), the author simply presents the characters talking and acting and leaves the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do. The author may show not only external speech and actions, but also a character's inner thoughts, feelings, and responsiveness to event; for a highly developed mode of such inner showing, see
In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order stream of consciousness. to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters” (Abrams, 1999: 33-34). The second term is mythical creature. Based on
Webster’s New World
Dictionary Third College Edition , mythical (1989: 898) means imaginary or
fictitious thing that exists only in myth, while creature (1989: 325) means any living thing whether it is animate or inanimate. Mythical creature here refers to any living thing that only exists in myth.
The third term is mythological archetype. Mythology is “a system of hereditary stories of ancient origin which were once believed to be true by a particular cultural group” (Abrams, 1999: 170). According to Webster’s New
World Dictionary Third College Edition , archetype (1989: 71) is the original
pattern, example, prototype, or model from which all other things of the same kind are made. The mythological archetype here means mythical stuff that becomes the original, typical, or classic pattern.
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies A number of criticisms towards Tolkien and his works are very important for the writer to support the analysis of the novel related to the topic. W.J. Rayment in “Lord of the Rings” says that “his [Tolkien] imagination,
backed by his mythological history, produces marvelous creatures, Ring wraiths, Balrogs, Orcs, Tom Bombadil and more
” (Rayment, 2011). Through the epic
Beowulf , Tolkien falls in love with Scandinavian and soon he knows a lot about it.
His interest toward Scandinavian mythology and later Celtic mythology as well give him so much inspiration in creating his own mythology.
According to the nationalgeographic.com in “Creating a Mythological Identity for England
”, “Tolkien created the mythology and history of Middle-earth to serve as the poetic legend he felt his homeland, England, lacked” (nationalgeographic.com, 2011). The Anglo Saxons migrate and settle in England bring with them their myths. Tolkien finds out that those myths, Beowulf for instance, have the tendency of talking about Scandinavia than England. Beowulf, which becomes an object of study Tolkien is expert at, takes Scandinavia as its setting of place instead of England. He then attempts to create a mythology for England.
“Some modern writers of fantasy have drawn on Norse stories and creations such as elves and dwarfs in their work. The best known of these is J.R.R. Tolkien, whose Lord of the Rings features many themes from Norse mythology, such as . . . enchanted rings” (mythencyclopedia.com, 2011). Tolkien borrows
Norse‟s Odin, Sleipnir the magic horse, elves, and dwarfs; makes several changes; and puts them in his work.
Greg Wright in “The Mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Spiritual Analysis of Tolkien‟s Fiction” says that “it is arguable that what Tolkien's mythology represents, by way of analogy, is what I shall refer to as the T-mythology. That is, Tolkien's work was not just intended to portray a convincing mythology of Middle-earth; rather, it attempts to represent the now-nonexistent text from which all the major western mythologies were derived
” (Wright, 2005). Tolkien does not merely borrow the parts from those mythologies and combine them into one in his own mythology because he makes several changes also. He makes his own mythology, T-mythology, to be something that has a link with the other mythologies including the Norse and Celtic mythologies. The similarities found are just normal because he provides us the Norse and Celtic mythologies as a bridge connecting his world or his mythology to ours.
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theories of Characterization
Theory of characterization is applied to support the writer‟s analysis in portraying the character. M. J. Murphy in Understanding Unseens: An
Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students
(Murphy, 1977: 161-173) states that there are nine methods for the author to present or describe the characters in a story: a.
Personal description The authors can describe a character‟s appearance and clothes. The readers will get only a visible look of a character.
b.
Characters as seen by another The author can describe a character through the eyes and opinions of other characters. The readers get, as it were, a reflected image.
c.
Speech The author describes a character by giving readers an insight into the characteristics through what he says. Here the readers are able to analyze a character from the sentence he uses.
d.
Past life By letting the reader learn something about a person‟s life the author can give us a clu e to events that have helped to shape a person‟s character (by direct comment by the author, through the person‟s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of another person).
e.
