“Messengers”?

[Flammifer]

There was some discussion in class about why Gandalf referred to those, ‘who are sent with the Ring’, as “The messengers”.

How did JRRT use this word in other contexts?

There was ‘The Messenger Service’ in the Shire: This was a postal service, carrying letters, or messages, from Hobbit to Hobbit.

There were the ‘Messengers of the Valar’, who came to Numenor to explain to the Numenoreans why they could not sail to the Blessed Realm, and why they should not spurn ‘The Gift of Men’. These carried one specific message to a whole people (not very successfully).

It was said that the Istari were “messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him”. In this case, the message seems to have been, ‘unite and resist’, and the receptors, ‘those who had the will’. This ‘messenger initiative’ seems to have worked better than the first ‘messenger initiative’ by the Valar (though it was a near-run thing).

There is ‘The Winged Messenger’, a Ring-wraith on a flying beast, which Legolas shoots down over the Anduin. Presumably carrying messages between Sauron and Saruman, and perhaps messages of other intelligence to Sauron.

There is the ‘Messenger from Mordor’, who arrives at Erebor. His message is to offer an alliance, and Rings to the Dwarves in return for information on Hobbits and Bilbo and his Ring.

(I have probably missed some other references to messengers. Can anyone think of them?)

Although not referred to as such, many of the participants at the Council of Elrond are Messengers. Gloin carries the message of the ‘Messenger of Sauron’ to Rivendell. Legolas carries the message of the escape of Gollum. Boromir carries the message of the Divine Dream.

In all these references, when JRRT uses the word ‘messenger’ he is referring to people carrying either messages in general, or a specific message to a particular audience.

But, what is the message those “who are sent with the Ring”, are meant to be carrying? It is not very clear.

Let’s go back to what may be the earliest JRRT use of the word ‘messenger’?

“There was a merry passenger,

A messenger, a mariner:” from the poem ‘Errantry’, circa 1930.

Here also, it is never clear why the protagonist is a ‘messenger’. What is his message?

All we know is that after adventures and errantry, the mariner comes home, only to realize:

“To memory

His message came, and errand too!

In derring-do and glamoury

He had forgot them, journeying

And tourneying, a wanderer.

So now he must depart again

And start again his gondola

For ever still a messenger,

A passenger, a tarrier,

A-roving as a feather does,

A weather driven mariner.”

The message is never revealed. Will it ever be delivered? ‘For ever still a messenger’, might imply not? Or is the message constantly delivered somehow through the very errantry and roving as a weather driven mariner?

That brings us to the related poem, ‘Earendil the Mariner’. In this poem, Bilbo never refers to Earendil as a ‘messenger’. However, Earendil and the protagonist of ‘Errantry’ are certainly linked by the other thing forgotten or lost, the errand.

“The wings of wrath came driving him,

And blindly in the foam he fled

From west to east and errandless,

Unheralded he homeward sped.”

Earendil is never referred to as a ‘messenger’. Nor do we get a direct reference to a ‘message’ he may have carried. But he certainly does end up as a ‘messenger’.

“For ever still a herald on

An errand that should never rest

To bear his shining lamp afar

The Flammifer of Westernesse.”

Earendil sails the heavens bearing a constant message of Estel to Middle-earth. Does Gandalf call ‘those who are sent with the Ring’, ‘messengers’ in the same way? Especially if immortalized in Bilbo’s book, will they also bear a constant message of Estel to the inhabitants of Middle-earth?

 

[Beech27]

Although not referred to as such, many of the participants at the Council of Elrond are Messengers. Gloin carries the message of the ‘Messenger of Sauron’ to Rivendell. Legolas carries the message of the escape of Gollum. Boromir carries the message of the Divine Dream.

Perhaps interestingly, a couple attendees of the Council are described that way just a little earlier.

Legolas is actually introduced as a messenger, at the chapter's beginning:

There was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown, Legolas, a messenger from his father, Thranduil, the King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood.​

Boromir also uses the term earlier in the Council:

'Isildur's Bane is found, you say,' said Boromir. `I have seen a bright ring in the Halfling's hand; but Isildur perished ere this age of the world began, they say. How do the Wise know that this ring is his? And how has it passed down the years, until it is brought hither by so strange a messenger?'​

​

Gandalf also describes Radagast as a messenger, and the sons of Elrond are called such when scouting for the Fellowship's departure.

