Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Races: Maiar, Wizards & Balrogs

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A black, white, and dark blue striped header image with the text Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical Races: Maiar, Wizards & Balrogs

During this week and next week, I am taking a brief break from the appendixes to create more illustrations for the people of Middle-earth. I will focus on Maiar, a Race of angel-like or god-like beings who traveled as invisible spirits or took a wide range of physical forms. While this term did not appear in The Lord of the Rings, many Maiar appeared in the text, and explanations of Maiar and their powers were given in The Silmarillion. Wizards and balrogs will appear this week, while Maiar symbolizing the environment and crafts will appear next week.

Wizard Tropes & Portrayals

Tropes are shortcuts used in storytelling to help the audience quickly understand what is happening because they have seen something similar before. Called “Wizard Classic” by TV Tropes, the standard wizard in Western tradition is a wise and incredibly old man who practices magic with a special staff, grows a long beard, and wears a robe with a hat. Wizards were traditionally solitary and absent-minded, wandering through the world alone or squirrelling away in towers. Modern variations on wizards live in families or groups, including wizarding schools. Women wizards have long existed as well, although they tend to be classified as witches or sorceresses.

Wise Old Men

An old, bearded man wearing a long robe and pointy hat is instantly recognizable even to those who do not enjoy fantasy. The archetype of the wise old man or sage acting as a mentor lives in the modern consciousness as a product of the psychology of Carl Jung and the study of myths by Joseph Campbell, including his frequently cited The Hero with a Thousand Faces published in 1949.

Predating these more modern portrayals is the figure of Odin or Wotan, a god from Norse or Germanic mythology. Tolkien described Gandalf as an “Odinic” wanderer, and likely drew more inspiration from this figure than any other. According to a thesis by English literature scholar Matthew James Gidney, Tolkien seemed to break Odin into two parts when creating his wizards: a demonic Odin similar to the portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost by John Milton, and a good Odin who embodied Northern courage, or fighting on even when faced with imminent death.

Preserved in Old Norse texts such as Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, the god had been rewritten in many forms from representing a slayer of giants (as mentioned in “Perspectives on the Sea”), a mighty hunter (as mentioned in “(ii) The Realms in Exile”), and the ruler of the dead (as mentioned in “Appendix D: Shire Calendar”). Richard Wagner featured him as Wotan in the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and gives his version more purpose and direction than the original character. Wagner’s Wotan steals a magic ring from the dwarf Alberich only to lose it to the giants Fafner and Fasolt, unleashing a string of murders that leads to the destruction of the gods and their home, Valhalla.

In English literature, the wizard Merlin from Arthurian legend acts as the basis for wizards, and entire scholarly books are dedicated to tracking his portrayals. Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced the character in his Historia regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain]. Geoffrey last appeared in “Overview of Appendix A”, where I described his book as “quite the trip”, and the story of Merlin proved no different. In Geoffrey’s telling, Merlin was the son of a nice young lady and an incubus, the type of demon that seduces nice young ladies. Yikes. Other late Medieval portrayals of Merlin appeared in the French poem Roman de Brut by Robert Wace from 1155, a poem by Robert de Boron in the late 12th or early 13th century, Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory around 1470. For a more modern retelling, a key work was The Once and Future King by T.H. White where Merlin aged backwards through time over hundreds of years.

Elsewhere in English language literature, the old wizard Prospero in The Tempest by William Shakespeare lived on an island and used magic to protect himself and his daughter. The most modern version is Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, which slightly changed the format by making him a school headmaster and mentor for children rather than an advisor to adults.

Beautiful Clever Women

The opposite of the old wise man, the beautiful clever woman appears throughout Western literature to both aid and destroy the male hero. Circe in Greco-Roman mythology was among the oldest examples. In The Odyssey by Homer, she used a combination of drugs and magic to capture Odysseus and his men, turning many into animals. In Book III of The Aeneid by Virgil, Aeneas avoided her island thanks to advice from Odysseus, there known as Ulysses. In Book 14 of Metamorphoses by Ovid, Circe turned the sea nymph Scylla into a monster because Circe’s unrequited crush Glaucus had an unrequited crush on Scylla, and somehow this was the poor girl’s fault.