Conversation of others The authors can give us clues to a person‟s character through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him. Readers will learn that what others say about a character may reveal some of his characteristics. f.
Reactions The author can describe a person‟s characteristics by showing how a character responds to various situations and events. The reaction may give a clue to what characteristics a character has.
g.
Direct Comment The author can describe a comment on a person‟s character directly. This is somehow the best way for the readers to find out any characteristics because they know what exactly the author wants to reveal.
h.
Thought The author gives us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. Here the author is able to do what people cannot do in a real life. He can tell the readers what different people are thinking of. It is acceptable in literary works. The readers then are in privileged position as they have a secret listening device plugged in to in most important thoughts of a character in a novel. i.
Mannerism The aut hor can describe a person‟s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his characteristics.
Almost the same with Murphy, M.H. Abrams said that A broad distinction is frequently made between alternative methods for characterizing (i.e., establishing the distinctive characters of) the persons in a narrative: showing and telling. In showing (also called "the dramatic method"), the author simply presents the characters talking and acting and leaves the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do. The author may show not only external speech and actions, but also a character's inner thoughts, feelings, and responsiveness to events; for a highly developed mode of such inner showing, see stream of consciousness. In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters (Abrams, 1999: 33 - 35). It is important for the readers to understand the qualities of the characters in the story. By paying attention to the description of the physical appearance and other attributes, as well as the behavior and the way of speaking of the characters, the readers can understand the whole story better.
2. A Brief Review on Norse Mythology
A brief review on Norse mythological is applied to support the writer‟s analysis in seeing the Norse mythological archetype in the mythical creatures in Tolkien‟s The Lord of the Rings.
The Norse (people of the north) are known as the Scandinavians. They are the people of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.
“No written sources describe early Norse culture, but surviving works in metal and stone depict gods and goddesses and provide glimpses of ancient myths and rituals
” (Daly, 2010: vii).
In her book Norse Mythology A to Z, Kathleen N. Daly says that “in many cases, including that of the Norse, people believed in a set of attendant gods and goddesses, as well as villains such as demons, dragons, and other monsters; giants and dwarfs; and supernatural forces
” (Daly, 2010: vii). The example of the existence of monster and dragon is in Beowulf. Besides the creatures that have been mentioned above, elves is the product of the Norse mythology as well.
In Norse mythology, the world sets on a big World Tree named Yggdrasil. The top level is Asgard, the realm of the Aesir or the gods of battle, and Alfheim, the place of the light-elves. At the middle part are earth or Midgard (Middle- earth), where the human lives; Jotunheim, where the Jotun or giants dwell; and Svartalfheim, the home of the dark-elves and dwarfs. The bottom level is Niflheim, the underworld.
Elves are distinguished into two: light-elves and dark-elves. Light-elves live in Alfheim, while the dark ones dwell in a land deep below the earth named Svartalfheim.
“While the light-elves were fairer than the sun, the dark-elves were pitch black ” (Daly, 2010: 26). Dark-elves are like dwarfs as both of those types dwell underground.
Norse mythology also invents dwarfs. Dwarfs are defined as small, ugly, misshapen, selfish, and greedy creatures.
They were given the realm of Svartalfheim (land of the dark elves) in which to live. The gods put them in charge of Earth‟s underground treasures: precious metals and gems. They were master craftsmen and fashioned many treasures for the gods (Daly, 2010: 22).
Aside from those mythical creatures, there are many gods in Norse mythology. The most powerful of them is Odin, or Woden, or Woten, from which we get Wednesday or Woden‟s day. Not only becomes the god of war and death, Odin is also a sky god and the god of wisdom. As the god of war, Odin holds court in Valhalla, where all brave warriors go after they die in battle. Odin is known as a wizard as well. He knows the secrets of the runes, the earliest alphabet used by the Norse.
