A note on Frodo’s dream at Crickhollow and the origin of Grey Havens: It was sometime in late 1939 or 1940 that Tolkien invented what he first called “the Havens of Escape.” This Havens he located beyond some towers he created earlier in 1938 – the towers he terms “Elf-towers” and “Western Towers” located west of The Shire. These Elf-towers also play a role in the slow emergence of Gandalf’s entrapment at Isengard. This process seems to begin in the autumn of 1939 when Tolkien wrote a note that had Gandalf “besieged in the Western Tower” guarded by five Black Riders. Tolkien then decided to have Frodo dream of this captivity, and he experimented with this dream occurring at Woody End and then at Bree. In “The Dream of the Towers” Tolkien created a marvelous dream for Frodo (who is Bingo in this early draft). Frodo gazes upon “a tall white tower” with the murmur of the sea beyond. A blue light appears in a high window and Frodo notices the guard of “silent watchers” – Black Riders. The final scene is Gandalf escaping upon a white horse “his white hair streaming, and his cloak flew like wings behind him.” In late 1939 and 1940 this dream slowly evolved into two separate events: Gandalf’s captivity at Orthanc and Frodo’s dream at Crickhollow of “a tall white tower.” The history of Tolkien’s evolving texts is very confusing, but I have the impression that it was in the course of working out these events for elucidation at the Council of Elrond that Tolkien invented Grey Havens.
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 19:12:58 +0000
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