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‘The fear of the beautiful fay that ran through the elder ages almost eludes our grasp.’ J.R.R. Tolkien ‘On Fairy-stories’
part of the nineteenth-century folklore movement in Europe and the British Isles, a last-minute effort to capture and preserve the indigenous folk and fairy tales and ballads that were even then rapidly disappearing.
Tolkien wanted his ‘Silmarillion’ legendarium to do, imaginatively, for England). This was to recover (or, in Tolkien’s case, supply) a folk tradition that would contribute to and validate a cultural identity.
the underlying effort was not just to preserve the stories but to discover their lore, and especially their language, the often archaic regional vocabulary or dialect containing the remains of a lost or submerged mythology and worldview, the roots of a native culture.
Tolkien was also in this period working on the stories of his own mythology, so it is not surprising that one activity should influence the other, the Celtic content of his studies affecting the form and subject matter of his creative work.
In Britain’s land beyond the seas the wind blows ever through the trees; in Britain’s land beyond the waves are stony shores and stony caves.
A witch there was, who webs could weave to snare the heart and wits to reave,4 who span dark spells with spider-craft, and as she span she softly laughed;
In Britain’s land beyond the waves are stony hills and stony caves; the wind blows ever over hills 45 and hollow caves with wailing fills. The sun was fallen low and red, behind the hills the day was dead, and in the valley formless lay the misty shadows long and grey.
His name she knew, his need, his thought, the hunger that thither him had brought;
In his hand she laid a phial5 of glass so fairly made 70 ’twas wonder in that houseless place to see its cold and gleaming grace; and therewithin a philter6 lay as pale as water thin and grey that spills from stony fountains frore7
Very similar to Galadriel's vial. Interesting.
But we shall meet again one day, and rich reward then you shall pay, what e’er I ask: it may be gold, it may be other wealth you hold.’ 90
In Britain ways are wild and long, and woods are dark with danger strong; and sound of seas is in the leaves, and wonder walks the forest-eaves.
But still we love, and still are young: A merry feast we’ll make this year, and there shall come no sigh nor tear; and we will feign our love begun in joy anew,
In Britain’s land across the seas the spring is merry in the trees; the birds in Britain’s woodlands pair when leaves are long and flowers are fair.
‘I drink to thee for health and bliss, fair love,’ he said, ‘and with this kiss the pledge I pass. Come, drink it deep! The wine is sweet, the cup is steep!’
‘Aotrou, lord and love,’ she cries, ‘all hail and life both long and sweet, wherein desire at last to meet!’
Though spring and summer wear and fade, though flowers fall and leaves are laid, and winter winds his trumpet loud, and snows both fell and forest shroud, 170 though roaring seas upon the shore go long and white, and neath the door the wind cries with houseless voice, in fire and song yet men rejoice, till as a ship returns to port 175 the spring comes back to field and court.
Yet if thy heart still longing hold, or lightest wish remain untold, that will I find and bring to thee, though I should ride both land and sea!’
I would not have thee run nor ride 215 to-day nor ever from my side;
No gold nor silk nor jewel bright can match my gladness and delight,
But I would not have thee run nor ride to-day nor ever from my side.’
In Brittany beyond the seas the wind blows ever through the trees; in Brittany the forest pale 245 marches slow over hill and dale. There seldom far the horns were wound, and seldom hunted horse and hound.
dim laughter in the woods he heard, but heeded not,
The sun was lost, all green was grey. There twinkled the fountain of the fay,
The moonlight falling clear and cold her long hair lit;
He heard her voice, and it was cold as echo from the world of old, ere fire was found or iron hewn, when young was mountain under moon.
He heard her voice like water falling or wind upon a long shore calling, yet sweet the words: ‘We meet again here after waiting, after pain!
With love thou shalt me here requite, for here is long and sweet the night; in druery10 dear thou here shalt deal, in bliss more deep than mortals feel.’
