Midsummer Day Festival

[HalifaxDM]

Midsummer Day is going to factor into an upcoming adventure I am running and I want to add a little flavour.

The adventure will begin in Woodmen-town and I was wondering if any of you learned and scholarly folk might have a good idea for a culturally significant rite the Woodmen might perform in honour of this day.

In particular, as these festivals in the real world have a lot of religious connotation and religion (or specifically organized religion) has no real place in Middle-earth, would these festivals represent a reverence for the Valar (or the Woodmen's idea of what the Vala are)?

Any ideas would be helpful especially as to which of the Valar, if any, they would revere (Orome? Tulkas?) and what kind of ceremony they might perform.

[robert_pat]

The Woodmen would almost certainly not even know about the Valar. They don't even know what a Wizard truly is, let alone what masters they serve.

A more likely reason to have a Midsummer Day festival is a more generic celebration. Perhaps they have the first harvest of a certain crop, or they're simply celebrating the bounty of warmth and light. If you want to go a little less generic, maybe you can say that a beautiful kind of flower blooms all around during this time, or that a species of fish swims up the Anduin to spawn.

[Finrod Felagund]

The Woodmen would almost certainly not even know about the Valar. They don't even know what a Wizard truly is, let alone what masters they serve.

Do you think so? I personally think they know about the Valar, but their religion would be simple (animist to use a MERP term!) and not use High Elven names or myths.

As for ideas, how about a celebration to Yavanna (Nature Goddess)? They've plenty of wood, so it might involve bonfires and feasting maybe. Perhaps some kinds of wood-based games ("tossing the caber? / fastest one to chop down a tree?). I don't think Middle Earth has organised religion or sacrifices, but the Community leader might get up to thank Yavanna and the rest of the community bow their heads for example.

Her Adunaic name isn't known, but the Soindarin for Yavanna is Ivon (or Ivann), and the Woodmen may have got this name from the Wood Elves.

Hope this helps

[HalifaxDM]

Both are great ideas. Thanks, guys.

I like the idea of a thanks for the harvest bounty and how this could be done through a simple ceremony to Yavanna. I will have to read up on her and try and fit her in with the Woodmen culture. To them she may be a nature spirit similar to the River Maidens.

I was also mulling over the idea of tying it in with the Lamp of Balthi.

[Finrod Felagund]

Glad to be of some help. A description is found here: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Yavanna

It's interesting that one depiction of her is as a tall green tree. Bearing in mind the presumable cultural and economic importance of trees to the Woodmen, this might be how they would view her. Radagast of course is closely associated with the Woodmen so one could argue they would probably have a good idea about some of this.

[shipwreck]

It seems, in the few examples we get, that other folk are at least aware of the Ainur in some fashion so perhaps they (maybe through the tutelage of Radagast) have come to hold some spirit, if not Yavanna herself, in high regard. Riffing on Her name, maybe they celebrate 'Rúmgiefa' each year with song and praise. I was just playing around with the Old English translator and that word simply means 'bountiful giver'.

I agree that the festival should be simple and involve lots of song and food, perhaps a burnt offering of grain or somesuch. I might look into some old Germanic traditions for inspiration.

[Earendil]

I'd agree that the Woodmen would probably revere Yavanna, though they might call her by a very different name. Radagast, in his Maia identity as Aiwendil, was one of her followers, wasn't he? However, judging by Gandalf's example, I'd expect him to keep pretty quiet about both his origins and what he knows of the Uttermost West.

You might find some inspiration in the ancient Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus, though I'd leave out some of the more dodgy pagan stuff! In Middle-Earth the Free Peoples seem to have very little in the way of explicit religion. But I liked, for example, the idea of locking away all iron items for the duration.

You could even decide that Nerthus (or something similar) is the Woodmen's name for Yavanna. That would be in keeping with Tolkien's idea that beings and events from his mythology were the "original" version of stuff from real-world myths (Eärendil, Atalantë, etc). The name may, in origin, mean "power", which seems appropriate for a Vala!

Some ancient midsummer celebrations might well give you ideas too: I loved the idea of lighting fires to keep dragons away, and of rolling a wheel to symbolise the sun's summer-winter cycle.