Top Ten Tuesday: Books of Schooldays' Nostalgia

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post and, if you want to, add your name to the Linky widget on that day's posts (typically put up midnight EST on Tuesday) so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

To mark the passage of seasons, this week's theme for Top Ten Tuesday is Back To School, where I decided to take the chance to reminisce about favourite books which I discovered, read and continually re-read at school-age. These books had nothing to do with school assignments at the time – by school-age, I mean I was aged 7-16 and these books bear a very strong mental link to those formative years. Also, instead of going by order of preference, I'm going to list the books in roughly the order in which I first read them (as best I can remember), so I get to do a bit of nostalgic time-traveling as I go up the list. So, here we go:

Top Ten Books of Schooldays' Nostalgia

1. Kirsi Kunnas' poetry, nursery rhymes and stories

I'm going to start off by cheating just a little – one simply doesn't pick one of Kirsi Kunnas' works. As I have mentioned here before, Kunnas is a national treasure who belongs to every Finnish child's literary lives in some measure. She makes the Finnish language sing and dance like nobody else can. Her nursery rhymes lose none of their charm when you read them as an adult, and I discovered some mind-boggling socio-political layers in some of her fairy tales – especially one where a chicken decides to pull a cart and some other animals hitch a ride with her. 

My beloved collection of children's rhymes by Kirsi Kunnas

2. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

In the Nordic countries, whenever someone says "feminism" or "anarchism" in connection to literature, you can place a reasonably safe bet that their next words will be "Pippi Longstocking". I pity every child who has to grow up without her, because few child protagonists are so extraordinarily entertaining, unpredictable, confident and so full of life and discovery. Pippi doesn't much care for society's norms as she casually fends off social workers, schoolteachers and policemen from the happy little house where she lives with her horse and pet monkey. She causes headaches left and right to all the people who believe things shouldn't be done her way, but in the end she's too wonderful for anyone to survive without her. 

Pippi is also the strongest girl in the world, so she can carry her horse around like it's no big deal.

Pippi gives the policemen some exercise. She's a boss. And that's her house. Her horse lives on the front porch.

3. The Canine Kalevala by Mauri Kunnas

Kalevala is to Finland what Beowulf is to Britain, I suppose – a collection of epic poetry from the dawn of our history, which contributes to national identity. Thanks to Mauri Kunnas' gift of adapting heavy classics into fun, inventive, illustrated children's books, Finnish children get an early education in the main events and characters in Kalevala as told by heroically epic dogs. Actually, even the Kalevala education for most Finnish adults comes from this adaptation, because very few people are dedicated enough to their national treasure to labour through 22,795 verses of archaic Finnish in trochaic tetrameter. I will happily confess that I haven't graduated past The Canine Kalevala either, though fortunately I do know that in the real version, it's Väinämöinen who pursues Aino and causes her to drown herself, and there's this additional person called Kullervo who mucks up everything in his life and inspired Tolkien a great deal when he created his mythology for Middle-Earth.

A glimpse of the whacky genius of Mauri Kunnas. That fish-monster is terrifying, though.

4. Arabian Nights

Nope, I didn't read the original versions as a kid – the ones where people get chopped into pieces left, right and centre, beautiful slave girls cause riots because young men can't keep themselves off of them, and Islam is not-quite-subtly implied to be the only true faith in the world. There is an abundance of somewhat-sanitized Arabic tales ("somewhat" meaning you can't quite escape severed body parts) in all sorts of children's story books, however, and I was always fascinated by them. For as long as I can remember, we have had this beautiful, deep-purple storybook with six Arabic tales, illustrated so wondrously they're like treasures from Ali Baba's cave. Eventually, they inspired me to take up the next stage in our bookshelf: the brick-sized book of the authentic Arabian Nights, complete with chopping, love-lust and preaching. I still love them. 

The slave Morgantina, without whom Ali Baba would have died on at least three occasions already. And yes, even in the children's version she ends the dance by stabbing the leader of the 40 thieves.

One of the many beautiful full-page illustrations here.

Aladdin lurks in to save his wife. I remember I adored Halima's clothes when I was little... Those colours look so pretty together.

5. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

I could mention pretty much any Dahl book here, because I went through them all in very rapid succession. Oh, the amount of adoration I had for the man who created a monstrous headmistress who tosses little girls by the pigtails, a big-eared giant who catches dreams – and a giant peach that flies to New York City. I think James and the Giant Peach is the one I re-read the most often at my Dahl initiation age, though it's impossible to pick a favourite between that, Matilda and The BFG. I loved the funny big bugs, the Cloud-Men, and how James introduces his bug friends to terrified New Yorkers by singing about them. Dahl is just delightful, isn't he?

The most endearing giant bugs in the world.

6. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

I have reviewed Black Beauty on this blog, and I have been re-reading it quite regularly ever since I first fell in love with it. It was important, in many ways, to the less-than-ten-year-old me; it was something very different in the humongous heap of "horse novels" I read at that age, it was the first book in English that I owned (I can remember with astounding clarity how much trouble my mum went through to order it for me, as it wasn't something you could simply snatch off a shelf in a bookstore) and it was probably my first venture into the Victorian British setting which means so much to me nowadays.

