Lembas Bread

The Elves performed a long march from Cuivienen to Valinor in Aman. The Elves were also known as Eldar. In the march, they traveled from the place of awakening to Aman. The Elves called this trip the Great Journey. During the Great Journey, they ate exceptional travel food, and the food was named as Lembas. Besides, it was also called as Elven bread or Waybread in an ordinary language. The main content of the Lembas was corn. But usually, corn means grain and including that of maize. It is like any grain we eat and is usually called corn, maize, or wheat, but for food, it seems all are similar food grain. The first Lembas was prepared from home-grown corn, and after that, from all kinds of food grains.

This travel food enjoyed particular importance in all the food of Elves. In the film the Fellowship of the Rings, a farewell poem was written. In the movie, the importance of travel food is recorded in this poem. The overall meaning of the poem goes like: You need to eat only a small amount of travel food. It was an exceptional food which can satisfy the full need of a hungry person. When all other meals are not able to satisfy you, the Lembas will fulfill your stomach. The sweet you can make and keep it ready to eat for several days. It won't get spoiled even after several days. If you eat the Lembas, you can work a full day, or you can continue your walking journey for the whole day. If you are giant, still that food will satisfy your hunger, and you will be able to continue your journey. Hence, the importance of Lembas was high. The method and procedure of making the Lembas were called the Eldar. The origin of the Eldar is presumed to be from Vala Yavanna.

The Lembas was very healthy, nutritious, and durable food. This travel food remains worth eating for several days if appropriately preserved in the leaves of Mallorn. This was suitable food for eating on long journeys. The lembas was a kind of bakery food with brown color from outside and creamy from inside. The foodstuffs used for making Lembas are baked lightly and made crispy. Lembas was a food of Elves, but sometimes they shared it with non-Elves also on special occasions. It is assumed to be an excellent gesture to accept the Lembas for eating when offered by somebody. If a non-Elves refuses to accept the Lembas from Elves, it will be assumed to be too offensive towards the Elves. Hence, it is advised not to reject any Lembas when given to a non-elves person on special occasions. On one occasion, when Gimli received Lembas for eating, he thought that the looks of the food were just simple, like any ordinary food. So, it might not be tasty food. When Gimli ate Lembas, he found it very tasty and healthy. He described that its taste was not like that of a Cram, which he didn't like to eat. He loved the Lembas and wanted to let it know the other people.

During the Third Age in Middle-earth, the most common language spoken was Elvish. In the real world, the language is also called Elvin or the Elvish language. In simple terms, it is also called the Elven Tongue, which means a Sindarin language. The word Lembas was a word derived from the Sindarin language or Elvish language, which was a combination of two words- Lenn-mbass. The meaning of these two words was journey bread. In other sense, the term is used as Coimas, whose purpose was Life bread.

When the people were traveling for long sea voyages and long military campaigns, they used to carry bread made from flour and water called hardtack. They were suitable for several months if kept out of humidity. JRR Tolkien mentioned the hard piece of bread-like material. It was like the present day's bread, which could be used after several months. Heinrich Agrippa Cornelius [1] wrote in his book Libri Tres Occulta philosophic [2], about a Scythian natural herbal medicine. If you eat this herbal, you need not take food or fluid for twelve days.

It is suspected that JRR Tolkien might have mentioned the concept of the Lembas due to his imaginations: From the natural herb medicine enumerated in Agrippa's book, which can fulfill all the food and water requirements of man for twelve days. The Other reason might be that since Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, he might have modeled the Lembas theory based on Catholic bread. As the origin of the Eucharist was the same as Lembas, which was theorized based on the Great Journey. Also, the meaning of the way bread is similar to that of Visticum, which means the traveling provisions. Tolkien was a professor of English at Oxford University, and a Lammas Day was celebrated in August and September at the University. On this day, the students need to prepare a loaf, a bread of grain from the new crop and bring it to church. This was called the annual harvest day and was celebrated in most of the North American Countries in the Northern Hemisphere. It was customary to prepare a loaf of new grain and break it into four pieces to place it on four corners of the grain's storages. In several European countries, the word Lembas has been adapted to indicate different financial and domestic terms.

• In the Lord of the Rings movie by Peter Jackson, the gift of Lembas is not a part release of the Fellowship of the Ring. However, the filmmakers considered mentioning the term so that the movie-goers don't get confused.
• In the Fellowship of the Ring, Legolas told Merry and Pippin that a small piece is sufficient for a person to satisfy his appetite.
• In another instance, Frodo and Sam ate some pieces of their bread; it was assumed to be similar to Lembas.

In the video games the Fellowship of the Ring, the Lembas was wrapped in the leaves of Mallorn. The color of the Lembas was green from outside and brown from inside.

1. ^Heinrich Agrippa Cornelius
2. ^Libri Tres Occulta philosophic