Heorot Or Meduseld?: Tolkien's Use of Beowulf in "the King of the Golden Hall" (J.R.R. Tolkien) (Essay) (Critical Essay‪)‬

In The Road to Middle-earth, T.A. Shippey observes that there is a strong association between the Riders of Rohan in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the Anglo-Saxons of poetry and history, and more specifically that "the chapter 'The King of the Golden Hall' is straightforwardly calqued on Beowulf" (94). The word "calque" is very useful for understanding this chapter, but it is only through Shippey's summarization of the connections between the two works that the calquing becomes straightforward; Tolkien's use of the first third of Beowulf as a source for the Meduseld scenes actually forms, on closer examination, a concerted and pervasive rhetoric, built upon the calquing function. Shippey defines this calquing as a piecemeal translation after which "the derivative does not sound anything like its original" but "nevertheless it betrays influence at every point" (77). Shippey, however, concentrates primarily on the latter, the similarities between the two works, to the exclusion of the differences, wherein lies the true complexity of "The King of the Golden Hall." This complexity is completely dependent on the similarities, however, hence Tolkien's use of the "like/unlike" (Shippey, Road 77) nature of a calque; the likenesses, which are predominant early in the chapter, act as signposts, creating a signaling effect that resonates throughout the entirety of the chapter, even as the similarities progressively fade into differences. The ultimate purpose of the signaling effect is, I believe, to maneuver the reader into interpreting the main characters of the second half of the chapter primarily in terms of their counterparts in Beowulf, beginning with Theoden and Hrothgar, followed by Wormtongue and Unferth, and culminating in an unexpected connection between the aged Gandalf and the virile Beowulf that could not have been made without the extensive network of connections previously built up between the two works. It should be noted that this argument does assume a certain amount of conscious or unconscious authorial intention, which can be critically perilous. I hope to demonstrate, however, that the concerted and progressive nature of the connections made between the two works makes the argument both logical and worthwhile, especially in light of certain opinions Tolkien expressed about Beowulf in "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth." Tolkien's choice to name the King of Rohan Theoden (Anglo-Saxon for "lord," "protector" (1)) may seem simplistic, perhaps even redundant or lacking in creativity, to a student of Anglo-Saxon. Such a judgment would be premature, however. Ignoring for a moment the implications of defining a character by his rank or position via his name, Tolkien is actually giving a not-so-subtle invitation to read the Rohan story line in a particular Anglo-Saxon context. At the beginning of "The King of the Golden Hall," in The Two Towers (TT), this context is made clear. Gandalf identifies the scene as he and the remnants of the fellowship approach Theoden's hall. "'Edoras those courts are called,' said Gandalf, 'and Meduseld that golden hall'" (135). Edoras, presumably derived from the Anglo-Saxon "eoderas" ("sheltering building," "enclosure"), and Meduseld ("mead-hall"), a word drawn directly from Beowulf (3065), locate the chapter in context of the first part of Beowulf (Shippey, Road 94-95). The "golden hall" makes this association all the more certain, echoing Beowulf's own approach to the hall of Hrothgar; "Guman onetton, / sigon aetsomne, o[thorn] [thorn]aet hy sael timbred / geatolic on goldfah ongyton mihton" ("men hastened, marched together until they could see the timbered hall, splendid and gold-adorned") (306-308). Gandalf's warning that the lords of the Rohirrim "do not sleep" (135) informs the reader that, like Heorot, Meduseld is troubled. Such use of language is the reader's first active signal that the events of the chapter, and the following story line, are inherently connected to, and even crit