I won't claim that Tolkien was 'influenced' or 'inspired' by book III of The Faerie Queene (although Shippey has apparently done so - see Cilli 271), but I was struck by some 'set pieces' in FQ III.iv that remind me of certain aspects of Tolkien's legendarium. I'm calling them 'set pieces' (rather imprecisely) because I believe these are images, scenes, and/or ideas that multiple authors have used or returned to, and are thus found in multiple sources. Tolkien would certainly have been aware of them in Spenser, but would likely also have been aware of them in other works or traditions.
To my mind, perhaps the most striking point of similarity is between FQ III.iv and The Lord of the Rings V.vi: a fallen warrior is believed to be dead, until one with greater leechcraft arrives on the scene. In each instance, the battle is one-on-one between a male warrior and a gender-hidden female warrior; the male warrior gets in one mighty, shattering blow before he is defeated by the female warrior's first stroke. Moreover, in both, there is a misinterpreted prophecy about the defeat or destruction of the male warrior!
Of course, I've deliberately described these elements in a manner that maximizes their similarities; they do not map one-to-one. In FQ, it's the male warrior (Marinell) who is mistakenly believed to have been KIA; in LotR, it's Éowyn. For present purposes, we'll look at three aspects of the scene.
The Challenge and the Battle
Marinell is stationed at the entrance to a beach of 'pearles and pretious stones of great assay' as well as golden ore (III.iv.18); he challenges all comers and, until now, has always been victorious. The warrior maiden Britomart, who is dressed as a knight and therefore always assumed to be male, arrives and does not declare her identity. Marinell offers the chance to fight him and be defeated, or flee: 'Sir knight, that doest thy voyage rashly make / By this forbidden way in my despight, / Ne doest by others death ensample take, / I read thee soone retyre, whiles thou hast might / Least afterwards it be too late to take thy flight' (III.iv.14). Britomart responds disdainfully to Marinell's 'proud threat' and, without waiting for a reply, runs right at him (III.iv.15). Marinell gets in one good blow, striking her 'full on the brest, that made her downe / Decline her head, & touch her crouper with her crowne' (id.). Undaunted, she smites him with a mighty blow, defeating him, and rides on.
In Tolkien, it is the female warrior Éowyn who issues the initial challenge, commanding the Nazgûl to depart and 'Leave the dead in peace!' (LotR 841). In essence, she is attempting to guard her beloved kinsman's body, just as Marinell was trying to guard his precious beach. The Black Captain, like Marinell, has no idea the warrior before him is a woman. He issues a counter-challenge, as he, too, is certain he will kill this paltry opponent; he threatens her with long-lived torment (rather than death) if she comes 'between the Nazgûl and his prey!' (id.). Éowyn, like Britomart, responds defiantly. Unlike Britomart, however, Éowyn is on the defensive from the start. First she must defend herself against an attack by the Nazgûl's steed, slaying it. Only then does the Black Rider rise and 'With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace' (842). This one blow shivers her shield, breaks her arm, and brings her to her knees. He prepares to deal a death-blow with the mace; instead Merry attacks, Éowyn rises and smites her foe, and both she and the Nazgûl Lord fall.
So we can even increase our list of similar elements: a male warrior and male-passing female warrior meet; the initial challenge is issued by the one guarding something precious; it is met with defiance; there ensues a single mighty exchange of blows between those two, wherein the male strikes first; the female's stroke is even mightier and the male is defeated; and only one of the two is left alive on the battleground.
Tolkien has, however, complicated the picture with a counter-challenge by the Nazgûl bringing in supernatural horror and threats of torment, and a critical intervention by Merry (which proves necessary to undo the Nazgûl's supernatural advantage so that he can be destroyed). Left on the battleground are Merry, Éowyn, Théoden, the bodies of Snowmane and the Nazgûl's steed, and the Nazgûl's's gear and garments. A character we know and care about (Merry) is left to report on the scene; for all he knows intially, both Éowyn and Théoden are dead.
Interestingly, Spenser has our heroine Britomart ride on, unconcerned with the fate of her foe. Thus, the misdiagnosis of Marinell is made by characters we've never met before: his mother Cymoent and her sister nymphs, who somehow receive word of his fall.
The Misdiagnosis
Notably, Cymoent and the other nymphs not only wail over Marinell's body (III.iv. 35-39); they also handle his body extensively without realizing their mistake: 'when they all had sorrowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wound: / And that they might him handle more at will, / They him disarm'd' (FQ III.iv.40). Moreover, they 'softly wipt away the gelly blood / From th'orifice: which having well vpbound, / They pourd in soueraine balme, and Nectar good, / Good both for earthly medicine, and for heauenly food' (id.). Through this entire process, they have absolutely no doubt of Marinell's death.