He pets two ravens, two wolves, and an eight- legged horse. “His ravens, Hugin and Munin, brought Odin news. He gave his food to his wolves, Geri and Freki, for Odin needed nothing but the sacred mead for n eight- legged steed was called Sleipnir” (Daly, 2010: 76). Hugin means „thought‟, while Munin means „memory‟. They flow daily to gather tidings of events all over the world and report everything to Odin at night. Sleipnir, with its eight hooves, is the fleetest creature in the world.
“Sleipnir was no ordinary horse. He could gallop over the sea and through the air as well as on land” (Daly, 2010: 94).
When he is not sitting in Valhalla, a hall where he holds battle for heroes, Odin often wanders on earth disguise as a simple traveller
. “When he wandered peacefully on Earth (as he often did), Odin wore a sky-blue cape and a broadbrimmed hat” (Daly, 2010: 76).
Odin has a lot of different names and attributes.
„One-Eyed‟, „Truthfinder‟, „Glad in Battle‟, „Fiery-Eyed‟, „Bale-Worker‟, „Wise in Lore‟, „The Much Experienced
‟, „Long-Hood‟, „Long-Beard‟, „Victory Father‟, „Greybeard‟, „The Wise
‟, „Traveler‟, „Warrior‟, „Lore-Master‟, „Deceitful‟, „Broad-Hat‟, „Broad- Beard
‟, „Wand-Bearer‟, „Sage‟, „Unraveler‟, „Wanderer‟, „Deceiver‟, „Battle- Wolf
‟, „Raven God‟, „Shaggy-Cloak Wearer‟, „Truth-Getter‟, „Drooping Hat‟, „Treachery-Ruler‟, and „Terrible‟ are some of them.
3. A Brief Review on Celtic Mythology
A brief review on Celtic mythological is applied to support the writer‟s analysis in seeing the Celtic mythological archetype in the mythical creatures in Tolkien‟s The Lord of the Rings.
The Celts are a large but diverse group of people who dominate much of western and central Europe in the first millennium B.C. Gienna Matson and Jeremy Roberts in their book Celtic Mythology A to Z say that “the Celtic people did share certain religious beliefs and traditions. And like the Egyptians, Greeks, and other group of people, they crafted stories to honor thos e beliefs” (Matson and Roberts, 2010: xi).
Celtic mythology is full of tales of fierce and deadly battles. It involves many gods and goddesses of war such as Neit, Aerion, Nemain, Agrona, Andraste, and Buanann. Some of them are like prophets as they can predict the result of the battles and know who will die in the fight. They are associated with raven.
However, “the most ominous of the battle gods and goddesses was the frightful trio of goddesses known as the Morrigna” (Matson and Roberts, 2010: 9). The Morrigna is the the name for the three war goddesses named Badb, Macha, and Morrigan. Morrigan can shift herself into a black crow, an old hag, or a beautiful maiden.
“In the guise of a raven or a crow is able to foretell the outcome of battle ” (Jordan, 2004: 204).
Morrigan does not only manifest negative attribute, but she has the positive ones as well. She has the knowledge of the future and the ability in shape- shifting. Surely she is not a simple personality. Morrigan mates with Dagda, the Good God. It means that the she plays a fertility role along with her battle role.
4. Theories of Archetype
Carl Jung is said to be one of the most important persons giving contribution in the development of the archetypal studies. Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham in their book A Handbook of Critical Approach to Literature say that “Jung expanded Freud's theories of the personal unconscious, asserting that beneath this is a primeval, collective unconscious shared in the psychic inheritance of all members of the human family
” (Guerin, Labor, Morgan, Reesman, and Willingham, 2005: 202). Personal unconscious is the suppressed feelings and thoughts which every person develops during his life or her life, while the collective unconscious is the structure of the tendency to respond in similar ways to certain provocations. In short, personal unconscious is unique for every individual, while collective unconscious is the inherited forms. The archetypes are within the collective unconscious. Jung uses the term archetype to something that he calls primordial images. The primordial images are the psychic residue of repeated experience in human‟s ancestors live. The repeated patterns itself is not only lasts in the human race‟s collective unconscious, but it also gives effects and is seen in myths and works of literature. Sexual desire, which is one of the examples of the collective unconscious, takes form as marriage in myths and any works of literature.
