Finland - Tolkien`s Lords of the Rings inspired from ancient language and legends!

Photo. Sunset in one of the many mysterious forests in Finland. © Travel Explorations.

According to National Geographic (Brian Handwerk, for National Geographic News, 1 March, 2004 - www.NationalGeographic.com ), has the anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis travelled to a remote corner of Finland to find out where Tolkien really got his inspiration from.

Tolkien studied Finnish in once was Finland 's Viena Karelia region, along the Russian border. By the 19th century this area was a last refuge for a unique dialect of the Finnish language. So his famous books is based on reality. both regarding history and geography.

Nearly all Finns at that time were speaking Finnish, Swedish, or even Russian, the region's established written languages. But a dialect still existed in this isolated region as it always had, in oral form, passed down through the ages from one generation to the next in songs and verses, or runes.

A collection of these runes, comparable to India's Ramayana, or the Greek Odyssey, is known in Finland as the Kalevala, and those who sing its lyrical verses from memory are known as rune singers. These elders long carried in their minds the entire record of the Finnish language. In what was the Viena Karelia region, the oral tradition of the Finnish language is still alive.   

Not as the story about the Lords of the Rings, Finland is for the most part a quiet land. But the incredible nature and atmosphere in the country can raise your fantasy to big heights.   In addition to the Finnish language, the country's thousands of lakes and widespread pristine forest, have probably been an inspiration source for Tolkien too.   And what about the trolls? The closest you can come fantasy creatures today in Finland is in the Moomin Valley where you can meet the friendly Finnish Moomintrolls.   Photos. From the northern part of Finland - deep in the Soumi silent and misty forest - sunset. The atmosphere was unique! © Travel Explorations.

 
The woods were obviously important to Tolkien. He wrote about trees, especially in the magic of Lothlorien and the personalities of Fangorn forest. Here mentioned several kinds of trees. He made the trees in human figures. The tree Treebeard is one of the characters in the Lord of the Rings, which is both talking and moving. One unforgettable scene is about Treebeard and Merry, from the film of The Two Towers. Tolkien could have found his inspiration from trees many places, for example from the ancient Celts, but he couldn't avoid to be fascinated by the Finnish misty forest.

Tolkien taught himself the ancient and newly codified Finnish to develop his elfin language, and so that he could read the Kalevala in its original Finnish. Inspired by the Finnish language it became the lyrical tongue of Middle-earth's elves. This achievement opened the door to many further influences from Finnish mythology. Parallels abound between the Kalevala and Tolkien's own saga, in terms of both the characters themselves and the idea of the hero's journey.

The Kalevala is an epic mythology that includes creation stories and the fight between good and evil. It's just what the great book and trilogy movie "Lords of the Rings" is about. Reported by Davis (National Geographic): The Kalevala features "all the themes of pre-Christian traditions, shape-shifting, mythical demons, magical plants, animals becoming human beings, while the story itself " is fundamentally a story of a sacred object which has power, and the pursuit of the mythic heroes who seek that power, to seek a way of understanding what that power means.'

Perhaps we have something to learn today, in a world full of conflicts, wars and power struggle, from Tolkien`s great stories. He is telling words of wisdom!

As National Geographic consider it: Tolkien readers have long seen Tolkien's bucolic vision of rural England represented in Middle-earth's Shire, and recognized English farmers in characters such as the hobbit Sam. But those who explore the Kalevala may discover much of the land of the elves, and their language, in the vast snowy spruce forests of Finnish legend.

Photo. One of the many nice an funny Moomintrolls in Finland. © Photo from Per Henriksen, Reiseliv - www.Reiseliv.no). I would like to see these trolls in the movie "Lords of the Rings".

I really wonder about, did Tolkien meet any of the Moomintrolls in Finland during his stay there? I think these nice and friendly trolls should been in his story too. And as told in the book and shown in the movies; the Hobbits could real partying, so can the Finns more than anyone else. So perhaps Tolkien find some inspirations here too.

Stein Morten Lund, 7 March 2004

Additional information

Read the full story about Finland`s connection with Tolkien`s book about "Lord of the Rings" in National Geographic: (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_tolkienroots.html )

Read more about the Lords of the Rings - books, movie and the story behind the masterpiece - at National Geographic (www.NationalGeographic.com)

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