For English literature, Arthurian legend has Morgan le Fay, the counterpart of Merlin. The name le Fay means “the fairy” to indicate that she could have been part elf, although what constituted an elf was unclear. She first appeared in the poem Vita Merlini [Life of Merlin], likely written by Geoffrey of Monmouth around 1150, as a good witch or fairy godmother to Arthur. Roman de Troie by French poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure placed Morgan in a story similar to Circe and Glaucus. With her name spelled “Orva la fee” in this retelling, she had a crush on the Trojan hero Hector, famously killed by Achilles in The Iliad by Homer, but she hated him when the feeling was not mutual, as he was happily married to Andromache. Another French author, Cretien de Troyes, wrote Morgan as “Morgue” into Erec et Enide and Yvain. Here she loved Guigomar, disliked Guinevere, and worked as a healer.

In Malory’s Le Morte, Morgan was a figure of contrasts, protecting people being dealt Medieval punishments and healing injured knights while conspiring against the government. Morgan studied nigremancie, possibly meaning black magic, which made all the knights scared of her. Other exploits of Morgan included treason against her brother King Arthur, attempting to kill her husband Sir Uriens, stealing a scabbard from Arthur, saving a knight from being drowned for adultery, having a secret boyfriend named Sir Hemison, and keeping Sir Alisander trapped in a castle just in case she needed another secret boyfriend. In a modern setting, I think some readers would consider her to be the hero.

My favorite version of Morgan came from The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne, who also wrote a great version of The Odyssey for children. This Morgan was gentle and kind like a magical mother, and her treehouse brought siblings Jack and Annie on adventures throughout history and mythology. While this iteration never seems to make it onto academic lists, I think it might be the first experience many readers have with the character. An interview with Osborn revealed that her inspiration for the series came in part from a backpacking trip she took through Asia in the 1970s. During a two-week hospital stay from blood poisoning, she read (what else) The Lord of the Rings.

A similar figure in Arthurian legend was a lady of the lake named Nimue, whose name changed greatly to be called Ninianne, Nenyve, Vivian, Vivien, or Viviane, but whose stories stayed the same. She grew tired of Merlin stalking her and trapped him under a rock, in a tomb, or in a forest, and left him to die. The ladies were very much in charge of Camelot. While this story appeared as early as the works of Thomas Malory, it was especially popular during the Victorian era, when the national poet laureate of Great Britain Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the epic poem Idylls of the King and the Noble Prize in Literature recipient William Butler Yeats published “Time and the Witch Vivien”.

Not all sorceresses come from English literature. Karaba from the animated film Kirikou and the Sorceress was based on powerful witches from West African folk tales. She received her power from a poisonous thorn in her back, and only by removing it would she be made good again. Karaba received a happier ending than most women with magic, as she was invited to live in a local village and seemed to have a relationship with Kirikou, who had been born as a precocious baby earlier that week but became an adult after her magic kiss.

Absent-Minded Professors

For all of his wisdom and power, Gandalf had difficulty showing up on time and remembering important information. This was a newer trope but popular among portrayals of wizards. The animated Disney movie The Sword in the Stone, which was so loosely based on T.H. White’s book of the same name that it felt disrespectful to the original intent of the author, used an absent-minded Merlin. An actually funny version of an absent-minded wizard was Miracle Max, who appeared in The Princess Bride (both a book and a movie) by William Goldman. Played by the comedian Billy Crystal in heavy prosthetics, the movie version of the character was mostly ad-libbed according to interviews. Also noteworthy was the “man behind the curtain” in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz.

Wizard Schools

While no wizard school existed in Middle-earth, as “wizard” was more of an ethnicity than an occupation, this education system is worth noting, as it turned the classic bildungsroman or coming of age school story into fantasy. Among the oldest wizard schools in Western literature was the Șolomanță or Scholomance, a black magic school in Transylvania, Romania run by the Devil. Originally appearing in The Land Beyond the Forest by Scottish author Emily Gerard, which she mentioned a single time in her rambling book, the word was enough to inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. The Romanian school bore similarities to a purported Icelandic institution, “The Black School”, where Icelandic scholar Sæmundr fróði was taught magic by the devil. Sæmundr made his last appearance in “Appendix A, II The Kings of the Mark” as a priest, foster father, and teacher of the medieval scholar Snorri Sturluson, who wrote Prose Edda.