7. The Redwall series by Brian Jacques
My love of the high fantasy genre probably started here, where a bunch of anthropomorphic woodland animals found the Redwall Abbey as a place of refuge against the evil sorts such as stoats, weasels and shiprats. There's just a lovely warmth and coziness about the world written around Redwall, it's snuggly as a little mouse's nest – spiced up with some trademark fantasy ingredients such as epic battles, terrifying villains and courageous animal heroes and heroines. And I must commend this series for its equal treatment of male and female characters, as that isn't always a given in the high fantasy genre. 

8. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
How do I explain in a short, simple paragraph how much these books have meant to me, how I grew up with them? I read the first three books (in Finnish) around the time when Goblet of Fire was published in English, so I was nine years old. I remember it took me a while to get into Philosopher's Stone, but once I felt the magic, I swallowed that and the next two books very quickly. It was something extraordinary to me, a magical world in a boarding school. I did a blog post about the funny things I got up to growing up as a Potterhead. 

9. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I seriously can't remember how I was introduced to Narnia. Compared to Harry Potter and some other foreign children's classics, Narnia isn't that much of an inevitability to a Finnish child growing up. I also didn't read the entire series at once; it took me years to get round to The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle, and whether it was because I had grown or because those two possibly are more problematic than the rest of the series, I can't say I adore the Chronicles entirely. I love the first three books (in publishing order, not chronological) with the Pevensie children and, in some ways, The Horse and His Boy is my favourite of them all – but I couldn't get into Jill and Eustace's adventures the way I did with Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, and I felt Lewis' Christian agenda got a little heavy-handed in the last two books. Also, he implies that Jill and Eustace's school is no good because it doesn't have corporal punishment, and has all the Calormenes worshiping a god that is completely evil, while Aslan is perfectly... perfect. 

10. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
You might have noticed that my formative years included quite a bulk of the fantasy genre. The last item on my nostalgic list is The One Fantasy Epic to Rule Them All. The Lord of the Rings came into my life when one of the film adaptations was showing, I'm not quite sure which one. I remember it felt like a whole new level of bookworming – there was so much to digest, so much to remember, that if I left it for too long I had trouble remembering what had happened up to then, and this had never happened to me before. I think this book is what kick-started my development into a legitimate geek. I just went nuts over the languages, the history behind all the races and places, all the puzzlings about what the seemingly simple One Ring represented. 

This is THE cover of the Finnish edition. The nostalgic one. I kind of want it now, even though I read LotR in English now.

How much fun was that! Did you read any of these books growing up? Did they have similar effects on you? What were your dearest book treasures as a child?

The Hobbit, or There And Back Again

In 1936, a 10-year-old boy had the power to decide whether or not his father's publishing house was going to print out a manuscript that he had been given to read. In 2014, a 23-year-old woman is immensely glad that the boy said "yes" – because that manuscript was one of J.R.R. Tolkien's, which we nowadays know as The Hobbit, or There And Back Again!

I don't know if I belong to a minority here, but I read The Lord of the Rings before The Hobbit. I was deeply impressed by the character of Bilbo Baggins right from the start, and was absolutely thrilled when one of my friends told me there was actually a sort of prequel to Rings that was centered around my favourite hobbit. This same amazing person then gave The Hobbit to me as a birthday gift, and since then I have been reading it more or less once a year – so here we have one more example of a "children's book" that can cross over age classifications.

This is the part where I'm done with the introduction and intend to move on to my thoughts on the book, but before I do that I just have to mention really quickly that all the pictures in this post are by John Howe, who has made many wonderful illustrations for Tolkien's works. He even impressed Peter Jackson, who hired him (and Alan Lee) to do conceptual design for the films. So remember to admire John Howe's artwork while you read the post, alright?

Bilbo's Front Hall

In this age when movie-goers everywhere have seen two-thirds of Peter Jackson's epic, block-buster take on The Hobbit, is there anyone who doesn't know the story? Well, it seems I need that plot summary for myself in order to decide what things I want to point out, so here goes: Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who lives a quiet and comfortable life in the finest hobbit-hole of the village until the wizard Gandalf comes by with the idea that Bilbo would make a good addition to a company of 13 dwarves who are about to embark on a long journey to the Lonely Mountain, which they intend to take back from the evil dragon Smaug whose attack on the mountain ended a once-thriving kingdom. Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarf company, is the descendant of the King under the Mountain and becomes more and more obsessed with gaining back his home as well as the fabulous treasure that the dragon guards. The 13 dwarves and the bemused hobbit encounter many adventures and dangers on their long journey, and little by little Bilbo proves his worth as Gandalf predicted. He also plays the famous match of riddles against Gollum and acquires a mysterious ring without having any idea how important this discovery will be.

An Unexpected Party

I should warn you that this book review is in great danger of becoming a Shameless Tribute to the Incomparable Awesomeness of Bilbo Baggins. Really, though, who can blame me for that? What is there not to admire about Bilbo Baggins? He is the very definition of an unlikely hero who has to end up in tight spots in order to show his best qualities. The dwarves would never have got past Mirkwood without Bilbo! He develops from an uncertain tag-along to a respected member of Thorin's company, and finally he makes decisions of his own when he realizes that Thorin's quest might not be so rightful and respectable after all. There is a great Genius Bilbo Moment in almost every chapter, and each of them builds his character significantly. He accepts that he is small and apparently insignificant to everyone around him, and he is smart enough to use it for his advantage. Everyone should take notes from Bilbo, seriously.

