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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Movie Discussion: The Hobbit:
There's a historical parallel:
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Aitieuriskon
Menegroth
Jul 15 2014, 2:21am
Views: 1581
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There's a historical parallel
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I would not be surprised if Tolkien drew inspiration for the wood-elves' love of wine from a particularly prevalent stereotype that existed in the ancient Mediterranean mindset of early Greek traders and later Roman conquerors: the picture of the wine-crazed Celts of the Rhone Valley.
While it wasn't the only trade good being exchanged between the peoples of the Mediterranean and their northern neighbors, wine was certainly one of the most prevalent if archaeological and literary evidence is any indication. Very early (6th-5th century BC) burials of Celtic chieftains almost always contained drinking paraphernalia acquired from the southerners. Google the Vix Krater for one of the more spectacular examples of these. Someone once estimated that it could have held enough wine to supply a party of nearly one thousand revelers.
Legend had it that the Gauls became so addicted to imported wine (which they drank unmixed) that chieftains would trade a slave for a single amphora of Greek wine. Of course, ancient writers had many other unbelievable things to say about peoples living beyond the borders of the "civilized" world, but the sheer number of amphorae containing wine residue found in Gaul and other Celtic regions seems to back this up.
While I'm not saying for sure that Tolkien meant to equate the wood-elves with the Celts and the men of Laketown with Mediterranean traders linking them to the "civilized world" (the world of Men), I do think that the fact that wine was the primary good being traded between the wood-elves and men was inspired, at least in part, by the ancient stereotype. When the Romans began military incursions into Gaul and over the Rhine into Germania, they recorded similar accounts.
Sorry to diverge so much from the topic at hand, but I couldn't resist a chance to postulate one of Tolkien's potential influences!
"After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear." Professor Tolkien, 1951
(This post was edited by Aitieuriskon on Jul 15 2014, 2:23am)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Aitieuriskon
(Menegroth) on Jul 15 2014, 2:23am
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