And then Liagore, the medically trained nymph, feels his pulse and realizes the reports of Marinell's death are greatly exaggerated:
Tho, when the lilly handed Liagore
(This Liagore whylome had learned skill
In leaches craft, by great Appolloes lore [...])
Did feele his pulse, she knew there staied still
Some little life his feeble sprites emong;
Which to his mother told, despeire she from her flong. (FQ III.iv.41)
In Tolkien, Merry lifts Théoden's hand to kiss it, and discovers that Théoden is alive (842) He sees Éowyn 'through a mist' of tears 'as she lay and did not move' (id.). He is certainly convinced she is dead, but he does not touch her. Éomer likewise diagnoses Éowyn as dead immediately on sight: 'suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her' (LotR 844). He does not linger to mourn, but impulsively, in the grip of a 'fey mood,' spurs 'back to the front of the great host' and rallies them with a cry of 'Death!' ... and they surge forward 'like a great tide' (id.). So at this point, no one has taken the time to examine her body. Thereafter, those left behind 'lifted Éowyn gently up and bore her after' Théoden, believing that she is dead (id.).
Then along comes Imrahil. Tolkien's deliberate archaism here – Imrahil referring to medics/doctors as 'leeches' – provides a linguistic echo of Spenser's passage:
'Are there no leeches among you? She is hurt, to the death maybe, but I deem that she yet lives.' And he held the bright-burnished vambrace that was upon his arm before her cold lips, and behold! a little mist was laid on it hardly to be seen. (LotR 845)
As compared with Spenser, Tolkien has greatly heightened the tension and interest in the scene, by having a known and developed character – one of the good guys – mistaken for dead by other known and developed characters.
The unexpected reveal that there is yet a little life in the fallen is also more dramatic or even cinematic, in Tolkien's version, because a bit of mist on polished armor is a visible sign of life, even if it is hard to see. By contrast, the other nymphs in Spenser must take Liagore's word for it that she has felt a pulse.
Coda: The Misinterpreted Prophecy
Marinell's mother, Cymoent, had consulted with Proteus, who 'was with prophecy inspir'd,' about her son's fate. Proteus urged Cymoent "from womankind to keep [Marinell] well: / For of a woman he should haue much ill, / A virgin strange and stout him should dismay, or kill" (III.iv.25).
From this, Cymoent mistakenly assumed love/sex/romance would be his undoing (III.iv.26-28), and urged him every day "The loue of women not to entertain" (III.iv.26). As of stanza 46, which abruptly changes gear to follow Arthur and the Redcrosse knight, it seems that neither Marinell nor Cymoent and her sister nymphs have realized that Marinell's foe was a woman. Rather, Cymoent believes Proteus has made a false prophecy: 'Not this the worke of womans hand ywis, / That so deep wound through these deare members driue' (III.iv.37). She does not even suspect her own misinterpretation ('I feared loue: but they that loue do liue") (id.).
On the battlefield, the Nazgûl Lord boasts of his prophecy: 'No living man may hinder me!' (841). Éowyn then reveals that she is not a 'living man' but a woman (id.). This discomfits him; 'the Ringwraith made no answer, and was silent, as if in sudden doubt' and he is 'in doubt and malice intent upon the woman before him' (id.). It is of course this intense focus and doubt which allows Merry to creep in close enough to make his own move.
The prophecy in LotR certainly echoes Macbeth far more closely than FQ, but I think all three may be worth considering together.
- The Nazgûl Lord trusts that no living man may hinder me; he is discomfited by learning that his challenger is a woman; and it turns out that a woman and a hobbit (with the aid of a dagger made by men who are now dead) may hinder him.
- Macbeth trusts that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth; he is discomfited by learning that Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped; and it turns out that Macduff shall harm him.
- Cymoent and Marinell believe that of a woman he should have much ill and be dismayed or killed; it turns out that a woman should dismay him in battle, but on finding her son apparently dead, Cymoent simply believes the prophecy is mistaken (she does not suspect that it has been fulfilled to the letter).
So Tolkien's version of the mistaken prophecy trope has elements found in Shakespeare and in Spenser. Again, it is surely more dramatic to shatter the complacency of the person who trusts in the protection of a prophecy he has misinterpreted (as Tolkien and Shakespeare do), rather than revealing the existence of the prophecy to readers only after the battle (as Spenser does).
Works Cited
Cilli, Oronzo. Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist, Luna Press Publishing, 2019.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Edited by Thomas P. Roche, Penguin, 1987.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. 50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2005.