Gwaihir's Eyrie

One of the most common criticisms agains The Hobbit is that Bilbo is pretty much the only well-rounded character. The company of dwarves is mainly a bunch of confusingly similar names with no individual personalities, apart from Thorin whose long-kept bitterness and growing greed get a fair amount of attention especially towards the end of the book. The other 12 dwarves, on the other hand; Balin is the wise one, Bombur is the fat one, and Óin and Glóin light the fire – that's pretty much all you get out of them. One of my favourite things in the first Hobbit film was how they managed to make the dwarves into proper characters. Frankly, I don't mind their under-development in the book that much, because Bilbo makes up for them and there is so much going on anyway.

Smaug the Golden

The Hobbit is a proper adventure story in the sense that there's a wonderful variety of  locations. The places I always look forward to most when I travel with Bilbo and the dwarves are Rivendell, Beorn's house, the Woodland King's court and Lake Town. Tolkien doesn't devote quite as many pages to setting the scene and describing everything in minute detail as he does in The Lord of the Rings, but that's alright because I don't mind having the freedom to imagine. I'm especially intrigued by the elves of Mirkwood – the first Middle-Earth elves I met were the noble, serene and profoundly wise Eldar in The Lord of the Rings, and I quite like their wilder relatives in the dark, scary woods. Even if they are a little unreasonable in imprisoning the dwarves, you have to give them credit for going on hunting trips in a forest infested with giant spiders. Besides, King Thranduil turns out to be pretty decent in the end.

Smaug Destroys Lake Town

To finish off the review, let's get back to Bilbo's Incomparable Awesomeness – I managed to shut up about it for two paragraphs already, didn't I? Somewhere back between the first and second Hobbit films, there was a website that I can't find anymore which posted a rather brilliant poll on Bilbo's best moments. So I'm going to list all of Bilbo's great deeds in a similar fashion and ask you to comment on what is your favourite and why. And, to be absolutely mean, I'm going to make you choose just one. If you haven't read the book and don't want spoilers on the remaining Hobbit film, you probably should skip the poll.

So, what in your opinion was Bilbo's bravest deed on his journey to the Lonely Mountain?

1. Deciding to go on an adventure in the first place
2. Sneaking up on the trolls
3. Playing riddles with Gollum
4. Saving his friends from the giant spiders
5. Getting everyone out of King Thranduil's dungeons
6. Burgling from Smaug
7. Giving the Arkenstone to Bard and King Thranduil behind Thorin's back

My choice would be number 7, without a doubt. After doing so much to aid the dwarves, Bilbo realizes that Thorin has been overcome by greed and the best thing to do is that one thing that will upset Thorin the most. 

Finnish and Quenya

I just found out that if you Google search "Kalevala Middle-Earth", my blog post Traces of Kalevala in Middle-Earth will come up on the first page of search results – how amazing is that?!

Today's post will continue the theme of Finland and Middle-Earth. Non-Finnish Tolkien fans have often asked me how much Finnish and Quenya (the High Elven language in Tolkien's works) actually have in common, since the latter supposedly drew inspiration from the former. I'm going to try and shed some light on the question. I admit that I haven't done any extensive study on the grammar and linguistics of Quenya, but I'm familiar with some of its basic principles and can definitely make some comment on how it relates to Finnish, which is my first language. It is not my intention to make a linguistic essay out of this, so I'll try to avoid saying things like "sonorants" and "voiced stops". I'm mostly just providing a viewpoint on what Quenya looks like to an average Finn.

Most of the "Elvish" language that is spoken in The Lord of the Rings, both book and film versions, is actually Sindarin, which was mainly influenced by Celtic (most notably Welsh) and Germanic languages. There is, however, one very good and lengthy example of Quenya in the chapter Farewell to Lórien where Galadriel sings as the Company depart. I'm going to attach the lyrics of that song right here for illustrational purposes:

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári-lirinen

Si man i yulman nin enquantuva?

An si Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë,
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë;
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met, ar hisië
untúpa Calaciryo miri oialë.
Si vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa Valimar!

Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar.
Nai elyë hiruva. Namárië!



The Alphabet

I'm going to start off with the most immediately perceptible feature of language. In this respect, Quenya includes quite a lot of things that Finnish doesn't. First of all, written Finnish doesn't use any kinds of accent marks or the e with dots on it. Accent marks aren't needed because the stress is always, and I mean always, placed on the first syllable, which is one important difference with Quenya. Also, the letters b, c, f, q, w, x and z never appear in native Finnish words, though we do have them in lots of loan words. 

Now, we have to get back to the subject of letters with dots. Like I said, Finnish doesn't have ë, but we do have ä and ö. You would find these in Quenya words as well – for example, the word for the Universe in which Middle-Earth exists is Eä. However, the dotted letters have a bit of a different function in the two languages. If you take a look at the Quenyan song lyrics, you'll notice that the ë appears most often with another vowel right before or after it, or if that's not the case then it will be at the end of the word. So, Quenya uses the dotted letters to signify that they should be pronounced as separate vowels, even when they appear right next to other vowels or at the end, but dotted vowels are still essentially the same letters and sounds as the undotted ones. In Finnish, though, the addition of dots changes the pronunciation entirely and can also change the meaning of the whole word. For example, Väinö is a man's name, but vaino means persecution; moi is the equivalent of hi, but möi is the past tense of the verb to sell. Ä is always pronounced like the first vowel in apple, and nearest equivalent I can think of for the pronunciation of ö would be the British pronunciation of the vowel sound in curse – though it's by no means a perfect example of it. 