 

[Flammifer]

Good adds Beech 27,

All these though are still very defined 'messengers' with a very defined 'message'. I think it is interesting that in both the 'Errantry' poem, and in Gandalf's calling 'those who are sent with the Ring' 'messengers' the message is very hard to discern. Is there some relationship?

 

[Beech27]

Good adds Beech 27,

All these though are still very defined 'messengers' with a very defined 'message'. I think it is interesting that in both the 'Errantry' poem, and in Gandalf's calling 'those who are sent with the Ring' 'messengers' the message is very hard to discern. Is there some relationship?

It's a good question, and a fascinating connection to have made. I've gone and searched 'messenger' in the subsequent books and The Silmarillion, and it does seem to me you've found the two primary uses of the word that stand apart from typical use. I also think it's interesting to consider the Fellowship as messengers in light of the passage on the Istari you mention, and see them as bearers of both hope and (as well as hope in) opposition to Sauron.

It's also interesting to consider this as the other side of the 'quest' coin. As Professor Olsen noted, Tolkien's use of 'quest' was actually pretty novel, here. They know where they're going, and what they have to do. Crucially, the already have the item of great power and significance.

So they're questers with no explicit questions, and messengers with no explicit message. (One might say, tongue-in-cheek.)

 

[Rachel Port]

I also first thought of Errantry.

Gwaihir brings messages to Gandalf at Orthanc, and the eagles bring the message of victory and the King's return to Minas Tirith.

Some members of the Fellowship become messengers on other errands after the Fellowhip breaks up,
which are not known to Gandalf at this point. Merry and Pippin become messengers to Treebeard about Saruman and other events in the world. Gandalf brings a message of healing and hope to Theoden. The Rangers got a message, supposedly from Aragorn, though he hadn't sent it. Ellodan and Elrohir brought messages to Aragorn from Elrond and Arwen.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Rachel,

'Errantry' was also my first thought. Mostly because the title 'messenger' was mysterious in both instances. I don't think it is mysterious in the other places that JRRT uses the word. (Or, at least, I cannot think of examples.)

The 'Errantry' poem is pretty clearly linked to the 'Earendil was a mariner' poem. So, that leads me to wonder if Gandalf is not equating the Company to Earendil (which I think Bilbo was pretty clearly doing when he chose to recite the Earendil poem)? So, I suspect that just as Earendil is pretty clearly still a messenger; a herald; the Flammifer of Westernesse, so, I wonder if Gandalf is not projecting that the Company might become such messengers, not immortalized forever in the heavens, but immortalized forever in Bilbo's book (which Gandalf has just been discussing) as similar 'messengers' of Estel to those who dwell in the Arda marred Middle-earth?

 

[Rachel Port]

Except perhaps for the message from Aragorn that Aragorn never sent. The company will be messengers in unforeseen ways that are not always connected to Frodo's quest, so I think the word is rather mysterious as Gandalf uses it here. I like the idea of their being immortalized in Bilbo's book. As for Bilbo reciting the Earendil poem, it always seems poignant to me, and a reflection of how it feels not to be able to return home - it will apply to Frodo as well as Bilbo.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Rachel,

One of the differences between Earendil and the protagonist of 'Errantry' is the one you mentioned. Earendil, it seems, would prefer to return home, but cannot. The protagonist does return home, but does not seem unhappy as he sets out again, a 'weather driven mariner'. Errantry seems to be his nature more than is so with Earendil?

As for Frodo, is he unhappy to be leaving home at the end, or excited to be adventuring? I think he is torn. I bet Bilbo is in the excited camp though!

 

[Forodan]

Always do the research...

Remember, the author of the works we are studying was a life-long world-class scholar of the English language. Even though the word 'messenger' looks like it is from a Latinate root (close to half of English vocabulary comes from Latin, and much of it by way of French thanks to those Vikings that Tolkien so resented) it seemed like a good idea to go to the references and see what might be learned.

According to wiktionary, yes, 'messenger' comes from Old French 'messanger', and ultimately from the Latin "missaticum", which comes from a root related to 'sending' and 'announcing' with a zillion other tangiental meanings as those Latin roots always have.

BUT... there is an additional note. The page says this word displaced some original Old English (Anglo-Saxon) words.

