Rivendell in Switzerland - 07/09/08 05:47 PM
I thought this might appeal to some fellow AWADers if they are also Tolkien fans. Certainly Tolkien was instrumental in the development of my own love of literature and language.
Rivendell in Switzerland
The connections between Tolkien's fictional Rivendell and locations in Switzerland have been independently described by more than author. One of them was David Salo, a linguist who served as a consultant and contributor to the making of the Lord of the Rings movies. The essay below, which is mentioned in the above link, can be found at this link.
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Today I came across some pictures of an Alpine valley that looked strangely familiar. In fact, they looked just like J.R.R. Tolkien’s painting of the Elvish valley of Rivendell; matching down to the shape of the bluffs.
The Alpine valley pictured is the Lauterbrunnental (Lauterbrunnen Valley), containing the towns of Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and Wengen, a few miles south of Interlaken in the Bern canton of Switzerland; the mountains that rise at its head are the Bernese Alps, marked by the prominent peak of the Jungfrau.
The Lauterbrunnental, just like Rivendell, is a narrow strip of land bounded on two sides by nearly vertical cliffs. Over these cliffs several rills plummet in sheer waterfalls, notably Staubbach, all of which make an unceasing noise.
The name Lauterbrunnen actually means “clear springs” (from German lauter “pure, clear”); but given the falls, it’s no surprise that many visitors think that the lauter part of the name actually comes from German laut “loud”. The river that goes through the valley of Rivendell Tolkien called Loudwater, in Sindarin Bruinen, perhaps punning on both parts of the Lauterbrunnental’s name.
Tolkien remarks (in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #306) that “The hobbit’s (Bilbo’s) journey from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains… is based on my adventures in 1911…”. In that year Tolkien, aged 19, took a hiking vacation in the Swiss Alps between Interlaken and Zermatt. His journey did take him up the Lauterbrunnental to M?rren. He never explicitly identifies the Lauterbrunnental with Rivendell — but after seeing the pictures, I find the connection hard to doubt. Tolkien’s experiences here gave life to his descriptions not just of Rivendell but also of the Mountains of Moria (he explicitly likened the mountain of Zirak-zigil, the peak on which Gandalf fights the Balrog, to the immaculate pyramid of the Silberhorn, one of the secondary peaks of Jungfrau), and the White Mountains of Rohan.
I conclude with Bilbo’s first sight of Rivendell in The Hobbit:
“They came to the edge of a steep fall in the ground so suddenly that Gandalf’s horse nearly slipped down the slope. ‘Here it is at last!’ he called, and the others gathered round him and looked over the edge. They saw a valley far below.” –The Hobbit, Chapter 3.
Shortly after having written the above, I discovered that the visual similarity between Rivendell and the Swiss Lauterbrunnental had been independently discovered, and commented on, by Marie Barnfield in a 1996 article in a publication called The Lyfe ant the Auncestrye which, however, I have never read, though I would like to.
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Rivendell in Switzerland
The connections between Tolkien's fictional Rivendell and locations in Switzerland have been independently described by more than author. One of them was David Salo, a linguist who served as a consultant and contributor to the making of the Lord of the Rings movies. The essay below, which is mentioned in the above link, can be found at this link.
****************************************************************
Today I came across some pictures of an Alpine valley that looked strangely familiar. In fact, they looked just like J.R.R. Tolkien’s painting of the Elvish valley of Rivendell; matching down to the shape of the bluffs.
The Alpine valley pictured is the Lauterbrunnental (Lauterbrunnen Valley), containing the towns of Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and Wengen, a few miles south of Interlaken in the Bern canton of Switzerland; the mountains that rise at its head are the Bernese Alps, marked by the prominent peak of the Jungfrau.
The Lauterbrunnental, just like Rivendell, is a narrow strip of land bounded on two sides by nearly vertical cliffs. Over these cliffs several rills plummet in sheer waterfalls, notably Staubbach, all of which make an unceasing noise.
The name Lauterbrunnen actually means “clear springs” (from German lauter “pure, clear”); but given the falls, it’s no surprise that many visitors think that the lauter part of the name actually comes from German laut “loud”. The river that goes through the valley of Rivendell Tolkien called Loudwater, in Sindarin Bruinen, perhaps punning on both parts of the Lauterbrunnental’s name.
Tolkien remarks (in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #306) that “The hobbit’s (Bilbo’s) journey from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains… is based on my adventures in 1911…”. In that year Tolkien, aged 19, took a hiking vacation in the Swiss Alps between Interlaken and Zermatt. His journey did take him up the Lauterbrunnental to M?rren. He never explicitly identifies the Lauterbrunnental with Rivendell — but after seeing the pictures, I find the connection hard to doubt. Tolkien’s experiences here gave life to his descriptions not just of Rivendell but also of the Mountains of Moria (he explicitly likened the mountain of Zirak-zigil, the peak on which Gandalf fights the Balrog, to the immaculate pyramid of the Silberhorn, one of the secondary peaks of Jungfrau), and the White Mountains of Rohan.
I conclude with Bilbo’s first sight of Rivendell in The Hobbit:
“They came to the edge of a steep fall in the ground so suddenly that Gandalf’s horse nearly slipped down the slope. ‘Here it is at last!’ he called, and the others gathered round him and looked over the edge. They saw a valley far below.” –The Hobbit, Chapter 3.
Shortly after having written the above, I discovered that the visual similarity between Rivendell and the Swiss Lauterbrunnental had been independently discovered, and commented on, by Marie Barnfield in a 1996 article in a publication called The Lyfe ant the Auncestrye which, however, I have never read, though I would like to.
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