Two Norse Literary Analogues of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Beacons of Gondor

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For a survey of written, onomastic and archeological evidence, see Baker and Brookes.

2. This analogue appears to have been first noted in a recent blog post (Le). On the route of the beacons of Agamemnon, see Quincey; and on the mixed connotations underlying the signals despite their ostensibly positive news, see Tracy.

3. See, e.g., Birkett, Fimi, and the essays by Tom Shippey, Marjorie Burns, and Andy Dimond in Chance, as well as more general discussions of the role of Germanic philology in Tolkien’s literary craft, in, e.g., Carpenter, Shippey 1983, and Shippey 2001.

4. “Víkars þáttr” mentions Gautrekr only nominally and otherwise seems disconnected to both of the other sections; for suggestions regarding the possible reasons behind its seemingly jarring interpolation, see Rowe, Cronan and Chesnutt. My own suggestion is that because the other sections treat different aspects of Gautland’s legendary pre-history, the section on Starkaðr was seen as a fitting addition given his participation, later in his career, in the famous, Gautland-based Battle of Brávellir, which embroils him in similar themes of betrayal and Odinic capriciousness (Hui 137–54).

5. Brief analogic discussion of the riddle contests of Hervarar saga and The Hobbit can be found in Sverdlov (47–8).

6. On which see Wallette. Verelius’ edition can be found in the bibliography.

7. I am grateful to the Alan Brown of the Bodleian Library for providing me with this information. The next edition of Gautreks saga after Ranisch’s came in the form of Guðni Jónsson’s three-volume edition of legendary sagas in 1954, which reproduced Ranisch’s text of the longer edition. Although Tolkien owned a copy of Guðni’s edition (entry 1143 in Cilli’s Tolkien’s Library), the fact that it shares a publication year with the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings makes it rather improbable that this edition of Gautreks saga was a direct influence on Tolkien’s beacons in The Return of the King.

8. The first part of Heimskringla, Ynglinga saga (“the saga of the Ynglings”), is one of few extant Norse texts to mention a king of Gautland (modern-day Götaland in southern Sweden) named “Gautrekr” (Aðalbjarnarson 64), whose rare name and specific epithet connoting generosity (inn mildi, “the Generous”) find direct correspondence with the titular king of Gautreks saga. On this see Hui (94–6).

9. I have chosen, conservatively, to quote the Norse text from Johan Peringskiöld’s edition, because it was the basis for Samuel Laing’s English translation, of which Tolkien is known to have owned a copy (the three volumes of Laing’s translation are entries 2235–7 in Cilli). Tolkien could read Old Norse, but his possession of Laing’s translation makes it a possible source of direct exposure, assuming that he acquired his copy prior to the writing of The Return of the King (Cilli’s catalog contains no details regarding the date of Tolkien’s acquisition of Laing). Even if he did not, the Bodleian Library in Oxford had acquired four copies of Peringskiöld’s edition in the nineteenth century (I am grateful to Jo Maddocks of the Weston Library for providing me with this information). The standard scholarly edition today is Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941–51, and the relevant passage, with minor differences as well as normalized orthography, can be found in vol. 1 (175–6). Tolkien also owned a copy of Bjarni’s edition – its three volumes are entries 2238–40 in Cilli – but although its first volume’s publication antedates the composition of The Return of the King, it postdates the composition of The Fall of Arthur and could not therefore have served as an influence on the latter. Admittedly this may be moot here, as The Fall of Arthur does not contain the more specific resonances that The Return of the King finds in Hákonar saga and cannot therefore serve as a terminus ante quem for them.

10. One potential reason why those guarding the “east coast” were unaware of the maritime arrival of Eiríkr’s sons could be the possible location of the first beacon within the county of Øst-Agder and the possible arrival of the sons of Eiríkr somewhere on the coastline of its western neighbor of Vest-Agder, which would have allowed the invaders to bypass the starting beacon.