Pronunciation

In one respect, Finnish and Quenya agree perfectly: everything is pronounced exactly as it's written. Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they appear next to another vowel, and the pronunciation of r is similar to Spanish and Swedish (just a couple of examples). Here's a video where Tolkien himself recites the poem that I showed above:

If you asked a Finn to recite the same poem with no knowledge of Quenya pronunciation, there would no doubt be some differences in the overall rhythm and colour of speech (because that part was inspired by Latin more than by Finnish), but they would get the essentials right (except they might be confused about what to do with all the c's). When I first read The Lord of the Rings aged thirteen, in my mind I simply pronounced all the Elvish names like I would have done in Finnish; later, I found out that that was exactly what Tolkien had intended. I imagine an Anglophone's first instinct would be to pronounce Sauron something like saw-ron, but a Finn would get it right automatically. We also wouldn't say things like Minus Tirith or Orodroown. 


Grammar

I'm not going to go too deeply into this section because firstly, as I mentioned I really don't know that much about Quenya, and secondly, because I still don't want to make this blog post a full-blown linguistics monster. 

Anyway, there was one quality in the Finnish language that particularly interested Tolkien: agglutination. Basically, it means that the kind of things that are expressed in languages like English by means of prepositions are in Finnish put into little "word bits" (I made that up) that are just attached to the main word. Usually, Finnish doesn't even need to employ things like personal pronouns because you can tell by the verb conjugation who the subject is. Visually, this means that Finnish sentences often have much fewer words than English ones, but our words tend to be ridiculously long. Example: you can say I wonder if we would see in a single Finnish word: näkisimmeköhän. Tolkien found this discovery so thrilling that he would later write: 

"It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."

Apparently, a massively excited linguistics geek produces the most wonderful expressions ever. They should do this more often! Tolkien would of course make his Quenya an agglutinative language as well, and even took it to a higher level than Finnish. Another example: in Quenya, the single word utúvienyes means I have found it. But even in Finnish, you would need three words to express the same: olen löytänyt sen. So sometimes, Quenya agglutinates things that Finnish doesn't. 


This will be the last post on my Tolkien Blog Party series. To Hamlette, I would like to say a big hantanyel! for hosting such an amazing blog party. For you readers, I hope my couple of posts about Tolkien's mythology from a Finnish point of view have been more interesting than boring. 

The Children of Húrin

The Children of Húrin – written by J.R.R. Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher Tolkien – is one of those books that looks deceptively small and easy to consume, but which I nevertheless keep re-reading year after year. Now I had been itching to read it once more and then write the review that it very much deserved, and the Tolkien Blog Party hosted by Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice provided the final inspiration.

The Children of Húrin is one of the many drafts concerning the history of Middle-Earth that Tolkien never finished during his lifetime. However, it was among those that he came nearest to completing, and it appeared posthumously in The Silmarillion as well as Unfinished Tales, both of which were collections of Tolkien's Middle-Earth drafts edited by Christopher Tolkien. Even as I read this story in both of these books, it immediately became a favourite of mine. Christopher Tolkien then did a little more work on the text, making it into a more complete narrative that was published as an independent book in 2007. I remember very well that I was one of the first people in Tampere to snatch it off the shelves of the local bookstore and it was a great day for me, even though there was no queuing and mass hysteria involved such as with the Harry Potter books.

I know quite a few people who are avid fans of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's world in general, but who feel a bit nervous about going aboard The Silmarillion to see the earlier days of Middle-Earth. "Should I read it? What's it really like?" they carefully ask. All this is completely understandable! Tolkien goes on quite a bit about his beloved Eldar and their history in The Lord of the Rings as well, and these digressions don't always seem entirely necessary to advance the plot (on a side note though, yours truly is a complete nerd for history of any kind and all the smallest details, so I was never bothered...) So how would it feel to read an entire book devoted to Tolkien's incredibly vast and detailed history of Middle-Earth?

Well, like I said on that little side note, I read all sorts of "background material" with more enthusiasm than the average reader, so I can honestly say that I love The Silmarillion and everything related to it, and I can't really see how anyone could be bored by stuff like that. But I can also say, just as honestly, that for anyone that feels daunted by Tolkien's style in handling Middle-Earth's history, The Children of Húrin is an excellent place to start. So in case you were already beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to get round to the actual review – yes, I am going to tell you why exactly I love this story so much. I'll also do it completely free of spoilers.

Túrin Turambar, an illustration by Alan Lee. Normally I'm not a big fan of grey, but I absolutely love these colours.

