Flammifer
Well-Known Member
Here is an observation which I thought to bring up when we reached the Field of Cormallen. However, it came up in discussion at New England Moot, so, I thought I would post it now.
I believe it may be an original ‘Flammifer observation’, as I have never seen it anywhere else. Corey also could not remember having seen it anywhere else.
If anyone has seen it elsewhere, please comment.
I am sure that most know the date of the downfall of Sauron, when the Ring goes into the fire, is the date of the Annunciation.
So, the quest leaves Rivendell on Christmas Day, and the Ring is destroyed on the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation. Tolkien was not kidding when he said, "’The Lord of the Rings’ is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." (Letter 142)”.
Less well known, I think (I have never seen this observation before), is that Tolkien celebrates the Annunciation with another milestone event in TLOTR, when Frodo and Sam wake up at the Field of Cormallen and are honored by the assembled host.
This happens on the 7th of April, (our calendar), which is the day in the Gregorian Calendar that the Orthodox Churches that still use the Julian Calendar liturgically, celebrate the Annunciation (7 April, our calendar, is 25 March in the Julian Calendar).
Ah, but doesn’t Gandalf tell Frodo and Sam that it is the 8th of April, when they wake up? Yes he does, but he says, “the eighth day of April in the Shire reckoning”. Tolkien even puts a little footnote to this, saying, “There were thirty days in March (or Rethe) in the Shire calendar,” just to remind us that it is the 7th of April, and thus Orthodox Annunciation, in our calendar.
It was this footnote (an odd footnote, and one of only two footnotes I remember in TLOTR – The other one informing us that ‘Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She’, in ‘At the Sign of the Prancing Pony’.) that led me to the conclusion that Tolkien had decided to celebrate the Annunciation twice in TLOTR, and that the footnote was his clue.
Now, in ‘Sauron Defeated’, Christopher Tolkien includes a note in a draft by his father indicating that he wanted Frodo and Sam to not wake up for a while after they are rescued so that there is time for supplies for the feast to be brought in, and all to be prepared. I’m sure that this may have been part of his thinking. But, I suspect his main objective was to reiterate for a second time the connection to the Annunciation. I think the footnote is a pretty telling clue.
‘Annunciation! Annunciation!’: So good we have it twice!
Why was the Annunciation so important to Tolkien that he had to memorialize with two key events?
Well, that is the day that God became Man, the Word was made Flesh, and Mankind was Redeemed.
But what exactly did Tolkien mean by associating that with the downfall of Sauron?
I believe it may be an original ‘Flammifer observation’, as I have never seen it anywhere else. Corey also could not remember having seen it anywhere else.
If anyone has seen it elsewhere, please comment.
I am sure that most know the date of the downfall of Sauron, when the Ring goes into the fire, is the date of the Annunciation.
So, the quest leaves Rivendell on Christmas Day, and the Ring is destroyed on the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation. Tolkien was not kidding when he said, "’The Lord of the Rings’ is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision." (Letter 142)”.
Less well known, I think (I have never seen this observation before), is that Tolkien celebrates the Annunciation with another milestone event in TLOTR, when Frodo and Sam wake up at the Field of Cormallen and are honored by the assembled host.
This happens on the 7th of April, (our calendar), which is the day in the Gregorian Calendar that the Orthodox Churches that still use the Julian Calendar liturgically, celebrate the Annunciation (7 April, our calendar, is 25 March in the Julian Calendar).
Ah, but doesn’t Gandalf tell Frodo and Sam that it is the 8th of April, when they wake up? Yes he does, but he says, “the eighth day of April in the Shire reckoning”. Tolkien even puts a little footnote to this, saying, “There were thirty days in March (or Rethe) in the Shire calendar,” just to remind us that it is the 7th of April, and thus Orthodox Annunciation, in our calendar.
It was this footnote (an odd footnote, and one of only two footnotes I remember in TLOTR – The other one informing us that ‘Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She’, in ‘At the Sign of the Prancing Pony’.) that led me to the conclusion that Tolkien had decided to celebrate the Annunciation twice in TLOTR, and that the footnote was his clue.
Now, in ‘Sauron Defeated’, Christopher Tolkien includes a note in a draft by his father indicating that he wanted Frodo and Sam to not wake up for a while after they are rescued so that there is time for supplies for the feast to be brought in, and all to be prepared. I’m sure that this may have been part of his thinking. But, I suspect his main objective was to reiterate for a second time the connection to the Annunciation. I think the footnote is a pretty telling clue.
‘Annunciation! Annunciation!’: So good we have it twice!
Why was the Annunciation so important to Tolkien that he had to memorialize with two key events?
Well, that is the day that God became Man, the Word was made Flesh, and Mankind was Redeemed.
But what exactly did Tolkien mean by associating that with the downfall of Sauron?