Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings

[Elbereth Gilthoniel]

So, for school, I recently had to read Beowulf. I'd already read it, but this second time a lot more things stood out to me and it's become one of my greatest interests, particularly the parallels between it and LotR. I've done quite a bit of research and reading on this topic and have discovered some very intriguing things. I realise that most of the people here know that Tolkien drew inspiration from Beowulf, but I'm excited to share my findings anyway.

Warning: long post. Also, I am a Christian so some of my findings have been developed through a Christian perspective, hope that's okay. Also, there will be Beowulf spoilers so don't read if you haven't read that yet.

First of all, the most obvious -- Names in LotR/TH derived from Old English and Old Norse

• Frodo - from the OE name Fróda, meaning "wise by experience"
• Saruman - OE "man of skill"; "man of cunning" -- this is one of my favourites
• Arathorn - OE "royal eagle"
• Beorn - OE "man/warrior chieftain" ON "bear"
• Brego - OE "chief/leader/king/lord"
• Eomer - OE "horse famous"
• Eomund - OE "war horse"
• Gamling - from the OE word "gamol", meaning "old" (Fun Fact: I'm learning Norwegian [Bokmål], and the word for "old" is "gammel". I was quite excited when I saw how similar it was to OE, I really want to learn OE one day)
• Gandalf - ON "wand elf"
• Gimli - derived from an ON name meaning "fire"
• Gollum - theorised that this comes from the ON word for "gold", but I believe it's just the sound Gollum makes in his throat and nothing more
• Grima - OE & ON for "mask/visor/spectre/larva" I found this funny and perfect.
• Theoden - OE "ruler/king"
• Thengel - OE "lord"
• MY FAVOURITE OF ALL: Bombur - ON for "the swollen one" 😂 poor Bombur!
• Gloin - OE "glowing one" I think that perhaps Tolkien did this intentionally, since in TH Gloin and Oin are the ones who light the fires for Thorin & Co.
• Smaug - from the OE word Smeag, "worm"
• Thorin - ON "thunder"
• Thrain - ON "stubborn"

This isn't from OE or ON, but I'm learning Latin and stumbled across it in my vocab and thought it was cool: Morior means "die", and I wonder if Moria was derived from that. I've also read that Moria comes from a Sindarin word meaning "dark" or "abyss" which also fits, but I wonder if Tolkien adopted that from Latin.

I also researched names in Middle Earth that mean things in Sindarin/Quenya, and they're super cool. I suggest you look at some of them, it's fascinating. My favourites are Faramir, meaning "sufficient jewel", and Boromir, meaning "faithful jewel".

Next up, Representations in the Text
There are four monsters in Beowulf: The sea monsters (yes there are nine but we can clump them together into one monster), Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. I've thought long and hard about what each of the monsters represents, and I think that the sea monsters represent the untamed natural world (in the Bible the natural order is for man to have dominion over nature, but since the Fall it's been flipped and nature has dominion over man), Grendel represents inter-tribal violence (that is, violence between tribes due to the wergild cycle [revenge]. Grendel is from the line of Cain, who was cursed by God, and Grendel seeks revenge for what has been done to him), Grendel's mother represents a perversion of the family bond or intra-tribal violence (When she seeks such ruthless revenge for her son, she demonstrates violence within a tribe for a killed family member, again the wergild cycle), and the dragon represents human nature itself. Beowulf, a literary Christ-figure, is able to defeat all these representations of the fallen world, but in his fight with the dragon (his own human nature), he dies. Unlike Christ Himself, who was able to defeat sin fully and rise again from the dead, Beowulf is not resurrected because though he is a Christ-figure, he is still a mere mortal. Since the author of Beowulf was himself a Christian, it is highly probable that he made this parallel on purpose.

Okay, but what does that have to do with The Lord of the Rings? Well, Tolkien was a Christian, so I believe he either subconsciously or purposefully made some characters literary Christ-figures. For example, it's speculated that these three characters represent the three "natures" of Christ: Gandalf the Prophet, Aragorn the King, and Frodo the Priest. Frodo, the "priest", interceded on behalf of Middle Earth and carried the representation of human nature (the Ring) to destruction, at the ultimate cost of his own life. (Yes, he didn't actually die, but you could say his soul did.) I believe that like the dragon in Beowulf, the One Ring represents greed and selfishness, or what's at the root of the base nature of humankind. And just like Beowulf, Frodo is the tragic hero, who saves his people at a terrible price. I don't know if that's really what Tolkien intended, I know he hated allegory, but it is an interesting thought. I think he would've enjoyed putting hidden symbolism in his works rather than downright allegory, as a sort of deep and beautiful puzzle for the reader to interpret. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Foils:
Yes, I realise that Beowulf is far from the only text in which literary foils occur, but I'd never heard of them until I read Beowulf and saw how Unferth was the foil of Beowulf. I think they are a fascinating literary "tool" and so I compiled a short list of some of the most notable foils in LotR.

• Boromir and Faramir
• Frodo and Gollum
• Gandalf and Saruman
• Galadriel and Sauron? I am hesitant about this though, I don't think Galadriel is anywhere near as powerful as Sauron and therefore is not a worthy foil.

