| Rivendell | |
|---|---|
| Middle-earth location | |
 J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 painting of Rivendell | |
| First appearance | The Hobbit (1937) |
| In-universe information | |
| Other name(s) | Imladris Karningul Last Homely House East ofthe Sea |
| Type | Refuge of theElves Hidden Refuge |
| Ruler | Elrond |
| Location | easternEriador: a western valley of theMisty Mountains |
| Lifespan | S.A. 1697 - Abandoned byF.A. 120 |
| Founder | Elrond |
Rivendell (Sindarin:Imladris) is a valley inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfictional world ofMiddle-earth, representing both a homely place of sanctuary and a magicalElvish otherworld. It is an important location inThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings, being the place where the quest to destroy theOne Ring began.
Rivendell's feeling of peace may have contributed to the popularity ofThe Lord of the Rings during the war-troubled 1960s. Scholars have noted that Rivendell was the home of Elvish song, from thehymn toElbereth, recallingTolkien's Catholicism, to the complexSong of Eärendil with itsmultiple poetic devices. Others have written that it resembles theCeltic Otherworld ofTír na nÓg; and that it physically recalls the valley ofLauterbrunnen in Switzerland where Tolkien had gone hiking in 1911.
Rivendell is a direct translation orcalque into English of theSindarinImladris, both meaning "deep valley". The name Rivendell is formed by two English elements: "riven" (split, cloven) and "dell" (valley). Imladris was rendered "Karningul" inWestron, the "Common Tongue" of Middle-earthrepresented as English in the text ofThe Lord of the Rings. The house of Elrond in Rivendell is also calledThe Last Homely House East of the Sea, alluding to the wilderness (Rhovanion) that lies east of theMisty Mountains.[T 1]
Rivendell lay in easternEriador at the edge of a narrow gorge of the riverBruinen (one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from the nearbyFord of Bruinen), well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of theHithaeglir orMisty Mountains. Contrary to the map of western Middle-earth published inThe Lord of the Rings, the Great East Road did not, in Tolkien's view, lead through Rivendell: Rivendell was maintained as a hidden valley away from the road to the High Pass.[T 2][T 3][T 4] LikeHobbiton, it is at about the same latitude as Tolkien's workplace,Oxford.[T 5]
Rivendell was founded in theSecond Age after the dark lordSauron's destruction of the Elvish land ofEregion. Rivendell remained as the only Elven settlement in eastern Eriador;Gil-galad gave Elrond the RingVilya, providing him with the power to protect Rivendell and slow the passage of time in its hidden valley: indeed, Rivendell kept its own calendar.[T 6][T 7][T 8] Rivendell survived repeated attacks in theThird Age by the armies of theWitch-king of Angmar.[1][T 7] Rivendell held the heirlooms of theRangers of the North from the lost kingdom ofArnor, including the shards ofElendil's swordNarsil, the Sceptre of Annúminas, and the Star of Elendil. Elrond fostered the children of the heirs to Arnor's throne, the last beingAragorn. While in Rivendell, Aragorn met and fell in love with Elrond's daughter,Arwen. They were married after he was crowned king of bothGondor and Arnor.[T 9] Sauron's enemies including Elrond formed theWhite Council, which met in Rivendell, as when the Council decided to eject the Necromancer from his fortress inDol Guldur.[T 10] Theprotagonists ofThe Hobbit take advice from Elrond in Rivendell.[T 2] Theprotagonists ofThe Lord of the Rings meet in Rivendell, attend theCouncil of Elrond, and decide on the quest to destroy theOne Ring. The heroAragorn's sword is reforged asAndúril by Rivendell's smiths.[T 8][T 10][T 11] When the One Ring is destroyed, Elrond's ring loses its power, and he leaves to sail forValinor.[T 12][T 13]
The Rivendell valley is based upon the valley ofLauterbrunnen in Switzerland, where Tolkien had gone hiking. Tolkien stated directly that "From Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, the journey ... including theglissade [of Bilbo and the Dwarves] down theslithering stones into the pine woods ... is based on my adventures in Switzerland in 1911".[T 14][2]
The medievalistMarjorie Burns writes that Bilbo's approach to Rivendell parallels the early fantasy writer and translator of Norse legendWilliam Morris's approach through the wilds of Iceland to a place he called "Water-dale" (Vatnsdale); both ride across uplands dotted with patches of green, becoming extremely tired; both then cross narrow ravines, and bogs; and both arrive at a hidden valley that offers shelter and comfort. In another place, Morris crosses a "narrow, bridge-like rock", just as Bilbo faces a "narrow bridge of stone without a parapet" on entering Rivendell.[3]
Matthew T. Dickerson, in theJ. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, writes that Rivendell consistently represents a sanctuary, a place that felt like home, throughout the legendarium.[1] The journalist Jane Ciabattari writes that a major reason for the popularity ofLord of the Rings was the desire for escape among theVietnam War generation. She compares themilitary-industrial complex withMordor, and suggests that they yearned for a place of peace, just as Frodo Baggins felt an "overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace… in Rivendell".[5]Burns writes that Rivendell and the other Elvish realm ofLothlórien parallel theCeltic Otherworld (in Irish,Tír na nÓg), being hard to find, but if one is admitted and welcomed, one crosses a river, symbolising the spiritual transition from the ordinary realm, and "the weary adventurer is transported into a haven of Elven hospitality and delight".[4] There are multiple markers of the transition:
To enter Rivendell is to leave, for a time, the uplands' bleak, mountainous, northerly terrain. First comes the steep descent ...; pines are replaced by beech and oak; the air grows warmer; the first of the elves greet them with laughter and song, and then comes the inevitable water crossing that divides the rest of Middle-earth from the inner core of every Elven realm.[6]
Burns notes that both "Riven" and "dell" suggest a low place into which one must descend; and that a descent is characteristic of Celtic tales of entry intothe underground realm of theTuatha Dé Danann, whose chiefs each rule a burial mound.[7]
The philologist and Tolkien scholarTom Shippey remarks that Tolkien, aChristian, was extremely careful with dates and timelines, but that hardly any readers notice that the Fellowship sets out from Rivendell on itsquest on 25 December, the date ofChristmas, and succeeds, destroying the Ring and causing the fall of Sauron, on 25 March, the date in Anglo-Saxon tradition for theCrucifixion.[8]
The Tolkien scholarVerlyn Flieger writes that both Frodo and Aragorn receive their renewedmagic swords in Rivendell,marking them out as heroes in the epic tradition ofSigurd andArthur, at the start oftheir quest.[9]
Shippey contrasts the versions of theOld Walking Song sung by Bilbo and Frodo. Bilbo follows the "Road ... with eager feet", hoping to reach the peace of Rivendell, to retire and take his ease; whereas Frodo sings "with weary feet", hoping somehow to reach Mordor bearing the Ring, and to try to destroy it in theCracks of Doom: diametrically opposed destinations and errands.[10] He notes that Rivendell was the home of Elvish song, and cites Tolkien's statement that the song that the Hobbits hear in Rivendell,A Elbereth Gilthoniel invoking the semi-divineVarda, was ahymnsuggestive of his own devout Catholicism.[11] Shippey writes, too, that Tolkien had Bilbo write and sing the Song ofEarendil in Rivendell, making use ofmultiple poetic devices – rhyme, internal half-rhyme, alliteration, alliterative assonance, and "a frequent if irregular variation of syntax" – to create a mysterious Elvish effect of "rich and continuous uncertainty, a pattern forever being glimpsed but never quite grasped."[12] Rebecca Ankeny comments that Tolkien uses verse, too, to signal the horror of the Elves when Gandalf speaks the dark lord'srhyme of the Rings aloud, in theBlack Speech, threatening the end of Rivendell.[13]
The Tolkien scholarGergely Nagy notes that Tolkien wanted to present the complex set of writings ofThe Silmarillion as a seemingly-genuine collection of tales and myths within the frame of his fictional Middle-earth; he modifiedThe Lord of the Rings to ascribe the documents to Bilbo, supposedly written in the years he spent in Rivendell, and preserved in the fictitiousRed Book of Westmarch, its name alluding to theRed Book of Hergest.[14]
Burns writes that Rivendell, "the Last Homely House",[T 8] offers a welcoming home, repeating the pattern set in bothThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings of "easy-going but tidy bachelor indulgence" from Bilbo'sBag End hobbit-hole onwards; despite Arwen, there is hardly anything "of the feminine".[15] Shippey states that Frodo has "to be dug out ... of no fewer thanfive 'Homely Houses'", of which Rivendell is the last.[16]
InPeter Jackson's 2001 filmThe Fellowship of the Ring, Rivendell was represented byKaitoke Regional Park,New Zealand, though the waterfalls were added withcomputer-generated imagery.[18]Brian Rosebury comments that Jackson presents the Elves as sophisticated, where Tolkien made them close to nature. All the same, he writes, the film Rivendell's "architecture and ornaments are dominated by natural motifs", suggesting "integration with nature, but at one remove", something that works well for the "Portmeirion-like idyll" of the portrayed Rivendell. Rosebury describes the design as "post-Ruskinian", as inpre-Raphaelite paintings,William Morris'sArts and Crafts designs, andArt Nouveau architectural details. These differ fromTolkien's own illustrations, but in a way, Rosebury suggests, that Tolkien would have liked as it matches his dislike of industrialised manufacture.[17]
In the period ofcounterculture in theWestern world of the 1960s and 1970s, acommune calledMaos Lyst (Mao's Delight) was founded on the island ofZealand,Denmark, in 1968, its inhabitants replacing their surnames withKløvedal, the Danish for Rivendell. Several of them later became well-known cultural personalities in the country.[19][5] The Rivendell Winery operated from 1987 to 2008 in New York'sHudson River Valley.[20]The Tolkien Ensemble set all the songs inThe Lord of the Rings to music on four CDs between 1997 and 2005, each with "Rivendell" in its title.[21] The Swedish classical composerAnna-Lena Laurin has written a work for two guitars entitled "Rivendell".[22]The Canadian progressive rock bandRush memorialised the Elvish sanctuary in the song "Rivendell" on their 1975 studio albumFly by Night. The song focuses on the tranquillity and seemingly endless time a weary traveller could find there, with lyrics such as "Elfin songs and endless nights / Sweet wine and soft relaxing lights / Time will never touch you / Here in this enchanted place".[23][5]
Kollektivet bestod blandt andre af forfatteren Ebbe Reich og udmærkede sig ved, at medlemmerne tog det fælles efternavn Kløvedal fra bogenRingenes Herre. [The collective consisted, among others, of the author Ebbe Reich and was distinguished by the fact that the members took the common surname Kløvedal from the book "The Lord of the Rings". ]
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