As much as Tolkien dedicated his time to devising the history and languages of the Eldar, in The Children of Húrin, the focus is placed on a family of mortals. The setting is in Beleriand (a Western part of Middle-Earth that has perished completely by the time The Lord of the Rings takes place) in the First Age, and Morgoth brings darkness to both Elves and Men – his servant, Sauron, would later become a Dark Lord himself. Húrin is a great leader among the Men, but he goes to war against Morgoth and is taken prisoner, so his son Túrin grows up mostly fatherless. As the war goes very badly against the allied forces of Elves and Men, Túrin's homeland becomes unsafe and his mother Morwen sends him to Doriath – and as I like to point out connections to The Lord of the Rings for the benefit of those that have read that but not this, I should mention that the legendary love story of Beren and Lúthien begins in Doriath. Meanwhile, as Morgoth continues to hold Húrin prisoner he puts a curse on him and all his descendants. It seems that the curse is in fact coming to action as one misfortune after another falls on Túrin. The mistakes that he makes send him on travels all across Beleriand while he strives to escape the shadow upon him. Each time he manages to find a safe haven for a while and thinks he has found peace, the ongoing war with Morgoth forces him out. Eventually, his path crosses with a mysterious young woman who has lost her memory.

Despite the fact that Tolkien himself didn't get this story past the drafting stage, the final, published version of The Children of Húrin is an entirely coherent work with a beautiful narrative structure. Tolkien's devotion to his mythology and his son's respect for the same and willingness to bring this material to Tolkien's admirers come brilliantly together. I don't know in any great detail in what ways Christopher Tolkien edited his father's draft and what additions he made, but I certainly couldn't tell by the book itself which parts were edited in.

For a Tolkien-written book, The Children of Húrin is very forward-paced and compact. Something essential takes place in each chapter, and the scenery changes in almost every other. All this movement keeps the reader very much engaged, especially as Túrin, the main protagonist, develops with almost every turn of the page. There are plenty of thought-provoking secondary characters as well; my favourite ones would absolutely be Túrin's mother Morwen – the most determined woman Tolkien ever wrote, even Éowyn would envy the strength of her heart – and his best friend, Beleg the elf, who is the best companion anyone could ever have and a total master at shooting with a bow. The friendship between Túrin and Beleg provides a much-appreciated ray of light to a tale that is mostly filled with darkness and doom – though, to be completely honest, this same friendship is the centre of one of the greatest tragedies that take place here. Oh my, now that I wrote that out I'm even sadder than while reading the book itself...

Which conveniently brings me to the tone and thematics of the story. If I was to come up with a really psychedelic, one-sentence description of The Children of Húrin, I would say: "It's kind of like The Hobbit, except that there are no hobbits in it and everything always goes wrong." In terms of pacing, this is an adventure story, but in terms of tone it's a tragedy. What makes it a thought-provoking tragedy (instead of just a severely depressing one) is that it constantly brings up the question of whether Túrin's misfortunes really are all caused by Morgoth's curse, or does he bring it on himself by being too proud and stubborn. Túrin's character flaws are highlighted by the fact that he is a mortal man who lives most of his life among the elves – while the elves are ready to stay put under Morgoth's shadow and wait for an unspecified moment in the far future when they feel it is the right moment for action, Túrin feels his own mortality very strongly and says and does unwise things in his frustration. Exploring the mentalities of Túrin's family and the elves makes for a rather interesting contemplation on the possible reason why Tolkien wanted these two different races to co-exist in his mythology in the first place.

Even though The Children of Húrin is very, very sad, it is not depressing. The sceneries and the characters that we come across on this eventful journey are exquisitely vibrant, and even when the story deals with pain, loss and inevitable fate, it does so in a most beautiful way. If I might make a guess, a reader who picks up The Children of Húrin is very likely to be interested in The Silmarillion and other similar works next. Then again, for those who aren't that eager to learn absolutely everything about Tolkien's mythology, this one is very much worth a read anyway because it doesn't require such a conviction in order to be appreciated. I for one am extremely glad that The Children of Húrin was expanded and made into a book of its own, because it has more than enough story and theme to deserve that.

Traces of Kalevala in Middle-Earth

A small, remote and young country like Finland doesn't have many things to boast about on an international level, but there is one accomplishment in particular that makes me a little proud (just a little, because I'm not big on patriotic or nationalistic values) of being a Finn: it is an indisputable fact that our mythology was a source of inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien, one of the most globally renowned and beloved writers of all time. Now, in celebration of the Tolkien Blog Party hosted by Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice, I'm going to have a little fun speculating which specific characters and elements of Finnish legends contributed to Tolkien's creations.

By having fun, I mean that none of my speculations here are facts set in stone. As far as I know, Tolkien rarely made explicit statements like "this character of Middle-Earth was based on that one of Finnish mythology". Also, I would like to make very clear that I'm in no way implying that Tolkien ripped off of our legends – being inspired by something and blatantly copying are two very different things. And as you read this post further, you'll notice that even when there are parallels to be seen, they usually don't run directly from one character to another.

Finally, before I start speculating, I should mention that all the elements of Finnish legends that I will be talking about come from a collection of Karelian oral folklore called Kalevala, which is our national epic. Because of its considerable length, archaic language and the fact that it's structured completely in trochaic tetrameters, very few Finns actually undertake the task of reading the entire, original Kalevala – and I'm not one of them, not yet at least. Tolkien, however, did read it. In Finnish. That deed alone shows quite an admirable dedication to foreign folklore!

I hope that served as enough of an introduction – let's start looking for parallels!


