Riscoprendo Baccador

E no, non mi riferisco alla nostra bolgera vegana, scomparsa nel tempo di dire ding don bell: mi riferisco all'originale, esplorato da Taryn Jade Taylor nel suo articolo Investigating the Role and Origin of Goldberry in Tolkien's Mythology, disponibile su Amazon o the Free Library, e originariamente pubblicato sul Mythlore invernale del 2008. È il consiglio bolgerico della settimana.

«Discussing Tom Bombadil in a letter, Tolkien explains: "As a story, I think it is good that there should be a lot of things unexplained (especially if an explanation already exists) [...] even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)" (Letters 174). Certainly, if Bombadil is an enigma, Goldberry is more so. Goldberry is not, in Steuard Jensen's terms, "a relatively simple character"; she is steeped in mystery and power (Jensen 11). While Tolkien provides some facts about Goldberry in his letters, they do little to explain who she is or her purpose in The Lord of the Rings (LotR). For instance, Tolkien tells us Goldberry, as the Riverwoman's daughter, "represents the actual seasonal changes" in the "real riverlands of autumn" (Letters 272). Surely, Tolkien, who strongly resists allegory and is intent upon giving intense and calculated meaning and relationships to his characters, does not mean readers to believe Goldberry is a simple character, nor does he ever imply that she is. After the aforementioned quote, "there should be a lot of things unexplained," Tolkien follows with a hint: "especially if an explanation already exists" (Letters 174). Therefore, the scholars who lightly dismiss Goldberry by conflating her with Bombadil or simply mentioning her in passing are overlooking another well conceived piece of the puzzle that is Tolkien's intricate mythology. Despite what the scholarship that discusses Goldberry seems to suggest, Tolkien does not assert that she and Bombadil are the same kind of being, as linked as they may be otherwise. Therefore, this paper will discuss and examine Goldberry's character, nature, and purpose to uncover "an explanation [that] already exists" within Tolkien's legendarium.»

L'illustrazione è la tirolesissima Goldberry dei fratelli Hildebrandt