[Monarchsnake]

Lembas The Conspiracy

Correct Me If I'm Wrong.

Oh Valar. I wasn't going to post this but then it kept kicking me in the rear, and I just had to. Don't take it too seriously, but hm think just think.

I am in the middle of studying everything in Middle-Earth till it's imprinted in my head so when I write fanfics, they are at least decently accurate.

Well when I went to the food and drink section of

http://www.tuckborough.net/food.html

I clicked on Lembas. And well, I was reading and taking notes, and Elladan suddenly said, I Am beginning to believe that Lembas is a trick to get us elves to long for the sea.

Which I believe he may be right, one certain passage made us go, "HMM I see."

"The Elves Rarely shared Lembas with mortals because it would cause them to become weary of their mortality and to long for Aman, where they could not go."

So I thought, Well Aman is a A Place in the Grey Havens. Which the Valar, And Elves that have sailed dwell. (Please Correct me if I am wrong)

"Lembas was Originally given to Elves by Yavanna. She sent Orome to give the Elves Lembas for their Great Journey To Eldamar. Yavanna made the Lembas from corn that she grew in the fields of Aman and the cakes imparted the strength of that land to those who ate it."

That proved the Grey Havens thing to me. (Again, Tell me If I'm wrong)

Then I began thinking. If The Elvish Bread could make men long for Aman, then obviously it would have the same effect on elves, at least to some kind of degree. I mean, I'm sure they eat it all the time, rather it be journeying or not.

And Considering the elves are immortal, all those years of traveling and eating that darn bread would eventually make them go insane for the sea!

Perhaps Arwen didn't eat enough, and that is why she stayed with Aragorn. (Though we know otherwise lol)

Elladan: Or Legolas did not start eating allot Of Lembas till he began his journeys with Gimli on constant occasions. My brother and I stayed away from the bread on several occasions, but eat it when we must. It has a strange presence surrounding it.

Dun Dun Dun. It makes you think, Doesn't it? Mawahaha

So Guess What?

WE BLAME THE LEMBAS FOR ALL THE ELVES LEAVING MIDDLE-EARTH! ;;

(Again, Meant to be Serious and Yet Jesting, But it made us think)

Monarch Snake~

[miriel361]

What a great idea....

Only I doubt that Yavanna continued to make all the Lambas. So probably all Lambas produced in following ages was only linked to the memory.

Rather like the bread eaten in the Catholic mass (remember Tolkien was Catholic) Catholics believe that when the bread is raised by the priest and the words (Body and Blood of Christ) are spoken that the bread actually becomes the body of Christ. Therefore Catholics are eating a part of Christ and that is why the bread is locked away and you can be excommunicated for treating the bread with disrespect.

Protestants do not belive in this process of Transubstantiation (not sure if the word is correct - please help me there someone) In their services, the bread is only eaten in memory of the Last Supper and Christ. (Take this and eat it. It is my body and my blood.... do this in memory of me).

So taking this back to Middle Earth, Tolkien may have intended a connection between the Catholic Bread and Lembas. A bread for both body and soul. And even if it contains no magical powers, the memory of its creation would still dwell within every elf and they would treat it with respect.

[Viv]

The lembas that Galadriel gave to the fellowship was made from materials grown right there in Middle-earth. Galadriel, after all, hadn't been to Valinor for, oh, 10,000 years or so. She learned the Secret of making lembas from Melian the Maia way back in the first age. Implicit in all of Tolkien is that lembas is *special* stuff. Very few elves even know how to make it, and they certainly don't eat it every day. It's rare, so no, they wouldn't have been ingesting it constantly over the centuries, as far as I can tell, though fanfic would tell us otherwise.

Legolas yearns to go West only after hearing the cry of the seagulls. So I don't think the waybread can really be blamed for that.

Also, we had that thread going about foodstuffs that came to M-e from Aman by way of Numenor. Tobacco, especially, was a Western item, and I think we decided that chocolate was, too. If food from Valinor could inspire the sea longing, those hobbits would have been jonesing something awful.

[Eruanna]

[Monarchsnake]

[ellisk]

Here's how bored I am: here are some quotes about Lembas and their sources:

From PoME (Volumn XXII of HoME)
Of Lembas

This food the Eldar alone knew how to make. It was made for the comfort of those who had need to go upon a long journey to the wild, or of the hurt whose life was in peril. Only these were permitted to use it. The Eldar did not give it to Men, save only to a few whom they loved, if they were in great need. (This was not done out of greed or jealousy, although at no time in M-E was there a great store of this food;but because the Eldar had been commanded to keep this gift in their own power, and not to make it common to the dwellers in mortal lands. For it is said that, if mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality, desiring to abide among elves and longing for the fields of Aman, to whivk they cannot come.)

