Backyard Professor
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2025
- Messages
- 210
You remember in the Hobbit when the dwarves and Bilbo were making their way through the Mirkwood and Bilbo climbed the trees to see how far they had left to go, and the blue butterflies all flew up and around from the tree tops? Have you ever wondered what was the significance of that, if anything? And all of the butterflies were blue. What would that symbolism of color tell us?
Tolkien explicitly includes butterflies. Bilbo climbs the oak and sees:
sunlight
a sea of dark treetops
and “dark-blue butterflies.
Why butterflies? (Tolkien’s symbolic instinct)
Tolkien rarely uses insects for pure decoration. When he chooses a creature, it has a function in the inner music of the scene.
Butterflies = lightness, soul, transformation, upwardness.
Bilbo is:
stuck in darkness,
sinking in despair,
trapped beneath an oppressive forest “roof,”
losing hope…
…and then he climbs up.
Up to the light.
Up to fresh air.
Up to the realm where transformation is possible.
The butterflies are the living symbol of that shift.
They mark the threshold moment when Bilbo begins becoming “Bilbo the Hero” instead of “Bilbo the Baggins.”
Blue in Tolkien’s palette is almost never random. Blue = hope, purity, memory of the West, and soul-light.
Consider:
Varda is associated with the blue of the night sky.
Elvish blue is a color of awakening and clarity (e.g., Lúthien’s eyes, the blue fire of Elbereth’s stars).
“Blue” in medieval lore often symbolizes transcendence, ascent, and true sight.
So when Bilbo emerges from the choking dark of Mirkwood and sees blue butterflies, Tolkien is visually encoding:
“Here is a moment of true sight — a glimpse of the world as it should be, not as it is.” Bilbo is being re-enchanted.
What does this mean for Bilbo’s journey? This is the turning point of his inner growth.
Below the canopy = fear, confusion, entrapment.
Above the canopy = clarity, height, perspective.
The butterflies are like a benediction - tiny heralds of Faërie whispering:
“You are on the right road, little burglar.”
“Keep going.”
“Transformation is underway.”
attentively, symbolically, mythically — with the understanding that Faërie speaks through small details.
Tolkien chose butterflies.
He chose blue.
He chose that moment in the journey.
And he believed the world is full of signs for those with eyes to see them.
Now here’s a fascinating little tie in:
The Greek word ψυχή (psychē) means:
soul
spirit
breath
life-breath
AND butterfly
All in one. This is why:
In Greek art, the butterfly is the image of the soul leaving the body. I remember discovering this in R. B. Onians fantastic book "The Origins of European Thought."
Psyche (the mythic figure) is literally depicted with butterfly wings.
The English word psychology originally meant “the study of the soul.”
So when Tolkien places blue butterflies at the exact moment when Bilbo emerges from darkness into light, he is — consciously or instinctively — echoing one of the oldest Indo-European metaphors:
the transformation of the soul into its free, winged state.
Bilbo’s “soul” rises above the choking dark of Mirkwood and glimpses the wider world — this is his psyche taking flight.
Tolkien explicitly includes butterflies. Bilbo climbs the oak and sees:
sunlight
a sea of dark treetops
and “dark-blue butterflies.
Why butterflies? (Tolkien’s symbolic instinct)
Tolkien rarely uses insects for pure decoration. When he chooses a creature, it has a function in the inner music of the scene.
Butterflies = lightness, soul, transformation, upwardness.
Bilbo is:
stuck in darkness,
sinking in despair,
trapped beneath an oppressive forest “roof,”
losing hope…
…and then he climbs up.
Up to the light.
Up to fresh air.
Up to the realm where transformation is possible.
The butterflies are the living symbol of that shift.
They mark the threshold moment when Bilbo begins becoming “Bilbo the Hero” instead of “Bilbo the Baggins.”
Why BLUE butterflies? (This is where the juice is)Blue in Tolkien’s palette is almost never random. Blue = hope, purity, memory of the West, and soul-light.
Consider:
Varda is associated with the blue of the night sky.
Elvish blue is a color of awakening and clarity (e.g., Lúthien’s eyes, the blue fire of Elbereth’s stars).
“Blue” in medieval lore often symbolizes transcendence, ascent, and true sight.
So when Bilbo emerges from the choking dark of Mirkwood and sees blue butterflies, Tolkien is visually encoding:
“Here is a moment of true sight — a glimpse of the world as it should be, not as it is.” Bilbo is being re-enchanted.
What does this mean for Bilbo’s journey? This is the turning point of his inner growth.
Below the canopy = fear, confusion, entrapment.
Above the canopy = clarity, height, perspective.
The butterflies are like a benediction - tiny heralds of Faërie whispering:
“You are on the right road, little burglar.”
“Keep going.”
“Transformation is underway.”
This, it appears to be reading Tolkien the way he asks to be read:attentively, symbolically, mythically — with the understanding that Faërie speaks through small details.
Tolkien chose butterflies.
He chose blue.
He chose that moment in the journey.
And he believed the world is full of signs for those with eyes to see them.
Now here’s a fascinating little tie in:
The Greek word ψυχή (psychē) means:
soul
spirit
breath
life-breath
AND butterfly
All in one. This is why:
In Greek art, the butterfly is the image of the soul leaving the body. I remember discovering this in R. B. Onians fantastic book "The Origins of European Thought."
Psyche (the mythic figure) is literally depicted with butterfly wings.
The English word psychology originally meant “the study of the soul.”
So when Tolkien places blue butterflies at the exact moment when Bilbo emerges from darkness into light, he is — consciously or instinctively — echoing one of the oldest Indo-European metaphors:
the transformation of the soul into its free, winged state.
Bilbo’s “soul” rises above the choking dark of Mirkwood and glimpses the wider world — this is his psyche taking flight.
