Bruce N H
Active Member
Hi all,
I'm listening back through the past few classes and was struck by the word "hiss" as the Company are taking shelter from the storm on Caradhrass: "though all round [the fire] the snow hissed, and pools of slush crept under their feet". Yes, there is a purely physical phenomenon as snowflakes hit the flames, but the word had a much more ominous feeling. So rather than just defaulting to "snakes hiss, and snakes often represent evil", I wanted to break down Tolkien's use of hiss, hissed, hissing, etc in LotR. Excluding the Gaffer hoping that Sam "behaved hisself", there are 77 instances. I break them down into 3 categories:
Good characters:
Aragorn hisses once, when the murder of crows flies over in The Ring Goes South: "'Lie flat and still!' hissed Aragorn, pulling Sam down..."
Gimli hisses three times in The White Rider, when the Three Hunters mistake the remade Gandalf for Saruman: "'I see, I see now!' hissed Gimli. 'Look, Aragorn! Did I not warn you? There is the old man."
An unnamed elf on the borders of Lothlorien: "'What is it?' said Frodo. 'Yrch!' said the Elf in a hissing whisper."
Notice that in each of these instances the good character is warning of danger.
Evil characters:
The Nazgul hiss four times. E.g. the Gaffer describes his encounter with a Nazgul: "Hissed at me, he did. It gave me quite a shudder." Again with Farmer Maggot, Merry in Bree, and at Weathertop.
Old Man Willow, when Sam and Frodo build a fire to try to free Merry and Pippin: "The leaves seemed to hiss above their heads with a sound of pain and anger."
The Mouth of Sauron. At the Council of Sauron Gloin tells of the emissary from Mordor: "'At that his breat came like the hiss of snakes, and all who stood by suddered, but Dain said: 'I say neither yea nor nay.'" - BTW, I always assumed this was the Mouth, but I don't think it was ever specifically established.
The Balrog, or at least its stuff: "With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed."
Orcs, six times, four as the Uruk Hai were taking Merry and Pippin across Rohan, and twice at the pass of Cirith Ungol. E.g. "'My dear tender little fools,' hissed Grishnakh, 'everything you have, and everything you know, will be got out of you in due time: everything!"
Wormtongue three times. E.g. "In the gloom they heard the hiss of Wormtongue's voice: 'Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff?'"
Saruman once, after the Ents destroy Isengard: "'Gibbets and crows!' he hissed, and they shuddered at the hideous change. 'Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs?'"
Shelob, twice. "...behind them came a sound, startling and horrible in the heavy padded silence: a gurgling bubbling noise, and a long venomous hiss."
And last but not least, the king of hissing, Gollum, with forty hisses. "There was a sharp hiss. Presently out of the darkness Gollum came crawling on all fours, like an erring dog called to heel."
Finally, there is weather, landscape, and other phenomena:
Gandalf's fireworks "came down again into the Water with a hiss like a hundred not snakes."
The wind hisses four times, but notably all of them are at times of danger or at least generally negative instances. On the Barrow downs as the wight is coming for Frodo the fog comes down and "the wind began to hiss over the grass." As they left Rivendell they came to "the high moor where the wind hissed through the heather." Right before the warg attack on Caradhras "they heard the wind hissing among the rocks and trees, and there was a howling and wailing round them in the empty spaces of the night." When Gollum is following Frodo and Sam: "But if they halted and stood still listening, they heard no more, nothing but the wind sighing over the edges of the stones - yet even that reminded them of breath softly hissing through sharp teeth."
Hissing is associated more with the landscape and plants three times. As the Company canoes down Anduin after Lorien they see forests of great reeds on the western bank: "Their dark withered plumes bent and tossed in the light cold airs, hissing softly and sadly." And twice in the Dead Marshes: "There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."
Water twice. When a hole was blasted in the wall at Helm's Deep "the waters of the Deeping-stream poured out, hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall. A host of dark shapes poured in." In the account of the account of the Ents on Saruman, they flooded Isengard: Every now and then the waters found their way down into some shaft or spouthole. Great white steams hissed up."
And, of course, the snow falling on Caradhras.
So, what's the conclusion of all of this? In Tolkien's usage, the word "hiss" or its variants is almost always a signifier of impending danger, either a protagonist hissing as they warn others, an antagonist who is the source of the danger, or the environment setting the mood of general dread. Even a totally benign use of the term, in Gandalf's fireworks, that is immediately followed by the "last surprise" that "startled the hobbits exceedingly" - the firework of the dragon that flies over the crowd like an express train before exploding over Bywater.
Given that, in the sentence where "the snow hissed, and pools of slush crept under their feet" it's not just a simple case of a campfire on a snowy day, it's really a personification of the snow as an enemy with murderous intent, or of Caradhras himself.
BTW, I thought maybe the word "crept" was going to be similarly overwhelminly negative. There are about 90 instances of "crept" or "creep". I'm not going to do an analogous accounting, but I see the first instance of "crept" is very negative, almost a horror story, about Gollum: "The Woodmen said there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles." But after that there are a bunch of examples of Gandalf and the hobbits creeping around. But also a lot of creeping evil things, like the arm of the barrow-wight, dark things creeping back to Gorgoroth, or even the midges creeping into the hobbits' clothes. So more of a mixed bag.