In the modern era, Ursula K. Le Guin expanded the understanding of school stories and lifelong wizard education by creating the Earthsea cycle based on Polynesian culture. The series follows Ged, a young man with the potential to be the most powerful wizard and foiled only by his own hubris. He was described as being short and having red-brown skin, just like Sam Gamgee of The Lord of the Rings, with both characters portrayed as light-skinned in most adaptations. Of course, I am obligated to mention the blockbuster Harry Potter franchise by J.K. Rowling where magic children are sent to the boarding school Hogwarts and get mauled every year.

Wizard Outfits

Standard wizard-ware includes a tall pointy hat with a wide brim and a robe or cloak. The origin of the hat had many potential historical sources. The Norse god Odin wore a slouchy hat and robe. In Mithraism, a mystery cult involving the worship of the Indo-Iranian god Mithras, Roman followers wore Phrygian caps. These later became a symbol of freedom during the French Revolution and were shown in grotesquely oversized form during this year’s summer Olympics as horrid bright red Phryges mascots. I gave this hat design to the Númenórean woman in “Races: Men, Part 1”.

These hats may have indicated discriminatory practices. Alewives, or Medieval ladies who brewed beer, wore pointed hats and were treated poorly in the male-dominated industry. Meanwhile, a law invoked in 1215 during the Fourth Council of the Lateran hosted by Pope Innocent III forced European Jews to wear ugly hats, called Judenhut, to distinguish them from other members of the population.

Wizard robes have been compared to the garments of scholarly people in the Ancient world, including the white linen robes of Egyptian priests and the togas of Roman elite men. Celtic cultures and druids likewise wore robes, as did most ancient people; making a robe from a sheet was much simpler than sewing pants and a shirt. Modern Christian leaders wear robes while preaching. Protestant ministers tend to wear plain pulpit gowns, while Catholic priests wear fancy vestments. During my research, I read a fun article, if one without enough citations, titled in part “Why Is the Pastor Dressed Like Harry Potter?”, which neatly fit into today’s wizard theme.

The Istari

Tolkien’s wizards came in a group of five known as the Istari. While not fully fleshed out in The Lord of the Rings, they receive their own section in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, “Part Four, II: Istari”. Here the text explained that the name Istari literally translated from Quenya as “wise ones”. They lived in Middle-earth during the Third Age, and no one understood what they were except for the wisest immortals: Elrond, Círdan, and Galadriel. Apparently, these three did not inform their friends and relatives what was going on.

Five wizards posing together in a group portrait. Thorough descriptions of each wizard in upcoming images. A short, broad shoulder wizard with a brown robe and belt, brown hat, light brown skin, brown staff, and hazel eyes.

Círdan saw five Istari arrive in the north: the head wizard with “raven hair” and wearing white, two wizards wearing “sea-blue”, one wizard wearing “earthen brown”, and the last wizard was “more aged, grey-haired and grey-clad, and leaning on a staff”. The wizards received multiple names, as did everyone in Middle-earth, but the names did not appear consistently. While the Westron name Gandalf the Grey appeared throughout The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the Sindarin name Mithrandir appeared in The Lord of the Rings, and his Quenya name Olórin appeared in The Silmarillion. Similarly, Radagast the Brown was named in The Hobbit and had a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, while his Quenya name Aiwendil came in The Silmarillion. Saruman the White did not appear until Fellowship and was given the name “Sharkey” by Hobbits in The Return of the King, while he was named Curumo in The Silmarillion. Finally, the Blue Wizards or Ithryn Luin received no name in Middle-earth, but were originally best friends called Alatar and Pallando in Unfinished Tales.

