Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing (5 page)

So for some authors, sound leads to story. For Tolkien, a name like Gollum suggests both a backstory and an ending.

But Tolkien was more keyed into his characterization by resonance than most. For example, early in
The Lord of the Rings
he had a character that Frodo met at an inn—a dangerous character nicknamed Trotter because of the clattering sound that his wooden shoes made when he walked over cobblestones. But editors warned Tolkien that the character sounded silly.

So Tolkien turned
Trotter
into
Strider
—a character who became rather regal. “Strider” of course has its roots in “strident,” which suggests that this is not only a person who travels, but one who does so with a deadly purpose. Later, even that name did not suffice. Strider was in fact a man on a mission to reestablish himself as a rightful king—so Tolkien lets us know that Strider’s real name was
“Aragorn,” a name that has interesting resonance. (
Aragon
is the name of a royal family in Spain, which suggested a whole plot line)

Often, Tolkien’s character or place names give hints to his societies. For example, the Dwarves often have names taken from Old Norse. Tolkien names one Dwarf
Thorin
Oakenshield
—the name of an early Norse conqueror who settled in England.

In other words, the Dwarves symbolically represent the Norse in English history. The Elves, I suspect, have a language drawn from
Gaellic
, and represent the older inhabitants of England.
Tolkien’s Men represent the chivalric knights of the middle ages
.
Older creatures—ghosts, ancient woodsmen, and even trees, all serve as symbols of the land’s past
.
In short, all of his ancient peoples are fighting
to combat the future. But what future are they combating?
Sauron’s
name is taken from Latin. I suspect that Tolkien was writing a tale in which all of England’s past is fighting a New Rome, the next world order.

Among Elves, the
el
is a common suffix or prefix—
El
rond,
Tinuvi
el
.
El
of course is an old Hebrew word for “god,” and thus his elves are given names that associate them with immortals. Tolkien once wrote a treatise on how the name “elf” has its roots in the Hebrew word “angel.” The word “angel” is a compound of “messenger” and “god.” The word “elf” literally has the same meaning. Hence, when Tolkien wrote of elves, he did not make them the little gnomish people that we associate with Santa, but instead made them creatures of light with almost divine powers, a little higher than us mere mortals.

So here is what you need to recognize about Tolkien’s use of resonance in naming: on a linguistic level, he is looking at the roots of words and realizing how they affect his readers on a subconscious level. This way, when you read about a character named Elrond or Gandalf or Strider or Gollum or
Sauron
, you may know very little about that character, and yet somehow there is a sense of “rightness” about that character, a sense that he is more than he seems.

Resonating with Other Works

I discussed how Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings
resonated with Wagner’s operas. It also resonated with the poetry of Yeats and Tennyson along with the work of Shakespeare.

For example, in
Macbeth
,
Malcom’s
soldiers disguise themselves with boughs in
Birnam
Wood and then march to
Dunsinane
hill
. This part of the play inspired Tolkien to create his
Ents
—trees that actually move. In a letter he wrote to poet W.H. Auden, Tolkien said that after studying
Macbeth
he “longed” to create trees that really marched to war.

Also in the play, the witches prophesy that no man born of a woman can overpower Macbeth, but because
Macduff
was born by C-section, he manages to defeat Macbeth. This resonates with a similar situation in
The Lord of the Rings
.
The Elf
Glorfindel
prophesies that the Witch-King cannot fall by a man, but
Eowyn
, a woman, slays the Witch-King
.

Of course, Tolkien wasn’t just trying to resonate with Shakespeare
.
He drew on other sources, some of them that were quite modern
.
Tolkien wrote
The Lord of the Rings
over a period of about 13 years, and he writes that in 1939 he ground to a halt at
Balin
’
s
tomb.
He says that it was
“
over a year later, in 1941 that I moved on . . .
”
Now,
Fantasia
was released in 1940, and I doubt that you will have to think about it long before you recognize the res
emblance that the
Balrog
in
The Lord of the Rings
has to the demon from
“
Night on Bald Mountain
”
in
Fantasia
.
It wasn
’
t until Tolkien incorporated the demon
Chernabog
and wrote of the death of Gandalf that he was able to move forward.
Here is
Chernabog
in picture form, followed by
the
Balrog
.

When I first read about the
Balrog
as a teen
, I found it easy to envision him.
Why?
Because I
’
d seen him
before
.
Even though I didn’t make a conscious connection,
I was familiar with
the
balrog
from childhood, just as o
ther images from the novels came with similar force.