22.05.2003, 16:46
Kehldarin a écrit :Suite à un point soulevé par Cernan je me suis (re)posé la question de savoir de quelque peuple réel les nains pouvaient être inspirés, sachant que ce sont très vraisemblablement un patchwork avec une grande partie de légendes scandinaves.
Pourtant je pense que les nains se rapprochent certes des nains des légendes scandinaves, mais au moins autant des peuples sémites du proche Orient, en particulier de ceux de Palestine.
Mes arguments, sans qu'ils soient définitifs, sont d'abord linguistiques, vu que le Khuzdul (le langage secret et sacré des nains de Tolkien), comme l'adunaîc (la langue vernaculaire de Numenor) d'ailleurs, ont des consonances sémitiques, voire hébraïques. En plus la syntaxe des mots reprend le même schéma, vu que ce sont des groupes de consonnes qui donnent leur sens aux mots, et que les voyelles sont peu ou pas importantes en khuzdul, comme en hébreu/araméen. Et le père dIsrael sappelait Naïn
Deuxièmement, il y a les critères géographiques, comme la montagne Moria, la montagne de Palestine où, dans l'ancien testament, le patriarche Abraham accepta de sacrifier son fils Isaac. D'ailleurs, tant que j'y pense, le Créateur qui accepte de sacrifier ses enfants sur la demande du dieu unique, et qui au dernier moment en est empêché, c'est exactement ce qui arrive avec Aulë et les sept pères des nains. Il y a aussi la mythique mine du roi Salomon, qui fait la richesse du roi comme les veines de Mithril font celle de la Moria.
Troisièmement, culturellement, ce quon sait des nains recoupe souvent les traditions sémitiques : les hébreux ont un sens du clan et de la famille très développé, et ils se considèrent, comme les nains, comme le peuple élu. Leur richesse, aux uns et aux autres, est devenue mythique. Les nains portent tous la barbe et les cheveux longs, comme le héros hébreu Samson, et le sept est le chiffre du peuple hébreu, comme du peuple nain.
Historiquement, enfin, le fait que les nains soient dispersés autour du monde, tout en gardant une véritable culture identitaire, ça ressemble beaucoup à la diaspora.
En bref, je nen suis pas à appeler Beren Nabuchodonosor, ou Hérode Thingol mais je suis bien tenté, même si je serais très heureux de voir les tenants d'un lien avec la mythologie grecque
LETTERS:156 To Robert Murray, SJ. (draft) 4 November 1954
Even the dwarfs are not really Germanic 'dwarfs' (Zwerge, dweorgas, dvergar), and I call them 'dwarves' to mark that. They are not naturally evil, not necessarily hostile, and not a kind of maggot-folk bred in stone; but a variety of incarnate rational creature.
LETTERS:176 From a letter to Naomi Mitchison 8 December 1955
I thought that the Dwarf (Glóin not Gimli, but I suppose Gimli will look like his father - apparently someone's idea of a German) was not too bad, if a bit exaggerated. I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue.....
LETTERS:236 To Rayner Unwin 30 December 1961
P.S. Will you please thank Miss M. J. Hill (and yourself) for the copy of School Magazine Nov. 1961 (N. S. Wales) containing the Hobbit extract and the article 'Something Special'. I thought the latter was well written for its purpose..... But alas! faced with actual stories people are always more ready to believe in learning and arcane knowledge than in invention, especially if they are bemused by the title 'professor'. There are no songs or stories preserved about Elves or Dwarfs in ancient English, and little enough in any other Germanic language. Words, a few names, that is about all. I do not recall any Dwarf or Elf that plays an actual pan in any story save Andvari in the Norse versions of the Nibelung matter. There is no story attached to the name Eikinskjaldi, save the one that I invented for Thorin Oakenshield. As far as old English goes 'dwarf' (dweorg) is a mere gloss for nanus, or the name of convulsions and recurrent fevers; and 'elf we should suppose to be associated only with rheumatism, toothache and nightmares, if it were not for the occurrence of aelfsciene 'elven-fair' applied to Sarah and Judith!, and a few glosses such as dryades, wuduelfen. In all Old English poetry 'elves' (ylte) occurs once only, in Beowulf, associated with trolls, giants, and the Undead, as the accursed offspring of Cain. The gap between that and, say, Elrond or Galadriel is not bridged by learning. Now you will feel this letter has become a pamphlet or a new year garland! But you have a w[aste] p[aper] b[asket] I suppose, at least as capacious as mine. JRRT.
LETTERS:239 From a letter to Allen & Unwin 20 July 1962
[With reference to the Spanish translation of The Hobbit.]
If gnomos is used as a translation of dwarves, then it must not appear on p. 63 in the elves that are now called Gnomes. I need not trouble the translator, or you, with the long explanation needed to account for this aberration; but the word was used as a translation of the real name, according to my mythology, of the High-elven people of the West. Pedantically, associating it with Greek gnome 'thought, intelligence'. But I have abandoned it, since it is quite impossible to dissociate the name from the popular associations of the Paracelsan gnomus = pygmaeus .1 Since this word is used - for its aptness in preference to Sp[anish] enano I am not able to judge - for 'dwarves', regrettable confusion would be caused, if it is also applied to the High Elves. I earnestly suggest that on p. 63, lines 6-7, the translator should translate old swords of the High Elves of the West; and on p. 173, line 14, should delete (or Gnomes) altogether. I think these are the only places where Gnomes appears in The Hobbit.
LETTERS:297 Drafts for a letter to 'Mr Rang' AUG 1967
As for the 'land of Moriah' (note stress): that has no connexion (even 'externally') whatsoever. Internally there is no conceivable connexion between the mining of Dwarves, and the story of Abraham. I utterly repudiate any such significances and symbolisms. My mind does not work that way; and (in my view) you are led astray by a purely fortuitous similarity, more obvious in spelling than speech, which cannot be justified from the real intended significance of my story.