Tom Bombadil, Gandalf, Väinämöinen and Tapio

Tom Bombadil is possibly the oddest character in Middle-Earth, but for someone with basic Kalevala knowledge his portrayal seems eerily familiar. In Kalevala, one of the central characters is an old shaman with superhuman powers called Väinämöinen. He is the son of a goddess who came into the world before everyone else and could wield a great power through song. A certain quote by Tom Bombadil comes to mind:

"Eldest, that's what I am... Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn... He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless – before the Dark Lord came from Outside."

Then again, most Tolkien scholars who bring up the connection to Kalevala see Väinämöinen as a model for Gandalf, which is also entirely plausible as both of them are very powerful and are central figures in a resistance against a "dark" power – in Kalevala, the bad guys live up North and their leader is Louhi, who is basically an evil witch with an unspecified number of stunningly beautiful daughters and every man in the "good guys'" land of Kalevala (including Väinämöinen) wants one for his wife.

Personally, I also like to draw parallels between Tom and the Finnish god of the forests, Tapio. There is one particularly striking scene in The Lord of the Rings where the four hobbits are staying at Tom Bombadil's house and Tom wears a crown made of autumn leaves – Tapio also wears a crown that changes according to the seasons. He has a beautiful, fair-haired wife as well, called Mielikki.


The smiths and their creations

While characters like Saruman and Gandalf can make things happen with just the force of their words, the manual work of smiths is of great importance in Middle-Earth. One of the defining characteristics of the entire race of dwarves is their love of metals, but other races have their own share of legendary smiths as well. Not only do they make swords, helms and armour that become legends themselves in the course of time, but some of their creations are so powerful that they change the fate of the entire world. Fëanor made the Silmarils which caused a raging war between Morgoth and the Noldor; his descendant Celebrimbor forged the Three Rings that made it possible for the elves to resist Sauron's power when many others were defeated; and, of course, Sauron himself created the One Ring.

I believe that the concept of smiths making things of great power might have gotten its inspiration from Kalevala – one of its most central heroes is llmarinen, a smith who, according to folklore, forged the dome of the sky and invented iron. His most famous accomplishment, however, was the Sampo. The legends are a bit vague and varied about precisely what sort of an object the Sampo was, but in any case it brought endless riches and prosperity out of thin air to whoever owned it. Similarly to the One Ring, it caused quite a massive squabble over who had the right to use it. Even though it was made by Ilmarinen, who was on the side of the "good guys", he was taking orders from the witch Louhi. Can you guess why? Oh yes, he just wanted to impress her so he could marry one of those desirable daughters of hers.

"The Defence of the Sampo" by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, depicting Väinämöinen and an eagle-shaped Louhi as they fight over the Sampo (which doesn't make an appearance here).

Eagles

Alright, many mythologies all across the world place eagles as the noblest of all birds. Still, I just have to point out that Kalevala features a gigantic eagle who saves Väinämöinen (the possible inspiration for Gandalf as I mentioned earlier) from drowning. Louhi also transforms herself into an eagle when Väinämöinen leads a force of Kalevalan men in an attempt to steal the Sampo.


Túrin and Kullervo

Spoiler warning for The Children of Húrin! Tolkien himself confirmed that the tragic story of his unluckiest hero, Túrin, was inspired by the similarly unlucky though less heroic Kullervo. Both of them are sent away from home at a young age, though Kullervo's story is much darker already in the beginning – Kullervo's uncle destroys his home, and he is sent off as a slave to Ilmarinen. His journey takes many turns, always to the worse, until he unknowingly commits incest with his sister, just like Túrin. Both of them have a little talk with their swords before killing themselves. I'll be writing more about Túrin in my upcoming review of The Children of Húrin.


So, what do you think about these comparisons? Eagles, smiths, tragic heroes and wise old men of course exist in folklore all around the world, but knowing Tolkien's interest in Kalevala, it's quite tempting to compare these two mythologies especially. I'm hoping that this little analysis might be of interest to non-Finnish Tolkien enthusiasts who may have heard how Finnish mythology inspired Tolkien but never knew what it was all about.

A Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence – 2014

What a joy it was to find out that Hamlette is once again hosting A Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence at her blog, The Edge of the Precipice! I've been in such a lovely Tolkien-iverse in my mind all day, and decided to re-read The Children of Húrin to mark the occasion, so you can expect a review somewhere during this week. I adore that book, let me just say that now. But before I get there, let's fill out the nice tag that Hamlette has made for her blog party.

1. Who introduced you to Tolkien's stories?

I got interested in Tolkien all on my own – though there's no doubt that the massive Tolkien hype of the day (the Return of the King film had just come out) had much to do with the reason why I got intrigued in the first place.

2. How old were you when you first ventured into Middle-Earth?

Like I said, all the LOTR films had been made when I started reading the book, so it must have been somewhere in 2004... which means I was thirteen years old. Funny, I was quite sure that I'd been a couple of years younger than that, but it must be thirteen.

3. Did you read the books first, or see the movie versions first?

I definitely read The Lord of the Rings before seeing any of the films. Possibly, I saw the films before I read The Hobbit or any other Middle-Earth related books.

