I was just reading Robert Graves on druid/bardic initiations in ancient
Britain. The would-be bard had to compose a poem to the most difficult bardic
metre, on a given subject, while lying in ice-cold water overnight with heavy
stones placed on their chest. They recite this to their examiners when/if? they
emerge the next morning.
It reminded me of something so I went back & read FOTR again. The experience of
the hobbits - and especially Frodo - when captured by the barrow-wight; the
trance-like state, the summoning of Bombadil, who says "You've found yourselves
again, out of the deep water"
, the way Frodo is separated from his companions.
As far as I know, Tolkien didn't get on with Graves, but they did share a
common heritage, and I am speculating on how much he drew on that.
The man learning from the druid goes on to explain;
"They say that man when he dies goes westward, like the setting sun, to live in
certain sacred islands"
Sound familiar? It's given me a new angle on Frodo the mystic : )
- Robert Graves, "Claudius the
God"
