Ekphrasis

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Ekphrasis: the description or interpretation of a piece of art, usually visual, in a different artistic medium.

This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event dedicated to the art of ekphrasis in Tolkien's worlds. Its goal is to illuminate the artistic surroundings of the places, people, and stories we love, in as many media as possible. As such, fanworks are welcome to take almost any form: see the FAQ for the full list!

I am happy to publicize this event, but do so here in Lore because it got me thinking that (a) Ekphrasis should be found in Tolkien's stories, but (b) very rarely is, and (c) that is curious.

I mean, the whole deal with the Elves is their enchanting art, and the Dwarves are also makers of wonderous things, and the Ring and other such stuff of Necromancy is just counterfeit Elvish art. So the stories are all about art, and yet we don't seem to have much that counts as Ekphrasis.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

On his second night in the house of Bombadil, 'either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which':

Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise. (Fog on the Barrow-downs)

A sweet song, which seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain... This is an instance of ekphrasis, right?

Compare.

And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. (The Grey Havens)

This is not ekphrasis because the sound of the song and the vision as the grey curtain is drawn are discrete. Right?

Anyone?

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

I would say it's more the description of a vision in both instances than ekphrasis. Because he doesn't really describe the song in much detail, he's more so describing a scene in nature, which Frodo sees first in a vision and then in reality when he sails to Valinor.

An example of ekphrasis would, I believe, be the beginning of the Silmarillion in which he greatly details the songs that create the world into being. The Music of the Ainur can be considered an artwork, which is described in a literary context.

Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. (Tolkien, The Silmarillion)

[Chrysophylax Dives]

An example of ekphrasis would, I believe, be the beginning of the Silmarillion in which he greatly details the songs that create the world into being. The Music of the Ainur can be considered an artwork, which is described in a literary context.

Right! And that foundational transformation of music into vision is what I am sensing - but having difficulty pinning down - in other instances too, not just the rain curtain above.

Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.

In this quote - from the dream-vision in the house of Bombadil - what goes on in Frodo's head is that he hears a song. The vision that follows is a description of the song, presented as a similie. We read and think we are reading a vision, but actually we are reading a visual similie about a sweet song. Does that sound right? And if so, is this an instance of ekphrasis? (It is not a term I have used before.)

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

You are right and I totally missed that about Frodo's vision in the house of Bombadil. It's because Tolkien describes his scenes SO well, that I pictured it clearly in my mind and just assumed it was a vision Frodo was seeing.

But actually he heard a song in his mind, and that melody seems to have made him think of or picture these images. Almost like the melody is communicating this information to him, of what he will see when he crosses to Valinor. This reminds me of the Music of the Ainur as well. Sound that brings things into being.

Perhaps then, yes this would be Ekphrasis too.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

You are right and I totally missed that about Frodo's vision in the house of Bombadil. It's because Tolkien describes his scenes SO well, that I pictured it clearly in my mind and just assumed it was a vision Frodo was seeing.

I am really glad you say that! I was worried I was getting something upside-down. And you are totally right about Tolkien's craft of writing. Back in January I wrote a whole comparison of these two passages - and completely missed that Frodo's vision is a song. I only noticed that the other day, and only after encountering this notion of ekphrasis (not exactly a word I use everyday).

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

No you got it correct! Good on you for spotting it. It's so subtle, but it makes sense because maybe one of the Ainur sent this song to him. Or maybe Bombadil did.

The Ainur communicate through song, right? Or they can. I don't know too much on the lore of them, I only read the Sil once. xD

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The Ainur communicate through song, right? Or they can. I don't know too much on the lore of them, I only read the Sil once. xD

My guilty secret on this site is that when I was about 13 and obsessed with LotR I purchased the Silmarillion and could not get past the beginning of the world. I do like reading people on Beren and Luthien and all that, but I don't really get those stories.

But I have read LotR more times than you have drunk blueberry tea! And I've been writing a series of posts for a website - ironically titled, the Silmarillion Writers Guild - that circles the encounter in the Woody End between 3 Hobbits and a company of Elves as the foundation stone of the story. In a late publication (1967) Tolkien discloses that the Elves are returning from Elostirion, the western Elf-tower referred to in the Prologue, and suggests that in the palantír in the tower they have gazed on a vision of Elbereth standing on the high mountain of Valinor. The first sign of these Elves in the story is their song to Elbereth, and in the conversation Gildor blesses Frodo in the name of Elbereth.

After the night that Frodo spends with the Elves in the Woody End, he sleeps in the house at Crickhollow, and dreams of a tall tower that he desires to climb to look on the sea. The next night, the first in the house of Bombadil, he dreams of Gandalf rescued from Orthanc. And the next night, the second in the house of Bombadil, he has the song-vision of Valinor that we are talking about here.

(Now you know why I am so concerned with the Elf-tower in the Westmarch. It is hidden in the story but somehow - I think - the foundation of its design.)

So I have a sense of an odd series of steps between song and vision - as if the song plants a seed of vision in the minds of Frodo when he hears the Elves sing. But I cannot see clearly. I can make no sense of what is really going on here. When I started writing this post I thought I would conclude that the song is that of Elbereth. But I am not sure at all.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Guilty secret to buy and read the Silmarillion at the age of thirteen years old? Around that age I got the books in Dutch pressed in my hands by my dad, and a more or less order to read it, because it was fantastic and my dad loved it. The Sil is not that hard to understand. It is just letting your mind flow with the events that happen and the characters that experience them.

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

@Chrysophylax DivesI would highly recommend you try again with the Silmarillion, there are many great tales in it. I have been meaning to dive in again. I think I only rereard Beren and Luthien and maybe a couple others. xD

Wow that's cool, I don't remember that part about the tower dream. Hmm... maybe he was trying to look into the past? Understand the Elves better, as I know Frodo was always interested and curious about the Elves.

Who is Elbereth exactly?

@Aikári SalmarinianThat's great that your father told you to read the books but then you loved them and became a fan yourself.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Melahny: Sure! Elbereth is Varda Elentári, known in Sindarin as Elbereth Gilthoniel, was a Valië, one of the Aratar, the wife of Manwë and Queen of the Valar. . More you can read on Tolkien Gateway. All is explained there.

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

Ah thank you!

So Frodo saw the Queen of Valar standing in Valinor in his vision? Wow, amazing. Would he have met with her and the other Valar when he went to Valinor in the end?

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

Ah thank you!

So Frodo saw the Queen of Valar standing in Valinor in his vision? Wow, amazing. Would he have met with her and the other Valar when he went to Valinor in the end?

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Melahny: You're welcome! That might have happened, but it is not written down as far I am aware off. So that is for your own imagination. I think he lived out his life there and died, just as Bilbo, in peace and quiet, and are buried somewhere in Eressëa.