4. A dragon or a balrog – which would you rather fight?

What a scary choice to make! I would go with the dragon, because they have exactly one redeeming feature compared to balrogs – they don't live deep underneath creepy mountain passageways. So with a dragon, there would be a smaller chance that I'd end up fighting somewhere pitch-black underground. Oh, and the dragon might even have the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch. One can always hope.

5. Who are three of your favourite characters? (Feel free to elaborate on why)

No matter how hard I think about this, I'll have to go with the same three characters that I named in last year's Tolkien blog party. I'll try to elaborate differently this time!

Number 1: Bilbo Baggins. I remember so well how I became an adamant Bilbo fan during the very first pages of The Lord of the Rings at my very first read, (apparently at the age of thirteen, seriously, how can it have been so late in my life?). Something about his character, his personality and what the other hobbits said about him (mainly how odd he was) just instantly clicked with me. In addition, the last two years for me have been very much about re-establishing my personal goals and coming to terms with the strengths and flaws about my personality, and I've found even more respect for Bilbo as an immensely inspirational character. I also think it's quite an accomplishment that he goes on quite cheerfully about his life and outlandish contacts "outsiders" despite what practically everyone in Hobbiton says about him. Bilbo just is the most awesome hobbit in my mind, and always will be. 

Number 2: Aragorn. Two of my very favourite passages in the book are Aragorn's first appearance (as Strider) at the Prancing Pony, and the first pages of The Two Towers when he's tracking down the Uruk-hai. He knows a lot of stuff about all sorts of lore, is just the man you want when a fight breaks out, and has wonderful understanding and compassion to people and races that are very different than him. Despite all this wonderfulness, I've never felt that his character is too perfect. 

Number 3: Éowyn. The Lord of the Rings is even more male-centric than Shakespeare's plays, which is saying something, but at least there's Éowyn. She carries a great mental burden all her life feeling like she can't rise up to her aspirations because she is a woman but never hesitates to show her loyalty to others. I respect her characterization more each time I re-read The Lord of the Rings. (But I still don't like Miranda Otto's portrayal of her, sadly.)

6. Have you ever dressed up like a Tolkien character?

I haven't, but now that I think of it, that would be so much fun. There would be so many great costumes to choose from...

7. If someone asks you to go on an adventure, how do you respond?

"Heck yes! Can you give me ten minutes to pack?"

8. Have you read any of the "history of Middle-Earth" books?

I haven't, but I saw them on the library's shelves just this week and was sorely tempted to borrow some. However, I already have so much to read right now and Middle-Earth is the kind of thing you really want to give your full attention.

9. Would you rather drink a bowl of Ent Draught or a glass of Old Winyards?

I don't drink anything with alcohol, so it would be Ent Draught. I would probably love it, it sounds so fresh and vitalizing. But then again, I wouldn't necessarily want the side-effect of growing taller... Yes, I'm saying that even though I'm no more than 155 cm tall. I like my size!

10. List up to ten of your favourite lines/quotes from the books or movies.

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost."

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” 

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” 

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” 

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” 

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep...that have taken hold.” 

“Where did you go to, if I may ask?' said Thorin to Gandalf as they rode along.
To look ahead,' said he.
And what brought you back in the nick of time?'
Looking behind,' said he.” 

"But no living man am I! You look upon a woman."

Great Movie Expectations

I've been thinking whether I should blog about movies in addition to books, theatre and music. Well, obviously I've reviewed a couple of movie musicals already, but that's because they're, you know, musicals. So far, I've decided that I might at least talk about movies that are based on books! I won't change the sub-heading to "my thoughts on music, theatre, literature & films" though – that would look a bit clumsy, don't you think?

Today, however, I'm going to talk about some trailers instead of actual films. There's two films coming up that I can't wait to see!

More trailers of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have come up after this first teaser, but it's still my favourite from all of them. I think the main reason for this is King Thranduil, played by Lee Pace! When he appeared in the trailer, I stopped breathing for a while. I promise you I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say that Thranduil in the film looks exactly as I've always imagined him – the presence, the voice, every little detail in his face, and that crown, which is pure awesomeness. Seeing Thranduil like he was picked straight out of my mind has seriously made me wonder if any of my grandmother's ancestors who were burned as witches in the Middle Ages passed some of that witch blood (and the gift of foresight) to me...

King Thranduil, brought to material reality by Lee Pace, first imagined by Mizzie-Me

Besides Thranduil, Elf-King of Amazingness, it looks like this middle part of the trilogy will include all of my favourite parts from the book: Beorn, Bilbo kicking some giant spider butt, the Silvan Elves, and Lake Town. It would also seem that we get to see Smaug already, and oh my, what a dragon voice! I think they did a seriously good job with that – it's clearly inhuman, but not overdone.

However, one thing which probably will be as overdone in this film as was in the last, is the fight/action sequences. I was always okay with all the battle stuff in the Lord of the Rings films, but frankly, I got bored when in the first Hobbit film, the escape from the goblins under the mountain went on and on and on. And there are some not-in-the-book fight scenes coming up in the new film, which isn't entirely bad – I know I'm going to like all the Gandalf bits that were never shown in the book. However, I'm very suspicious about the scene where he elves are stalking Bilbo and the dwarves who float in open barrels for all the world to see, for goodness' sake! In the book, Bilbo came up with a genius plan that a) got the dwarves out of the dungeons without anyone ever seeing them, and b) made sure nobody would drown in the process. In the film, they don't seem to think any of this matters.

