Cindy's Open House Blog: Rivendell, a Tolkien Legend

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Rivendell, a Tolkien Legend

Rivendell, a Tolkien Legend

Hi, dear friends. Today I wish to introduce to you briefly to the history of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE FRSL (/ˈtɒlkiːn/;[a] 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda, and Middle-earth[b] within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature — or, more precisely, of high fantasy.

Middle-earth is the setting of much of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The term is equivalent to the term Midgard of Norse mythology, describing the human-inhabited world, i.e., the central continent of world of Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, and Middle-earth has also become a short-hand to refer to the legendarium or its "fictional-universe".

Within his stories, Tolkien translated the name "Middle-earth" as Endor (or sometimes Endórë) and Ennor in the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, respectively, sometimes referring only to the continent that the stories take place on, with another southern continent called the Dark Land.

Middle-earth is the central continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the Earth's past (Tolkien placed the end of the Third Age at about 6,000 years before his own time), in the sense of a "secondary or sub-creational reality". Its general position reminiscent of Europe, with the environs of the Shire intended to be reminiscent of England (more specifically, the West Midlands, with Hobbiton set at the same latitude as Oxford).

The subject of Elven creatures has been entertained on this blog rather frequently. Perhaps it is fitting that we take a look at one of the locales where Tolkien placed elves in his masterfully written legends. Today we shall look at

~Rivendell.~

Rivendell, also known as Imladris, was an Elven outpost in Middle-earth. It is also referred to as "The Last Homely House East of the Sea", a reference to Valinor, which is west of the Great Sea in Aman.

Rivendell was located at the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Loudwater (one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from the nearby Ford of Bruinen), but well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of the Misty Mountains.

Rivendell was established by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth in SA 1697. During the War of the Elves and Sauron, Eregion was laid waste and Elrond brought the survivors to Rivendell, soon Sauron laid siege to it but was eventually beaten back. Following the establishment of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men the hosts of Gil-galad and Elendil march to Imladris and laid camp in there to prepare their arms and then proceeded southeast to Dagorlad.

When Angmar rose to power and conquered Arthedain , Elrond sent Glorfindeland a host of elves to meet with the armies of Earnil and Cirdan thus honoring the Alliance of elves and men. After the fall of Angmar the heirs of Isildur were fostered in Rivendell and the heirlooms were kept by Elrond.

During the Quest for the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo Baggins and the Company of Thorin stopped off at Rivendell. Bilbo described it as "a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all."

After the quest, Bilbo and Gandalf returned there and were greeted again by Elrond and the elves.

Years later, Frodo Baggins and his Hobbit companions journeyed to Rivendell, where they met with Bilbo, who had retired there after his eleventy-first birthday. Several other Elves, Dwarves and Menalso arrived at Rivendell on separate errands; at the Council of Elrond they learned that all of their kind are related to the fate of the One Ring, and they must decide what to do about it. In the end, it was the Hobbits who influenced the decision.

There was a large hall with a dais and several tables for feasting. Another hall, theHall of Fire, had a fire in it all year round with carved pillars on either side of the hearth; it was used for singing and story telling on high days but stood empty the rest of the time so people could go there to quietly think. The eastern side of the house had a porch where Frodo Baggins found his friends once he awakened and where the Council of Elrond was held.

Rivendell was protected from attack (mainly by the River Bruinen, Elrond, and Elven magic), but Elrond himself said that Rivendell is a place of peace and learning, not a stronghold of battle. After the War and Elrond's departure, his sons Elladan and Elrohir lived in Rivendell. Their grandfather, Celeborn, lived with them for a while until he finally took ship and sailed West.