The Land of Pohjaby J. R. R. Tolkien (December 27, 1914) —–(this is a repost wit
The Land of Pohjaby J. R. R. Tolkien (December 27, 1914) —–(this is a repost with additional information)—–The Land of Pohja emerged from Tolkien’s enthusiasm for The Kalevala, the epic poem by Elias Lönnrot based on Finnish folk poetry. Tolkien had discovered the poem in 1911 while still a schoolboy. It inspired him to study Finnish, which was an important influence on one of this invented ‘Elvish’ languages, Quenya. The Land of Pohja in fact is two paintings in one, made on two pages of a sketch-book Tolkien purchased in July 1913 (most of which survives in the Bodleian Library, now separated into single or conjugate leaves but placed in their original order, with some certainty).Tolkien first painted the 3 trees in the center against a background divided by a diagonal line. He then cut the sheet along the diagonal line (so that it could be folded back). On the following page he painted an alternative background that can be seen when the preceding page is folded back. The original background is purple, and the alternate background is blue-grey with a border of icicles (as show in the picture).Pohja, or Pohjola, is the land in the North which, near the end of The Kalevala, the old magician Vainamoinen fills with music so sweet that the moon settles in a birch tree and the sun settles in a fir tree, so that they may hear it better.Louhi, the evil mistress of Pohjola, captures the moon and sun and hides them away, “imprisoned in a stone mountain in rocks as hard as iron. She stole away the brightness … therefore the night was unending … and for long was utter darkness … All mankind felt ever mournful, for the sunlight shone no longer, neither did the moonlight” The Land of Pohja was a sign of things to come both in Tolkien’s art and mythology. Just like in the poem above, two sources of light were a recurring them in the Silmarillion: The two lamps of the Valar (one in the North and one in the South, which were destroyed by Melkor), then the light of the Two Trees of Valinor (Laurelin and Telperion), also destroyed by Melkor with the help of the great spider Ungoliant, plunging the world into darkness.Of the two sources of light in tolkien’s mythology (sun and stars), elves are associated with star light. -- source link
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