One of them is 'boda' -- which can mean either 'messenger' or 'prophet' -- we still have this in the form of 'foreboding' and of course the set phrase that some event or information 'bodes well' or 'does not bode well' for some prospective future. But it's otherwise obsolete.

The other replaced word is ærendwreca. Calqued into Modern English, Errand-wreaker. 'Wreak' is another of those archaic words that has only remained for certain set phrases. It is indeed possible to 'wreak' vengeance on someone. But it is also possible to 'wreak' many other deeds, at least in Old English. It comes from a root that simply means "push, shove, drive". Just another way of saying 'carry out' some action or other. So an 'errand-wreaker' is just an archaic name for what we would now call an 'errand runner'. Someone who carries out a specific task. In a world of feudal authority and low technology, delivering a 'message' can easily be delivering orders and so have much more real-world impact than might be expected for simply conveying information.

The real eye-opener here, of course, is 'ærend'. The word is still with us, though now spelled without the ligature. The echoes of other significant words in Tolkien are instantly apparent. Earendil and Errantry may not be etymologically related, but they damned well are phonetically related. Is Earendil an 'errand-wreaker'? He certainly does bear an important message with huge consequences. "Errant" as in 'knight-errant' comes from a root that means 'wandering' rather than 'errand', but the word-play must have been on Tolkien's mind as he composed the poem.

There could be a whole episode about this underlying 'original' Old English word for 'messenger'...

 

[Flammifer]

Great linguistics Forodan,

I think the old English (if that is what JRRT had in mind) strengthens my supposition that Gandalf uses 'messengers' to conflate the Company with Earendil.

Both are 'errand wreakers' in original intent - Get help from Valinor for Middle-earth; - Throw the Ring into the Fire. Both also become 'errand wreakers' afterwards. The errand of both to spread a message of Estel to the dwellers in Middle-earth. Earendil by sailing the heavens as the Flammifer, a visible sign of Hope. The Company by being read about in Bilbo's book, a literary experience of Hope.

Of course, we never do find out what the errand or the message of the protagonist in 'Errantry' is. 'Errantry' is just the link, that connects Gandalf's use of the word 'messengers' to the Earendil poem, which never explicitly mentions that word.

 

[Rachel Port]

Maybe the message of Errantry is that language can be pure fun.

And I join Flammifer to thank Forodan for that fascinating linguistic exploration.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Rachel,

I like your thought that the message of 'Errantry' is that language can be pure fun. I'm sure that is one of the reasons JRRT wrote it. In fact, I think he said that the construction of that poem was so difficult that he doubted he could ever do it again.

However, I wonder if that was the only message of 'Errantry'? I think another message might have been that "A-roving as a feather does, A weather driven mariner", engaged in errantry, might be sufficient 'message' all on it's own? Can a knight errant be a message? A message that adventuring to harness might and power and skill, to do good in the world is a worthy end in itself? The knights of the Round Table would have agreed, and so would Don Quixote!

 

[Rachel Port]

A message for gamers? Personally I think too often the amassing of might and power and skill becomes an end in itself so the errant forgets that the message was to use that to do good. Maybe that's the message he forgot.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Rachel,

You are quite right that the protagonist in 'Errantry' seems to do little useful in his Errantry. He hooks up with the butterfly but that does not work out. He then takes to war and foraying and harrying beyond the sea. He fights a series of challenges from the elven-knights of Aerie and Faerie. He vanquishes the dragon-flies of Paradise. He battles with the Dumbledors the Hummerhorns and Honeybees.

Not obviously the most noble and virtuous errantry?

However, it is hard to say what exactly (if anything) was accomplished? Were the dragon-flies of Paradise a particular menace? How about those Dumbledores, Hummerhorns, and Honeybees? Were they attempting evil?

We just don't know.

The pattern of Errantry, I think, in the Medieval Romances was that the knight should ride out into the wide world with several goals (not always accomplished). To do no evil. To fight for the right. To learn about himself. To protect the weak. To oppose injustice. To fight for justice.

This errantry was seen as a good thing. Better than the knights fighting for personal power and territory amongst themselves (at least in the stories, regardless of what they did in real life).

The arc of the knight errant is often to first uphold his honor and test himself by accepting challenges and winning them (or, often, losing them gracefully, and learning something from each encounter). He must often contend with women, and they can be snares or delights (or both). Eventually, if he proves a true knight, he will contend with evil, in the form of dragons or monsters. The final act of the errant knight will often be a quest for spiritual salvation.

