By Any Other Name
Nov. 29th, 2004 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseYay! Have teh Intarweb back! Stupid campus network.
So, more reflections upon re-watching TTT. I love this story soooo much!
I found myself drawing parallels between Gandalf and Gollum and the giving of names. There are these two moments: “What did you call me?” and “That's what they used to call me.” Both Aragorn and Frodo, in giving these characters back their names, do something to bring back the personalities that both characters wore when they went by their names. To regain the name is to regain the identity. Of course, it's not Gandalf's true name the way it is Gollum's, but the parallel is quite striking all the same.
For Gandalf, I think the name represents his taken humanity. After the struggle with the Balrog he almost reverts to his pre-Istari existence, to being a creature of pure spirit. It is his native condition, but he loses some of the character that he gained by embodying. As a Maia he is still himself, but without, I think, so much of the empathy and the understanding. When he is embodied he has all the flaws that come with that body, and all the quirks and relationships and failings and joys. In being reminded of that name he begins to settle back into being himself, although he is never quite the same. After all, his name is a bit different now. He is Gandalf the White.
And certainly in the filmverse, Frodo's naming of Gollum as “Smeagol” reawakens in him the memory of who he once was and of the feelings that he had as that person. He recalls love and compassion and family and friendship and innocence. When he forgot his name he forgot the person who bore it, and in giving back the name Frodo resurrects the character.
It's amazing, the implied power of names. There seems to be an idea that while your name is not all of your self, it still can encapsulate one facet of yourself and can help you fit into your own skin. There is a strong element of rebirth and recapturing through the memory of names.
So, who wants to go through and apply this to Aragorn? Or bloody Turin, who had such a hard-on for new names that he gave himself what, about seven of them? Crazy bugger.
On an additional tangent, who knew that the Rohirric woman in TTT who sends her children off on the horse to Edoras is named Morwen? There's this lovely touch with the other Morwen, Turin's mother: the mortal woman sending her son away to safety, knowing that she may very well die soon and never see him again. Even with the little sister, although Eothain knows little Freda as Turin never knew Niennor. Eothain/Freda incest, anyone? I just find it interesting that the name that Peter chose to reuse from the Silm fits so perfectly. Even the tangles of her hair blowing in those heavy winds recalls the images that had such impact on Turin of the woman running wild as the deer clad only in her knotted hair.
And so much irritation with people calling them “Rohans.” “Rohirrim,” fuck it! That's like saying “Americas,” “Englands,” or “Chinas.” It doesn't work like that. When you're presented with a proper class plural, use it, dammit! Faugh.
So, more reflections upon re-watching TTT. I love this story soooo much!
I found myself drawing parallels between Gandalf and Gollum and the giving of names. There are these two moments: “What did you call me?” and “That's what they used to call me.” Both Aragorn and Frodo, in giving these characters back their names, do something to bring back the personalities that both characters wore when they went by their names. To regain the name is to regain the identity. Of course, it's not Gandalf's true name the way it is Gollum's, but the parallel is quite striking all the same.
For Gandalf, I think the name represents his taken humanity. After the struggle with the Balrog he almost reverts to his pre-Istari existence, to being a creature of pure spirit. It is his native condition, but he loses some of the character that he gained by embodying. As a Maia he is still himself, but without, I think, so much of the empathy and the understanding. When he is embodied he has all the flaws that come with that body, and all the quirks and relationships and failings and joys. In being reminded of that name he begins to settle back into being himself, although he is never quite the same. After all, his name is a bit different now. He is Gandalf the White.
And certainly in the filmverse, Frodo's naming of Gollum as “Smeagol” reawakens in him the memory of who he once was and of the feelings that he had as that person. He recalls love and compassion and family and friendship and innocence. When he forgot his name he forgot the person who bore it, and in giving back the name Frodo resurrects the character.
It's amazing, the implied power of names. There seems to be an idea that while your name is not all of your self, it still can encapsulate one facet of yourself and can help you fit into your own skin. There is a strong element of rebirth and recapturing through the memory of names.
So, who wants to go through and apply this to Aragorn? Or bloody Turin, who had such a hard-on for new names that he gave himself what, about seven of them? Crazy bugger.
On an additional tangent, who knew that the Rohirric woman in TTT who sends her children off on the horse to Edoras is named Morwen? There's this lovely touch with the other Morwen, Turin's mother: the mortal woman sending her son away to safety, knowing that she may very well die soon and never see him again. Even with the little sister, although Eothain knows little Freda as Turin never knew Niennor. Eothain/Freda incest, anyone? I just find it interesting that the name that Peter chose to reuse from the Silm fits so perfectly. Even the tangles of her hair blowing in those heavy winds recalls the images that had such impact on Turin of the woman running wild as the deer clad only in her knotted hair.
And so much irritation with people calling them “Rohans.” “Rohirrim,” fuck it! That's like saying “Americas,” “Englands,” or “Chinas.” It doesn't work like that. When you're presented with a proper class plural, use it, dammit! Faugh.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-29 03:49 pm (UTC)It also somehow makes me think of my favorite Theoden moments in the movies--the two times he says, "I know your face. Eowyn." He knows the face, but it's the naming of it that really brings him back to himself.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-29 06:27 pm (UTC)