Little bit disappointed there isn't any feedback yet on this thread. Because of this silence I have been worried of maybe crossing some line or unspoken rule, since I know that Tolkien has said there were no allegories in the Lord of the Rings, but I also agree with the following quote:
“All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.”
― P.D. James
Still I do feel I am perhaps kind of intruding into Tolkien's and/or his company's privacy and I have been hesitating a lot writing this second follow-up post in this thread. However, the above epiphany did give me renewed and significantly increased appreciation for Tolkien's writing in the Lord of the Rings, hence why I want to share these ideas in the Mythgard forum with the hope that it might do the same for other fans.
Entering the Council of Elrond, which (having reached episode 200) I have completed now, Glóin & Glorfindel were recognised as another archetypes of Gilson & Smith respectively, and also the Aragorn & Bilbo interaction while finishing a poem felt like Tolkien revisiting his own poetry created in his earlier years. So a fourth archetype was required and I therefore looked into the seven stages of man from Shakespeare's All the world's a stage:
For convenience's sake I will also paste the Bard's text copied from the Wikipedia page in the following quote:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything
~William Shakespeare
Initially four archetypes were going to be borrowed from the seven ages of man, but one thing lead to another, things went out of hand a bit, and I ended up with the following revised table:
Shakespearean
Archetype of: | Geoffrey Bache
Smith | John Ronald Reuel
Tolkien | Christopher Luke Wiseman | Robert Quilter
Gilson |
|---|
The Mewling Infant | - | - | - | - |
The Whining Schoolboy | Peregrin "Pippin" Took | Frodo Baggins | Samwise "Sam" Gamgee | Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck |
The Sighing Lover | - | Faramir | Tom Bombadil | - |
The Jealous Soldier | Legolas | Aragorn | Boromir | Gimli |
The Wise Justice | Pallando | Gandalf | Saruman | Alatar |
The Well Saved Pantaloon | Glorfindel | Bilbo Baggins | Radagast | Glóin |
Sans Everything | - | - | Sméagol | - |
This is the second time I have made this revised table. A couple of days ago I thought the 'Save Draft' option would remember my post still under construction for the next time I would log into this forum (it didn't unfortunately, probably because all cookies are automatically deleted in my browser upon closure). The previous table looked different then, I keep shifting characters around, and I am still not sure if my table is ever going to be finalised... perhaps Aragorn is the lover and Faramir the soldier, since I see the Arwen, Éowyn & Galadriel characters currently as the Maiden, Mother & Crone versions of Edith Mary Tolkien. However, Faramir is the younger brother of Boromir, so I therefore kept it this way, even though they both were fighting side by side as soldiers in the same company according to slide 'From Whence Shall Help Come?' in 'Exploring the Lord of the Rings' episode 132, where Boromir said:
'I was in the company that held the bridge, until it was cast down behind us. Four only were saved by swimming: my brother and myself and two others.'
When I was listening to the podcast and saw this quote showing up, I immediately connected the number four to the Big Four of the Tea Club, Barrovian Society.
Radagast has been shifted around a lot in this revised table as well and I am still unsure if he is actually in the correct category. In episode 160 of the 'Exploring the Lord of the Rings' podcast, Gandalf quotes:
' "Radagast the Brown!" laughed Saruman, and he no longer concealed his scorn. "Radagast the Bird-tamer!, Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play the part that I set him. For you have come, and that was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys. For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!" '
In this 160th session professor Corey Olsen has said that Saruman’s name in Anglo-Saxon is translated as 'wise man', hence why I categorised this wizard as 'The Wise Justice' age of Christopher Luke Wiseman. Tolkien was a painter, and to make the colour brown out of the primary colours blue, yellow and red, you first mix blue and yellow to obtain green, and subsequently you mix green and red to obtain brown, hence brown is actually "Many Colours". I am also seeing many parallels between Frodo, Sam & Sméagol's journey and Gandalf, Radagast & Saruman's journey respectively. So in the above quoted paragraph, could Tolkien have described the self-hatred, which Wiseman would maybe be struggling with after the war?
The farther I explore this podcast, the more curious I am becoming about Christopher Luke Wiseman. Did Tolkien and Wiseman have a major disagreement with each other? Were they political opposites, where Tolkien was a conservative environmentalist and Wiseman a progressive capitalist trying to push humanity out of the middle ages with coal & oil? How did these two brothers in arms deal with the deaths of the two other non-surviving members of the Tea Club, Barrovian Society? Maybe all these questions are too personal and they most likely will remain riddles in the dark...? Please notify me if I go too far here...
🙁
