A few months ago I wrote a post about The Wanderer, an Old English poem that inspired several aspects of The Lord of the Rings. Now I want to share two other texts and their connection to Tolkien’s writings.

Maxims I and Maxims II

Like The Wanderer, Maxims I appears in The Exeter Book. Maxims II appears in a British Library manuscript called Cotton MS Tiberius B.i. Both texts are collections of alliterative gnomic verse, that is wise sayings set to verse as a memory aid.

Here is the beginning of Maxims I, translated by Dr. Aaron K. Hostetter:

Ask me of these olden words — nor let your soul be hidden,
or be secret what you know most deeply!

I don’t wish to speak to you of my hidden matters,
if you veil your crafty thought from me, and the ideas of your heart.

Wise men must trade their songs. Man must first praise God
fairly, with “Our Father!” because he formed us at first,

our life and loaned desires—he wishes to remind us of the requital.
The Measurer must exist in glory: man must be on earth—

the young must grow old. God will be with us eternally,
never do outcomes change him, nor do troubles afflict him at all,

neither disease nor old age—the Almighty—
nor does he wither in spirit, yet he is as he ever was,

a Lord long-suffering. He grants us understanding,
a mindful variety, many manners of speech.

The Long List of the Ents

In The Road to Middle Earth, Shippey calls Maxims I and Maxims II “’Treebeard-style’ gnomic poems.” To understand the comparison, let’s look at the “Long List of the Ents” that Treebeard recites to Merry and Pippin in Book Three Chapter IV of The Two Towers:

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Elders of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ents the earthborn, old as mountains;
Man the mortal, master of horses:

Beaver the builder, buck the leaper,
Bear bee-hunter, boar the fighter;
Hound is hungry, hare is fearful…

Eagle in eyrie, ox in pasture,
Hart horn-crowned; hawk is swiftest,
Swan the whitest, serpent coldest…

Later Treebeard adds this verse:

Ents the earthborn, old as mountains,
The wide-walkers, water drinking;
And hungry as hunters, the Hobbit children,
The laughing-folk, the little people.

On the surface the alliteration and pause in the middle of the lines point to the influence of Old English poetry. Discussing Maxims II in particular Lee and Solopova point out further similarities.

• Treebeard’s verse “sets out how things have been and will be, with everything in its place or with its reason, and has a sense of hierarchy…The Old English also conveys to the audience a feeling of how things must be, which is possibly what Treebeard is searching for. The bear will hunt bees – that is what a bear is meant to do – and the eagle will live in its eyrie.”
• “Moreover like Treebeard’s song, Maxims II undoubtedly encapsulates folk wisdom passed down from generation to generation of the early English… It is understandable therefore that Tolkien associated the Ents with these maxims as their attitude to memory and the past is a main feature of their character.”

(If you’re curious about the term “Ents” I discussed it in my previous post.)

Maxims II

Here are two excerpts from Maxims II (again translated by Dr. Aaron K. Hostetter) so you can compare the lines for yourself:

The way of the world is greatest. Winter is the coldest,
the spring most icy—it’s cold for the longest—

the summer the most sun-beautiful—the heaven is hottest—
the harvest is most blessed, it brings to men

the whole year’s crops, what God sends to them.
The truth is very tricky, treasure the dearest,

and gold is for every man, the old man is the wisest,
aged in ancient years, who has experienced many events.

Later in the poem, we find mention of several creatures:

The wolf must live in the grove,
a miserable lone-dweller, the boar in the forest,

Firm in its toothy power. An excellent man
must work glory in his homeland.

A javelin must rest in the palm,
a spear gold-splattered. A gem must be in the ring

standing high and wide. The river must mix up
with the waves, the tidal flood. A mast must be on the ship,

the sail-yard hanging. The sword must be in the lap,
the lordly iron. The dragon must be in the barrow,

aged, proud in treasure. The fish must be in the water,
propagating its kind. The king must wait in the hall,

dealing in rings. The bear must be on the heath,
old and terrible. The rivers runs downhill,

flowing as grey as the sea. An army must stand together,
a band ready for glory...

We’ve only scratched the surface of Tolkien’s influences; I find them so interesting!

Sources

• The Road to Middle Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom Shippey
• Pre-print extract from S. Lee and E. Solopova, The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien (Palgrave, 2005).
• Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry Project by Dr. Aaron K. Hostetter