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Beyond the Movie

The Anglo-Saxons

Narrator:

The era that Tolkien knew best is called the anglo-saxonian era, which gave rise to one of today's most dominant languages: English.
[ruins of an ancient castle/ a ship sails along a rocky shore]

Martin Carver:

The word "England" is the land where you find the Anglos. [Martin Carver, PhD., archaeologist]

Narrator:

Professor Martin Carver of the University of York is an eminent archaeologist, familiar with the terrain of anglo-saxon history.

Martin Carver:

The Anglos spoke "anglish", that's why we are speaking. [Martin Carver, PhD., archaeologist]

Narrator:

The Anglos and Saxons were dramanic sea faring warriors who sailed to Britannia in the 5th century. They forced their mercenaries in a period of great migrations and tribal battles all over Europe. [Map of Great Britain, showing the sailing routes from what is now Denmark and northwest Germany, to the southeast of the british main island, near a place called Sutton Hoo, and to London]

Martin Carver:

It's a big period of change, massive, in the fifth and sixth century, a tremendous change. [Martin Carver, PhD., archaeologist]

Narrator:

During this change of epochs, the Anglo-Saxons settled in England. Since they were mostly illiterate, the sagas about their heroic sea faring ancestors were passed down thru story and song.

Martin Carver:

A roaring fire, and the meat, the ale, is going round, people are singing, and out of their songs and out of the conversation comes all the shared values, all the things that people want to perpetuate.
[Martin Carver, PhD., archaeologist/ Bilbo's birthday party/ Sam and Rosie are dancing together in a circle of hobbits performing a round dance, but they have eyes only for each other]

Narrator:

Most of these magnify tales were lost after the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. As anglo-saxon culture was eclipsed, their great oral tradition died. Tolkien felt the English people have been robbed of their roots with the loss of these oral tales. He was inspired to write a new mythology for England.
[Riders with spears in their hands against the sunset/ J.R.R Tolkien]

Ian McKellen:

The mythology that Tolkien created is absolutely astonishing, I think he said that he wanted to provide the United Kingdom, which hasn't have many myth to establish a national identity.
[Ian McKellen/ Elronds elv warriors of the Second Age running/ Boromir takes Narsil]

John Howe:

It is a sort of condensed revision of anglo-saxon, european history and therefore it has got a dense reality and the importance that any real legend has.
[The Fellowship in Dwarrowdelf, Moria]

Narrator:

One of the few sources Tolkien could have turned to for clues about the anglo-saxon mythology was their great epic poem: Beowulf. Tolkien studied every line of the heroic saga, becoming one of the world's leading Beowulf scholars. It tells the tale of a monster slaying scandinavian king who dies fighting a dragon others refused to face.
[Ancient paper roll with runes; very similar to Isildur's record in Minas Tirith]

Narrator:

One of Beowulf's most vivid scenes describes the king's salon burial at sea in the hold of his ship, surrounded by treasures. For centuries, it had been considered nearly a legend. Then, a stunning discovery was made in 1939: At Sutton Hoo at England's eastern seaboard, british archeologists unearthened an ancient ship. The burial chamber of an ancient anglo-saxon king. The excavation site was filled with amazing treasures.
[J.R.R Tolkien/ Front page of Tolkien's book. "Beowulf: the monsters and the critics", 1936, warrior's helmet/ archaeologists working at an excavation site]

Martin Carver:

Everybody was very excited when all those beautiful things came out from the ground. This extraordinary burial was itself a sort of a poem where people put together special objects in a special way. Sutton Hoo started to look like the reality behind Beowulf. Tolkien would have knowledge of the Sutton Hoo discovery, the burial, because it was 1939, just about the time that he was starting to write the Lord of the Rings.
[Martin Carver/ some ancient jewellery]

Narrator:

In the movie, the fellowship reaches the underground burial chamber of a dwarf chieftain. Sadly, the tomb has been desecrated. He had a reflex that type of reference that Anglo-Saxons felt for their leaders.
[Gimli running to Balin's tomb/ The fellowship follows]

Gandalf reads the runes on the epitaph: "Here lies Balin, sun of Fundin, Lord of Moria. He is dead then."

Narrator:

Archaeologist research has continued at Sutton Hoo for more then 60 years. Because of its importance in uncovering the anglo-saxon 's world it is considered a crown jewel of british archaeology.
[Excavation site]

Martin Carver:

A lot of our students have read Tolkien and now they want to do the anglo-saxon archaeology. They move from the fictional to the historical and want to know more about what really happened to that time.
[Martin Carver]

Narrator:

One of the most spectacular treasures at Sutton Hoo is the buried king's helmet.
[Ancient helmet]

Martin Carver:

Strong, rich piece that goes right over the top of the head and protects you from the blow of a sword. That's actually the dragon, with two little peewee garnet eyes, which look out at you, and then a snarling jaw.
[Martin Carver]

Martin Carver:

The creatures depicted on anglo-saxon helmets provide insight into the values and believes held in that time.

Martin Carver:

Tolkien explains to us that the monsters embodies people's hopes and fears. I think that is a good way we can look at anglo-saxon metal work and we see these riding monsters.

The animals are metaphors that contain all sorts of messages, valour, loyalty, spies. In a non-literary society the metal-smiths are the poets, they are giving the people something permanent instead a book, something that lasts forever. And this is where studies of people like Tolkien where so helpful, picketing of his imaginations that really were.
[Martin Carver /The fellowship gets attacked by the Moria orcs on their way to the Bridge of Khazad-dum ]

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