There are many complex mental tendency inherited by human from their ancestors.
“Just as certain instincts are inherited by the lower animals (for example, the instinct of the baby chicken to run from a hawk's shadow), so more complex psychic predispositions are inherited by human beings
” (Guerin et.al., 2005: 202).
Archetypes are common to all individuals.
“They represent inherited forms of psychic behavior” (Jung in Guerin et.al., 2005: 203). Further, in the book
Psychological Reflections , he s
ays that the psychic instincts “are older than historical man, . . . have been ingrained in him from earliest times, and, eternally living, outlasting all generations, still make up the groundwork of the human psyche ” (Jung in Guerin et.al., 2005: 203).
Meanwhile, Abrams states that “archetype denotes recurrent narrative designs, patterns of action, character-types, themes, and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths” (Abrams, 1993: 12). Works of literature and myths are the projections, media, or means of the human‟s unconsciousness so that it can be obvious to human‟s consciousness.
Almost the same as Abrams‟ statement, Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy in their book Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature a Handbook state that “an archetype is a pattern of primary significance with deep psychic resonance that also occurs in various literary genres
” (Garry and El-Shamy: 2004, xv). It can be said that archetype is the image, representation, ideal, pattern, stereotype, or prototype that has been considered a universal model. It gives effect in the aspects of life.
The archetypes, maybe without the writers‟ consciousness, affect their elements of works.
Not so different from Abrams, Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with
Thousand Faces
says that “an archetype is a representation of the irrepresentable” (Campbell, 2004: vi). As we know, a symbol is something that represents something else or anything that be a sign of something. Symbols become archetypes when they reveal universal qualities. It is now obvious that archetype, the universal model, deals with symbol. There are so many symbols in literary works. The same thing occurs in mythology as well for mythology itself often deals with symbols. Although every mythology grows according to its cultural environments, it shares similar themes or motifs with the other mythologies. Such shared themes and motifs are the archetypes. Those themes and motifs are repeatedly used in any mythology.
“Myths are the symbolic projections of a people's hopes, values, fears, and aspirations ” (Guerin et.al., 2005: 183). The hopes, values, fears, and aspirations found on myths are projected through the same symbols. Mythology, in short, is universal and simply archetype is universal symbol. In mythology, the ravens, for instance, are linked with evil because of its habit as a scavenger.
“The Wise Old Man (savior, redeemer, guru): personification of the spi ritual principle, representing „knowledge, reflection, insight, wisdom, cleverness, and intuition on the one hand, and on the other, moral qualities such as goodwill and readiness to help, which make his 'spiritual' character sufficiently plain. . . . Apart from his cleverness, wisdom, and insight, the old man . . . is also notable for his moral qualities; what is more, he even tests the moral qualities of others and makes gifts dependent on this test
” (Jung in Guerin et.al., 2005: 188). Another example of the archetype is water. It has meaning as “the mystery of creation; birth-death-resurrection, purification and redemption; fertility and growth” (Guerin et.al., 185).
The example of archetypes in motifs or patterns can be seen in the creation of the mythology. Archetype can be seen as well in the genres of literature.
C. Theoretical Framework The four theories above will be used in analyzing the topic of the study.
Those theories will be the base in analyzing the problems formulated in the first chapter.
The first theory, theory of characterization, will be used in answering the first question in the problem formulation. The use of the theory of characterization is needed in revealing how the mythical creatures in
Tolkien‟s The Lord of The
Rings are portrayed. The brief review on both Norse and Celtic mythological and
theory of archetype as well will be used in answering the second question in the problem formulation. This theory is necessary in revealing the Norse and Celtic mythological archetypes seen in the mythical creatures in Tolkien‟s The Lord of the Rings .