Tag: oh

hiraeth

(hɨraɪ̯θ), noun | A Welsh, untranslatable feeling, hiraeth is loosely described as a homesickness for a home you cannot return to anymore or a place, which never even existed. Connotations of sadness, yearning, profound nostalgia, and wistfulness are imbued into the state of hiraeth. Overall this beautiful, but painful longing is a an expression of an empty desire and grief over a past life or place. It is the ultimate signifier of a bond, which has ceased to exist.  (via wordsnquotes)

all-things-devours:

Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.

Naked I was sent back – for a brief time, until my task is done.

As others have pointed out, the wording of this passage is a little ambiguous. One might assume from the events of the story that Gandalf is talking about being sent back to Middle-earth for a brief time, before returning to Valinor when his task is done (and I imagine this is what Tolkien actually meant). But in context, being immediately preceded by his description of “straying out of thought and time”, the most intuitive reading is that he was sent back into thought and time (i.e., Eä) for a brief time only. Which would imply that when Gandalf’s task was done, he had to depart again not only from Middle-earth, but from Eä itself.

It would kind of make mythological sense for some tradeoff of the sort to be necessary, though. Beren was brought back to life temporarily at the cost of Lúthien’s immortality. What if Gandalf was forced to make a similar sacrifice – giving up his right to an immortal existence in Eä in exchange for a temporary resurrection until his task was complete?

Supposing this to be the case, where would Gandalf have gone after he left Eä for the second time? There are two obvious possibilities: either a) he returned to the Timeless Halls to dwell among the Ainur who never entered Eä in the first place; or – much more interestingly – b) like Lúthien, he became a mortal and went wherever Men go when they die.

Like I said, I don’t think Tolkien intended this reading, but I find it kind of an appealing idea.