Speaking of changes and additions to the book, I'm actually very open-minded about the Legolas/Tauriel subplot, whatever it's going to be. I don't have a problem at all with Legolas being present since there's no reason to doubt he actually was there (he's Thranduil's son after all), and I'm really liking Evangeline Lilly as an elf. I'm really interested to see what these two characters will be up to. Luckily, the movie will premiere in Finland on December 11th already and not months after the official premiere (which sadly happens here to every movie that isn't expected to be a huge box office seller). I can't wait, there's so much to see!

What about this next new film, who's going to see it?

I'm really interested in this film because of its setting. I'm obviously a fan of the film Mary Poppins, and Saving Mr Banks is about the making of that film – the main focus being, it seems, on how Walt Disney managed to get the film-making rights from P.L. Travers (the author of the Mary Poppins books). I think both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson will be superb in their roles as Mr Disney and Ms Travers, but the film is in a rather tricky position to tell the story it intends to tell. It is widely known that the working relationship between Disney and Travers was incredibly strained, and Travers was very displeased with the film Mary Poppins. So how is Saving Mr Banks, produced by Walt Disney Pictures (yes, really), featuring the father/hero/god figure behind that very same enterprise, going to handle a story where, in real life, someone (Travers) very vocally expressed how they disapproved of something Walt Disney did? Something tells me the film is not going to show P.L. Travers' negative reaction to Mary Poppins, and I think even people who don't have Medieval witch genes can agree with me. So there are a couple of other options.

1) Portray P.L. Travers as an unreasonably critical kill-joy and Walt Disney as the good guy who makes people's dreams come true. This way, the film can justify the fact that Ms Travers hated the Mary Poppins film by "well, she was just a cranky British lady who couldn't be pleased no matter what you tried to do."

or

2) Just take some artistic liberties and make it so that in the end P.L. Travers loves the outcome of Mary Poppins and Walt Disney gets to be the hero who convinced the cranky British lady.

So yes, I'm a bit skeptical about the accuracy of Saving Mr Banks, but I'm sure it will be fun to watch otherwise. It's got two leading actors that I respect very much, the music in the soundtrack is great, and the bits with the Sherman brothers (the two guys behind the piano who made the songs for Mary Poppins) are very funny. The film is officially released in December, but it looks like the Finnish premiere will be near the end of February (see what I told you about Finnish movie release dates?)

A Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence

So it's not just a Celebrate Musicals Week now – it's also a Tolkien Blog Party Week, hosted at The Edge of the Precipice! It's going to be a busy week with both of these parties going on, but it's sure to be a lot of fun too. And I was quite embarrassed to notice that the 22nd was in fact a Sunday, not a Monday like I thought, so that's why I'm late for this. So typical of me. But let's get on with the Tolkien celebration now and answer these questions by Hamlette! Late happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!

1.  Have you read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? If so, how many times?

Of course, both! How many times, though? I remember reading The Lord of the Rings three times in Finnish before I switched into the English version, and in the last couple of years I've had the habit of reading it every summer. The same goes with The Hobbit. 

2.  Have you seen any movies based on them?

I've seen all the Jackson movies made so far (including the first part of The Hobbit) and even the Ralph Bakshi animated version which was a rather interesting experience.
3.  Who first introduced you to Middle Earth?

Nobody really – I just got interested in the books after hearing everyone talk about them, and the Jackson movies (all three of which had come out by then but which I hadn't seen).


4.  Who are your three favorite characters?  (Feel free to elaborate on whys.)

Bilbo is my absolute favourite of them all. Do I really have to tell you why he's so awesome? I just relate so much to his desire to see the wider world, and how he just doesn't care that everyone in Hobbiton thinks he's nuts!

Aragorn has got to be the second favourite. His first appearance is one of my most-anticipated moments in the book as well as the film Fellowship of the Ring.

I like Éowyn in the books, especially after the battle of Minas Tirith, but not in the movies unfortunately – Miranda Otto's Éowyn cries too much!


5.  What's your favorite Middle Earth location?

King Thranduil's court in Mirkwood.


6.  If you could belong to one of the races of Free Folk (Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents), which would you choose?

This is going to be such a predictable answer but I'd pick Elves. They speak beautiful languages and I like all their locations, such as Rivendell and Mirkwood. They ride their horses bareback which I like to do as well.


7.  Would you rather eat lembas or taters?

I'm not big on eating bread but lembas isn't just any bread... So I'd pick that.


8.  If you lived in Middle Earth, what weapon would you prefer wielding?

I think it would be better if I didn't use any weapon at all, I have such a terrible aim! I could borrow the hobbits' idea and use a frying pan.


9.  What draws you to Tolkien's stories?  (The characters, the quests, the themes, the worlds, etc.)

I can read The Lord of the Rings again and again because it's such a huge story that I find something new to think about each time. I just love how detailed and complete Middle-Earth is.


10. List up to five of your favorite lines/quotes from the books or movies.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” 

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” 

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

“And now leave me in peace for a bit! I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think!"
"Good Heavens!" said Pippin. "At breakfast?” 

"Nine companions. So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."

"Great! Where are we going?"