In Britain’s land beyond the waves are forests dim and secret caves; in Britain’s land the breezes bear the sound of bells along the air to mingle with the sound of seas 345 for ever moving in the trees.
while deep in dim Broceliande a silver fountain flowed and fell within a darkly woven dell, and in the homeless hills a dale 485 was filled with laughter cold and pale.
In Brittany beyond the waves are sounding shores and hollow caves; in Brittany beyond the seas 495 the wind blows ever through the trees.
Sad is the note and sad the lay, but mirth we meet not every day.
The cave is a traditional fairy locus.
Broceliande (l.254). This was the great forest of ancient Brittany, where Merlin dwelt with the fay Niniane, and where even now, so goes the legend, he lies imprisoned under a stone.
The forest was a standard topos in medieval romance as a landscape contiguous with yet separate from reality, an ‘other’ world which could on occasion become the actual Otherworld of Celtic myth. Combining real and symbolic associations, the forest became a literary construction with its own rules and associations. Dante made good use of the ‘otherness’ of the forest, and Shakespeare was not unaware of its function as a setting for unusual or magical happenings.
Tolkien’s forests – Mirkwood, Nan Elmoth, Doriath, the Old Forest, Lórien, Fangorn – are some of the most recent in a long and distinguished line of descent. Tolkien used the name Broceliand, soon altering the spelling to Broseliand, in his Lay of Leithian. By September of 1931 it had become, as it subsequently remained in his mythology, Beleriand. While the Broceliande connection seems clear, we should not overlook an earlier connection of which Tolkien might well have been aware, the notion of Belerion, the term used by Diodorus Siculus in the first century BCE for that corner of Britain now
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Very interesting
One function of such an animal is to lead the mortal deep into a wood, traditionally a point of contact with the Otherworld.
There twinkled the fountain of the fay (l.284). The fountain and the cavern by which the fay stands are traditional points of entry into the Otherworld.
MacKillop’s Dictionary of Celtic Mythology
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defines corrigan as a ‘Wanton, impish, sprightly female fairy of Breton folklore who desires sexual union with humans’, and is often found ‘near wells, fountains, dolmens, and menhirs, especially in the forest Broceliand’.
In both cases it follows and counters something pagan, either the triumph of the corrigan in the death of the lord, or the victory of the Norsemen at Maldon.
The cold laughter of the fay is heard five times throughout the poem, and contrasts with the ‘mirth’ and laughter of the lord and lady. It thus becomes a leitmotif, a kind of fate-theme both presaging and commenting on the lord’s doom, and signalling the hostility of the fairy world toward mortals.
It's interesting that the fay here is the opposite of Middle-Earth's elves. They are inherently good and bear no ill will towards men and I wonder, are they dangerous, dark fay are supposed to be one of those who haven't sailed and gradually diminshed or is she some being who is completely different from them.
Also, from where exactly did Tolkien get his idea for his elves?
Corrigan, or korrigan, is the feminine diminutive of Breton corr or korr, ‘dwarf’, and seems to derive from the notion that these beings have dwindled from their original stature.
According to the British folklorist Katherine Briggs, it is because ‘they are eager to reinforce their dwindling stock’ that ‘the Korrigans [the spelling is apparently optional] make every effort to steal mortal babies and allure mortal men to be their lovers’ (Briggs 156).
The presence of a fountain or well in both poems shows that the corrigan was a water-fairy, one who dwelt in or near sites associated with water.
I saw the first egg before the white hen, And the acorn before the oak in den20 – There were strange things then. 52 The land of Brezail was fair, I trow: I saw once silver birds enow, And acorns of gold on every bough. This is stranger now!’
The Fairy Mythology
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Brezail, or Hy-Breasail, was a name for one of the Celtic Otherworlds, and figures in Celtic myth as a magic land in the west.
This mention by the changeling child is a reference to the Celtic Otherworld, which has its own royal hierarchy, and is generally envisioned as contiguous with but invisible to this world. The Otherworld is often located over the sea or under a lake, but caves, grottoes, and forests can also be entrances to the fairy world, and humans can cross the boundary without knowing it.
both fair copy and rough draft agree in having it be the changeling child who is faërie royalty
