Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997
From: Brewbeck@aol.com
My first experience with Enya was two years ago, while receiving a massage. The therapist loved using Enya for her sessions. The music carried me away instantly like a magic carpet, and for you J.R.R. Tolkien fans, I thought that Galadriel herself had returned from Valinor to enchant me here in New Jersey. Indeed, without any knowledge of her Celtic roots at the time, I felt like the music was, indeed, "Tolkienish" in nature (I suppose that's not a coincidence, is it; after all, one of her musical pieces on "Shepherd Moons" is called "Lothlorien"). Anyway, recently my wife received "Watermark" as a gift and shortly thereafter we purchased the other three albums and have been playing them almost constantly.
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997
From: Stephen Phillips (philsj00@wfu.edu)
Now that you mention it, Enya's music really does seem Tolkienish. Once I found out that the song Lothlorien was a reference to The Fellowship of the Ring, I read the whole trilogy. Reading Tolkien while listening to Enya in the background is quite an experience. Also it seems like much of the language used in The Lord of the Rings is Gaelic or really close to it. Any opinions?
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997
From: Patrick Van der Veken (Guinness@INnet.be)
I agree on the nature of her music being very Tolkien-like. Though I must say I rather see Enya as Luthien then as Galadriel. Tolkien mentions that Luthien has *black* hair and a beautiful singing voice whereas Galadriel has *blond* hair. As regard to the Tolkien languages (Sindarin & Quenyan), most experts agree that these are much closer to Old Scandinavian languages than to the Celtic Language. Evidently, the atmosphere and many story elements could be referred to the Celts or their mythology.
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997
From: Brewbeck@aol.com
Tolkien apparently drew upon both Celtic and Nordic mythology in his creation. While it is true that the languages he weaved were more Nordic in nature, many of the names of places in Middle-Earth are decidely Celtic and very Enya-like (i.e. the tower of "Cirith Ungol").
After seeing more pictures of Enya, I would have to alter my original observation. You're right, she is more like Luthien the Fair. She's certainly beautiful enough to qualify!!
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997
From: Stephen Phillips (philsj00@wfu.edu)
Who exactly is Luthien the Fair? I have only read The Hobbit and the rest of the Lord of the Rings and I don't remember coming across her name? Is she mentioned in another work of Tolkien's or did I just miss her being mentioned? It was easy to forget a lot of names since so many were used in the whole volume.
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997
From: Stefano Toria (toria@ipacri.it)
Yes, but he also drew on other languages. Two I can think of are Italian (the rules for pronunciation of Sindarin, that are given in one of the appendixes to LoTR, are definitely the same I would give for my mother tongue) and Hebrew: the plurals in -im (e.g. Rohirrim) are typical of the latter.
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997
From: DGKrall@worldnet.att.net
Of course. Tolkien drew on what he knew. He was a linguist by profession. The story of Middle Earth was "just" his passion. (By the way, Luthien the Fair lived much earlier than the time of "The Hobbit." See the compilations by Christopher Tolkien, such as "The Silmarillion.")
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997
From: Stefano Toria (toria@ipacri.it)
To be precise, "The Silmarillion" was left by J.R.R.Tolkien in an almost finished state, so his son's interventions on the text were minimal: all he did was put together the material and give it to the publishers. Christopher Tolkien's compilations (such as the Lost Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth etc) draw on other, more unfinished works by his father.
Luthien was an elven princess who fell in love for Beren, a mortal; the tale of Beren and Luthien is one of the central episodes of the history of the First Age of Middle-Earth, told in the Silmarillion.
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997
From: Brewbeck@aol.com
Ah, Luthien the Fair.........
Luthien was mentioned a few times in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", but only in passing. She is written about extensively in Tolkien's posthumously released work, "The Silmarillion", which deals with events of the First Age, thousands of years before The LOTR took place. She was an angelic-elven queen of great beauty, beauty never seen again in all the ages of Middle-Earth. Luthien fell in love with a mortal man, Beren the One-Hand, and she chose to grow old and die with him rather than continue in her immortal state. (Sounds a little like some old Celtic mythology, does it not........?)
Anyway, I would bet one of my own hands that Enya herself has read Tolkien's works, for pleasure at least, if not inspiration. If anyone on this list has not read Tolkien, I would heartily recommend him, you will not be disappointed. Any Enya song will make perfectly enchanting company to the reading!
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997
From: h_laws@postoffice.utas.edu.au (Mad Hamish)
Not really, what JRR had done was make notes for about 50 years on it and go over it repeatedly. When he died it was not really in a state for publication as it consists of stuff which was in the middle of being re-written, stuff which was unchanged for 30 years and stuff in the middle. Chris has made quite a living out of being JRR's son.
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997
From: Jean Debord (100412.1707@compuserve.com)
The story of Luthien is told by Aragorn in Chapter 11, Book 1 of "The Lord Of The Rings". She was an elf princess who assumed the condition of mortal after falling in love with a man, Beren. From their lineage came the kings of Numenor.
I have always associated Enya with Galadriel, mainly because of the song "Lothlorien", and also of the cover picture on TMOT, but I must admit that Luthien is a good candidate too.