A tall skinny wizard with white hair and bushy eyebrows, grey skin, grey eyes, grey staff, grey robe, blue hat, and birkenstock-like grey sandals over black socks A tall skinny wizard with white hair and bushy eyebrows, white skin, white eyes, white robe, and outstretched arms.

The appearance for three of the wizards seemingly remained consistent throughout their time on Middle-earth, or not enough was known about them to perceive any changes. I portray Radagast with a brown outfit, light brown skin, and hazel eyes rather than brown. Since Sam was regularly described in Frodo’s perspective as having brown eyes, I assumed it was an unusual color for people in Middle-earth, so he and his children will be the only brown-eyed characters in my depictions. I portray the Blue Wizards as nearly identical but mirrored, with Alatar smiling eagerly for his mission, but Pallando looking nervous. Saruman and Gandalf have two variations. Saruman the White with his raven hair appeared at the beginning of his time in Middle-earth, while he became white-haired Saruman of Many Colours after falling into evil. Inversely, Gandalf the Grey wore his Grey Pilgrim outfit for much of his time in Middle-earth, but he was resurrected as Gandalf the White after defeating the balrog in the Black Pit.

A tall, broad-shouldered wizard with raven black hair, white robe, golden belt, white boots, and white staff A tall, broad-shouldered wizard with white hair, white robe speckled with many colors, rainbow belt, rainbow boots, and rainbow staff.

As a final note, I intended the wizards to have a cat-like appearance, most noticeable in the narrow slit pupils of their eyes. Throughout the text, Gandalf’s beard and eyebrows bristled when he was nervous, much like the hair of cats, and another Maia who does not appear in this essay replaced an evil cat from early versions of the Legendarium; more on that story will come next week.

A wizard with blue skin, grey-blue beard, blue robe, blue belt, blue boots, and a slight smile A wizard with blue skin, grey-blue beard, blue robe, blue belt, blue boots, and a frown

Balrogs & Demons

The idea of demons or evil spirits that had once been good angels is a wholly Christian concept. Jews and early Christians had no demons, and the Greek word daimon referred to minor gods or spirits, including those of dead humans, and generally had a neutral connotation. The word entered English around 1200 from the Latin word daemon to replace the fun Old English word hellcniht, literally meaning “hell-knight”. The term negatively referred to pagan gods, idols, and unclean spirits, and was used in Bible translations to replace the Hebrew word shedim. Syrian theologist Tatian, who lived in the 2nd century AD, may have been the first to equate daimon with fallen angels, and he viewed Satan as their leader. Since then, some branches of Christianity have categorized and studied demons to better understand how to protect themselves in spiritual warfare, an ongoing battle between good and evil.

Demonology

I am not an expert on demonology and admittedly do not have much interest in the field, but many past theologians were really into it. Among the oldest works about demons was the Testament of Solomon, which was not actually written by King Solomon of Israel, since he would not have believed in demons. In the apocryphal story, Solomon used a magic ring to control demons but lost his power after falling in love with a “Shunamite girl”. You would think these magic guys would learn to leave the ladies alone. During the 11th century, Byzantine monk Michael Psellos published De operatione dæmonum [On the Operation of Demons], which created a classification system.

The invention of the printing press in the 15th century led to a rise of demon-focused publications. The Lanterne of Light appeared as a tract possibly written by English priest John Wycliffe, now better known for his Bible translations. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa printed De Occulta Philosophia Libri III [Three Books of Occult Philosophy] between 1531 and 1533 in major European cities, including Paris, France; Antwerp, Belgium; and Cologne, Germany. Not to be outdone by commoners, King James VI of Scotland, who soon became James I of England, published Daemonologie in 1597, fourteen years before the King James translation of the Bible came out.

Interest in demons has continued in more recent times. French demonologist Jacques Collin de Plancy published several editions of Dictionnaire Infernal beginning in 1818. A favorite edition for fellow demonologists came in 1863, when he collaborated with illustrator Louis Le Breton to include sixty-nine pictures of demons. In Tolkien’s own social circle — in fact, the book is dedicated to him — C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters, a series of thirty-one letters from Screwtape, an experienced demon, to his young nephew, Wormwood, on how to best tempt humans.