Now, it is unclear to what extent the 'Errantry' protagonist follows the classic trajectory of the knight errant. However, he is following some of it.

Is JRRT mocking or celebrating errantry in this poem? Is the errantry a diversion and distraction from the (presumably more serious) 'errand' and 'message' which the errant was supposed to be doing? Or, is the 'message' and 'errand' the errantry itself?

It is entirely possible that JRRT was deliberately doing both at the same time, and leaving his readers to puzzle over it?

Hard to say. I am not sure.

 

[Flammifer]

It's also interesting to consider this as the other side of the 'quest' coin. As Professor Olsen noted, Tolkien's use of 'quest' was actually pretty novel, here. They know where they're going, and what they have to do. Crucially, the already have the item of great power and significance.

So they're questers with no explicit questions, and messengers with no explicit message. (One might say, tongue-in-cheek.)
[/QUOTE]

Hi Beech27,

I have been thinking about your comments on 'quest'. What came into my mind were the lyrics from the song 'The Impossible Dream' from the musical 'The Man of LaMancha'. These seem to comment on both the nature of a quest without (seemingly) a question, and on the 'message' of errantry.

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right, the un-rightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far.

To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into
Hell for a heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man sore and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

The 'question' in Don Quixote's quest is, 'can he only be true to this glorious quest'? If he can be true, then the quest and the errantry is a message. "It can be done! And if even one man can do it, the world will be better for this."

 

[Rachel Port]

I'm not sure. Frodo is the only questor with a definite errand. The others in the company are under no obligation to go all the way with him and Boromir and Aragorn plan to accompany him only part of the way - they are headed for Minas Tirith. Except for Sam, who knows his job is to stay with Frodo, the others are perhaps looking for their parts in the story as it unfolds. Legolas and Gimli start out with the idea of supporting Frodo all the way, but end up as part of Aragorn's quest. Who would have predicted that Merry's role would be to help Eowyn kill the Witch King, or Pippin's to save Faramir? Or that they both would become messengers to Treebeard and the Ents and bring about the defeat of Saruman? Maybe the true quest for each of them is to find and fulfill his true personal place in the fight against evil.

 

[JJ48]

'Errantry' is just the link, that connects Gandalf's use of the word 'messengers' to the Earendil poem, which never explicitly mentions that word.

This is backwards. "Errantry" has no connection to Gandalf whatsoever, except through the Earendil poem. It is Earendil, then, which is the link, not "Errantry". When viewed this way, I think the link becomes far more tenuous. For one thing, the Earendil poem is not "Errantry", though it was based on it. It seems to me that Tolkien changed the poem for a reason, and if he did not refer to Earendil as a messenger in the revised poem, we shouldn't read that word into it any more than we should think that Earendil fought dumbledors and hummerhorns. Furthermore, what does Earendil even have to do with Gandalf's statement here? Apart from a general sense of "someone's going somewhere", this seems a rather weak connection.

I'm not sure. Frodo is the only questor with a definite errand. The others in the company are under no obligation to go all the way with him and Boromir and Aragorn plan to accompany him only part of the way - they are headed for Minas Tirith. Except for Sam, who knows his job is to stay with Frodo, the others are perhaps looking for their parts in the story as it unfolds. Legolas and Gimli start out with the idea of supporting Frodo all the way, but end up as part of Aragorn's quest. Who would have predicted that Merry's role would be to help Eowyn kill the Witch King, or Pippin's to save Faramir? Or that they both would become messengers to Treebeard and the Ents and bring about the defeat of Saruman? Maybe the true quest for each of them is to find and fulfill his true personal place in the fight against evil.

Keep in mind, the specific members of the Company have not yet been selected. To understand Gandalf's meaning, we need to look at what they think they're going to send people out to do rather than at what the people ultimately end up doing (or even setting out to do).

 

[Rachel Port]

Keep in mind, the specific members of the Company have not yet been selected. To understand Gandalf's meaning, we need to look at what they think they're going to send people out to do rather than at what the people ultimately end up doing (or even setting out to do).

