J. R. R. Tolkien is the single most influential figure in the history of modern fantasy, and his work is, the bridge between the older Celtic literary traditions and the modern popular image of the Celtic world. Tolkien was a professional philologist who spent his entire career in the study of Old English, Old Norse, Finnish, Welsh, and Middle English, and the Celtic influence on modern fantasy cannot be understood without a serious look at the ways in which the older Welsh, Irish, and broader Brythonic and Goidelic traditions shaped the invention of Middle-earth. The story of this influence is part of the broader Celtic legacy today.
The Scholarly Background
Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and he held the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959. His scholarly work, which included editions of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, placed him in direct contact with the older literatures of the British Isles, and his teaching of Old English, Old Norse, Welsh, and Middle English gave him an unusually broad familiarity with the medieval textual traditions of the north Atlantic.
Tolkien’s interest in Welsh in particular was substantial. He read Welsh fluently and lectured on it at Oxford, and his work on the Mabinogion and on the Welsh literary tradition gave him a deep familiarity with the medieval Welsh materials. The medieval Welsh literature was, for Tolkien, not simply a curiosity but a central element of the broader medieval tradition that he wanted to recover for the modern world.
The Welsh Connections
The most striking Welsh influence on Tolkien’s work is in the river and place names of Middle-earth. The names of the rivers Anduin (the Great River of Wilderland) and the Sirion (the river of the Noldor) draw on Welsh etymological patterns, and the linguistic work that Tolkien did to create the Elvish languages was deeply informed by the phonology and the morphology of Welsh. Tolkien himself noted, in one of his letters, that the Welsh had been a particular inspiration for the Quenya and the Sindarin, the two principal Elvish languages of his legendarium.
The influence of the Mabinogion is also substantial. The tales of Pwyll, of Branwen, of Manawydan, and of Math son of Mathonwy, which form the four branches of the Mabinogion, are the most substantial body of medieval Welsh prose narrative, and they contain many of the motifs that are also central to Tolkien’s work: the supernatural wife, the magical vessel, the quest to the otherworld, the doomed hero. The figure of the Elven-king Thingol in the Silmarillion, with his Sindarin name derived from the Welsh Tindal, and the tale of Beren and Lúthien, with its echoes of the Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen, are particular examples of the Welsh material finding its way into Middle-earth.
The Welsh influence on Tolkien’s work was not, however, a matter of direct borrowing. Tolkien was a creative adapter rather than a translator, and he transformed the Welsh material into something distinctively his own. The Welsh names and motifs are part of the texture of Middle-earth rather than direct transpositions of Welsh originals, and Tolkien’s own letters emphasise that he was not writing an allegory or a translation of the older material but rather using it as part of the linguistic and narrative foundation for his invented world.
The Irish Connections
The Irish influence on Tolkien’s work is also substantial, although it has been less frequently discussed. The tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the divine people of the Celtic mythology of the older Irish tradition, are a clear source for the Noldor, the high Elves of the Silmarillion, and the tales of the Silmarils, the three jewels that contain the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, have been compared to the treasures of the older Irish tradition. The figure of Fëanor, the creator of the Silmarils and the leader of the Noldor in their exile, has been linked to the figure of the smith-god of the Irish tradition.
The names of the Silmarillion also draw on Irish material. The name Tolkien himself acknowledged drew on the Old English for ar-wise, but the place-names of the Silmarillion, including the Valar and the Maiar, the divine beings of Tolkien’s legendarium, show the influence of the older Irish and Welsh linguistic patterns. The figure of the Balrog, the fire-demon of Moria, has been compared to the figure of the banshe in the Irish tradition, and the tale of Túrin Turambar, one of the great tragedies of the Silmarillion, has been linked to the Irish tale of the Tragic Death of the Sons of Usnech, one of the great tales of the Fenian cycle.
The Finnish and Norse Elements
Tolkien’s work drew on a much wider range of sources than the Celtic ones alone. The Finnish epic of the Kalevala, with its own mythology of creation and its own complex linguistic structure, was a profound influence on the Quenya and on the early versions of the Silmarillion. The Old Norse Edda, the Völsunga saga, and the broader Scandinavian tradition also contributed substantially to the texture of Middle-earth, particularly in the figure of the dragon and the treasure hoard.
The result of all these influences is a legendarium that is not straightforwardly Celtic but that draws on a wide range of European mythological and linguistic traditions. The Celtic elements are, however, among the most distinctive and most important, and they have been a major element in the way that the modern popular imagination has come to understand the older Celtic tradition.
The Reception and the Legacy
The reception of Tolkien’s work has had a substantial effect on the popular image of the Celtic past. The Lord of the Rings, which has been translated into more than fifty languages and which has sold more than 150 million copies, has given the older Celtic and broader European mythological traditions a modern global audience. The films of Peter Jackson, the Amazon television series of 2022, and the many subsequent fantasy works that have been influenced by Tolkien have all helped to make the older Welsh, Irish, and broader Celtic materials part of the global popular imagination.
Tolkien’s work has also had a substantial effect on the scholarly understanding of the Celtic tradition. The popularity of the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion has led to a renewed interest in the Welsh and Irish sources, and the academic study of the Celtic influence on Tolkien has been a growing field. The work of scholars such as Tom Shippey, Patrick Curry, and Dimitra Fimi has helped to clarify the relationship between Tolkien and the Celtic tradition, and it has also helped to bring the older Welsh and Irish traditions to a wider audience.
Conclusion
The Celtic influence on Tolkien’s work is a major and distinctive element of the Celtic influence on modern fantasy and popular culture. Tolkien was a professional philologist who knew the Welsh and Irish traditions intimately, and the older Celtic materials are part of the deep structure of his invented world. The reception of his work has, in turn, been a major factor in the modern popular image of the Celtic past, and Tolkien’s legacy is an essential element in any account of the Celtic legacy today.
Related Topics
- The Celtic influence on fantasy and popular culture examines the broader literary and visual tradition that Tolkien helped to shape.
- The Celtic mythology and the heroic tales of the older Celtic world are a major source for Tolkien’s work.
- The Celtic languages and oral tradition of the Welsh and Irish traditions shaped Tolkien’s work as a philologist.
- The Celtic revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries rediscovered many of the older materials that Tolkien would later draw on.
- The Celtic knotwork and symbolism of the older Celtic world is part of the broader visual inheritance that Tolkien’s work helped to make popular.