Of course, the Vatican has an official stance on Demonology; I promise this link references the official website, even though its design has not been updated seemingly since the year I was born. Focusing too much on demons, called “obsessional preoccupation” in the text, was seen as no different from worshiping them. At the same time, ignoring “demonic reality” and “the mystery of Evil” would only allow evil to flourish. The Vatican advocated for a middle ground, balancing an understanding of potential corrupting forces without becoming consumed with the idea of it.

Origin of Balrogs

Besides the balrog slain by Gandalf who lived in the Mines of Moria, also called Durin’s Bane, other balrogs lived in Middle-earth and fought the warriors of the Free People. In The Silmarillion, Gothmog the Balrog killed Fëanor, creator of the Silmarilli and creepy great uncle of Galadriel. In The Book of Lost Tales (98), Gothmog was slain by Ecthelion, another Ñoldor, and this legend was apparently so popular in Gondor that Boromir’s grandfather was named after him. Also in The Silmarillion, Glorfindel of the golden hair killed a balrog in battle, only for it to grab his hair and break his neck as they fell into an abyss. Being a linguist, Tolkien noted that Elves said the phrase “’Tis Glorfindel and the Balrog” (Silmarillion, 195) whenever good seemed outmatched by evil. I wonder how Glorfindel felt about this when he returned resurrected to Middle-earth.

The real-world origin of Balrogs seemed rooted in Tolkien’s two-part essay “Sigelwara Land”, published in 1932 and 1934. Tolkien found the Old English word Sigelwara in a translation of Exodus appearing in Codex Junius, also called Junius 11 (Exodus: Facsimile Edition, 146). The word seemingly meant “sun-black” and was used to ambiguously describe “Aethiopian” or sub-Saharan African people but also had the negative connotation of “black fire demon”. Tolkien noticed that Ethiopians had originally been viewed positively by early European writers, but later writers viewed them negatively. Just as in his fantasy works, Tolkien did not dwell on the apparent racism of this word usage but laid out a not quite complete set of facts for readers to decide for themselves. He thought the description better fit the Norse mythology fire giants from the magical realm Muspell that appeared in Prose Edda than the so-called “sons of Ham”, a belief that Africans were descendants of the disowned son of Noah and cursed with black skin, which was used to justify race-based slavery.

In his book The Road to Middle-earth, Tom Shippey noted that this essay generated several ideas for Middle-earth. Sigel meaning “sun” or “jewel” became Silmarilli, hearwa possibly meaning “soot-black” became the Men of Harad from the South, and the concept was used for balrogs, who were literal “black fire demons”. I appreciate how Tolkien used extensive research to support his interpretation of historical facts and then transformed the facts into a fantasy setting, the same method by which I flesh out his texts to create the hypothetical animated musical.

Portrayal of Balrogs

Tolkien changed his mind about the look of Balrogs. In an earlier draft of The Lord of the Rings, which appeared in The Treason of Isengard, they were “no more than man-high” and had “yellow eyes” with “streaming hair [that] seemed to catch fire” but later increased its shape “standing up tall so that it loomed above the wizard”. Tolkien added in the original draft that the Balrog “could not be plainly discerned. It felt larger than it looked”. By the time of the published version, the Balrog was “of man-shape, maybe, yet greater” and “[i]ts streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it” while it “drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall” when attacking Gandalf (Fellowship, 370-371). Ambiguity over Balrog size was consistent both with Tolkien’s writing style and the variation within real-world myths.

A horrifying man-like figure engulfed in flames with flaming butterfly wings. In its right hand is a flaming sword and in its left hand is a whip with many prongs

I modeled my balrog after the one in Moria, with its “blade like a stabbing tongue” in the right hand and “whip of many thongs” in the left and fire coming out its nose. I forgo the horns that appear in traditional representations of balrogs, likely due to its association with demons, since the only horn in the text belonged to Boromir, which he blew to challenge the Balrog. My special addition that did not appear in the text are long pointy teeth, because I like teeth, and I think these make a character look extra scary.


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