Of course, I was looking at the predictive nature, however unintended, of Gandalf's words. Prof. Olsen generally calls the Earendil poem "Errantry," so it's not so far-fetched to look at that poem as well with the word "messenger." Of course, the Earendil poem doesn't actually say what Earendil's errand is, or how he did or didn't fulfill it, so looking at the whole story requires foreknowledge.

There's a lot that was unknown at the time Gandalf uttered those words. Tolkien himself had no idea of the things I mentioned - neither Rohan nor Ents nor Faramir nor a King existed. We should look at what the Council think they are sending people to do, but I think what the people chosen think they are sent out to do is just as important. Gandalf's words and the way I looked at them might apply to any people chosen to accompany Frodo.

Do you know the story The Other Wise Man? Or Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha? I was thinking of them when I wrote that comment. Sometimes getting sidetracked and taking the long way accomplishes much, and what seems like failure leads ultimately to the same goal, and what happened along the way is what matters most.

 

[Flammifer]

This is backwards. "Errantry" has no connection to Gandalf whatsoever, except through the Earendil poem. It is Earendil, then, which is the link, not "Errantry". When viewed this way, I think the link becomes far more tenuous. For one thing, the Earendil poem is not "Errantry", though it was based on it. It seems to me that Tolkien changed the poem for a reason, and if he did not refer to Earendil as a messenger in the revised poem, we shouldn't read that word into it any more than we should think that Earendil fought dumbledors and hummerhorns. Furthermore, what does Earendil even have to do with Gandalf's statement here? Apart from a general sense of "someone's going somewhere", this seems a rather weak connection.

Hi JJ48,

I totally agree that the interpretation of Gandalf's use of the word 'messengers' relies on the Earendil poem.

When I say that 'Errantry' is the link. I mean it is the link that allows us to connect Gandalf's use of 'messengers' to the Earendil poem. 'Earendil was a mariner' does not use the word 'messenger'. So, it might be difficult to link the word as used by Gandalf to the poem.

'Errantry' does describe the protagonist as a 'messenger'. It is one of only a few (two?) rather non-obvious uses of this word in JRRT's writing, the other one being Gandalf's use in question.

Because 'Errantry' also says that the protagonist had an 'errand' (which he forgot), and Earendil also had an errand before, 'errandless he homeward sped', we can connect 'Errantry' and 'Earendil'. Both with errands, both messengers. (We also know from other sources that Earendil carried a message - though I am not sure if we know this at this point if we are first-time readers. We also have other reasons to suspect a connection between 'Errantry' and 'Earendil'. And, of course, descriptions of Earendil-in-the-heavens as a 'herald' and 'Flammifer' also indicate 'messenger'

So, when I say that 'Errantry' is the link, I mean it in the sense that 'Errantry' is the link in the set of clues which allows us to connect Gandalf's use of 'messenger' with Earendil as a 'messenger' (in two different senses), and use that to interpret a possible meaning to Gandalf's puzzling use of the word..

 

[SwallowedUpInVictory]

I also have to think of Earendil being a stereotype of messenger in Tolkien's world (Bilbos Song should still be present in our minds). I think we are missing an important question in this discussion. Who is the message sent to?
You could argue that Earendil is 'monum sended' but in the Silmarillion he is foremost a messenger from the children of Illuvatar to the Valar. The very striking sentence is "and he thought to find perhaps the last shore, and bring ere he died the message of Elves and Men to the Valar in the West, that should move their hearts to pity for the sorrows of Middle-earth."

This can be paralleled to Frodo's quest, especially in the light of what has been said in the Counsel a few paragraphs ago, right before the company was called "messengers". Frodo's act of self-sacrifice and a fool's hope is a forlorn task doomed to fail, but it is the only shot they have. It can only succeed by divine intervention (remember ahead the wind, the star, the eagles and all we know about eucatastrophe). The company is trying an impossible experiment but by doing so they take a message to the Valar (or Illuvatar himself) who observe everything: the free people of middle-earth are willing to give all they have and contribute their part to a victory over Death and destruction but ask for God's help to make their sacrifice meaningful. I think this message is very similar to Earendil's message. Frodo is an Earendilfigure who by self-sacrifice and holding on to Estel pleads to divine power to help in overcoming Evil.
So the function of the company is not only to hide and fight their way to Mordor but also by doing so sending a SOS signal to the Gods. Hence "messengers". Btw this reminds me of Tolkien being a signal officer in WW1...