Trips to Tolkien - Wayland's Smithy & Uffington White Horse

[timb]

Thought I'd share a (real) journey I made this week (fortunately there were no hazard rolls)
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After planning to go over the last few years, I have finally made it down to Wayland's Smithy and Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. These sites were known to Tolkien. In several books Wayland's Smithy is mentioned (Tom Shippey's "Road to Middle Earth" and Humphrey Carpenter's "JRR Tolkien biography" to name two). In an article on British Archaeology's website, "Lord of the Hrungs" (http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba65/feat4.shtml), there are several mentions including,

"The Neolithic chambered long barrow just off the Ridgeway to which Tolkien used to take his family on their Sunday outings had acquired the Anglo-Saxon name Wayland's Smithy by the middle of the 10th century..."

It was great going to the Smithy, Uffington White Horse (with Uffington Castle and Dragon Hill) and then doing a 7+ mile walk along the ancient trackway known as the Ridgeway. Definitely felt like I had made a connection with our ancestors and perhaps Tolkien too, who spent time in this landscape.

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“One landscape that Tolkien knew well was the Berkshire Downs with their Neolithic long barrows and Bronze Age round barrows. He spent a week walking and painting on the Downs in his first year as an undergraduate, and subsequent walks with his children in the 1930s took him back there at a time when stories were shaping in his mind. The Downs helped to create his Barrow-lands, though he repositioned the standing stones 'like jagged teeth' that crowned some of its hills in the Lord of the Rings - the sarsens on the Downs are on the slopes, not the summits. The great White Horse cut into the chalk scarp does not seem to figure directly in the images of Barrow-lands, but such a beast would have drawn the eye of someone whose best-known academic essay was titled 'Beowulf ; the monsters and the critics', published in 1936.”

“Lord of the Hrungs” by David Hinton
British Archaeology, Issue 65 (June 2002)
http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba65/feat4.shtml






For those interested in the sites, Neil Oliver goes to Wayland's Smithy in this episode (about 11 mins in) -
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2en1k ... e01_travel

And info -

WAYLAND'S SMITHY
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/.../waylands-smithy/

UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/white-horse-hill

THE RIDGEWAY
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway

[zedturtle]

I'm very jealous!

[Blubbo Baggins]

Now you MUST read "The Ballad of the White Horse" by GK Chesterton.
It's epic, and definitely fits in with the battle songs of Tolkien.

[d(sqrt(-1))]

If you are in the area, it is also worth a visit to the Rollright Stones, King Stone and Whispering Knights, near Chipping Norton, and Avebury is not too far to the west either.

[timb]

Thanks guys!
I had listed the poem down and then forgotten about it, so thanks for reminding me.

[Rich H]

Very cool!

[thorr-kan]

Nice. Drove through that area on May '08. Very pretty.

[timb]

I'll write those other places down as places to see, d(sqrt(-1)) - thanks!

I've picked up a copy of the Ballad now Blubbo, so thanks again for reminding me

There are plenty of UK events upcoming linked with Tolkien, if people want, I can make an (OT) thread for them and keep you all updated?

[mirdanis]

There are plenty of UK events upcoming linked with Tolkien, if people want, I can make an (OT) thread for them and keep you all updated?

Yes please, Tim! I live in the US, and I've never really been to the British Isles, even though I've longed to go much of my life. Last year when I turned 45, I started planning my trip of a lifetime in my 50th year - a summer in the British Isles. From May straight through August. I've got seed money and a growing list of places I want to visit and things I want to do!

[Rich H]

Weather permitting, which is always a risky thing to say for England, I'm going for a walk this coming Monday in Sherwood Forest; I bet even I'll be able to take some half-decent pics of forest scenes and post them here.