"Fastitocalon" is amedieval-style poem byJ. R. R. Tolkien about a giganticsea turtle. The setting is explicitlyMiddle-earth. The poem is included inThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
The work takes its name from amedieval poem of a similar name, itself based on the second-century LatinPhysiologus.
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The second-century LatinPhysiologus tells of a sea-monster, theAspidochelone. This is retold in theOld English poem "The Whale", where the monster appears under the nameFastitocalon, in theExeter Book, folio 96b-97b.[1]
Byetymology, the name "Fastitocalon" is a corruption of the GreekAspido-chelōne, "round-shielded turtle", with the addition of the letter F, according to Tolkien, "simply to make the name alliterate, as was compulsory for poets in his day, with the other words in his line. Shocking, or charming freedom, according to taste".[2] Tolkien commented that the tale of the monster that treacherously simulates an island is from "the East", and that the turtle is mixed up with a whale when the story arrives in Europe, so that the Old English version has him feeding like a whale "trawling with an open mouth".[2]
Look, there is Fastitocalon!
An island good to land upon,
Although 'tis rather bare.
Come, leave the sea! And let us run,
Or dance, or lie down in the sun!
See, gulls are sitting there!
Beware!
Gulls do not sink.
There they may sit, or strut and prink:
Their part is to tip the wink,
If anyone should dare
Upon that isle to settle,
Or only for a while to get
Relief from sickness or the wet,
Or maybe boil a kettle.
Tolkien's firstFastitocalon poem was published in theStapledon Magazine in 1927. A second, heavily revised version appeared inThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962.[3][2][4]
Fastitocalon, the central character in the poem, is the last of the mighty turtle-fish. This poem is well known to theHobbits. It tells of how Fastitocalon's huge size, a "whale-island",[5] enticed sailors to land on its back. After the sailors lit a fire upon Fastitocalon, it dived underwater, causing the sailors to drown.
Fastitocalon was at the surface for long enough for vegetation to grow on its back, adding to the illusion that it was an actual island. Fastitocalon was far larger than the largest non-fictional turtle (Archelon).
It is never explained whether the turtle-fish were an actual race in Middle-earth or fictional characters created solely for the poem. It is distinctly possible that the story is in fact an allegory of the fall ofNúmenor. Like the Fastitocalon, Númenor too sank below the waves, and drowned most of its inhabitants.
Norma Roche writes inMythlore that Tolkien makes use of the medieval story of the voyages ofSaint Brendan and the IrishImmram tradition, where a hero sails to the CelticOtherworld, for his vision of theBlessed Realm and seas to the west of Middle-earth. This is seen in poems such as "The Sea-Bell" and "Imram", while (as several scholars note) his "Fastitocalon" resembles the tale of Jasconius the whale.[6][7]
John D. Rateliff notes that Tolkien stated that when he read a medieval work, he wanted to write a modern one in the same tradition. He constantly created these, whetherpastiches andparodies like "Fastitocalon"; adaptations in medieval metres, like "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" or "asterisk texts" like his "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" (from "Hey Diddle Diddle"); and finally "new wine in old bottles" such as "The Nameless Land" andAelfwine'sAnnals. The works are extremely varied, but all are "suffused with medieval borrowings", making them, writes Rateliff, "most readers' portal into medieval literature". Not all found use inMiddle-earth, but they all helped Tolkien develop a medieval-style craft that enabled him to create the attractively authentic Middle-earth legendarium.[8]
The scholar of literaturePaul H. Kocher comments that from a land-lovingHobbit point of view, the story warns never to go out on the dangerous sea, let alone try to land on an uncharted island. He groups the poem with "Oliphaunt", which the HobbitSam Gamgee recites inIthilien, and "Cat", where the innocent-looking pet dreams of slaughter and violence, as reworkedBestiary poems.[9]
Fastitocalon