I guess that's it! I'm really sorry for how unorganised my thoughts here are and how long this is 😅 but I hope this was an interesting read for you all and would love to hear what you think about any facet of my "discoveries" or rather, personal interpretations.

 

[Trackz]

I always saw greater parallels between Beowulf and The Hobbit rather then The Lord of The Rings, but you bring up great points. Tolkien definitely had great respect for the story of Beowulf, as shown in his essay on such. I think this is great analysis of how the Beowulf also might have had great inspiration on The Lord of The Rings and potentially all of middle earth outside of Bilbo's story.

 

[Eljorahir]

The connection between Beowulf and Rohan and Beorn was brought to my attention in another thread:

📖👀 - Chapter 6 (📔Book III): The 👑King of the Golden Hall

The chapter starts with a beautiful, lyrical description of the prairie like grasslands of Rohan. Given his obvious liking for wide open spaces and big skies, one wonders whether Tolkien would have preferred the countryside around Cambridge to Oxford! There is a definite Anglo-Saxon feel to the...

thetolkien.forum

I’m thinking the display of body parts of fallen enemies as trophies in The Hobbit and LOTRs may have been Beowulf inspired.

Beowulf, An Arm on Display:
…a prince of the Geats, had killed Grendel…No Dane Doubted the victory, for the proof, hanging high from the rafters where Beowulf had hung it, was the monster’s arm, claw and shoulder and all.

Beowulf, A Head on Display:
The monsters’ hall was full of rich treasures, but all that Beowulf took was Grendel’s head and the hilt of the giants’ Jeweled sword…staggering under the weight of Grendel’s skull, too heavy for fewer than four of them to handle—two on each side of the spear jammed through it—yet proud of their ugly load and determined that the Danes, seated in Herot, should see it…Beowulf…carried that terrible trophy by the hair, brought it straight to where the Danes sat…”Behold…this glorious sign of victory…”

The Hobbit—Queer Lodgings, A Head and a Skin on Display:
“What did you do with the goblin and the Warg?” asked Bilbo suddenly.
“Come and see!” said Beorn, and they followed round the house. A goblin’s head was stuck outside the gate and a warg-skin was nailed to a tree just beyond.

The Lord of the Rings—The Riders of Rohan, A Head on Display:
…the place of the great burning: the ashes were still hot and smoking. Beside it was a great pile of helms and mail, cloven shields, and broken swords, bows and darts and other gear of war. Upon a stake in the middle was set a great goblin head; upon its shattered helm the white badge could still be seen.

 

[Eljorahir]

@Elbereth Gilthoniel , Let me know if this is off-topic for your thread. If so, I'll start another, but it seems on-topic at least for the title.

I think I'm going to reread Beowulf and see how many of these types of comparisons between the stories I can find.

Comparing the funerals of Theoden and Beowulf, another good one…

The Lord of the Rings—Many Partings:
Then the Riders of the King’s House upon white horses rode round about the barrow and sang together a song of Theoden Thengel’s son…The slow voices of the Riders stirred the hearts even of those who did not know the speech of that people; but the words of the song brought a light to the eyes of the folk of the Mark as they heard again afar the thunder of the hooves of the North and the voice of Eorl…

Beowulf:
Then the Geats built the tower…strong and tall…made his monument, sealed his ashes in walls as straight and high as wise and willing hands could raise them…And then twelve of the bravest Geats rode their horses around the tower, telling their sorrow, telling stories of their dead king and his greatness, his glory, praising him for heroic deeds, for a life as noble as his name.

 

[Elthir]

First of all, the most obvious -- Names in LotR/TH derived from Old English and Old Norse
(. . .) Arathorn - OE "royal eagle" (. . .)

I'm no Old English scholar, but I am Oldish. Anyway, are you sure about this one?

Arathorn is supposed to be a real name within Middle-earth (that is, a name actually spoken by the characters within Middle-earth) and not a translation. The Sindarin-based name means "Eagle-king" according to JRRT in a late letter (I realize it has a different meaning in Parma Eldalamberon 17), and it would be "surprising" if we had such an exact form and close meaning in Old English.

For instance, Éowyn is intended as an Old English translation, as you rightly point out, and thus it's not her real name back in "Frodo's" day, as Old English didn't exist yet.

Granted, we have Orthanc. Surprise! But I don't recall Arathorn fitting into this mold.

This isn't from OE or ON, but I'm learning Latin and stumbled across it in my vocab and thought it was cool: Morior means "die", and I wonder if Moria was derived from that. I've also read that Moria comes from a Sindarin word meaning "dark" or "abyss" which also fits, but I wonder if Tolkien adopted that from Latin.

Tolkien noted that he lifted Moria from the Norwegian tale Soria Moria Castle -- he liked the sound sequence and was able to fit it into the already existing structure. Sindarin Moria means "Black Pit, Black Chasm" (see also S. iâ)

My favourites are Faramir, meaning "sufficient jewel", and Boromir, meaning "faithful jewel".

