![]() Second, turn with me in your copy of The Lord of the Rings to chapter 6 of The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall", when Theoden and his councillors agree that Eowyn should lead the people while the men are away at war. First of all, let's agree that Tolkien, a medievalist, undoubtedly was aware of all the above. So what does this have to do with Tolkien and his women? AHAHAHAHA I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. In its simplest form, according to Stephenson, the ceremony of knighthood included "at most the presentation of a sword, a few words of admonition, and the accolade." And whatever the derivation of the words, the English expression "dubbing to knighthood" must have been closely related to the French adoubement" (pp 47-48.) Scores of other examples are to be found in the French chronicles and chansons de geste, which, despite much variation of detail, agree on the essentials. Thus the Bayeux Tapestry represents the knighting of Earl Harold by William of Normandy under the legend: Hic Willelmus dedit Haroldo arma (Here William gave arms to Harold). In 791, we are told, Charlemagne caused Prince Louis to be girded with a sword in celebration of his adolescence and forty-seven years later Louis in turn decorated his fifteen-year-old son Charles "with the arms of manhood, i.e., a sword." Here, obviously, we may see the origin of the later adoubement, which long remained a formal investiture with arms, or with some one of them as a symbol. What seems to the be same ceremony reappears under the Carolingians. "Tacitus, it will be remembered, describes the ancient German custom by which a youth was presented with a shield and a spear to mark his attainment of man's estate. One of these customs was the gift of arms, which transformed into the ceremony of knighthood: Stephenson argues that the customs described by Tacitus continued into the early middle ages eventually giving rise to the medieval feudal system. Remember how Tolkien was a medievalist who based his Rohirrim on Anglo-Saxon England, which came from those Germanic tribes Tacitus was talking about? Before the assembly the youth receives a shield and spear from his father, some other relative, or one of the chief men, and this gift corresponds to the toga virilis among the Romans-making him a citizen rather than a member of a household" (pp 2-3). But it is not their custom that any one should assume arms without the formal approval of the tribe. ![]() Except when armed, they perform no business, either private or public. He declares that the Germans, though divided into numerous tribes, constitute a single people characterised by common traits and a common mode of life. ![]() "In the second century after Christ the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an essay which he called Germania, and which has remained justly famous. Here's Carl Stephenson in MEDIEVAL FEUDALISM, explaining the roots of the ceremony of knighthood: It's also impacted my view of the way Tolkien writes women. So here's one of the coolest things that has happened to me as a Tolkien nut and an amateur medievalist.
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