Wednesday, February 18, 2004
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 |
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Lembas bread, the second-breakfast of Tolkien’s champions By BETSY FRIAUF “The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down todie ... this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travelers 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.” — “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton-Mifflin) I cooked lembas bread, a cheeky undertaking for a mortal. I’m no Galadriel, the elf matriarch who gave the magically nutritious and courage-enhancing carb to hobbits and their companions as they journeyed to vanquish evil in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” But there’s near-magic in a project that appeals to a 12-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and their mom, who first encountered hobbits in the ’70s. All three of us had read the books and seen the movies. After waxing rapturous about Peter Jackson’s artistry and J.R.R. Tolkien’s genius, I had one question: What would Frodo eat? One thing Tolkien makes clear is that hobbits eat a lot, and often. So I turned to the Internet, sustainer of those who lack Arwen’s knowledge of matters hidden. The fan site www.theonering.net provides several recipes, including those for the hobbits’ waybread and the seed cake popular at Bilbo and Frodo’s home, Bag End. My son pronounced the lembas “a lot like Honey Bunches of Oats cereal,” high praise from a young man of Middle America. I found it a cross between a pancake and baklava. We agree it’s good fortification for a journey, even if the destination is math class rather than Moria. For more enlightenment, I queried a University of Texas at Austin linguistics specialist, Fred Hoyt, who uses Tolkien’s fictional languages in a course he teaches. I was saddened to hear from him that lembas “would definitely not have any real-world comparisons.” “The name is from ‘Sindarin,’ one of Tolkien’s invented languages, and means ‘journey bread,’ so in that sense you might compare it to a PowerBar,” says Hoyt. “However, lembas had magic or spiritual properties that went beyond plain food.” Hoyt says one of Tolkien’s letters suggests lembas may be inspired by the “viaticum” of the Latin Mass, the Eucharist given to people in danger of dying or who are embarking on a very dangerous journey. Tolkien himself liked plain English food, says Hoyt. We know he ate regularly for decades in an Oxford, England, pub called the Eagle and Child, where he and literary friends met to read and critique their manuscripts. The pub, established in 1620, is still in operation, and manager Steve Lowbridge told us by phone that if Tolkien were to appear in the pub today he could order “steak pie or a plate of fish-and-chips or a corn-fed chicken breast, with a local ale, perhaps Hook Norton.” Closer to home and not so ancient, but still beloved by several generations, is Houston’s Hobbit Cafe. It has been in business 32 years but had to expand onto a patio after “The Lord of the Rings” movies brought hobbits to national attention again. “Business has quadrupled in the past three years,” says waitress Molly Mayer. But it’s the decor and the names of the dishes — imagine ordering the Fatty Lumpkin Tuna Melt — that provide the hobbit connection; there’s no attempt to offer authentic Middle-earth fare. For that, the Web site provides fans’ recipes.
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