Strange as it may sound, so far (and as far as I know) we don't really know what Faramir is intended to mean, even with the good guess that the last part is probably intended to mean "jewel". I realize "sufficient" is fairly easily found on the net, but. . . don't believe everything you find on the net. . .

. . . said me, on the net.

 

[Eljorahir]

Maybe just a little off-topic, but interesting nonetheless...

I was surprised to see the term middle-earth used in my copy of Beowulf. (I have 'Beowulf' translated by Burton Raffel with an afterword by Robert P. Creed. Both the translation and the afterword are copyrighted in 1963.)

In the second paragraph of the Afterword, Creed writes...

'Not long after Homer was fortunate enough to find both Richmond Lattimore for his Iliad and Robert Fitzgerald for his Odyssey the Old English poet found Raffel for his Beowulf. If the old poets have cause for rejoicing in Elysium, how much greater cause have we here on middle-earth!'

Consulting a couple of online dictionaries I see the term goes back to the 1300's. And, the definition...

middle-earth: the earth regarded as situated between the upper and lower regions or as occupying the center of the universe

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

middle-earth: the earth regarded as situated between the upper and lower regions or as occupying the center of the universe

It reminds me mainly of the Midgard of Norse mythology.

Midgard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The realm of men/humans, as opposed to the other realms of gods or elves.

 

[Eljorahir]

Another entertaining similarity...

Beowulf’s Burglar:
‘…the ancient treasure…the dragon had been guarding…
But the thief…
Once inside,
Seeing the sleeping beast, staring as it
Yawned and stretched, not wanting to wake it,
Terror-struck, he turned and ran for his life,
Taking the jeweled cup.’

Tolkien’s Burglar:
‘There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep…about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things…such treasure…He grasped a great two-handled cup, as heavy as he could carry…Then Bilbo fled…His heart was beating and a more fevered shaking was in his legs…’

The Thief from Beowulf:

The Hobbit:

 

[Eljorahir]

Theoden’s Niece Serves the Wine:
‘…Eowyn came forward bearing wine. “Ferthu Theoden hal!” she said. “Receive now this cup and drink in happy hour. Health be with thee at thy going and coming!” Theoden drank…then she proffered it to the guests. As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him…he took the cup…”Hail Aragorn son of Arathorn!” she said…’

Hrothgar’s Queen Serves the Wine:
‘…Then Welthow,
Hrothgar’s gold-ringed queen…
She raised a flowing cup
To Hrothgar first, holding it high
For the lord of the Danes to drink, wishing him
Joy in that feast…
Then Welthow went from warrior to warrior,
Pouring a portion from the jeweled cup
For each, till the bracelet-wearing queen
Had carried the mead-cup among them and it was
Beowulf’s turn to be served. She saluted the Geats’
Great prince, thanked God for answering her prayers,
For allowing her hands the happy duty
Of offering mead to a hero who would help
Her afflicted people. He drank what she poured…’

Eowyn:

Welthow:

 

[Backyard Professor]

Gollum - theorised that this comes from the ON word for "gold", but I believe it's just the sound Gollum makes in his throat and nothing more

Good stuff! I love word studies and name studies in Tolkien! I think the idea that Gollum comes from an old word meaning “gold” sounds clever, but Tolkien didn’t actually base the name on that. He named him after the strange, choking sound he makes in his throat, which he describes in the story itself. But there’s a deeper twist: that goll / gul sound-shape appears in other dark Tolkien words like Dol Guldur and gûl (“sorcery”), so the noise isn’t just random—it “fits” the world of corruption and dark magic. Even his earlier name Sméagol connects to digging and burrowing (Old English smēagan, “to search, probe, creep into”), which matches his cave-dweller life. So when readers say “Gollum,” they almost feel his character in their own throat—tight, inward, swallowed. In other words, Tolkien didn’t simply describe a sound: he used a sound that symbolizes Gollum’s twisted, inward-turning life. Perhaps that’s why the name sticks so strongly in our minds.

Arathorn - OE "royal eagle"

You mention Arathorn. I just finished gathering some Sindarin information from PE 17 this week and here is some of what I have on Arathron that is kind of cool. Arathorn isn’t actually Old English “royal eagle,” even if it looks that way in modern English. The name is Sindarin, built from aran “king, noble, high one” and thorn / thoron “eagle.” Tolkien notes thoron as the great eagle of Manwë’s realm, a symbol of watchfulness, height, and divine oversight. So Arathorn isn’t “king-eagle” in a cartoonish sense, but “noble/high one marked by the eagle,” which fits a line destined to produce Aragorn, the returned king. The eagle element is a major Tolkien signal Because in the legendarium, eagles appear only at moments of fate, rescue, and higher authority. Naming Aragorn’s father with this element quietly links his bloodline to vigilance from on high, the “seen-from-above” perspective of the Valar’s messengers. So, I would propose the name is both lineage and omen: not just “an eagle-king,” but one whose house stands under the sign of the eagle’s clear-sighted guardianship. That's one way to put it.

 

[herlig9]

I saw the movie once but... eh i didnt like how it ended, felt like something "Del Toro" would write, if you know what i mean. Not a fan.

But the original story is said to be good. Just curious to what you think?