The Eldar say that they first received this food from the Valar in the begining of their days in the Great Journey. For it was made of a kind of corn which Yavanna brought forth in the fields of Aman and some she sent to them by the hand of Orome for their succour upon the long march.

Since it came from Yavanna, the queen or the highest among the elven-women of any people, great or small, had the keeping and gift of the lembas, for which reason she was called massanie or besain:the Lady or breadgiver.

Now this corn had in it the strong life of Aman, which it could impart to those who had the need and right to use the bread.

If it was sown in any season, save in frost, it soon sprouted though it did not thrive in the shadow of plants of M-E and would not endure winds the came out of the North while Morgoth dwelt there. Else it needed only a little sunlight to ripen, for it took swiftly and multiplied all the vigour of any light that fell upon it.

The Eldar grew it in guarded lands and sunlit glades; and they gathered its great golden ears, each one by hand, and set no blade of metal to it. The white haulm wasdrawn from from the earth in a like manner and woven into corn-leeps for the storing
of the grain: no worms or gnawing beast would touch that gleaming straw, and rot and mould and other evils of M-E did not assail it.

From the ears to the wafer none were permitted to handle this grain, save those elven women who were called Yavannildi (or by the Sindar the Ivonwin), the maidens of Yavanna; and the art of the making of lembas, which they learned of the Valar, was secret among them, and ever so remained.

Lembas is the Sindarin name and comes from the older form lenn-mbass 'journey-bread.' In Quenya it was most often named coimas which is life bread.

From Silmarilion

Of Túrin Turambar
Then Thingol gave Beleg leave to do as he would; and he said: 'Beleg Cúthalion! For many deeds you have earned my thanks; but not the least is the finding of my fosterson. At this parting ask for any gift, and I will not deny it to you.'

'I ask then for a sword of worth,' said Beleg; 'for the Orcs come now too thick and close for a bow only, and such blade as I have is no match for their armour.'

'Choose from all that I have,' said Thingol, 'save only Aranrúth, my own.'

Then Beleg chose Anglachel; and that was a sword of great worth, and it was so named because it was made of iron that fell from heaven as a blazing star; it would cleave all earth-delved iron. One other sword only in Middle-earth was like to it.

That sword does not enter into this tale, though it was made of the same ore by the same smith; and that smith was Eöl the Dark Elf, who took Aredhel Turgon's sister to wife. He gave Anglachel to Thingol as fee, which he begrudged, for leave to dwell in Nan Elmoth; but its mate Anguirel he kept, until it was stolen from him by Maeglin, his son.

But as Thingol turned the hilt of Anglachel towards Beleg, Melian looked at the blade; and she said: 'There is malice in this sword. The dark heart of the smith still dwells in it. It will not love the hand it serves; neither will it abide with you long.'

'Nonetheless I will wield it while I may,' said Beleg.

'Another gift I will give to you, Cúthalion,' said Melian, 'that shall be your help in the wild, and the help also of those whom you choose.' And she gave him store of lembas, the waybread of the Elves, wrapped in leaves of silver, and the threads that bound it were sealed at the knots with the seal of the Queen, a wafer of white wax shaped as a single flower of Telperion; for according to the customs of the Eldalië the keeping and giving of lembas belonged to the Queen alone. In nothing did Melian show greater favour to Túrin than in this gift; for the Eldar had never before allowed Men to use this waybread, and seldom did so again.

From Return of the King

Mount Doom
The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.

[ghettoelleth]

Uhm, if you're going to study ME, you should probably read the books and not Thain's. Thain's is a quick reference not a replacement. Otherwise you end up with odd, untrue little facts like, "Aman is a place in the Grey Havens"

Aman is the name of the Undying Lands

The Grey Havens is Mithlond, home of Cirdan the Shiprwright, located on the western shore of Arda.

[Eruanna]

[ellisk]

[Eruanna]

[ellisk]

[ellisk]

[Eruanna]

[ghettoelleth]

Actually Ell, I was quoting from the original post. Didn't mean to imply it came from Thain's as I agree it is one of the most reliable resources.

Eruana, lost a bet with my husband. There's sure to be lots more where this came from

Ell my darling, you can stop laughing any day now honey, I know how affronted you are by this whole thing.

By the way, you've got mail

[Eruanna]