Bruce
I'm listening back through the past few classes and was struck by the word "hiss" as the Company are taking shelter from the storm on Caradhrass: "though all round [the fire] the snow hissed, and pools of slush crept under their feet". Yes, there is a purely physical phenomenon as snowflakes hit the flames, but the word had a much more ominous feeling. So rather than just defaulting to "snakes hiss, and snakes often represent evil", I wanted to break down Tolkien's use of hiss, hissed, hissing, etc in LotR. Excluding the Gaffer hoping that Sam "behaved hisself", there are 77 instances. I break them down into 3 categories:
Good characters:
Aragorn hisses once, when the murder of crows flies over in The Ring Goes South: "'Lie flat and still!' hissed Aragorn, pulling Sam down..."
Gimli hisses three times in The White Rider, when the Three Hunters mistake the remade Gandalf for Saruman: "'I see, I see now!' hissed Gimli. 'Look, Aragorn! Did I not warn you? There is the old man."
An unnamed elf on the borders of Lothlorien: "'What is it?' said Frodo. 'Yrch!' said the Elf in a hissing whisper."
Notice that in each of these instances the good character is warning of danger.
Evil characters:
The Nazgul hiss four times. E.g. the Gaffer describes his encounter with a Nazgul: "Hissed at me, he did. It gave me quite a shudder." Again with Farmer Maggot, Merry in Bree, and at Weathertop.
Old Man Willow, when Sam and Frodo build a fire to try to free Merry and Pippin: "The leaves seemed to hiss above their heads with a sound of pain and anger."
The Mouth of Sauron. At the Council of Sauron Gloin tells of the emissary from Mordor: "'At that his breat came like the hiss of snakes, and all who stood by suddered, but Dain said: 'I say neither yea nor nay.'" - BTW, I always assumed this was the Mouth, but I don't think it was ever specifically established.
The Balrog, or at least its stuff: "With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed."
Orcs, six times, four as the Uruk Hai were taking Merry and Pippin across Rohan, and twice at the pass of Cirith Ungol. E.g. "'My dear tender little fools,' hissed Grishnakh, 'everything you have, and everything you know, will be got out of you in due time: everything!"
Wormtongue three times. E.g. "In the gloom they heard the hiss of Wormtongue's voice: 'Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff?'"
Saruman once, after the Ents destroy Isengard: "'Gibbets and crows!' he hissed, and they shuddered at the hideous change. 'Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs?'"
Shelob, twice. "...behind them came a sound, startling and horrible in the heavy padded silence: a gurgling bubbling noise, and a long venomous hiss."
And last but not least, the king of hissing, Gollum, with forty hisses. "There was a sharp hiss. Presently out of the darkness Gollum came crawling on all fours, like an erring dog called to heel."
Finally, there is weather, landscape, and other phenomena:
Gandalf's fireworks "came down again into the Water with a hiss like a hundred not snakes."
The wind hisses four times, but notably all of them are at times of danger or at least generally negative instances. On the Barrow downs as the wight is coming for Frodo the fog comes down and "the wind began to hiss over the grass." As they left Rivendell they came to "the high moor where the wind hissed through the heather." Right before the warg attack on Caradhras "they heard the wind hissing among the rocks and trees, and there was a howling and wailing round them in the empty spaces of the night." When Gollum is following Frodo and Sam: "But if they halted and stood still listening, they heard no more, nothing but the wind sighing over the edges of the stones - yet even that reminded them of breath softly hissing through sharp teeth."
Hissing is associated more with the landscape and plants three times. As the Company canoes down Anduin after Lorien they see forests of great reeds on the western bank: "Their dark withered plumes bent and tossed in the light cold airs, hissing softly and sadly." And twice in the Dead Marshes: "There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."
Water twice. When a hole was blasted in the wall at Helm's Deep "the waters of the Deeping-stream poured out, hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall. A host of dark shapes poured in." In the account of the account of the Ents on Saruman, they flooded Isengard: Every now and then the waters found their way down into some shaft or spouthole. Great white steams hissed up."
And, of course, the snow falling on Caradhras.
So, what's the conclusion of all of this? In Tolkien's usage, the word "hiss" or its variants is almost always a signifier of impending danger, either a protagonist hissing as they warn others, an antagonist who is the source of the danger, or the environment setting the mood of general dread. Even a totally benign use of the term, in Gandalf's fireworks, that is immediately followed by the "last surprise" that "startled the hobbits exceedingly" - the firework of the dragon that flies over the crowd like an express train before exploding over Bywater.
Given that, in the sentence where "the snow hissed, and pools of slush crept under their feet" it's not just a simple case of a campfire on a snowy day, it's really a personification of the snow as an enemy with murderous intent, or of Caradhras himself.
BTW, I thought maybe the word "crept" was going to be similarly overwhelminly negative. There are about 90 instances of "crept" or "creep". I'm not going to do an analogous accounting, but I see the first instance of "crept" is very negative, almost a horror story, about Gollum: "The Woodmen said there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles." But after that there are a bunch of examples of Gandalf and the hobbits creeping around. But also a lot of creeping evil things, like the arm of the barrow-wight, dark things creeping back to Gorgoroth, or even the midges creeping into the hobbits' clothes. So more of a mixed bag.
Bruce